Swanage Railway General Discussion

Slight problem there, as the U class is vacuum braked and the 4tc is air braked!

 

Why am I reminded of the time when an air braked 87 was offered up to a vac braked set of MK1 stock at New Street in the 1980’s?

 

Rather an optimistic plan for the middle of a railtour. Apart from the issue which occurred to me last night whilst trying to get to sleep that @Andy Moody has mentioned about brake incompatibility the following also crossed my mind.
Where is the second mainline loco approved going to appear from?
Where do you fit this in with even a one train service on the line? The Q path in RTT shows it is 46 minutes each way.
It will cost a lot to have to steam 3 locos in one day just to run a couple of trips back to Wareham.
I do not actually believe that two trips would be possible without a great deal of operational risk as the aim should be for the tour to collect its planned path at Worgret.
Inbound tours tend to screw the regular timetable anyway, although the top and tailed 4TC used the bay and caused less issues, if you then (even if you could) start attaching steam locos to each end it becomes an operational issue I guess. Putting a loco each end of the lights train takes a fair while.
When does the tour set have time to be cleaned for the journey back?
What benefit does the railway get from the "photo opportunities"?

Sure there are way more but I think I fell asleep.

 

There you go, obscuring the issue with facts!
Pat

 

Well since Britannia has been announced, they said trains will run between Swanage and River Frome boundary, so they won't be running mainline shuttles [thank heavens].
Although how many passenger sets and if they run a goods set would be nice to know.

They even have special driving days on the Brit.
https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/events/view/britannia-driving-experience

 

Well it depends. I don’t think the wareham service is planned to run 7 days a week so there’s always the in-fill days to go at.

 

SRC have previously said that the service to Wareham would operate 5 days a week to allow time for servicing of the unit(s).

 

As the SR does not have a licence to operate anything to Wareham yet, unless LSL were going to bring down a rake of coaches, or WCRC, which is even more unlikely, as they would certainly not be driving the Brit, that would mean LSL operating it on some sort of commercial basis. A fine way to guarantee a non profitable gala I would suggest.
Where on earth did you even get the idea from?

 

Somewhere in this thread they were talking about mainline shuttles with 31806 and 76084.
Trust me, I may like galas, but I'm not THAT stupid!

 

There is no timetable so far published for the spring steam gala, So pure speculation on the part of @WesternRegionHampshireman.

 

I wouldn't have said it if those before me hadn't.

 

Does anyone know which loco is in service next week please - I fancy a visit. Manston would be very good . TIA. <BJ>

 

I notice the timetable today for the open day says RIVER FROME - NO PLATFORM.
So will be repeated in March for the Steam gala.

Seems quite a bit of work to do on the Swanage 4TC brakes and electrics, might be ready to run with 33111 for the diesel gala in May.
Unlike the LU 4TC unlikely the Swanage 4TC will get mainline certification for a long time
As someone who uses SWT seems strange SR gets so close, but does not run into Wareham. Hopefully in a few weeks there might be good news about the DMU running to Wareham for May?

 

The driving experience for over £500 A BIT more than the £5 for the 08 this weekend, but will probably also sell out.

 

Went to Swanage today - 11th Feb.

The day was much warmer than tghe proceeding days.

I arrived in time to see manston depart with the 11.20 before heading to the booking office to collect annual passes for myself & middle son.

I speb=nty some time talking to the Swanage Railway Trust members running a stall by the platform entrance and much interesting conversation before getting the 11.57 DMU to Corfe Castle then on to The Frome Bridge.

I isat at the rear and was able to enjoy an 'onbservation car' view as we headed up the line, took me back 40 years.

I bought two books and had a coffee from the Birds Nest at Corfe, sadly Swanage has stopped selling the rather nice iced coffee they did have at 98the sgtation.

While I did Wareham in 2017 it was only now that it was brought home to me how different the scenery is after Norden, marsh and heathland rather than the woods and fields of the Swanage to Norden section. Again I had the opportunity to talk to those involved in running the line which was encouraging.

I left the DMU at Norden, after a short wait Manston made an enthusiastic entry to the station with a train that included the Devon Belle Observation Car which I travelled in back to Swanage.

The view was well worth the £3 supplement and it was fascinating to see the line in a way that I have not done before. The car conductor was doing an excellent job of making us all welcome and amusing the two small boys on board. It seems like my middle son they were keen on ' Big Boys'

.At Swanage plenty of people were visiting Manstons footplate.

I had a walk down the High Street via the bookshop to the sea front, the tide was in and the sea was almost flat calm.

Quick trip to Chococo on the way back for an ice cream and back to the car.

An excellent day, thank you all.

 

More useful coverage and publicity from the Bournemouth Echo - It seems they have someone who is interested in the subject, it's well-written.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/appeal-launched-swanage-railway-group-050000270.html

Richard.

 

More likely to have been a well written press release by SRT / SRC and copied (or sections thereof) verbatim.

 

Yes, it's a verbatim but shortened version of the press release isued on 7th Feb

 

Anybody enlighten me what this may be please?
Looks like it may be from a 4EPB or a 4SUB, but I am not too well up on those.

 

All explained here: https://en-gb.facebook.com/swanagerailwayheritagecarriages/


Swanage Railway-Heritage Carriage Group
17 January at 20:10 ·
Work continues on 5761 and 4366 at Corfe, but very soon we shall have something different to do as well.
We have recently purchased a centre carriage that was originally part of an EPB electric unit from the Northamptonshire Ironstone Railway. This was surplus to their requirements and would need a tremendous amount of work to restore, so, as it contains many Bulleid features, we have bought it to strip for parts for 4366 and our other Bulleid carriages. Many of the doors are in better condition than the ones we have for 4366 and as this unit was never modernised, there are a great many other parts we can use, or modify for use. We will try to ensure that nothing of any value goes to waste.
It should be arriving on the railway very shortly.