Swanage Railway General Discussion

Indeed, I'm not saying in-house is perfect either. You just trade one set of problems for another.

On workload: I suspect once you get to the point of needing about four or five or so steam locos nominally available to run your service, you are getting to the point where there will always be a constant stream of work - obviously, to some degree, nuanced by how large those locos are.

Tom

 

IIRC Swanage Railway requires 5 steam locomotives nominally available for service so on that basis "in house" would be the better option.

Having greater control over ones destiny would seem preferable to me.

 

Can Swanage finish existing blasted projects that been over running for decades before we start stampeding demand for a boiler shop to be built. There no where to put it currently anyway...

 

Where the Bird's Nest cafe used to be?

 

I wasnt asking for one to be built just postulating that on the face of it, it could be a sensible business decision.

I do agree though with the sentiment of finishing existing projects such as Project Wareham, the Swanage Water Tower, the second turntable, the carriage shed, the sidings at Furzebrook, getting all three Swanage Moguls in ticket, The T3, the 4TC, the heritage coaches.

 

To be fair, absolutely every railway in the UK has outstanding projects and Swanage isn't by any means unique in this respect.

 

I would second that

 

yes, probably as many BUT not for so long

 

Everything crossed for the resumption of work on #1 priority. The Carriage Shed. When?? TBD

 

Some of us still haven’t seen that second turntable put in at Bridgnorth despite its purchase from Bath Road in 1998 when we were mere youths of 14…
Seriously the likes of Swanage are not a OO gauge layout where you can just go and mess about with things like track layout, infrastructure, locos and stock just because you’ve had some Christmas or Birthday money to spend.
These are pretty big projects you always seem to moan about, and they aren’t going to happen overnight.
So please I’m asking very nicely, just give it a rest will you? Your just sounding very, very irritating.

 

Why would you want all 3 moguls in ticket at the same time? Wouldn’t you want them spaced out slightly so one replaces another so you have some sort of long term plan to help avoid a motive power crisis?

 

The three moguls are on an expensive twenty five year lease which has to be paid even if the locomotives are not in traffic.

 

Indeed. There was originally an intention to have 31874 in traffic by 2015, and 31625 by 2018 I believe. Thus having all 3 moguls in traffic together for a few years. Obviously it hasn’t quite worked out that way though.

 

Few lines could not ''do better'' where undue numbers of uncompleted projects are concerned.

 

Opportunities have a habit of cropping up when they are least expected, and taking them can result in the rearrangement of previously held priorities and arrangements. The three Maunsell moguls are a case in point - the SR was right to take the opportunity as the are ideal and appropriate engines for the line, but came with a previously unplanned for bill. So, what has suffered? I think we can discount Wareham, as that has been largely funded by grant support and the carriage shed is started, and probably most of the original appeal money spent on groundworks and materials, with a resumption expected in the autumn. The next mogul is a work in progress That leaves the Salisbury water tower, as I don't think there are any definitive plans for the Furzebrook sidings yet. To me, that suggests that the SR is not doing that badly with its major projects.

 

Just to temper that "get your wallet out!" phrase. I suspect many of us here could probably stretch to the asking price, and even maybe to the transport price for the 100 miles or so along the coast.

It's after that that the real money starts: neither carriage really presents an easy restoration opportunity.

3724, a brake 3rd, is I believe in reasonable structural condition. However, it has no interior and, once completed, it is of low capacity (32 seats). The best option might be, given the lack of interior, to convert it to a wheelchair-accessible coach: doing that might open up grant-funding opportunities.

2356 is a Hastings-line restriction Corridor 3rd. It has excellent capacity (for narrow-shouldered people ...) of 64 seats; but would require an almost total structural rebuild. It is believed to be the only surviving Maunsell Corridor 3rd, so of considerable interest. But to take it on, you need a well-appointed indoor workshop and the skills and machinery to do complex wood working.

Oh, and there is a Maunsell TPO available as well - but that has zero seating capacity and another identical vehicle is already in preservation, so it is hard to imagine that ever getting off the bottom of anyone's priority list: put bluntly, there are more than enough vehicles of greater interest and operational use, and not enough restoration capacity, to ever make that viable - IMHO.

There was a brief discussion earlier on this thread about a boiler shop, and it was put down along the lines of "let's get the existing projects finished first". But you do have to think about workshop capacity, unless you always want to be beholden to external suppliers doing things at commercial rates (= ££). The two Maunsell's are available and they would be well-suited to the Swanage Railway. But without a workshop, and the skills and money to operate it, acquiring them would simply be to move them from a siding at Horsted Keynes to a siding in Purbeck.

Tom

 

Absolutely. Where it's not something like planning delays, the main factor constraining things is almost invariably filthy lucre.

Easy to forget that the earliest stages of the Bluebell, FfR and WLLR preservation era saw rail accesses subsequently lost. In the case of the Bluebell, HK to Copyhold Jc remains a 'goner' and it seems unlikely the WLLR will ever regain a connection with 'the big railway'.

Even on the FfR/WHR, getting round to finishing the portals on the New Moelwyn Tunnel has taken decades and Beddgelert (reopened since 2009) still lacks a station building. Nor did the 'deviation' happen overnight. The 13 years between survey and 1st train presaged a further four years before the full line to Blaenau was complete and the station there is still the subject of debate concerning it's final form.

The Bluebell's (now complete) complex OP4 project didin't happen overnight, nor did the storage and Train Story facility on the IWSR.

The extension Cambrian Heritage, Rother Valley and Strathspey are subject to the machinations of various branches of government and any step forward at Southwold is like walking on eggs in hobnail boots.

.... and without the luxury of much of today's workshop capacity, shall we recall how long some of those early Barry escapees took to return to service?

 

There is also the question how many of the passengers at either railway will be inspired to travel because it is a Maunsell coach.
Still stuck indoors in our self imposed semi self isolation I have watched the Swanage webcam far more over the weekend and this week than normal. One set is currently running with the Maunsell coach (at the Corfe end) yet it appears no more popular than any of the Mk1's. The likes of people on here may gravitate towards it, but do the general public who make up the majority of the daily passengers see it as an added attraction?
From a personal viewpoint whilst an attractive coach I actually find it less comfortable than a Mk1 and both of course a long way short of a Bullied, but that is just my opinion.

So I agree Tom why would a railway without the indoor type of facilities at HK for coach restoration take them on.
Also why would someone always complaining about unfinished projects want the railway to start another mammoth undertaking and who is going to fund it?

 

If memory serves me correctly at one time SRC were very interested in these Maunsell coaches to complement the M7 push-pull project. Also one would imagine that the T3 hauled these type of coaches,any images of such? The completion of the Carriage Shed will be major event in ensuring that SR can use and maintain rolling stock that might otherwise go elsewhere. The GWSR Carriage and Wagon blog details the hard work ongoing in the restoration of stock and most of it is seemingly done under cover.