January 2008

A New Train Service

From Saturday 5 January we operate a new weekend diesel service between Harmans Cross, Corfe Castle and Norden only. Park your car at Norden Park & Ride and use the train to get to Corfe or carry on to Harmans Cross and enjoy the walk back! Daily running between Norden and Swanage restarts on Saturday 9 February for a couple of weeks.

The coming year will see many Special Events, so call at the Station, the TIC or a local pub and pick up a 2008 Timetable for your Future Attractions Notice Board. Or visit our website at www.swanagerailway.co.uk for details of train times, Special Events, Dining Trains and Driver Experience Trains.

Major Engineering Works at Swanage.

The new diesel service mentioned above fills a gap in our timetable but the train cannot use Swanage Station because we have in hand a major new project to bring two platforms into use again after a break of 40 years. In 1967 Swanage Signal Box was closed and trains used only the main platform face – now called Platform 2 as that was the only platform sign that we had at the time! We are laying in four new sets of points to enable trains arriving at Swanage to run straight into the Bay Platform where the Bird’s Nest Buffet now is. Initially only short trains will be able use this platform, but it will increase our operational flexibility. This also means that several new signals will have to be installed, along with some 20 new electrical cables for the signalling system and an awful lot of point rodding. At the same time the &#8216own Inner Home Signal’, just by the stream bridge, that allows trains into the Station, is being renewed and provided with a special ‘ringed’ arm to direct trains into the Loop Line, used by some of our Driver Experience Trains. This new signal has been manufactured in our very own Signal Works at Corfe Castle and will in some respects resemble the signal that used to be at the same spot in BR days until it was swept away in 1967, as shown in the accompanying photograph. Another horrible job for the current so-called ‘close-down’ period is to deal with the clay that permeates up through the track alongside the signal box. I guess it’s been a problem since 1885!

These engineering works have seen our diesel crane, once used at Southampton Docks, hard at work lifting rails and sleepers, signal posts and signal arms. The crane often forms part of our engineer’s train, along with ballast wagons, rail wagons and stores vans. The project depends heavily on Herculean efforts by our paid and volunteer staff in Permanent Way and Signal & Telegraph Departments of the Railway. I hope to be able to tell you in the April issue that they got it all put together again ready for trains to run into Swanage from 9 February!

Drummond M7 class 0-4-4 tank engine No.30107 leaves Swanage passing the Down Inner Home Signal in August 1960. Photo: T. Wright, Mike Stollery collection.

Purbeck Railway Circle

On Friday 11 January Nick Lera of Locomotion Pictures will show his latest DVDs and some unpublished British slides from the ‘50s and ‘60s – ‘The Age of Steam at Home and Abroad’, featuring the Old Patagonia Express. For more than 30 years Nick has filmed steam locomotives at work on railways around the world. Long after the Iron Horse had breathed its last in the Western World, Nick specialised in tracking down the survivors across five continents. He has captured the unique atmosphere of steam in regular service carrying people and their goods through bustling city centres, up high mountain passes, across remote deserts and through tropical jungles, often in areas of outstanding natural beauty. The results are considered by many to be the finest motion-picture records of steam trains.

We meet in the Catholic Church Hall, Rempstone Road, Swanage, 7.00 for 7.30 pm. All welcome; come along and beat the winter blues with a dose of sunny steam!

Michael Walshaw, Secretary PRC, Station House, Swanage, BH19 1HB, phone 01929 421913.

2007 Super Draw Prize Winners:

Drawn at Swanage Station on 25 November by the Mayor of Swanage, Cllr Suttle.

• 1st: £5,000 cash: D. Davis.
• 2nd: Hotel Break at the Purbeck House Hotel, Swanage: M. Norris, Swanage.
• 3rd: £50 voucher (Bath Travel, Swanage): M. Howell, Harmans Cross, Swanage.
• 4th: £50 cash (Swanage News): Miss J. Norman, Christchurch.
• 5th: Bottle of Cognac: Mrs Lodge.
• 6th: Family ticket for the Fleet Air Arm Museum: K. Brownless, Wimborne.
• 7th: Jigsaw puzzle: Mrs Martin.
• 8th: Railway book: Mr Thomas.

Our thanks to everyone who bought tickets and supported the Draw, the major fund-raising initiative of the Trust. This year the Draw has benefited the Trust by £9,000. 

Mike Stollery and Liz Sellen