The Swanage Railway Trust

Company Secretary Keith Gooding and Finance Director Andrew Moore and provide this month's Newsletter.

Welcome to the monthly update of what has been happening in the Boardroom, the General Managers Office and elsewhere. I will attempt to report some of the highs and lows of Swanage life together with news of what happened at the recent Directors meeting and the Council of Management meeting.

Just by way of a reminder, until such time as our new General Manager joins us, Keith Gooding and I are holding the fort. In principle Keith has taken responsibility for external matters such as taking Project Wareham forward whilst I have assumed responsibility for internal affairs. We both retain our Directorial responsibilities.

With regard to our new General Manager, just in case anyone has not yet picked up the news from other sources, the Board of the Swanage Railway Company are pleased to be able to announce the appointment of Michael Dean who will take up his duties with us at the beginning of January.

The October “Thomas Week” has been and gone and once again it has proven to be a great success with revenue exceeding our expectations. A big thank you to all who worked so hard to make the week such a success. I am reluctant to pick anyone out for special mention but I do feel that we must note our gratitude to Trish King who took over the mantle of Mrs Kyndley with so much vigour and enthusiasm that tea room turnover noticeably increased!

The next event in our calendar is the “1960’s Weekend on 24th and 25th November. Whilst there are no plans for any visiting locomotives I anticipate all of our available locomotives, steam and diesel, to be in use. On the Sunday afternoon the draw for the Trust Grand Draw of 2007 will be made on the platform at Swanage. You still have time to purchase draw tickets and remember you could be the recipient of a cheque for £5000. One of our drivers was last year!!!

Immediately following this we move straight in to our Santa Special programme and a big thank you in advance to those who I know will devote so much time and energy to this. The news from Reservations is that bookings for the actual Santa Trains are ahead of expectation at this time and bookings for the Christmas Lunch Trains are well over the 60% loading mark.

We are now about to embark upon a major engineering project which, hopefully, will allow us to operate Diesel Multiple Units from the bay platform. This will involve changes to the track layout at Swanage and associated S & T re-arrangement. I have been made aware that a number of our members/volunteers would like to offer assistance with this exciting project. If anyone would like to do so, they should contact the Infrastructure Manager, Dave Cobb on 07918 714927.

The Infrastructure Department has recently welcomed to its ranks, David Foden who has offered us his experience in Project Management. He is going to assist Dave Cobb with a number of specific projects and I am sure you will see him around the Railway in the coming weeks and months

We are often asked about “Project Wareham” and Furzebrook. Whilst progress towards Wareham is slow but sure the situation regarding possible use of the former oil depot at Furzebrook is not so clear. It is by no means yet certain that it will be possible to achieve our objectives there although we are working hard to clarify the position with Dorset County Council and BP. At this time it would be premature to devote too much time and effort in to planning what we will do there until we know for sure that we can do so. There are many obstacles still to overcome.

Ballast Train

The first auto-ballast train came to the Railway on 10th October and the exercise was a great success. More than 900 tones of stone was dropped between Motala and Norden during the course of the day. Our thanks go GB Rail Freight, EWS and Network Rail for their assistance in making this happened. I hope that this was the first of many Engineering Trains to run down the branch.

Locomotive Availability

With 80078, 6695 and the M7 now sidelined we are now reduced to two working steam locomotives. One of these is the Great Western pannier tank which is now formally on hire to us from the Severn Valley until the end of December. (Originally this locomotive was loaned to us for the September Gala as a thank you for us loaning our Class 20 to the SVR) With the Santa Specials approaching we are endeavouring to hire in an additional locomotive as cover, but this is proving difficult.

For the benefit of those who are not aware 6695 is currently at Wiliton on the West Somerset Railway where it is having attention to its axle boxes and is not expected back at Swanage until the Spring of 2008. The M7 is to have its bogie retyred. I understand the new tyres have been sourced and the owners are making arrangements to have them fitted. Finally, with regard to 80078, following the incident early in September when the right hand piston core plug fell out, a crack has been found in the crank pin on that side. This has to be replaced and Southern Locomotives have decided to send the engine to the South Devon Railway where they have a wheel drop and the expertise to undertake this kind of repair. It is expected that the work will have been completed and the locomotive will be back in Swanage before Easter.

The good news is that Eddystone will return to Swanage very early in the New Year.

Swanage & Corfe Castle Environs

Mike Stollery and Gerry Edwards have, in the last month, updated and re-issued their report in to the condition of the infrastructure at both Swanage and Corfe. It suggests that we are falling behind with our backlog maintenance particularly at Swanage. Certainly the canopy, the goods shed and the locomotive shed are all in poor condition and resources will have to be committed to some of these areas in 2008.

Diesel Locomotive Policy

Steve Doughty, Andrew Moore and James Cox are hoping to meet with the owners of Class 47 diesel locomotive No 47365 in order to discuss its future on the Swanage Railway.

Platform One Re-commissioning Works

With the end of daily running the Winter engineering work has commenced. P-Way equipment is now in the process of being moved to Swanage and track replacement works are now underway. We are hiring up to 15 Rudd’s from EWS which will be used to remove spoil from the Swanage works. This is another example of our use of our Network Rail connections and we anticipate these vehicles arriving before Christmas. As to where they will be stabled we will leave that to the Operations Manager!!

Security

We are still suffering from theft around the railway. Only in the last week Herston Bank has been broken in to again and quantities of cable stolen. We have established a “Security Team” consisting of Mike Whitwam, Dave Cobb, Stuart Ward and Mick Dean (in the New Year). They are going to advise on security matters and will liaise with the police who we understand are establishing a national task force to deal with this kind of crime. In the meantime, we must remain vigilant and ensure that we don’t make it easy for the criminals. It is important that arrangements are make to store high value items in Herston Works although it must be remembered that space there is limited.

Fencing in Kings Road

This is now on going and we are still awaiting quotations from external contractors to erect the fencing.

Station House Swanage

Keith Gooding has now met with the MD of Wilts and Dorset and useful discussions took place with regard to their local requirements and our aspirations. A further meeting is likely to take place once Wilts and Dorset has considered its position further.

No Smoking

It appears that in some locations as fast as we replace no smoking signs, as required by law, they are being removed by somebody. We may have to consider the installation of signs which cannot be so easily removed if this continues. This will, of course, have a cost implication.

Turntable, Coal Dock and Locoshed Lighting

Much of the new lighting has now been installed and now that the locomotives being prepared before dawn and disposed of after dark the benefits are evident.

Goods Shed Road Pit

The development of plans to construct an inspection pit in the Goods Shed road continues. However, there are some concerns as to how this can be funded

Harmans Cross Station - Down Platform

Delays are being experienced at the planning stage of the initiative to construct a amenity building on the down platform and current regulations appear to being going to render it more difficult for the building to be constructed by volunteers only. Inevitably this may have an adverse effect on costing. Keith Gooding and I hope to meet with Roger Orchard and some of the benefactors shortly.

Norden Station

A paper originating from the Station Manager, Ian Diffey, has been submitted and this will receive consideration in due course. In the meantime thought will be given as to how passenger facilities can be improved in the short term.

Andrew Moore
Keith Gooding
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