January 20th 2024 to January 31st 2024

Sunday 21st – Yoshi and I took a drive to Weymouth to catch up with old friends. We took a walk around the Weymouth Peninsula to see the continuing work at the site of the former Weymouth Harbour railway station which is part of the Weymouth Quay Regeneration Project. Tracks which would have once been used by quayside cranes had been unearthed, but their exposure was short-lived and I’m told they have now been removed. The old platform will, I assume be completely levelled to make way for new fishing and harbour businesses, pedestrianised access and seating areas which will be created along the quayside eventually joining with other walkways linking the harbour with Weymouth beach.

The work has been enabled because of a grant worth £3.79m which was awarded to the then Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, in partnership with the Weymouth Area Development Trust, in March 2019 from the Government’s Coastal Communities Fund. The bid was submitted on behalf of the Weymouth Coastal Community Team.

Monday 22nd – Because of concerns that Storm Isha, which hit the UK overnight on 21st/22nd January, Network Rail (NR) took the precautionary decision to run a “route proving” train between Bournemouth and Dorchester South in the early hours of Monday morning.  It’s a common practice in many parts of the country with locomotives owned by freight operating companies being deployed for specific conditions on a specific route and at riskier locations,  “proving a section of railway line is clear” of obstacles prior to scheduled passenger or freight trains running. I’m not aware of a previous similar event happening locally in recent times.

The first passenger train out of Weymouth formed by Class 444 No. 444032 ran ECS to Dorchester South, thus providing route proving between these two stations.

Tuesday 23rd – A busy day when both a run to Winfrith and a Class 458 Unit Drag to Bournemouth depot took place. First up was Direct Rail Services (DRS) Class 68 No.’s 68 68016 ‘Fearless’ & 68002 ‘Intrepid’ working 6Z62 0100 Crewe Coal Sidings DRS to Winfrith Sidings (Wool). I chose to see this one passing through Poole and I was both intrepid and fearless heading out in the wet weather conditions.

Later that morning I took the train to see GBRf Class 57 No. 57306 ‘Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate 175’ leading refurbished South Western Railway (SWR) Class 458 EMU No. 458404 with No. 57305 at the rear into Branksome prior to the consist reversing into the depot. This was the second leg of the EMU’s transfer after initially setting out from Widnes the previous day, this working was recorded as 5X73 0728 Wembley Receptions 1-7 to Bournemouth TRSMD. 

The Class 57’s returned to Widnes later in the day as 5Q58 1711 Bournemouth T&RSMD to Widnes Transport Tech taking with them Class 458 No. 458520, but I was unable to witness this. Well, dinner doesn’t eat itself!

I did however see the return, loaded Winfrith working;  6Z95 1551 Winfrith Sidings to Crewe Coal Sidings (DRS) which was running over half an hour late by the time it passed me at Hamworthy.

There have been several examples of 4-car Class 450 Desiro units making it west of Poole forming services to Weymouth recently. One such example was No. 450009 working 1W67 1305 London Waterloo to Weymouth and the corresponding return 1W68 1620 Weymouth to London Waterloo on 23rd January. Services to Weymouth are mostly entrusted to 5-car Class 444’s.

Wednesday 24th – The Network Rail (NR) New Measurement Train (NMT) top and tailed by Colas High Speed Train (HST) Class 43 power cars No.’s 43257 and 43274 working as 1Z22 0746 Derby R.T.C.(Network Rail) to Bristol Kingsland Road actually made it to Weymouth this month. Cause for celebration all round! 

Thursday 25th – The Ultrasonic Test Unit consisting of Colas Class 37 No. 37116 and DBSO No. 9702 reached Weymouth as 3Q14 1109 Westbury Down T.C. to Westbury Down T.C.

Over on the South Western Main Line, services were severely disrupted on 25th January following the discovery of a broken rail between Christchurch and Hinton Admiral. South Western Railway (SWR) and CrossCountry (XC) trains were cancelled, delayed or revised with alternative road replacement transport being provided

Friday 26th – With the weather turning drier, brighter and colder, today saw another outing for the Totton Yard based Snow & Ice Treatment Train (SITT) – the first and only run this week. Keeping an eye on it via the Open Time Train (OTT) maps and Real Time Trains (RTT) schedules, I could see that it was running almost 50 minutes ahead of schedule after departing Totton Yard early, so I opted to pop up to one of my favourite local locations, Hamworthy railway station, to see GBRf Class 66 No.’s 66764 ‘Major John Point Engineer & Railwayman’ and 66772 ‘Maria’ run through heading to Weymouth.

Work commitments meant I hadn’t planned on seeing the return working, however a signal fault in the Poole area putting a full halt on trains heading east and Caroline having a lunch appointment meant, when I was free, I took the car and drove her to Christchurch – a sensible choice as this was where she needed to be. Conveniently, for me, the SITT still hadn’t passed Bournemouth as I drove home, so I ducked into the Asda car park which is conveniently situated adjacent the railway station and wandered over to the platforms where I was kindly allowed through the barriers to take photographs and video using my phone.

Later in the afternoon, SWR services were getting back on schedule and Caroline was able to get her planned train home. While she was waiting at Christchurch, she sent me the image below of a CrossCountry Voyager passing through:

Monday 29th – A Class 458 was picked up from Bournemouth T&RSMD by GBRf locomotives, Class 57 No 57305 and Class 47 No. 47749 ‘City Of Truro’ logged as 5058 0511 Leicester Locomotive Inspection Point to Bournemouth Traction & Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot. Thinking it had been cancelled, the train defied me and actually left Leicester 140 minutes late. I was busy and unable to see the incoming working consisting of locomotives and barrier coaches. I had, though, planned on seeing the return with Class 458 No. 458524 in tow, but typically it left 90 minutes early and evaded my gaze! SWR industrial action meant that the train timetable was heavily altered and options for me to get over to Branksome by rail were much reduced. Incidentally, No. 458524 has already been refurbished at Widnes, so there is some speculation as to why the unit is returning to Cheshire.

Tuesday 30th – Today was a strike day on SWR with ASLEF the train drivers union members taking industrial action. The drivers also refused to work overtime from Monday 29th January until Tuesday 6th February. The first strike in this long running dispute by ASLEF was in July 2022.

FROM THE ARCHIVE

With the site now being redeveloped, we take a look back at Weymouth Quay station. The Weymouth Harbour Tramway was opened by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1865 in connection with Channel Island boat trains. Regular services along the branch ceased in 1987.

Saturday 25th June 1994 saw Hertfordshire Rail Tours “Corfe Mixture” railtour operate to Weymouth Quay. The train consisted of EMU’s 4-BEP No. 2301 and 4-CIG No. 1318 and appropriately Class 33 No. 33116 ‘Hertfordshire Rail Tours’. The special train ran from London Waterloo to Wareham where passengers transferred onto road coaches which took them to Swanage. After approximately 3 hours, road transport returned passengers to Wareham and the EMU’s continued to Weymouth (Town) station where everyone alighted. The Class 33 diesel loco then attached to the units and took them ECS to Weymouth Quay from where the return leg, propelled by No. 33116 as far as Weymouth Junction, started. From Weymouth Jct the two EMU’s returned to Waterloo stopping en route at Wareham to collect passengers who had elected to visit Corfe Castle after Swanage rather than going down to Weymouth. I wonder how many opted to do this?

The final train to run along Weymouth Harbour Tramway took place on 2nd May 1999. With holidaymakers, bystanders and rail enthusiasts milling around, and preceded by a police escort, Class 73 electro-diesels No.’s 73138 and 73106 negotiated their way to Weymouth Quay station with Pathfinder Tours “Wey-Farer” railtour – in fact two identical trains worked over the line during the day, although I can only remember one! I must be getting old!

We’ll revisit the Weymouth Harbour Railway in a future blog, I’m sure. It’s a much missed element of the local railway scene and, as always, I wish I’d taken more photographs of the boat trains and other traffic traversing through the streets of Weymouth.

That’s it for another blog entry – thanks for reading, for your comments and corrections, all are much appreciated. Be seeing you!

– to absent friends –