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Swanage Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by Rumpole, Oct 10, 2012.

  1. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    Ivatt back in service today, which in today's awful weather makes pleasant sounds even through the double glazing as it seems to have a number of slips on the way up to Victoria Avenue Bridge on most departures. Feel sorry for the crews, especially the 1120 which departed just after a particularly heavy downpour as shown here and seemed to suffer more than the rest.
    IMG_2447.JPG
     
  2. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    Thanks so how the door locking would have worked on the LU 4TC charter with the 73s on the SR line?
    Guess for the Warminster for Imber tour although the 33 will provide power for the door locking, the batteries are there on the 4TC just in case there is a problem?

    Had a look at the webcam yesterday and the interior of the 2nd Swanage blue/grey 4TC carriage was being worked on so looks like 2/3 of the way to get a at least a 3TC working unit?
    Before the Ivatt steam train left Swanage, a diesel shunter came out of the other platform pulling the 121 railcar. Good to see the 121 moving, but wonder if the railcar is still without a working engine?
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2019
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  3. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    The SWR Saturday service to Corfe seems be be working well, but on the 31st may be affected by industrial action
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49370104
    making Sept 7th the last SWR train for 2019.
    I see the Diesel gala is announced for 24-26 April 2020, lets hope by then the railcars, and maybe a "2TC"/33, will be able to work to Wareham?
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2019
  4. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    Although the OP has updated the post it is someway up thread and may get missed, so if anyone was planning to attend this please note the update.

    next Sunday 18th August at Norden the a Ruston 48Dl narrow gauge will be running at Norden Station on the old narrow gauge track bed above the station

    NOW CANCELLED
     
  5. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    I did not think the TC unit was being restored with mainline equipment, but could be wrong. Maybe a member of the group will be able to confirm.
     
  6. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    Check the Corfe Webcam...Sheep may safely graze!! Another interesting discussion in the Bournemouth Echo following a letter from a Corfe Castle resident regarding HGV passing through the village. Check which reply got the most upvotes. Use that extension!
     
  7. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    So what are you proposing wagon load freight? as that no longer exists in this country.
    To help the HGV passage through Corfe by the use of rail it would require some form of rail head to be built between Corfe and Swanage but to benefit those in Corfe it must only serve areas on the Swanage side of Corfe. So for example it would not help Wareham at all.
    Are you proposing that the Swanage Railway is reabsorbed back in to the national network then, at the expense of the heritage service which I thought from your previous posts you were advocating was its main purpose. Freight if it was feasible would have to run outside of regular service trains, or replace them, so where would the volunteers (or paid staff) come from for that?
    The quality of some of the responses to the letter letter in the Bournemouth Echo is shown by people asking why when it runs more HGV's do not use the ferry (because they are not allowed to) or why the original letter writer purchased a house on a road with HGV traffic when his address shows that is does not live on the main road.
    Nationally I would like to see many HGV's removed off the roads but a country with a rail network that favours passenger services over freight due to passenger growth I am not sure how you would achieve it at Swanage or any other the large population centres that are currently part of the National Network but have no freight service similar to this suggestion, for example to pick one close by Winchester.
    If I remember correctly Lord Adonis a previous Transport Minister was complaining about freight trains delaying passenger services.
     
  8. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    perhaps you could tell us what was the purpose of the re- connection to Wareham? to facilitate the odd charter and a very seasonal one day a week visit from SWR? or to be of benefit to the community. If Purbeck wishes to retain its unique identity thinking outside the box is required. The Heritage movement is going to come up against emission control problems sooner rather than later and the broader our involvement locally will stand us in good stead. Yes. non enthusiasts do not recognise the limitations but the response indicates that there is an underswell of support for rail. Can you imagine putting this issue in front of the new generation? continue with HGV or try something different and more environmentally friendly?
     
  9. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    Well I believe it is to try to meet as much as the requirements of the Purbeck Community Rail Project Business Plan as is possible and feasible. If there is a later version it is not shown on the Dorset Council website.
    https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/travel/public-transport/pdfs/v2-nov-016.pdf
    I may personally have a view if what is contained and possibly envisioned in there is all achievable, ( I am after all only a retired old git who resides in Swanage) but some of it certainly is and V3 is no significantly different to V1 back in 2013.
    At the risk of a little thread drift, regardless of if you believe it is a good idea or not, modern supply chains and logistics tend to work on just in time planning, minimum on site storage and minimum amounts of transhipment. So just taking the Co-op as one example there appear to be between 4 to 6 HGV's a day (some which may also serve the Sandford store as well). I have no idea where the distribution centre is that they come from (but Tesco service their Poole stores from a centre in Reading!) so even if the Co-op daily delivery could arrive by rail currently something would have to be built to store a lot of it, and that would probably not be next to the store (unless you knocked down the station building or the doctors surgery). This of course would need to be replicated at many locations to make the economics of running a freight service viable in the first place.
     
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  10. Herald

    Herald Member

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    History shows the costs of goods transfer and the lack of flexibility of canals and railways for goods traffic have ensured that road vehicles take over. :(

    Passengers are, however, a different matter as they can easily move to and from rail benefiting their health by cycling or walking to the stations. Thus might I suggest that rather than worrying about freight a through passenger service is introduced made viable by banning cars entirely from the Isle of Purbeck. ;) The reduced traffic volumes in Corfe would allow a one way traffic light controlled system to be introduced for the all electric HGV's.

    Full electrification of the branch to become Britain's first electric heritage railway would be the next logical step powered by new wind turbines and solar panels placed strategically to enhance the area. To retain a steam era appearance for tender locomotives the electric power supply could be used to power concealed motors driving the tender wheels to do the real work whilst having small steam generators providing appropriate smells and noise as the low pressure steam was allowed to escape via the cylinders. :):)
     
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  11. nine elms fan

    nine elms fan Part of the furniture

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    Did you write all this for a laugh, because after reading it I could not stop laughing for a while, glad to see there still people out there with a sense of humour. :D
     
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  12. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    From this does seem be an aim to get people to use trains rather than road, but not freight.
    Also in the absence of anyone from the 4TC group shows it is an aim to get the 4TC mainline certified, but does not provide funding, so the Swanage 4TC group will have to raise the funds?
     
  13. Mogul

    Mogul Member

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    Who knows what the future holds? If SR were to need something beyond the DMUs for Wareham the TC is the obvious place to go. I think it fair to say its an aim / aspiration to certify the TC. This will require extra funding and a source is not yet identified. It could be Grant/ TC Group / SRT / SRC or any combination. There is an obvious match between the rolling stock and the application but much will depend on the outcome of the tryals over the next couple of years and other perhaps more unforeseen events.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2019
  14. The Black Hat

    The Black Hat Member

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    Any idea what is running on the line this weekend?
     
  15. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

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    Sorry, can only tell you what's running today. 80104 on the 10:00 ex Swanage and 33.111 replaces steam on the 10:00 ex Norden. <BJ>
     
  16. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    Looking at the Swanage 4TC website past news they have gone though quite a bit (including vandalism and theft) to get where they are
    The 4TC in blue and grey for a lot of people will mean fond memories of past journeys. It and 33111 might do well as a push pull doing mainline tours to gain income for the SR. (As D6515/33012 is currently doing for the 71A Loco Group with the LU 4TC?)
    A push pull unit will help reduce the cost of mainline tours, but not sure if single loco usage is allowed now in case of potential breakdowns? Anyway still in the future, but will be good to have a working 3TC and railcars for the 2020 Gala.
     
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  17. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    You can always try the railway's Twitter or the front page of the website, but both have been known to be wrong on the day. The Twitter is usually the more accurate although one day earlier in the week the website was more up to date than the Twitter feed.
    https://twitter.com/SwanRailway
    https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/

    I assume you are coming by car as you obviously planning on MHR and GWSR as well. Bear in mind the traffic down here if you want to arrive at a specific time, the ferry closure and temp traffic lights in Corfe put in to improve safety can lead to long queues as certain times of the day. Last week when I went to see Mayflower heading to Weymouth the Corfe queue was back to Wareham, although not usually that bad it is of a course a Bank Holiday this weekend.

    ps we have SR locos down here you know!
     
  18. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    33111 is not mainline certified of course but I assume it could work with 33012 if all the mainline equipment needed was fitted to the TC
     
  19. The Black Hat

    The Black Hat Member

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    Thanks - I'm just seeing what the options are for a possible trip away this weekend and throwing the stuff in the car and going. Part of the reason for aiming for Swanage is wanting to see Southern engines on Southern territory, instead of finding something like Repton at Whitby! I know preservation has sent things to different areas and theres plenty of things running on new territory that's fast becoming the norm on the mainline today - its just that with there being more Southern stuff available, I have the chance to aim for a visit down south having previously checked various Western region areas in the last few years.
     
  20. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    The timetable indicated all steam. Presumably the Ivatt and 257 Squadron steam locos are OK and there is a shortage of trained volenteers this week?
     

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