Swanage Railway General Discussion

I worked on th assumption that if the set ever went to Wareham the toilets would be locked out.

 

Very popular as so many passengers like diesel and steam top and tailing …

 

So was top and tailing and 6 carriages due to damaged S&T wiring or making the most of a one train timetable for a potentially busy weekend, or both?.

 

I thought it was due to problems with S&T

 

I believe the top and tail was introduced to replace the 08 shunting procedure at Swanage as the shunting was taking too long and the service was falling behind the timetable

 

If that is true that two steam sets were running 70% empty no wonder why they are only running one steam loco. Makes you wonder tho how they can afford to keep 1 steam running everyday as Easter is a lot busier and they seem to be coping.

I'm hoping they go back up to two steam during Summer, I remember even that used to be full and 6 coach trains were talked about (extending the loop Swanage) but it seems even before covid passenger numbers started to full away a little. Does anyone know the standard return price in 2010 and how much, maybe, above inflation the railway had added since then???

 

Inflation on the fare price would not be as high as inflation on the cost of coal. [BJ]

 

Struggled out of bed to see the Brit leave this morning.
There is also an image of it leaving Wareham on the LE thread
https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/le-movements-ecs-and-test-runs-2023.1421824/page-14

 

On the webcam a lot of activity on what looks like a junction box in front of the signal box, presumably to fix the wiring problems?
The steam train no longer has a 33 top and tail, so can use the loop again?. The Wareham service DMU looks busy? Some Mk1 coaches in anther platform, awaiting cleaning after the winter?

 

Looked like routine mainainance by S&Tdept to me.

 

And I suspect people understand the real costs better now including the non recurring costs of existence.

 

When I looked online this morning, only about 15 out of 100 tickets had been sold for today’s 11.19 departure from Wareham. Presumably most people are choosing to turn up and buy on the day?

 

The set in the bay platform is the 6 coach set in use over the non Wareham days of the Easter weekend.
Back to the usual 5 coach train today.

 

As Gladiator says, the 6 car set (with the two Maunsell opens at the country end) is in P1, we (I was the 33 driver yesterday) swapped them over at the end of service last night. After the last train arrived at Swanage, 31806 shunted the 6 car set to P1 and D6515 retrieved the 5 car set from the sidings to P2.
Taken yesterday during the lunch break: -

 

Not exactly the Swanage Railway we normally refer to but, at Swanage, on the sea front leading to the pier there is the remains of a narrow gauge railway, about 2'-6" at a guess. I'm at a loss as to what it was originally used for. the 1890's 25" OS map shows a tramway there. Whether it's the tramway I'm referring to I don't know but there are the remains of a couple of turnouts that don't appear on the map. Can anyone (Gladiator?) provide any info on it?

 

These are remnants of a tramway that ran along Swanage front; they were originally used to transport stone onto the original pier. I think originally it was standard gauge but was soon reduced to 2'6".

Part of the tracks today lead into the Funworld amusement arcade as I believe this used to be a warehouse of sorts.

Cheers,

PLP

 

It ran from the old pier (some of which still can be seen alongside the new pier to the stone bankers (now replaced by the Victorian villas that are the parade facing the sea between the Square and the Mowlem Theatre). It then crossed Institute Road to run along what is now Commercial Road (behind Station Road) to the stone yards that were on the site of the Royal Mail Distribution Office. There were sidings into fish and coal stores (where the amusement arcade, toilets and museum are). It was originally standard gauge - and was going to be connected by crossing the road into the goods yard. Once this had failed to happen, the remaining track was re-gauged. The original tracks were substantially in place until the quay was refurbished (perhaps in the 1990s?), when some surviving rails were placed in roughly the same position within the reset paving. It last known use was at the pier end - to load coal into the paddle steamers.

 

Thanks for these two replies. What's left of the line set into the paving looks to be fairly original although part of it has been replicated in paving blocks so I wasn't actually 100% convinced that it was original even though the old map showed the tramway.

 

If there is no financial incentive to book in advance, why wouldnt you wait to see what the weather was doing before setting out for the day and then paying on the day?

 

Or as today if you could even get to Wareham by an SWR train.