The Swanage Railway continually undertakes a wide variety of smaller projects that are vital to maintaining and improving the Railway for visitors and volunteers alike.

These projects are funded out of the Swanage Railway Trust's general funds rather than by specific appeals. The buttons in the side panel enables an immediate donation to be made to help fund these vital projects.

One of the Swanage Railway’s long standing problems has been the lack of covered accommodation for coaches, which are exposed to the weather all year round with consequent increase in the rate of corrosion and deterioration of paintwork. Review of the entire formation revealed that there was just enough space to build a two road shed for eight coaches on the Swanage side of Herston Halt. The first stage of the project, which includes the excavation of the site and laying of track, has cost £80,000 and has been funded by the Trust from a legacy, previous appeals and from the 2009 operational surplus. We now need £150,000 for the foundations and the structure of the building itself.

Work on the site commenced immediately after the winter shutdown which saw the relaying of the adjacent line between Herston Halt and the Victoria Avenue. Track removed from the running line here will be re-used in the shed. A significant amount of earth has been removed and used to stabilise embankments. A retaining wall made from steel piles and concrete sleepers has been erected.  A planning requirement for the building to blend in to the landscape will be satisfied by finishing it with green cladding. As you can see from the pictures taken on 16^th June, work is at an advanced stage and we anticipate track being laid by the time you read this in early July. How quickly we can move to the next stage is up to you!

One of the biggest challenges facing preservation today is how to bring forward the preservationists of tomorrow to enthuse them about a world that disappeared long before they were born and to transfer skills to them before they are lost forever.  The Swanage Railway is fortunate in having a strong youth group, known as the Sygnets, with a proven record of delivering committed young volunteers to most if not all departments across the line after they reach 16. However, they really need a base to provide a focus for their activities and team-building as well as provide storage and display space for training purposes.

The Railway was fortunate to obtain a Southern Railway B Van from the former Pullman works at Preston Park near Brighton and this will provide a permanent base for the group. This is ideal for them as it provides both space and light via droplights in each of the doors. However, before it can be fitted out for them – by them – it needs extensive bodywork repairs. Preparatory work on the van has already started at Swanage but most of the work will need to be completed off-site. This restoration is expected to cost around £16,000 and we are therefore appealing to those who share our commitment to supporting our young people to help us raise this sum.

The Swanage Branch is now reconnected to the national network at Wareham and a small number of charter services have run from London. However, much work remains to be done before regular services can use this connection, not least upgrading the infrastructure on the section of the branch that has not been used for regular passenger services for nearly 40 years. The Project Wareham appeal is to raise funds for a range of projects related to restoring regular services to Wareham.

The remaining work includes:

• Norden level crossing
• Norden - boundary upgrade
• Branch stub survey
• Branch stub upgrade
• DCC 117 DMU refurbishment
• Furzebrook development
• Signalling interface plan

The Swanage Railway Trust owns, and is custodian to, one of the country's most important collections of former Southern Railway coaches. This collection has been carefully assembled to represent the types of coaches that served the area and includes a number of vehicles that regularly visited the Swanage branch.  The Heritage Coach Plan is divided into three key sections: a four coach Bulleid set, a two coach Maunsell push-pull set and a five coach Ironclad/Maunsell set.  Full project details can be found via the link below which will open a PDF file.

This Southern Railway van was preserved in California after being used to carry Sir Winston Churchill's body to his funeral on 30th January 1965. It was eventually declared surplus to requirements by owners, the Los Angeles City of Industry and donated to the Swanage Railway.

Restoration has now commenced but the appeal remains open for donations to cover the development of display material, the restoration of the interior and ongoing maintenance costs. Pictures of van in California and subsequent repatriation can be found here.

This appeal is now closed but you can still donate to the railway if you wish.

The Railway has recently secured a grant from the Dorset County Council ‘Chalk and Cheese’ fund which will be used to move a redundant LSWR water tower currently located to the east of Salisbury station to Swanage and install a water extraction system that uses reverse osmosis. In the long term this will save the Railway a large amount of money as we will no longer be dependent on using treated water from the mains for our steam engines. We urgently require additional funds to ensure the completed project becomes a reality – particularly as the terms of the Chalk and Cheese grant state that the project must be completed by mid-2012.