Project Wareham

Very very disappointig news!"project Waheram" 2 years late!a bit too much!

 

Wareham sorry

 

The Chiltern Bubble Cars do seem to be the obvious thing on the face of it and the Swanage Railway were in touch with
Chiltern for they were cooperating over the wheel set and bearing problem.

As a regular traveller in them on bank holidays to Quainton Road which was occasionally rammed about 2 o'clock, the capacity was usually much more comfortably appropriate than I had depended on despite the space for parcels, luggage, bikes and prams reducing the seating. It intrigues me that they apparently never ran together on the "Quaintonian": does anybody know if they ever at all did?

There should be no problem about TWPS etc as they and the sandite trains have run all over the Chiltern routes, which should have meant London Transport's electrified lines. Sets of the same general kind ran over the Southern's third rail between Reading and Gatwick - indeed Redhill to Clapham Junction - until quite late. Crucially they have central door locking working and proven: though this mightn't be identical with the installation that Swanage are getting - more people than you might expect have designed and retrofitted central
door locking independently starting from first principles.

If only for commissioning , training and having something available if the awaited stock for Wareham has any teething problems
the timing of their availability seems rather like a godsend. At the very least there should be some spares and replacement parts.

 

The Lymington CIGs were similarly equipped:


3-CIG 1497 Kimberley Park 19/10/2013 by Chris Eve, on Flickr

 

Isn't the Lymington branch electrified?

 

...yes? That photo shows one of the units running on the Mid Norfolk Railway.

 

An update was issued at the recent Swanage Railway open forum. Although it's true that the DMU is not available SR has a contingency plan involving the LU TC unit and a third party operator. They are waiting for confirmation of path availability from NR before making any formal announcements but the hope is still to start this summer.

 

Excellent news - and possibly a 4TC ride as well, what could be more appropriate

 

Shame there are no main line ticketed 33/1s available to complete the ensemble.

 

If a loco. hauled set was used does the track layout at Wareham facilitate run-around?

 

In theory yes. But the signalling scheme was installed on the basis of the foot crossing being closed.
Which has met with massive opposition from the natives of Wareham.....

 

Which means that run rounds are forbidden by NR (not hard to see why given some of the near miss videos seen on you tube) until the inhabitants of Wareham grow up and stop moaning about how the required new DDA complement footbridge will 'ruin' the area.

 

It is disappointing thet the Wareham trial service has slipped another year. But I do have serious concerns about the viability of the whole project, and I do sincerely hope it that it does not place the future of the existing Swanage Railway at any risk. I am surprised the trial is not using a SWT unit to assess the real demand. Is the new franchisee First/MTR interested I wonder ?

 

I think the residents of Wareham are entitled to reject the monstrosity that was proposed.

 

Its ok....when the lease on the crossing expires in 22 years time it will close.....then the residents can walk over the flyover or via the stepped station footbridge...

 

And continue to abuse the foot crossing as a result.

I've seen the plans and:-

(1) Its not a monstrosity - DDA compliant footbridges necessarily have to be large structures.
(2) Peoples lives are more important than aesthetics.
(3) Wareham station is not a world heritage site and its inhabitants have has no right to demand some sort of gold plated miracle solution - particularly as the main reason its needed in the first place is said inhabitants cannot be trusted to use a level crossing safely!

 

No they don't.

 

They certainly do.

 

The crossing is very heavily used on a daily basis - 600 - 900 crossings per day.
That is why the Wareham Town Trust is up in arms about a DDA compliant bridge.

 

I would be very interested to know how you back up your claims that they "abuse the foot crossing".... considering that that there are gate keepers closing the power operated gates 2mins before the train arrives in the station.