Swanage Railway General Discussion

After journeying on SWR to Wareham seems daft to have to get a subsidised bus service to Corfe to get to the Swanage Railway.
https://newsroom.go-ahead.com/news/go-ahead-welcomes-further-funding-for-local-bus-services
Go ahead/More buses benefited from a £150m fund whereas the Swanage Railway was not eligible to get the £100k shortfall for the heritage DMU service (which may have reduced as more used the service).
The FB post was from the Swanage railway, so some there want the DMU service restored.

 

For anyone driving, you want to park where the “attraction” starts, which for most people will be Norden. If I have spent an hour in a car to get from Salisbury to Wareham, why would I wish to get out, find somewhere to park, and then get on a DMU to take me to Norden to pick up the steam service, when for another ten minutes driving I could get straight to Norden?

Which leaves passengers coming by rail - but if you run a DMU shuttle from Wareham to Norden to pick up the steam service, I suspect it would be no quicker and no more inconvenient than getting the bus. You are still asking people to make two changes of transport (mainline train —> bus —> heritage train or mainline train —> DMU —> heritage train) and given issues with platform occupancy and low line speed, I doubt it could be done any quicker than the bus.

So arguments about convenience don’t really stack up, and then you are back to cost …

Tom

 

A £150m fund set up as part of Covid recovery, and with the stated intent of restoring local buses - a very different situation from the discussion of a £100k subsidy for one connecting service. The comparison needs to be properly like for like.

 

Dont forget also the journey to Wareham on SWR is also subsidised as is most of rail journeys in the UK

 

And probably becomes highly price uncompetitive for car owners if there is more than one of you visiting the railway, even with the subsidy.

 

Somebody mentioned on one of the threads that a good way to get rain was a test match or a Bank Holiday (let alone both). Another good way is for morebus to remove roofs of the Purbeck Breezers for the summer. It worked again this year rained overnight and until about lunchtime!
It also coincided with the actual 140th anniversary of the railway.
The last image I made the effort to take, the other two coincided with me noticing it was "bus roof day".

 

Good shots all of them.

But the centre shot of the three, showing 31806 passing 34072 and another loco is fabulous.

Bryan

 

That would be Eddystone, not forgetting the Crompton as well.

 

Interesting article in the Guardian yesterday about SWR becoming nationalised again Sunday, and if it will make any difference https://www.theguardian.com/busines...at-britain-railways-south-western-lower-fares
Hope the SR volunteers at Waterloo this week are getting a good response from the public?

Still no answer why the yellow timetable can't be 2 steam trains if it is not the cost of coal, or a diesel DMU needed for a Wareham service, which will not happen.
When Eddystone leaves for the mainline (with a remote chance may return with the Swanage Belle railtours) there will be 3 working steam locos at Swanage, so if there are enough trained volunteers a 2 steam timetable should be possible. But can see the management being cautious with costs again.
Hopefully numbers will be good this summer and the railway will make a surplus.

I see 563 was missing from the photo and on social media it is getting some repairs at the MHR.
Also on social media the Southern 6 heritage railway managers had a good meeting at Swanage and good to see the heritage railways working together

 

Quite hard to reliably run two in steam with only three available locos - two running, one out for washout leaves you nothing spare for the inevitable "oh bugger" moment when one of the running locos decides to break a spring or similar.

It's the kind of thing you can do right up the point when you can't ...

Tom

 

Technically with the T3 when it is back it is four without Eddystone. But then 31806 is off on its travels for some of that time anyway Spa & MNR I believe at least. Likewise D6515 has some mainline tours which only leaves the 20 and the 08 as diesel locos, 117 & 121 available of course.
Add to the fact two are Bulleid's which to the inexperienced eye need continual "tinkering and love" your comments seem very valid Tom.

 

I for one am expecting things to get no better and probably worse. Financial constraints even more than under the regime before, and big pay issues looming if they are classes as "public sector workers" which I suspect they will be. That is before Ms Reeves or one of her successors feels the railway pension scheme is a bit too good.

 

If you check the latest ORR station usage figures Wareham Dorset had a total of 270,000 exits and entries of which around 20 % ish were travelling to London Waterloo.
I reckon well over 50% of that traffic will be originating in Wareham using it as a railhead from a wide area of Dorset. So you are probably looking at a total traffic with Wareham as its destination at under 100K pa, 1900 a week. Passengers alighting at Wareham with a final destination of Swanage? I Dunno but the existing SWR traffic is never going to cover the costs of the heritage service even with no bus service.
Personally I dont often go down to Swanage for a day trip even when Im staying in West Sussex as I consider it too far. If I do go down for a special event or whatever I get the train to Bournemouth and then the bus from the bus station outside over the Sandbanks Ferry to Swanage. Its a much nicer day out and if theres a wait for the bus Bournemouth is a much better waiting area. If there was a DMU service from Wareham I reckon I would still most likely take the Bus from Bournemouth.

 

So according to the revised loco roster June will now be known as "Manston Month". One for @The Gricing Owl ? Lots of photographic locations on a loco facing Swanage.

Anyone know the current status of Grange Road bridge, is it still ECS only? as I notice RTC are still advertising a Belle for June 25, and unusually for these days steam out of Swanage.

 

Many thanks indeed for that.

Hmmmmm....

June is already quite busy with 34050, 34053, 80144, 80???. 80078, (all those from just two locos!), 31313 (AKA 41313) plus 31806 including a photo charter I am booked on. And the tantalising prospect at some stage of 30506 appearing in 1960s guise.

But I am suffering quite badly from a lack of unrebuilt Bulleids so will have to think through putting in a day down at Swanage.

The first part of that will be to monitor the webcams to see the train formation behind 34070 as it works facing to Swanage - which will indeed open up new photo opportunities.

I would much prefer to come down on a day when it doesn't have the observation car immediately behind it. OMG is there no end to the fussiness of this old Gricing Owl .

In the meantime any insider information and updates will be very welcome.

Thanks again for the info.

Bryan

 

Bryan, if you look at the Swanage events page, you'll find that the Champagne Afternoon Tea trains use the observation car. As these are steam hauled you can rule out the dates given. [BJ]

 

Be impressed if Manston does 28 days before going for a washout. Lot higher than normal!

I need to check this but I believe in the three summer months the diesel runs the cream tea services because it causes a capacity issue behind a steam engine if you lose 2 out of 5 coaches to cream teas. Definitely caused a problem yesterday with the 14:15 to Norden and 15:00 return to Swanage full and standing to the point of turning people away to wait for the diesel.

You will need to angle your shots well if you are fussy - the flying saucer on the roof of 9015 (A set brake coach) is quite noticeable…

 

OK guys, many thanks for the info.

I am very fussy about my photos of ex SR steam operations, not that anyone on Nat Pres would ever have realised that.

But I fully accept the various things that heritage lines, and main line steam operators do to help ensure they can continue to provide the magic of SR steam operations (my only UK steam interest), to those with a vastly wider interest than me.

So, especially for the longer trips such as to Swanage, I do all I can to ensure I have a good chance of getting the photographic results I am after - accepting all the caveats about loco availability etc.

Which means I'll keep a close watch on the Swanage webcams when Manston get started on the planned roster for June. And on any posts on this Swanage thread.

Thanks again guys,

Bryan

 

I do not think the "flying saucer" is that obtrusive bearing in mind it is in the middle of the train.
A couple attached here, the School Crossing shot hard to see it at all, and even in the one of 257 from a higher elevation at Afflington not really obtrusive (unlike to two lineside trespassers I had to remove from that image).
Way better than Car 14 next to the loco, which of course is understandable, but just looks wrong.

 

Now I see it in lineside pictures, it’s not actually as bad as I thought. I’m nearly always on the trains, so my perspective from the platform is that the box is large and obtrusive.

Out of interest, has anyone on here used the on train WiFi and had any success with it? Whenever I try to use it (usually between Corfe and Harmans, where signal is really variable on my network) mobile data on 1 bar of 3G often works better. Just interested to know if the benefits of the WiFi outweigh the problems.