Project Wareham

Thanks for the replies. In the end I plumped for buying a SWR return to Wareham from their ticket office and simultaneously bought a Freedom of Line ticket online via the SR website on my phone. This was accepted as a rover on the steam as well as two trips to/from Wareham on the DMU.

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Wareham service cancelled until further notice, according to SR Facebook.

 

Technical issues with the DMU apparently which they are working to resolve.

 

Wareham service resumes tomorrow (Wednesday).

 

I did notice on Tuesday the day the services were cancelled that 1W17 the obvious connection to the first SR service from Wareham only arrived 2 minutes before the DMU departure time. I did wonder what the signalling decision would have been, held at the junction or risk using P1 and maybe delaying the up service if 1W17 lost more time.

Not been a good week for SWR, especially last Saturday with some mammoth late running due to vandalism according to RTT

 

Good to see the railway running the service as 4 cars - hopefully proves there is demand - even if as stated on the Swanage railway forum demand between Norden to Swanage is higher.

Is there any more updates about the 2nd round of coastal community funding? Apparently they applied for another round but havent heard anything.
Any updates with the 50k feasibility study as well

 

I suspect loads may be poor today on Wareham as it is another combined SWR/NR meltdown day. DMU is the 121 and two cars from the 117 today.
I went to Wareham to photograph the Dorset Coast Statesman which was only 2 minutes late passing Holton Heath. Rolled into Wareham very slowly, I assumed the 47 at the front had failed as you could not hear it passing under the road bridge. But no loco issue, signalling further west. Of course 10 coaches and 2 47's meant the back of the train blocked the "infamous foot crossing" for about 12 minutes. Still I guess it let some residents see what it would be like without it.
Statesman left Wareham 14 late and lost another hour on top of that getting to Weymouth.
Some spectacular SWR delays, the train that connects with the first DMU to Swanage was cancelled anyway.
Whilst I was photographing the stock in the platform and up train came in at 12:33 which was 101 minutes late. Lots of other cancellations, turning short etc as well.
When I first arrived at Wareham I wondered why there was a big queue for the bus and a mammoth queue for non existent taxis. Some of these I guess may have had tickets for the Swanage DMU.
A day to be avoided it seems.

 

Putting my maintenance hat on, running 4 cars regularly will be bad news for maintaining the service sustainably if there is only four vehicles in the fleet. There needs to be one out of traffic to cope with repairs.

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Yes, failure of the block on the Moreton single line necessitated working by pilot being implemented. Not a fun day to be west of Wool!

 

According to Network Rail after 1400 there was also a speed restriction on this section. Didn't say anything about pilot-man working but that may have been too technical for Joe Public. Makes you wonder why it was reduced to single track in the first place. Lack of foresight?

 

The Moreton Dorchester section was singled as part of the Branksome Weymouth electrification scheme, to save the government of the day money!

 

Ever since then it has caused many problems.However we must be grateful BR never carried out the original plans that was to single the line from Wool to Worgret Junction and from Wareham to Hamworthy Junction.Just imagine years of chaos would have followed.

 

Single line from Hamworthy junction to Wool and a dedicated line from Wareham to Worgret Junction for Swanage Railway? Sounds like a plan.

 

Indeed, and I believe that was part of the logic in choosing a 117 and bubble car. One car can be out of service for repairs, with sufficient power/driving cars left to still form a working unit.

 

51356 (Swanage-end 117 motor coach) out of the set this week leaving 51388 (Wareham-end 117 motor coach), 59486 (117 trailer car) and 55028 (121) in traffic.

 

Routine maintenance or an issue?


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Tried to book a ticket on the National Rail.co.uk website for travel tomorrow (Tuesday) and still not giving results / ability to book.

 

And still says this on the Swanage Railway link from their website, so 5 weeks out of date now.

"South Western Railway expects to be able to sell through tickets from its stations and online from the end of April – please note however that these will not be available from ticket vending machines. Before the end of April customers should purchase a normal rail ticket from their station to Wareham and then purchase a separate Swanage Railway ticket, either in advance or on their train. Swanage Railway will not be able to sell SWR tickets (or to other National Rail stations) at their stations. These should be purchased online or from an SWR station as normal."

 

and give us the track to lay back to Norden!

 

Was at Wareham Station as planned earlier today and disappointed to find that the Passenger Information Screens still display Charter Train for the services to / from Swanage and Corfe Castle.

Whilst this may or may not be technically correct - I do not know what the system is for services such as this when operated by WCR though I do remember it did show Corfe Castle and Swanage for the trial service in 2017 - this does not help SRC promote the service and encourage patronage. Also with the reduced booking office hours as they are now there is no opportunity to pick up a timetable leaflet.