Swanage Railway General Discussion

The T3 is hauling service trains today. If only the railway had a loco roster, I would have liked to have travelled behind her .<BJ>

 

I know the issues faced by Heritage Railways in posting loco rosters, but any advance information is very valuable to some of us in our planning for the next few days.

To my mind the Spa Valley Railway are head and shoulders above all the other Heritage lines I have an interest in, in the way they post a loco roster. To me it answers a lot of the issues about changes etc:

 

Lineside fire at Ponderosa I believe just after lunch. Fire engine was backing out onto the Valley Road, I had planned to photograph the T3 from above Quarr on the 14:15, but as I got to Haycrafts Lane Bridge 33111 was just arriving with the 13:30. Guy off the train said they were held due to the fire.
May not bode well for 8 Bulleids with currently only 1 day of light rain & 2 days of light rain showers forecast before it starts.

 

What says half term better than grey skies mist and drizzle.
The T3 copes with it all approaching Harmans Cross with the on time 15:45 from Swanage, just before the heavier rain set in.

 

The T3 ran today with 5 mk.1s so no need for a diesel minder. Hoping tomorrow will be the same as a group of us are heading to Dorset for a ride behind my favourite loco. [BJ]

 

34043 "Sir Keith Park' is in steam today and has ran light engine test runs to Norden.

The T3 has hauled the service trains. Superb loco, wonderful to be hauled by her. [BJ]

 

Never had any issues with finding out loco allocations for Swanage.
They are widely available on social media & if all else fails very helpful and forthcoming with information on the phone.
Which is great for the weeks 31806 or 34028 are out.

 

Mid-day steam service from Norden looks rammed today. Not seen platforms this busy (for a normal day) since before Covid. Hopefully Swanage might be able to get to 200k this year!

Still worried that Swanage NEED two steam service this summer to even loads out otherwise they will suffer with overcrowding ! Passenger numbers/income said to be around 25% up year on year

 

The Swanage web cams are showing a busy place. Corfe Castle is my preferred place. Looking forward to the visiting locos.

 

All steam services were very busy during our visit on Wednesday. The diesel services were also doing well. Excellent news for the Swanage Railway. [BJ]

 

Which platform looked rammed then? Norden must have been wall to wall with 280 people on it, the capacity of that set.
Yes there are a few people here today, the overflow car park is very busy, but then there is an event at the skate park.
This was Bank Holiday Monday, I doubt if there are 200 on that platform and in my numerous trips to the town or to see my Dad in Gilbert Road I have seen nothing even close to that all week and in reality on Tuesday was a really bad day weather wise. Even the couple of T3 services I went out to photograph were not that full and one day, forget which, the final service (T3) had one person in the front two coaches, although the others were far better.
Yes there will always be days where there is a peak, but unless you are "Mystic Meg" and can predict them seems a good way to build in cost running two steam, especially with next weekend needing people's attention at the moment.
You obviously have zero belief in the management's ability.

 

I was late turn guard on Tuesday working the A set with the T3, it was comfortably busy but as you say, the last train had half a dozen people on it. As late turn you get to see (if you're nosey) the ticket office returns from Corfe and Norden. Nothing exceptional. So keep those donations coming

 

I hope the Strictly Bulleid 2 event is a big success.....who could ever have predicted that, almost 60 years after the end of SR steam, there would be 8 Bulleid pacifics in steam together in one place!

 

I'm just jealous of those who can make it to Swanage this weekend - all the very best to all involved

 

Some sort of bad dream ?

 

Swanage platform was quite crowded and the rains are well patronised from the webcam....so the Bulleids are proving very popular!

 

Interesting comment, as having photographed the first three trains and ridden from 12:40 I was very disappointed for the railway on the turnout. However if you looked at the webcam for the 14:00 departure it was heaving, but that was due to what I assume was a coach tour party for Jones Holidays, who were all milling around, so much so I found it difficult to get off the platform from the inbound service so I could photograph Manton leaving having decided to wait for the T3. They seemed to have at least one coach reserved and another service had reserved spaces for City Cruises. I suspect this is regular Thursday traffic.
I obviously do not know what the railway's business plan was for the preview day, but I suspect it may have been somewhat north of what I witnessed. I never had any trouble for example getting one of the bays behind the loco (apart from when Car 14 was the lead coach) to myself on any of my journeys.
As far as I can remember since we have lived here this was the first time a preview day was held for a stem gala. The diesel gala preview days always seemed well patronised so it was a surprise to me.
Yesterday, the first gala day, looked well patronised although from the few I photographed I think there were a few seats available on all of them.
I will be riding all day tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how things are then, as unless you are here, or driving, getting here by public transport is almost impossible before about midday from anywhere east of Southampton.

 

Can anyone share the logic/thinking behind running trains throughout the night please? Seems a counter-intuitive waste of coal and time and causes everyone close by unnecessary disturbance.

Given a fire is equally likely at night, you also need people positioned down the line as during the day?

Have the night services been well patronised?

 

Yesterday we joined a friend on the 0530 from Waterloo and changed to the Breezer Bus 50 at Bournemouth which got us to Swanage at 0915 . Also the 0520 from Brighton gets to Southampton for the 0721 to Bournemouth for the 50 to Swanage arriving at 0950 or the 40 from Poole to which arrives at 0945 so it can be done.

 

I was guard up till midnight ish, Beer ex was rammed and sold out within two hours. TTI took close to £1k on first departure. Subsequent trains were very busy. A number were using it as a mobile hotel as there was no accommodation for miles around.