Project Wareham

Good to hear progress has been made on its return to Swanage.

Is the spares donor returning to Swanage as well, or is that off to a scrapyard now?

 

Vehicles used to transport coaches the length of a 117 car are far too long for the sharp cornered, dog-legged Campbell Road bridge.

 

From FB and twitter seems Teahan Convoy Services has the spares donor first on way to Norden

 

Thanks for this info. Anyone having a look on Twitter should enter this in the search facility to find the info:

TeahanConvoiService

 

Presumably the spare NSE coach is being retained in case of any mishaps, where a complete new body shell might be required? If it was just parts that were needed, they could have been stripped off at Eastleigh ready for storage at Swanage.

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/abnormal_loads/status/1227593002648055808
A photo of the next DMU (first working 117) on it's way

 

Thanks

 

First vehicle [ex-NSE 117 DMS 'Christmas Tree'] moved (Tuesday) - https://twitter.com/abnormal_loads/statu...09/photo/1
DMBS moved (today) - https://twitter.com/abnormal_loads/statu...08/photo/1 - Spotted by me after 'landing' at Swanage Railway's road/rail facility at Norden around 17:00 having been unloaded from S A Smith's lorry. Crew seen readying the rig for another trip to/from Eastleigh tomorrow I guess.
Presumably third and fourth vehicles remain at Eastleigh East Yard.

 

Good photo by "Bryan Thesnail" restricted to FB
"We seem to have a complete 117 & 121 at Corfe Castle now. "
Hopefully a good step forward to taking passengers after more training and testing?

 

Great news ..... and roll on the next couple of chapters!

Peter's Twitter links [post #608] now returning "page does not exist" messages .... I'm guessing coz they're live feed pages, which a completed delivery means are now superfluous.

 

Try: https://twitter.com/abnormal_loads?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

 

All three 117 vehicles were coupled up as a set and operated yesterday [Friday] afternoon, along the short siding at Corfe Castle, subsequently being joined by the 121 to ensure all four vehicles had working multiple unit availability should the need arise.

 

There you are folks, the photo I posted on Facebook.
Peter I'm afraid we didn't couple the 121 to the 117, we left it around 3 foot short of "buffered up"; but it does look nice. Last time I worked or travelled on either of these classes they were in corporate BR blue with the indecisive arrows on the side.

 

You probably did more that we did the previous day between the 117 cars; all I did was chuck the coupling over and naff off!

 

Looking very smart. Good job.

 

They do indeed look smart. However, they just don't look right to me with those white blocked ends where the destination blinds used to be.
edit: should have said train reporting numbers and not destination blinds.

 

Sorry, cant resist this one any longer.....................

 

Have to agree with you there Steve, but I guess that is the least of their worries after the saga of getting these units complete.

They are not something I associate with the Swanage branch, but seeing @gz3xzf 's picture above I looked out some pictures I took not so far away at Maiden Newton in 1972 and low and behold I find a 117 unit on a Bristol - Weymouth train with a 121 (55027) on the Bridport train.

Clearly they came closer to Swanage than I had realised

Peter

 

Western Region 117’s actually came down to Swanage in BR days, on ramblers specials.

 

Sitting behind the driver on 3x 3 car 117's slowly climbing Eversholt Bank on the 'peak hour' TM - Weymouth 'Peak Hour' Holiday train - happy memories