Swanage Railway - Spring Steam Gala- 28th-30th March 2025

Many thanks to the staff and volunteers for running such a fantastic gala. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

A donation to the 'Save Your Railway' fund has just been sent. <BJ>

 

And yet strangely on Saturday afternoon whilst D&WFB were attending to the fire the T3 had started at Afflington Bridge right by the road (which the beaters put most of out, but it seem to catch a hedge on fire as well) the U passed underneath on the freight and I think the Ivatt did also with the preceding up a pax service as well.
Yesterday a couple of my trips were stopped once so we could collect a couple of beaters & once with the Hall and Manston a stop to drop off some drinks for them near the Townsend hut. The restart was loud on the 1 in 80.
I felt the railway did well with the out stationing of the fire beaters, and with hindsight perhaps advantageous trains were unable to go to River Frome with all those adjacent nature reserve areas.

 

Although I've not done a Responsible Officer turn for a little time, a lot of the ability to keep running trains used to depend on whether we were able to get staff to site. If the railway had someone on site then they were much more likely to be able to 'persuade' the fire crews and therefore Fire Control that trains could continue to run under caution, obviously depending on whether hoses were across the line etc. I remember a few summers where I've ended up on first name terms with many of the local retained fire crews, the vast majority of whom are as good as gold.

 

One from Saturday of 4953 on the approach to Harman's Cross.

 

Excellent weekend with mostly riding but some walking to get linesides shots, railway coped well with the ballast in points and lineside fires. Ridership appeared to be a little on the low side Sunday, but good on the other two days. Thanks for all concerned for making it a great event, even the driver of the Class 08 propelling the freight back into platform 1 Saturday afternoon, who ruined everybody's shot of the arriving double header, another two minutes wait would have made everyone happy. A few of my shots for the event below.

 

Wow - what a shot !! Thanks for posting. <BJ>

 

So last week on the way to her visit to the fracture clinic at Poole Hospital my wife said she did not expect me to be around at the weekend as it was the gala. I said that was impractical as she could still not even dress herself, make lunch etc. Anyway it was left in a sort of silence of “we will talk later”. It was her friend’s birthday Saturday and they were going out to lunch, and on Sunday her friend did not want to be on her own on Mother’s Day so I did get some time in the end.

However, the old maxim no plan survives first contact was true when on Friday morning I parked outside my Dad’s block of flats opposite the water column at Swanage and walked to the bridge, as most will know barely a slope. By the time I got there I felt and sounded like I had walked half way up Snowdon. To think prior to the sun coming out I planned to walk to Dickers for the first train (I would have needed paramedics and a stretcher to get back).

Rest of morning on butler and chauffer duties and fell asleep watching the news and nearly decided not to bother. In the end dropped in to Herston for the Ivatt and luckily got my regular parking space in the gate at Harmans Cross, which meant I could watch “ballast gate” unfold and not be standing in a field totally lost. I was in the same place on the Saturday afternoon of the Bulleid Gala when the medical instances sent it all to cock (maybe I should be banned!) Having already had the railway’s official photographer appearing as I was lining up an image at the station, as he was down the line he left his car as a proxy at New Barn as can be seen.

Saturday I planned to spend 11:00 to 12:00 on Northbrook Road Bridge, but the fire delays turned that into 2 hours, and left me exhausted again. After lunch I thought I would aim for Afflington more in hope than expectation, but amazingly found a parking spot for a few hours, so less tiring.

Sunday a late start (having last an hour) a few images from Northbrook Road Bridge then a magnificent run behind the Ivatt and Hall to Harmans Cross. Spent the afternoon riding the trains but as it went on window hanging became sitting (other than once when I could not hear the locos for the wheel flat below me). By about 16:00 could not even cross the footbridge at Corfe without a stop at the top to catch my breath.

So in the end a good three days, and although I have had breathless days since my post Covid pneumonia, never three together before.

I really enjoyed the Hall and the Ivatt, the freights looked good, although mot seemed to be tender first and the banking out of Swanage of the T3 was good to watch. Especially with the mighty shove from the Hall Sunday morning.


A few images attached, from obviously a limited number of locations.

 

Lovely photos, again it shows the layouts of places which gives a flavour to the line which some of us are unfamiliar with.

 

You did very well with your photography, they give a nice view of the event.

I very much hope you are now back with a full head of steam again and normal mobility.

Bryan

 

A bit better Bryan, so hopefully improving.
The other good thing from the weekend was I added the 84th bird to my Swanage Railway Bird List, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, in the trees just inside the gate to the up platform at Harmans Cross. As I have never seen one around any railway before it of course also made my GB and World Railway Bird Lists

 

I have seen today at a gala the owner of L150 was taking it up the Gwili and ended up the railway buying the engine so will be staying there so which engine should swanage railway manager buy that we saw at the gala? I think I would have pitchton hall over ivatt stay for us

 

Living near HX Station and line, the Woodpecker is probably the same one that used to visit our garden last year. I've not seen yet this year.

Sent from my SM-P610 using Tapatalk

 

Noooooooooooooooooo. It would have to be 41313 to replicate the 1960s.

Bryan

 

41313 would be a superb loco for the Swanage branch. It pulled 6 coaches with ease at the gala. <BJ>

 

A bit belated, but a few shots from me on the Saturday. A great show from all involved, despite the trials and tribulations during the day. I hope you enjoy the video

 

I was one of the lucky people to be at Corfe view on Friday afternoon, Wall to wall blue sky and no trains and apparently no phone signal, then word went round of the points failure at Harmans Cross, so I went back to my car for a sandwich and drink, On returning, news was that they were on the move, so was still able to get a good shot of
the T3 0n the now delayed 1400 ex Swanage and 4953 on the delayed 1440 Norden, In fact after walking back to the car and driving to HX and getting 34072 on the delayed 1440 ex Swanage and a second go at 4953.
Sunday was the best day, though in my case I was "operational" We were able to keep the timetable around 20 minutes late which for such an extensive service was "RIGHT TIME" in my books! 31806 missed one round trip due to requiring fitters attention at Swanage and I had to caution one down train in the afternoon to stop at Affington and assist the fire marshalls with putting out a fire, Minimal delay. Even so I ended up doing 45 minutes "Overtime" which was nothing compared with what the operating staff had to do on the Friday.