Swanage Railway General Discussion

Andy, it is pretty clear again at the moment, this from March 6th where I did not notice at the time the 21 sign was missing.
The only image I have of 6 is from on train.

 

By the hourly Breezer 40 at about xx12 which connects out of the trains arriving at around xx58 each hour . This gets you to Corfe at about xx29 and Swanage station at xx50. These are current times but may change for June

 

No timetables up for the 40 or the 50 (from Bournemouth) for June , and I also do not know if the 30, 35 or X50 are planned to run this summer which all serve Wareham.
So Don's timings might still be correct but check nearer the time.
https://www.morebus.co.uk/services/WDBC/40

 

Can't be anything other than D6515 can it Andy?

 

Andy,
It is 33012 bringing 50026 down for testing.

 

Discussion of the bridges made me look at the LSWR Track Chart (courtesy of the South Western Circle).
Attached is a list of the bridges - not sure of the date but late pre-grouping would be a fair guess. I hope it is useful.
Pat

 

Very useful Pat. Many thanks for posting it.


Gary

 

Not here yesterday when the 50 pitched up as I was at the AVR, but a deep diesel noise caused me to open the blinds as it went out LE a few minutes back, presumably on test.

 

Just had a look at the Corfe Castle webcam and was in time to capture this: -

The 50 will run backwards and forwards between Arne Road and Bridge 4 until around 16:30 when she will make her way back to Swanage.

 

Based from the Steam v Diesel cost and Steve stating cost of both on the NYMR cost figures....


Swaange Railway Return would be £170 for Coal and £40 for the class 33. The difference being only 6.5 paying Adults.

In other words... IF, IF everything else was the same price. The pure 'cost' of having an extra steam service would be offset by it getting another 7 adults on each return service.... something I personally would expect would be very easy to do.

 

Would it? I’d be interested in the analysis that could demonstrate that at shoulder season and on second duties.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Put out on Swanrails Facebook page so therefore in the public domain. Over 3500 people carried over the Easter weekend.

 

3500 sounds a good number, but maybe not so good over 80 return trips across the 4 days. Making the (I am sure) incorrect assumption they were all on a return journey that works out at an average of 87.5 passengers per train. Of course the steam service probably had more and the diesel less, as people would have likely have chosen to travel to align with the steam service. Mind you the weather was shall we say "unexceptional" a lot of the time.
I wonder what the "target" was.
The town looked busy the couple of the days I was down there and a friend who works in a couple of the shops said takings were good. Rest of the week however it looks to have been a lot quieter, at least from walking past the main beach car park.
I would suspect the railway probably feel it was quite a good result all round, a remember the summer is here, the cricket season started yesterday (with a few washouts!)

 

I worked it out a different way.
£20 for a adult return, £10 for a child, I assumed an average of £13 per customer to include PLM's etc.
That gives a figure of £45,500.
Allow £5k per day for coal, diesel etc
£25K is not to be sniffed at, along with the additional income through catering and whatever the shop took.
However, that could easily have been lost the rest of the week if loadings were poor, ergo, only run at the weekend!

 

I agree, and it does show how much of the activity is somewhat out of the railway's control.
Today is a prime example armageddon weather forecasted earlier (quite recently really) in the week for today, yet seems quite a pleasant day really.

 

I would also like to know how many having paid £4 to park at Norden would walk back to the car, drive to Swanage and then pay another £5.60 or £7.30 to park at Swanage.
High season has a better alternative if the extra summer buses run and serve the park and ride as previous years. In that case you would only have to pay and extra £4 return to Swanage.
I just think most are able to read a website and turn up for the steam if it what they want. It is not like Pickering to Whitby where buses are irregular, maybe full and it is a fair drive between the two.

 

For those that like Class 50's 50026 at Holme Lane this afternoon, on some test runs that seemed to have identified an issue.
I was told the loco had been at Bridge 4 for around an hour and not long after I arrived it made it to Bridge 6. Just about to leave after another 10 minutes or so and it set off again. Not at Norden as I passed on the way back so had either gone straight back towards Swanage or hit another issue.

 

Owner commented on Facebook it was a successful day, and loco didn't put a foot wrong. I can think of worse places to have a PNB than sat at the river bridges!

 

Certainly a lot of water next to the line in places I have not seen it before in that area.

 

Well, we had a great day and made the most of up and down weather. Eddystone and the DMU were the service trains. Saw 50026 on her way to running trials on the non public part of the line, and was able to visit ex guest in Toronto LSWR 563.

On we go with the trip!

Stephen