Shillingstone

Wednesday February 8th to Tuesday February 14th 2023

On Friday, it was announced that South Western Railway had received a two-year extension on its existing contract from the Department of Transport. Scottish parent company FirstGroup PLC said their national rail contract would now run until May 2025. With no sense of irony Chief Executive Officer Graham Sutherland said, “We welcome the contract extension for South Western Railway, which enables us to build on the achievements of the first two years of the contract and continue improving the customer offering.” FTSE 250-listed FirstGroup operates another three rail franchises in the UK: Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway (GWR), and TransPennine Express (TPE), plus an open access passenger service, Hull Trains. It also has a bus division, which operates around a fifth of local bus services in the UK. 

In other SWR related news, it is hoped that Network Rail will complete work on the landslip at Hook to allow the full restoration of normal timetabled train services from 24th February 2023.

Saturday 11^th February 2023, Yoshi, his mama and I headed to North Dorset to walk a section of the former Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR) trackbed which is now part of the North Dorset Trailway. We decided to walk four miles from Sturminster Newton to beyond Shillingstone and back, so that we could visit the North Dorset Railway and enjoy a refreshing cup of tea and a slice of cake before retracing our footsteps back to our starting point. However, we wish we had asked our North Dorset Correspondent where we could have found a cup of tea on our arrival back in Sturminster!

On arrival at Shillingstone we were able to watch some shunting manoeuvres which were taking place around the station site. The station which opened on the 31st August 1863 and is the last remaining building of the Dorset Central Railway which later formed part of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway running from Bournemouth West to Bath Green Park until falling victim to the Beeching cuts in March 1966.

During World War I Shillingstone saw additional trains in the form of troop and supply workings. One such instance, in February 1915, saw the Naval Battalion based at Blandford Camp march en masse to Shillingstone to board a train bound for Avonmouth and ultimately to take part in the Gallipoli Campaign. Included in their number was the war poet Lt. Rupert Brooke who died of septicaemia en route off Skyros, Greece.

A few years after the station at Shillingstone closed to rail traffic, the Dorset County Council purchased the trackbed for a proposed road which would by-pass the village. This plan never came to fruition and the council eventually decided to dispose of the station site. Following protracted negotiations, the North Dorset Railway Trust signed a lease in 2005.

The North Dorset Railway Trust aim to relay track in the direction of Sturminster Newton over Lamb House Bridge. Maybe one day we may even see a Class 9F or similar working part of the route once again.

‘Ashdown’ was built by Hudswell Clarke, Leeds in 1959 for use on the Manchester Ship Canal Railway (MSCR), numbered D1 and based at Partington coal basin she was the first of a small fleet of diesel locomotives working on the MSCR. She has had an illustrious career being sold on to Hunslet Engine Co. of Leeds, who leased the locomotive to the National Coal Board (NCB) Crompton colliery in Lancashire, before returning to Hunslets as their works shunter. In 1986 she was subject to a re-build before moving to the NCB Gwent Coal Distribution centre in Newport, South Wales. She was renumbered No. 8526 and named ‘Pride of Gwent’ lasting up to 1991 when she entered preservation firstly at the Butetown Historic Railway Society in Cardiff until 1997 before moving to the Vale of Glamorgan Railway. In 2008, she was purchased by the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway. In July 2013, she was exchanged for a diesel locomotive located at Peak Rail in Derbyshire and reunited with the ‘Ashdown’ name. The North Dorset Railway purchased ‘Ashdown’ in 2020. She is of a unique design and therefore the only locomotive of this type preserved.

No. RH305302 (DS1169) ‘Little Eva’ was built by Ruston & Hornsby, at their Boultham Works, Lincoln in 1951, for the Ransome and Marles Bearing Co of Newark, where she was used to move steel casings around the factory site. She retired from service in 1978 and donated to the Market Overton Industrial Railway Trust before moving to the Statfold Barn Railway in Tamworth.  She was purchased in 2015 and moved to Shillingstone and underwent full restoration.

The Class 62 “Yankee Tank” steam locomotives were built from the US Army Transportation Corps template of S100 Shunters of World War II designed in 1941 by Colonel Howard G Hill. The class was extremely successful, proving powerful, economical to operate and relatively easy to maintain. More than 400 of these locomotives were deployed across Europe after the war, with over 100 ending up in Yugoslavia earning the designation Class 62. A further 90 of the class were built in Yugoslavia by Djuro Djakovic of Slavonski Brod between 1952 and 1961. Four original US built locomotives are preserved in the UK, one at the Bluebell Railway, two at the Kent & Sussex Railway and one at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.

Here in the UK, 14 (plus one for spare parts) of the S100 Class were purchased by the Southern Railway (SR) from the United States Army Transportation Corps in 1946, mainly for shunting in Southampton Docks, between the end of World War II and the end of steam in the 1968. Other examples saw use as industrial locomotives with Austin Motors/BMC at Longbridge, the NCB and on the Longmoor Military Railway.

There are two examples of these locomotives currently at Shillingstone. Firstly No. 30075, built in 1960 and acquired from Store Steel in Slovenia in 1990 after clocking up only 25,000 miles in service. She was transported to the Swanage Railway, where she was completely overhauled and returned to steam in late 1992. The locomotive suffered a major steam pipe failure in 1998 and was withdrawn from traffic. No. 30075 was then dismantled and moved to the East Somerset Railway in July 2002 and was returned to traffic in July 2004. August 2009 saw her being relocated to the Mid-Hants Railway and later visited the Bodmin & Wenford Railway, the Bristol Docks Railway, Yeovil Junction Steam Centre, the Churnet Valley Railway and the Dartmoor Railway. Following withdrawal due to leaks in the inner firebox, No. 30075 was eventually moved to Shillingstone for repairs in January 2016 where she is undergoing full restoration to operational service. On our visit, No. 30075 was under cover from the elements away from public view.

The second “Yankee” No. 30076 was built in 1954 with factory No. 62-521. She was purchased by the P62 Group in 2006 from Mittal Steel Zenica in Bosnia & Herzegovina and arrived at Shillingstone in 2016 after spending many years in store at Allelys Heavy Haulage in Studley near Birmingham. She will be a spares donor for her sister locomotive and as such will be on static display.

Over the weekend of 11^th / 12^th February 2023, the Swanage Railway held a special “Behind the Scenes” event with the aim of encouraging more volunteers to help out maintain and run the railway. Passengers were able to enjoy beautiful Purbeck countryside views not often enjoyed from a train thanks to a special heritage diesel train service employing the Class 117 DMU on the occasionally used four-mile line between Norden and the River Frome, within sight of Wareham. At Swanage railway station, SR West Country Class 4-6-2 No. 34028 ‘Eddystone’ was available for footplate visits and Class 08 diesel shunter No. 08436 ‘Beighton’ was the focus of a “driver for a fiver” experience while SR Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’ ran passenger trains between Swanage and Norden.

I was joined by my brother and @da_buckley967 at Swanage railway station at 0930 on the Sunday morning as we had managed to book the first three available slots of this sell out escapade. Once the doors to the booking hall were unlocked, we made ourselves known and signed our lives away on a safety declaration. We then learned that the driver who was conducting the driver experience was marooned in Eastleigh because of transportation issues and an emergency relief driver had been called in to take their place, necessitating a thirty minute delay. This gave us the opportunity to grab a cuppa and take a look at ‘Eddystone’ parked up in the station and to watch ‘Manston’ depart with the first steam hauled train of the day while I constantly complained about not having any gloves with me because I was finding it cold. Diddums. At 1020 we were ushered over to No. 08436 and I was first to be allowed to climb onboard and take the controls.

It really was a fun and interesting ten minutes being supervised at the number 2 driver position. I think was a bit harsh on the brake, and I’m amazed at the poor visibility looking out of the windows down the nose of the Class 08 and drivers, past, present and future have my full admiration! Grateful thanks to The Swanage Railway for including the chance for a taste of driving the loco as one of the ‘open weekend’ attractions – you can share our experience in the video below:

Monday evening saw a Class 37 top and tailed test train actually find its way to Dorset in 2023 with 1Q51 1115 Derby RTC to Eastleigh East Yard via Weymouth. I decided to see Colas liveried Class 37 No. 37254 ‘Cardiff Canton’ and on hire No. 37610 pass through Poole on the outward run and couldn’t resist a second shot at Hamworthy as they returned on the final leg to Eastleigh East Yard. It was a foggy evening and the sound of the two English Electric built veterans could be heard from several miles away – pure bliss!

Thank you, dear reader, for visiting and your comments and corrections which are very much appreciated! We’ll be back next week for a delve into our archives for video of ‘Flying Scotsman’ as we celebrate 100 years of the world’s most famous steam locomotive.

The Night Journey 

Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)

Hands and lit faces eddy to a line;
    The dazed last minutes click; the clamour dies.
Beyond the great-swung are o’ the roof, divine,
    Night, smoky-scarv’d, with thousand coloured eyes

Glares the imperious mystery of the way.
    Thirsty for dark, you feel the long-limbed train
Throb, stretch, thrill motion, slide, pull out and sway,
    Strain for the far, pause, draw to strength again. . . . 

As a man, caught by some great hour, will rise,
    Slow-limbed, to meet the light or find his love;
And, breathing long, with staring sightless eyes,
    Hands out, head back, agape and silent, move

Sure as a flood, smooth as a vast wind blowing;
    And, gathering power and purpose as he goes,
Unstumbling, unreluctant, strong, unknowing,
    Borne by a will not his, that lifts, that grows,

Sweep out to darkness, triumphing in his goal,
    Out of the fire, out of the little room. . . .
—There is an end appointed. O my soul!
    Crimson and green and signals burn; the gloom

Is hung with steam’s far-blowing livid streamers.
    Lost into God, as lights in light, we fly,
Grown one with will, end-drunken huddled dreamers.
    The white lights roar. The sounds of the world die.

And lips and laughter are forgotten things.
    Speed sharpens; grows. Into the night, and on,
The strength and splendor of our purpose swings.
    The lamps fade; and the stars. We are alone.