Swanage Railway LSWR Weekend

'Join us on the 15th and 16th March for our first ever London & South Western Railway Weekend.

With the Drummond T9 30120, courtesy of the National Railway Museum and the Bodmin and Wenford Railway, and M7 30053 in action.

30053 will be pulling two Bullied coaches - Bullied brake coach 4365 and compartment coach (CK) S5761 - on the Swanage Railway for the first time in twenty years!

Trains will be passing at Corfe Castle, creating a unique photographic opportunity.'

Trains passing at Corfe Castle will be good! Harmans Cross is nice, but it couldn't be more perfect at Corfe!
Nice little weekend before the main event!

 

Sure I read somewhere before that trains would alternate between crossing at Corfe and crossing at Swanage? Obviously the latter would involve a fair amount of shunting I guess as it would require regular bay use. Bit of a moot point really as I'm going down for the afternoon on one of the days regardless of where they're passing as I bloody love the T9.

 

Yes trains do cross at Swanage but no shunting required as down train arrives, in either plat 1 or 2, and the next departure is waiting to leave in the other platform..

 

Any idea as to which way both locos will be facing?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Looking forward to this event, but I am surprised by the huge gap between the 1st and 2nd departures from Swanage (10.00 and 11.20 respectively). Would it have been more commercial & visitor friendly to run something, however incongrous in that long gap?

 

30120 will be facing Swanage for the whole weekend. 30053 will be facing Norden for most of each day (so when they are passing at Corfe Castle the locos are both chimney first), however before its last trip it will be going to shed to turn. As such, the double-headed working back from Norden at the end of each day will have both locos facing Swanage.

The times of the first couple of trains are a bit of a balancing act between making sure there are enough trains starting from the point that most people join the railway (in our case at Norden) and getting everything in position (we are very limited on siding space, particularly in the build-up to this event with platform 2 at Swanage currently being relaid); although there is an hour and 20 minute gap between the first two trains from Swanage, there is only a 40-minute gap between departures from Norden. This also allows for a relaunch ceremony for the Bulleid coaches, in particular 5761, to take place in that gap on the Saturday morning at Swanage.

 

Thanks for the explanation. As I always start at Swanage, I forgot that Norden is the busier starting point! As I will be on the first train, it shouldn't be a problem for me. I expect the Bird's Nest could expect to be busy in that 80 minute gap

 

Can't wait to be back in the Swanage time machine!!

 

Bit more about the Bulleids: http://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/news922.htm

 

With two Nine Elms built Drummond locomotives in action this weekend ....I'll be there.

Thanks for the updates. <BJ>

 

Just received a second/third hand report that the T9 has failed with injector problems. Knowing how Chinese whispers work, can anyone conform this?

 

Yep, just back from an afternoon at Swanage, Broken T9 sat on the turntable while the M7 and 33202 share the services. Diagrams were swapped to put 30053 on the 5-coach set with the Crompton on the 2-coach local. Both still pretty full on the journeys I made. Sad to miss out on the T9 somewhere different, though. Half-tempted to return tomorrow afternoon if it's likely to be fixed, but conversely the Swindon and Cricklade's diesel day is in the diary and I'm keen to support that.

 

Yes, the T9 failed at lunchtime today with injector problems. Unfortunately we weren't able to get those problems sorted in time for it to work this afternoon, but work is still ongoing as I type, and I will be able to update further a little later this evening. We don't want it to come to this, but if the T9 isn't able to be fixed in time then Manston will pick up its diagram. Incidentally Manston has recently been turned to face Swanage, so all passing moves at Corfe would still be with both locos chimney first!

Speaking fairly candidly, as the person who wrote the timetable, planned the passing moves and the turning of the M7 at various times to create the set-pieces that were intended, to say I'm gutted with how today has turned out is an understatement. Tomorrow will be better...

 

Any info on what will run in place of the T9 tomorrow?

Edit. Posted before I saw the previous post. A BB will do nicely.

 

Thanks Nick. Was hoping to visit tomorrow en famille, but the T9 is definitely the draw for me!

Tom

 

Latest update; after a solid afternoon of working, the comment was it is '90% likely' that 30120 will make its booked duties tomorrow, barring any unforeseen problems. Manston will be kept as 'warm spare' in case of problems.

 

As a man with eclectic tastes, I really enjoyed travelling behind the slim jim 33 non stop through Harman's Cross! It also helped that I got a round trip behind the T9 before it was sidelined. The M7 was great as ever. The two buffet coaches were also up to their usual high standards.
My only (mildly) critical observation is that I felt passengers were kept in the dark all day, both about the loco problems and the late running which preceded it. By contrast, the MHR gala last weekend was a triumph of communication when a points problem caused serious delay.
I had a great day at Swanage and if I wasn't working tomorrow, I would have returned. We'll done Rumpole & co!

 

Yes, it was a shame that the T9 failed today but I must say that the M7 certainly looked superb in the glorious sunlight.
I thoroughly enjoyed the gala. Many thanks to the folk at the Swanage Railway. <BJ>

 

30120 repaired and going off shed at this very moment...