Swanage Railway Diesel Gala May 10 -12 2024

Now apparently with a 73 in the mix due to an ETS supply issue with 33012 being able to power the CDL, lights, lavs and PA according to a post on a different forum.
I think 33111 looks as "genuine" for a blue diesel as 34070 does for 60's steam.

 

Perhaps the weather beaten blue grey DTSO can stay as it is to match 33111 in push pull mode when the 3TC is finally ready?

 

The Sygnets (The railways youth group) have produced a run of gala mugs for this years.
They will be on sale from the Sygnets stall in the garden at Corfe adjacent to the old signal box
All proceeds will be going back to the Sygnets for their future development.
Priced at £8 per mug, with multiple purchase discount at two for £15, three for £20, or the whole set of eight designs at £50.
Thank you for your support of our youngsters

 

GBRf have been unable to repair the problem(s?) with 69007 so they have substituted 69002 "Bob Tiller CM&EE" for the rail tours and Gala.

 

Ahead of the gala proper, the arrival of most of the locos, by convoy (last evening at Wareham and Castle Crossing) and by railtour today at Bridge 21.

 

Around 6 ish the class 50 has derailed Castle (UP) end of Corfe Station. Can see you on the webcam. Not sure if anything will be moving tomorrow

 

Good Morning All,

Please see today's revised timetable.

 

Staement from the railway this morning:

We are running trains today!
Following on from yesterday’s problems our staff and volunteers have worked hard through the night and we are pleased to able to confirm we will be running trains today.
We will be running a two train service between Swanage, Harmans Cross, Corfe Castle and Norden, with trains passing at Harmans Cross.
The service will begin at 09:35, with trains departing Swanage every 45 minutes after that.
The “Return of the Jurassic Crompton” Railtour will run as scheduled, departing Swanage at 14:20.
All locomotives will be in use except for the Class 50s and 69002.
We thank you for your understanding and hope you have a great day if you’re visiting us today!
A revised timetable with loco allocations will be available soon, and we will publish it when it is.

The revised TT and allocations are now on Facebook.

 

A pity as it seemed that the event was going well.
https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2024/0...r-locomotive-derails-at-heritage-railway.html

 

Guard Saturday, porter at Corfe Sunday.
So proud of our team of volunteers and staff.
To have volunteers and staff working both physically and mentally through the night to keep the show on the road was amazing.
It was also a chance for visitors to see the RAIB inspectors at work with their fancy gizzmose.
The atmosphere at the beer festive was magic.
I want to apologise to anyone who may have been offended by myself or my colleagues requests to stop any photography of the derailment scene whilst the RAIB officers were on site. At their request they wanted anonymity and were keen that their facial images were protected.
An awkward job when you consider that the incident area was in possibly the hottest railway based shot in the country.
It turned out to be, a bloody good do though.

 

Yes well done to all for keeping going on Sunday. No doubt the big railway would have been closed for days if not weeks. However I don’t see why the RAIB should try to keep the derailment secret. We live in the UK not Russia.

 

I attended with my son on Saturday and managed to get away before the class 50 earthing fault occurred. Got there early enough to walk from Norden to Corfe to pick up the 33 back to Norden for a quick jaunt back up to Norden before the day in full began. Was disappointed that on arrival back at Corfe the news broke that Rodney had once again been a plonker and was back on the naughty step. Hey ho, these things happen and I have no doubt that once back at Eastleigh the fault can be rectified and I can eventually get some mileage behind this fine looking beast. Credit to Paul Spracklen and his team for not only saving and restoring both 21 and 26 into the masterpieces they are, but for keeping everyone updated on what was occurring quickly on their Facebook page.

As it turned out, this was the only piece of bad news I received and the day turned out to be exactly how the Swanage Diesel Galas are usually. Absolutely BRILLIANT!

Everyone from the Swanage Management to front line volunteers as well as loco owners and reps should be commended on putting on such a fantastic show. Thank you.

When reading about the incident that occurred after I had left, I thought that was that and the Sunday would be cancelled so again, well done to all involved, especially to the Class Fifty Fund for arranging their lifting equipment to be made available to re-rail 26 and to the Swanage Railway for making repairs to the infrastructure sufficient to allow the show to go on. Good team work all round.

Here's just a few of the photos from the day.

 

Not the derailment scene, just their facial images.

 

Quite understand why RAIB officials may want their privacy but it is within the railway's jurisdiction to forbid photographs being taken. Equally, why I would respect the RAIB official's wishes, they cannot forbid photography either.

 

I suppose they can't prevent photos being taken on property that is open to the public, but the alternative could have been to close the railway fully whilst the investigation was completed - that would have generated untold bad publicity for the SR...

 

I doubt any publicity damaging SR would be applicable as the event was publicised on radio, BBC and numerous national and local newspapers. What seems have been a minor accident, compared to the more serious ones, gained a lot of publicity.
It seems that a lot of people with mobile phones become reporters for papers - it saves them employing pad staff I guess.

 

A well worded message from Frank Roberts (SRT) on Facebook. <BJ>

''Good morning.
I am the Chair of the Swanage Railway Trust.
I do not follow FB constantly, however I have been encourage to write a post (on the SR page, copied here) so I can thank followers for their feedback; almost all of it favourable.
I will not comment on the recent locomotive incident last Saturday at Corfe Castle itself…….. however, I am extremely proud of the great people who rose to the occasion on Saturday, and then into Sunday morning, paving the way for the service, including Tom from RTT - providing an almost live feed into the system.
I was at Corfe Castle at 0730 on Sunday - peaceful and calm in the sun, and I was relieved to see that there was almost nothing to see! Then went to Swanage station and was bowled over with the number of favourable comments from both passengers and members of our staff.
The RAIB were present at the SR on Sunday taking measurements and interviewing staff - some of whom were woken to return to site, having worked through the night.
There will be lots of learning here, which we will grasp, and implement as required.
It has been a very tough winter at the Railway, through which we have lost a number of staff and volunteers for a wide variety of reasons. I take my hat off to all of those who consistently do their very best to support our lovely railway, and the preservation movement in general.
Can I take this opportunity to thank everybody who came to visit us over this weekend, in particular for YOUR patience and understanding shown by almost everybody. Yes, a couple of people had their plans severely disrupted for which I offer my sincere apologies, but there have been dozens of favourable items of feedback - many of which I have personally answered by email.
Thank you very much.
Frank''

 

The station is private land, so the railway are quite within their rights to restrict photography should they wish or need to. In the case of photography, it's the ownership of the land that matters, not whether the public have access.