Swanage Railway General Discussion

Well if you’re at a gala you would expect them to know it’s going to be very busy!

For mainline timetables you get booked stops being 2-5 mins rather than the minimum 30 seconds in busy places, plus extra pathing allowances for engineering work or any late running.

You absolutely can account for general stuff in the timetable, it’s not hard to.

For example that classic timetable that ends up being late loses around 5 mins every hour it repeats. It’s not difficult

 

Only a historic right of way for the properties behind the down platform, but it seems to be treated by some as a public footpath, which it is not, nor is the access road to those properties.

 

But how do you know which services are going to be the busiest? Which services you might need a ramp for? Which services are going to be full and standing so need extra time to disembark/board? You don’t know these things in advance.

You can leave some slack in the timetable, but you can only leave so much slack before you have excessive dwells and a poor frequency. The mainline is more flexible than a single track heritage railway working under token block, so allowances are easier to put in.

It depends what you define as “general stuff”. It’s normally one incident that knocks the entire railway and puts the whole thing behind time for the rest of the day. You can’t account for that level of disruption.

If you think it’s not difficult, why not give it a go?

 

Not sure where you only get 30 seconds on a mainline timetable. It often takes the guard longer than that to open the doors.
Mainline tours get what NR give you from my experience, which is often not enough and hence why so many DCE's and Swanage Belle's spend longer at stations than planned on the way down (especially Basingstoke) if you have wheelchairs strollers etc to deal with. That is before as mentioned by @WorkingPressure225 any issues around ramps, which these days fall under the H & S umbrella, not like when I started stewarding when we would just grab one and use it.

 

That shouldn't be a problem, It is one of the Signalman's duties to lock the gates to the Barrow crossing at the commencement of duty (I did it yesterday) and open it after the last train has departed. Also of course If buggy's and wheelchairs need to
cross, the porters are responsible after getting permission from the Signalman first.