Swanage Railway General Discussion

I’d expect it will join the timetable at some point in the autumn. I’d also expect it will be used for training purposes. Leaving anything electrical/mechanical lying around unused doesn’t do any good, especially where there’s a substantial timber content as well. I’d be confident you could look out for it again before 2021 is out.

 

The Class 117/121 DMUs have cost over £1M (the vast majority taxpayers money and a small amount of SR money) and therefore one would expect them to be used. I appreciate that these were overhauled specifically for the Wareham service but given that service has yet to operate under SR auspices and when it does it may only be 90 days per year it does seem a very large investment based on the likely number of days per annum it will be used for the purpose intended.

Given though that from the middle of September to the end of the season (end October) the service only requires one steam loco per day using them generally seems very unlikely.

 

Thanks for the replies, hopefully if the 2 railcars do not join the remaining passenger schedule for the rest of 2021 the training runs to the river Frome will continue in preparation for a Wareham service.

Was good to see on FB that the narrow gauge Snapper is working again at Norden after a few years and will also be used regularly.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...699885/?type=3&source=57&refid=52&__tn__=EH-R

 

I went with my oldest on Saturday 12th.

There was a Dacia in front of me for a good part of the journey down that I lost at Wareham when I went into the station to collect my oldest. Lo and Behold it was in the car park at Norden when I arrived.

Got the 11.15 with the Mogul. Very full from Harmans Cross, not much mask wearing. Then up to Corfe for a drink from the truck in the station yard - good to see it still has a coal depot!

Back to Swanage which was infested with Morris Dancers and a walkalong the pier before going back to Norden on the 33. That was a pretty accurate re-creation of my experiences on BR in the early 80's

A good day out.

 

Good the car rally went well at Harmans Cross and the railway was busy. Although a steam railway, Diesel is also part of the history. Hopefully the 3TC unit will be running with 33 for an even better 80s experience in 2022.

Masks should be worn on trains, in Scotland the advice is clear, but in England the latest advice is open to misunderstanding. (From BBC News)

• In England, the legal requirement to wear a face covering has ended. But government guidance says it "expects and recommends" the continued wearing of masks in crowded areas such as public transport.

 

Not really open to misunderstanding. It clearly says there is no longer a legal requirement to wear masks, so people dont. Mask use is certainly rapidly diminishing. I went to the supermarket yesterday and only about 30% of shoppers had masks, compared to about 80% when I went on the day the legal requirement was lifted.

 

Well I suppose the misunderstanding is "The government are saying it is expected and recommended but not legally requiring it - if they expect and recommend it why aren't they making it a legal requirement?" I could say all sorts of things about this government's handling of the pandemic in response!

 

Agreed. If they expect people to wear masks then they need to make it a legal requirement again, otherwise the majority of people won’t, and indeed aren’t wearing them.

 

I’ve just done St Erth to St Ives on a packed-to-standing 4-car DMU and nearly everyone had a mask on.

 

Surely though the Swanage Railway can make the wearing of a face mask mandatory as a condition of carriage. (Except for those exempt for medical reasons or by age (children)).

 

I think the difficulties there are (1) not giving the impression of being officious in what is supposed to be a fun day out and (2) putting volunteers in possibly an awkward position of trying to uphold such a condition. Not easy.

Tom

 

Mask wearing in shops etc does appear to be something followed in most part by the locals in Swanage and hence I think it would be difficult on the SR where a great number of patrons will not be locals to go against the flow (and law). Even Khan I believe has failed twice in trying to get mask wearing made a byelaw on TFL.

 

This large influx would be from the classic car show.
Would it have been down to volunteers to put up extra signs and announcents to suggest mask wearing as the train go busier?. Or should the visitors realise the train was busy and put on their masks as per Government advice?.
A one off event, the next event will be the lights train and the current mask guidance will be to wear masks if sold out to capacity, but could change?.
Edit today,
plan A seems to be masks optional,
plan B

• face coverings could be legally-mandated in some places

 

Eddystone en route to Norden for what I believe may be a bogie swap. Certainly there appeared to be a bogie there and a very large crane. However time constraints meant I had to leave before the loco was split from the tender, which appeared to be causing some difficulty. .

 

I believe the bogie from Wadebridge has been borrowed, whilst Eddystone’s own one is repaired.

 

Correct. There's more about this in the SLL website news which has been updated today: https://southern-locomotives.co.uk/News/news.html

 

Friday afternoon rush hour at Swanage.
Eddystone just back from a LE test run, U Class waiting to depart 16:30 to Norden, Standard 2 all spruced up and ready to return to the GCR, 33111 berthed in the bay road.

 

I'm planning a visit to Swanage tomorrow. I see that 34028 is in service today, is it likely to be so tomorrow? TIA <BJ>

 

I would guess so, Saturday was the first full days running since the bogie swap, likely to be on all next week.

Sent from my SM-T820 using Tapatalk

 

Interesting to note from that update that there doesn't seem to be much support for the matched fundraising to get 80104 overhauled on a rapid track basis. Perhaps SLL should announce that they are going to sell it..... that might do the trick!