The Swanage Railway Trust

Strategic Plan

Following the publication last year of the interim Strategic Plan a revised version is now being compiled and published covering the period 2006 to 2011. This plan takes a more detailed form than that issued last year with several distinct documents covering specific areas of the Railway.

These documents are:

Swanage Railway Strategic Plan – outlining the key aims of the Railway and defining the contribution that the Trust and Company will make towards implementing these aims. The activities summarised in this document are given more detail in the other documents listed below.

• SRCL Marketing Plan – a plan of the services to be operated and the strategic and tactical marketing that these services will require.
• SRCL Locomotive Plan – showing SRCL’s requirements to operate the planned train service and overhaul plans on its own and other owner’s locomotives.
• SRCL Carriage Plan – showing SRCL’s requirements to operate the planned train service and overhaul plans for vehicles in its custody.
• SRCL Wagon Plan –showing SRCL’s requirements to operate the planned train service and overhaul plans for vehicles in its custody.
• SRCL Infrastructure Plan – major projects currently planned during the period of this strategic plan.
• SRT Heritage Coaches Project Plan – SRT plans for the funding and overhaul of Maunsell and Bulleid coaching stock.

The Swanage Railway Strategic Plan, SRCL Marketing Plan and SRCL Carriage Plan are now issued and available on notice boards and from Station House in Swanage whilst work is advancing on drawing together the Locomotive and Infrastructure Plans which should be ready for issue during the summer.

Health and Safety

Accident Forms

A new format of Accident Form is now being issued. This updates the information required to match the legal requirements and is on a yellow coloured paper. Please use these wherever possible in the future. Stocks are available from the General Manager.

SMS – Further issue of documents

The following documents are now being finalised for distribution during the summer:

• G014 Project Planning
• IF001 Organisation
• IF002 Maintenance and Inspection
• IF003 Level Crossing Inspections
• IF005 Risk Assessment for Level Crossings
• LCW001 Organisation
• LCW002 Acceptance of locomotives
• LCW003 Steam Locomotive Maintenance
• LCW004 Diesel Locomotive Maintenance
• LCW005 Carriage Maintenance
• Op001 Organisation
• Op003 Signals Passed at Danger Emergency Plan

The issue of these documents will mean that we should have defined organisations for all areas of the Railway and procedures for the inspection and maintenance of all operational assets. There are a few instructions that still need writing but these should be ready for issue during the early autumn with the SMS fully up and running by October.
 

Working Parties

Infrastructure Support Group (ISG)

Details to be agreed. Contact Frank Roberts (07703 566941).

Carriage and Wagon

Meet Saturdays and Sundays from 9am in the Swanage Goods Shed. Contact Jeremy Weller.

Civil Engineering

Meets Tuesday and Wednesday. Check times and location with Dennis Gregory (01929 422792).

Permanent Way Work

Meets Monday to Thursday at 8:30am. Please check location with Tony Andrews (07798 743016).

Signal and Telegraph Wednesday Gang

Meets Wednesdays at 9am, usually starting at Corfe Castle. Contact: Dave Cobb (07790 205454).
 

Vacancies

Contact name person (via Station House) for more information:

Traffic – Booking Clerks are required to help man Swanage and other Booking Offices on a daily basis. Contact Martin Trott.

Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon - The Railway has a vacancy for a member of staff to join the Fitting Staff. Successful applicants will be expected to assist the Fitters in all areas of the department and the ability to undertake some administrative work would be an advantage. This role will require flexible working and the ability to offer skills that can be used elsewhere within the Railway would be an advantage.

For an informal discussion please speak to James Cox or Nick Brown. For an Application Form please contact Nick Brown via the internal mail system.
 

Training Courses

Training courses for staff working towards parts of the SRVQ are held as listed below. All courses are held at the Swanage MPD. The bracketed numbers refer to the SRVQ Unit that they cover – please see the Safety Management System (General Instruction 17) for more information.
 

For details of additional courses please contact the person responsible as follows:

• SR PTS - Mike Standhaft
• NR PTS - Nick Brown
• Signalling Rules - Mike Whitwam
• First Aid - Nick Brown

Great Dorset Steam Fair

Wednesday August 30th to Sunday September 3rd, 2006

The Swanage Railway has again been invited to attend this major event. This year we are going to use our stand for the promotion of the railway, sale of raffle tickets and the sale of an extensive range of Swanage Railway souvenirs, books, dvds and model railway items.

In order for this to be a success we need volunteers to help on the stand during this event. Free passes will available to those who offer their services. If you wish to help promote our railway at this event, please contact Dave Green. Contact details are as follows: Direct Line 01929 475214, Mobile 07876 427527 email davidagreen@orange.net
 

Notes from the Board Meeting on 24th June

Health and Safety

There was a brief report summarising recent incidents including the near-miss SPAD and stone falling from Corfe Viaduct. There was some discussion about the provisions of the new smoking in public places law and the implications this might have – more information will be sought.

Finance

Again there was a short report with the overall situation looking stable. It is currently predicted that the company should return a modest profit for 2006 if all income and spending is according to budget. There is, however, still not much room for errors in financial management.

General Manager’s Report

Beer Festival

The Beer Festival was discussed and it was reported that due to the strain on time and energy CAMRA would not be able to help as much with any subsequent event. The visit of locomotive 37 324 was in many respects very successful with a great deal of interest created by its appearance by both enthusiast and general visitors.

The Growler Group has been very appreciative of the arrangements that were in place and the welcome that they received and I have received a great deal of complimentary feedback from many quarters. It was therefore decided that we should seek to develop this event as a ‘Mixed Traction Gala’ focussing on the Railway side of the event. Ways of adding value in other ways now need to be explored. Future visits by locomotives should be considered only if delivery costs are covered in advance.

Sygnets

My meetings with Gerald Atkinson to discuss formalising the interaction between departments and the Sygnets were reported. It is anticipated that each Sygnet will be given a booklet outlining the activities available to them depending on their age.

Monthly meetings will provide tightly structured and supervised activities as at present whilst the Apprenticeship activities are intended to be far more flexible and will be rostered as appropriate by the relevant manager. Those following the latter scheme will be provided with log sheets similar to those in the SRVQ log books so that they may transfer any skills learnt at this stage to the SRVQ at a later date. Gerald is going to investigate the scope of activity that we should be offering and checking legal aspects such as the level of CRB checks required by staff involved. It is hoped that this structure can be flexible enough to be used by work experience students on their placements with us.

Railway Doctor

It was reported that Dr. Pugh has written confirming his retirement from this post. Dr. Horsnell of Corfe Castle has accepted the post of Railway Doctor and has visited the Railway on a couple of occasions to become more familiar with our operations.

Marketing Group

This group met during the month and discussed a number of issues including attendance at Trade Fairs and other events. There was final discussion of the Santa Special Leaflet which should be with us shortly and preliminary ideas were put together for the 2007 timetable leaflet. As the service level has been agreed in broad terms and this will be made available to other organisations for planning purposes it is hoped that the leaflet can be made available from October for selected distribution, with full distribution following with other attractions by Easter of 2007.

6695 Locomotive Liaison

A meeting was held with representatives of the 6695 Group to discuss the acceptance and operation of the locomotive. In general arrangements seem to be working well and we have agreed lessons learnt from the acceptance process that will be incorporated into the relevant Work Instruction for the SMS. We also reviewed the Railway’s Locomotive Maintenance Plan to ensure that this met the owning group’s requirements – again this will be incorporated into the SMS as required. Approaches about the possible loan of the locomotive were discussed and it was agreed that the loco would not leave Swanage in the first 12 months of the agreement. Although requests have been received no firm decisions were made about possible visits after this date.

SMS

It was reported that further work has taken place on developing the SMS. The issue of these documents will mean that we should have defined organisations for all areas of the Railway and procedures for the inspection and maintenance of all operational assets. There are a few instructions that still need writing but these should be ready for issue during the early autumn with the SMS fully up and running by October.

Planning issues

I had attended a meeting with the new Planning Officer responsible for our area following John Butler’s move away from PDC. I endeavoured to update him with our current plans and aspirations and we had a full discussion on the way ahead for both individual projects and the Railway project as a whole. The point was made that the Railway should develop a long-term planning strategy so that individual applications can be seen as part of the whole picture – this is something that should fall relatively easily out of our developing Strategic Plan and its subsidiary documents. The need for the planners to balance our business needs (and contribution to the local economy) with environmental considerations was made. As a result of this meeting I will start to develop a draft document that will address PDC’s desire to understand our needs during the short, medium and long term. I am sure that this document will lead to some interesting discussions both internally and with PDC but it is clear that a failure to engage properly with the Planners at PDC will disadvantage our aims and aspirations.

Driver Experience Packages

Two new products were agreed to be introduced, in the first instance, alongside the existing package. After the first year of operation will be reviewed in terms of product, pricing and progressive promotion.

Taster Steam Experience (existing product)

This provides participants with an opportunity to savour the thrill of driving a steam locomotive with a short passenger train under the close supervision of a qualified SR crew. Each participant will be greeted by a member of SR staff at Swanage Station who will then introduce them to the loco crew. After a short explanation the participants will be given the chance to share the driving and firing of the locomotive for a round trip from Swanage to Norden and back. Cost: £160.

Full day Railway Experience

The morning will be spent learning about the steam locomotive and its operation. The first part of this will take place in the classroom before participants are shown you around the locomotive.

During the afternoon all the participants on the course will get a chance to both fire and drive the locomotive, together with a goods brake van, a number of times from Corfe Castle to Harmans Cross and Norden. Whilst not on the footplate participants will have the opportunity to travel in the brake van or visit a signal box. Cost: £275.

Diesel Experience

Participants are able to drive either a locomotive with a short passenger train or DMU under the close supervision of a qualified SR crew. Each participant will be greeted by a member of SR staff at Swanage Station who will then introduce them to the loco crew. After a short explanation the participants will be given the chance to share the driving and firing of the locomotive for a round trip from Swanage to Norden and back. Cost: £150.

2007 Timetable

It was agreed that a final draft could be produced and issued.

LCW Capability

The ability for more carriage overhaul work to be undertaken on site was discussed and it was agreed that a formal discussion paper would be drawn up to set out the physical possibilities within our current site and the financial and manpower implications

Project NO02 Norden Path access

This project, to reinstate access to the permissive path was approved for final planning with finance expected to come from PDC.
 

Future Meetings

• Manager’s Meeting, 3:30pm 26th July, Bar Car
• Board Meeting, 10:00am 29th July, Rectory Classroom
• CoM Meeting, 2pm 29th July, Rectory Classroom

Nick Brown
General Manager
Swanage Station
Tel: 01929 475213
Email: generalmanager@swanage-railway.co.uk

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Photographs

All photographs on this page by and copyright Andrew P.M. Wright,
Swanage Railway official photographer