Swanage Railway General Discussion

A great article in Heritage Railways regarding the Spring Steam gala. One pic of the U boat and Squadron has the caption 'approaching tin bath crossing'
Where the hell is this?
As a guard on the railway off and on for nearly 40 years, never heard of it, although it does look like Dickers.

 

Should have been a picture of that loco from over the water from that rock in the bay

According to Google
"The phrase "tine bath crossing" refers to the unusual feat of rowing across the English Channel in a Victorian bathtub, which was accomplished by Tim Fitzhigham. He not only successfully crossed the Channel in a bathtub but also set a record for the longest solo crossing. This event garnered attention due to its eccentricity and the challenges involved, including battling French government regulations that were amended to make bath crossings illegal."

How long in a bath tub to the I.O.W. I wonder.

 

I know tenuous but a story.
There used to be a guard at Weymouth nicknamed 'The Ferret' whose features mimicked said creature, he also was allergic to soap and water (tin bath). When approaching Brockenhurst he used to announce change here for trains to the Island of White.

 

Is this not the "tine (?tin) bath" referred to?


Peter

 

Yep, that's Dickers.
Andrew PM Wright can supply a picture of me in 1986 ish on a Sunday, putting the crossing in (obviously with our close knit team of volunteers) late in the evening. Me with a Mullet and highlighted hair

 

Going back a day or two then, pretty sure i was involved, probably ended up in either the Globe or Royal Oak at Herston, or back to the Red Lion at Swanage for the evening session??????? P.S bath cast iron, not tin !

 

Wasnt too long after the Greyhound was frequented

 

The non current set (unsure if its B or C) is being shunted around today at Swanage.

Swanage - Pullman, Maunsell , Mark 1 Brake, Maunsell , Mark1 TSO - Norden

 

That was the gala set B minus one Mk1 I believe.

 

A few shots of 4953 'Pitchford Hall' strutting its stuff along the line on Monday, looking very nicely turned out in the springtime sun. I hope you enjoy it

 

That is the B set for summer services, sometimes called the heritage set. I believe it will be used as the second train during the Yellow timetable.
Also as cream teas are being served on Sunday the steam service will be using this set.

 

Last year the "Royal Wessex" Maunsell and the Pullman observation carriages had an extra charge, but the summer tickets on the website don't seem to have it (yet) other than the Sunday cream afternoon teas.
Was the extra admin for the "Royal Wessex" a factor if not all seats were sold?

Also the yellow timetable seems to be still one steam and one diesel train, rather than the return of a 2 steam train timetable, is this because of the extra coal expense and lack of volunteers and some visitors not minding being in a diesel train?
Guess the railway need to have both the 30012 diesel loco and the DMU ready to run in case of very dry hot weather and the risk of lineside fires. (I notice at the China Formula one race they had sprayed the grass with chemicals which would not be allowed in Europe).

But hope this year visitor numbers are back above 200,000 and the railway runs at a good surplus.

From the website does not look like the railway have taken out a Polar Express franchise again and gone back to a Father Christmas Yuletide Express !

 

Looks like engine and tender might be leaving Norden on Tuesday 15th.

 

Yep, moving to Norden RRI before first service trains tomorrow morning.

 

Just before lunch my wife shouted from the lounge that "the diesel was bringing the trucks into Swanage" (bless her). Just caught a glimpse of a Super Turbot and a BV disappearing behind the trees. Having seen on the webcam it was the full set that parks at Corfe, with the service train loco facing Swanage seemed rude not to go out to School Crossing and get an image or two of the 14:40 from Norden departing Corfe. Although the sun did decide to go and hide of course.

 

This popped up on my YouTube feed today.


I especially liked the footplate to footplate token exchanges at Herston. Especially as it is a piece of track I have not travelled on.

 

Didn't someone on here say recently that a token has to be replaced in the machine and then taken out again before something else can happen?

 

I wasn't on the railway at the time, but this was a very different, temporary arrangement to normal circumstances, making use of ground frames either end. In this operation the 'tokens' were effectively train staffs for the two sections and no token machines were provided. You can see the various Stop Boards in the video, along with the Flagmen on the ground frames, all in connection with the special event operation.

I'm not sure how many years this sort of operation at galas went on for, but it had certainly finished by the late-90's when I started.

In connection with the carriage shed developments at Herston we are actually looking to put a token machine in, to allow a train to 'put away' in the loop/yard there; this will be the first time such a machine has been provided at Herston.

 

Vintage Swanage Railway from 1991, The Driver of 1F 41708 was Malcolm Collop, Sadly no longer with us. I did not join the Railway until 1996 and I think by then Crossing trains at Herston had ceased.
When I started as a SR Signalman we only had two ground frames the five lever frame at the station end the train staff unlocked the facing point lock which was the middle lever, there were two sets of points one opening the London end of the run round loop
and the other points lead to the up sidings. It was not possible to access the main line direct from the bay platform, There were two shunt signals one to signal movements from the loop and the other a yellow dummy to signal movements from the up siding.
Swanage also had a three lever frame to access movements to/from the Loco shed. Oh and I nearly forgot this, We also had the down (What is now the Outer) home signal,
Harmans Cross opened in 1997 enabling the switch from Train Staff to Electric Key token working with one train only working from Harmans Cross to Norden Station, until the Small signalbox in the old porters room was recommissioned circa 2000?
The part of the film I liked the most was the sequence from Swanage to Harmans Cross, It shows how far we have advanced since then.

 

A new token machine would allow a much greater flexibility. Though what level of usage is the railway expecting from the shed. I'm guessing it wont be the daily set but rather set 'B' which excluding the summer holidays is only needed on what the gala days and potentially other 'green' days if local haulage is required rather than the DMU.