Swanage Railway 'Winter Warm Up' 28/12/2019

The Swanage Railway's annual 'Winter Warm Up' event returns on 28 December 2019.

After taking a bit of a low key last year due to an awkward temporary speed restriction making a more intensive timetable inappropriate, this year's event returns to its usual format with one steam heated set, one ETH set and a freight running an intensive three-train service between Swanage and Norden.

Locos in use will be 30120, 31806, D6515 and 33111, with all locos getting a turn on the freight, and a couple of double headed workings with the 33's.

Further details, including the timetable with loco allocations, is available at:-

https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/events/detail/winter-warm-up

 

With a few days to go, just a brief update; fettling work on 31806 unfortunately won’t be completed in time so its duties will be taken up by 34072. It will be 34072’s first Winter Warm Up, and (if my memory serves me correctly) the first time we’ve had a Bulleid in steam at the Winter Warm Up since the event’s first incarnation in 2013. Was it really that long ago...?!

 

A few images from the event on Saturday. All mainly Swanage centric as I woke up in the early hours feeling awful so apart from a major effort to get to Herston for the new shot before shed work commences, everything else was where I could walk to from home and then go back and recover. So I guess you could say these are sponsored by Tesco Paracetamol!
Shame the weather was dull but the trains I saw looked full. I was obviously lucky with the freight as it was only later that I discovered the set had been failed and 257 was returning it to Harmans Cross.
The double header was an unexpected bonus in the mid afternoon gloom.