Wednesday 31st August to Tuesday 6th September 2022
This week kicked off with two Weymouth bound rail tours in two days when “The Dorset Coast Statesman” and “The Dorset Coast Express” passed through our patch.
No. 45596 ‘Bahamas’ managed to start a couple of minor line side fires between Dorchester South and Weymouth which caused delays to services until the flames were investigated and extinguished. The original intention was for Swanage based SR U Class 4-6-0 No. 31806 to run light engine to Weymouth to haul the train to Southampton, where it would reverse and head to London via Romsey once again in the care of the Jubilee locomotive. In the event, Class 33/0 No. 33025 which was on the rear of the tour from London worked the return section as far as Southampton Central because of the risk of line side fires.
Yoshi and I eventually saw No. 31806 on Sunday 4th September 2022 working the services on the Swanage Railway. In connection with the last seagoing paddle steamer ‘Waverley’ No. 31806 carried a special headboard on some trains in honour of the visiting ship.
As we were in the area, Yoshi and I took a stroll along retired Victorian pier at Swanage to see ‘Waverley’ arrive to pick up passengers for a cruise to see the Bournemouth Air Show. Built in 1946, ‘Waverley’ sailed between Craigendoran on the Firth of Clyde and Arrochar on Loch Long until 1973 when she was sold to the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society for £1. She has since been restored to her 1947 appearance and now operates passenger excursions around the British coast.
‘Waverley’ is the 16th Clyde built vessel to be named after Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott’s (1771-1832) first novel published in 1814. She was ordered by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) to replace an earlier paddle steamer of the same name which was sunk by aircraft on 29th May 1940 during the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk.
The Swanage Railway announced this week that LNER A3 Class 4-6-2 No. 60103 ‘Flying Scotsman’ would be visiting the line from 19th October to 6th November 2022. ‘Flying Scotsman’ has recently undergone an extensive overhaul and celebrates her 100th birthday on 24th February 2023 and is sure to attract a lot of interest from enthusiasts and the general public.
The iconic locomotive will be hauling passenger trains from Swanage to Norden from Saturday 22nd October to Wednesday 26th October 2022 and on static display at Swanage station on Thursday 20th October and Friday 21st October 2022 and again from Thursday 27th October to Sunday 6th November 2022.
Saturday 3rd September 2022, Yoshi and I headed to the Taunton, Somerset area for the second week running, this time to see BR Standard Class 7 4-6-2 No. 70000 “Britannia’ in charge of Saphos Trains “English Riviera Express” 1Z60 0545 Crewe to Dartmouth Kingswear storm Whiteball. I was quite pleased to find the BR Standard allocated to this tour as I’d been itching to see her working all summer. As well as ‘Britannia’ we saw LSL Class 47 No.’s 47593 ‘Galloway Princess’ and 47614 (47853) passing Creech St. Michael with the train prior to the steam locomotive taking over at Norton Fitzwarren. Shortly after ‘Britannia’ passed by our line side position another tour hurtled by in the form of top and tailed WCRC Class 47 locomotives No.’s 47746 ‘Chris Fudge 29.7.70 – 22.6.10’ and 47815 ‘Great Western’ working 1Z84 0824 Birmingham International to Paignton – I almost missed these two as I was under the impression they were due an hour later than they actually were!
A quick perusal of the rail-gen groups flagged up a Class 56 working to Westbury on a train of spent ballast and scrap sleepers and unique “Steel On Steel” liveried Class 60 No. 60062 working 6B33 1137 Theale Puma to Margam T.C. Ruling out the Class 56 due to time constraints, we jumped in the car and headed up the M5 to Pilning, South Gloucestershire, with time to spare before the Class 60 appeared.
We were also able to see one of the two parliamentary service trains which stop at Pilning each week. Parliamentary trains, also known as ghost trains, are passenger services operated to comply with the Railway Regulation Act of 1844 that required railway companies to provide inexpensive rail transport for less affluent passengers. The act required that at least one such service per day be run on every railway route in the UK. Although this is no longer a legal requirement, the term describes train services that continue to be run to avoid the cost of formal closure of a route or station but with reduced services often to just one train per week. As platform two is currently out of use at Pilning, the footbridge providing access having been removed in 2016, the two stopping services travel in the same eastbound direction. Currently the times for these trains are Saturday at 08:33 (Cardiff Central to Weston-super-Mare service) and 15:32 (Cardiff Central to Penzance service). Because there are no stopping westbound trains, a fares easement is in place which allows passengers to travel to Severn Tunnel Junction in order to return eastbound to alight at Pilning.
You can bark along with our day by watching the video below:
On our way home, we popped into Westbury to see if we could see the Class 56 loco which had arrived there earlier, and to use the loo! As it turned out, the No. 56049 ‘Robin of Templecombe 1938 – 2013’ could not have been better positioned for a photograph! With thanks to @da_buckley967 for the company and rail gen updates!
In other news, The Railway Heritage Trust is interested in the restoration of the LSWR goods shed at Wool which although is in quite a poor condition still retains its original sliding doors and office partition.
That’s it for this week – we’ll be back soon. Thanks for being there! Bye for now.
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