{"id":5331,"date":"2023-02-15T20:26:57","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T20:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therailwaydog.co.uk\/?p=5331"},"modified":"2023-02-15T20:26:57","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T20:26:57","slug":"shillingstone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therailwaydog.co.uk\/?p=5331","title":{"rendered":"Shillingstone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Shillingstone Railway Station built in the Dorset Central Railway style of red brick with cream decorative brickwork around windows and doors and featuring a Welsh slate roof – 11\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday February 8th to Tuesday February 14th 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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South Western Railway Class 444 Electric Multiple Unit No. 444023 departs Weymouth – 07\/01\/2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a0Chief Executive Officer Graham Sutherland said, \u201cWe 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.\u201d\u00a0FTSE 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.\u00a0It also has a bus division, which operates\u00a0around a fifth of local bus services in the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yoshi takes a look at the short section of track representing the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway which is displayed in Railway Gardens, Sturminster Newton – 11\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saturday 11th<\/sup>\u00a0February 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! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yoshi amongst the snowdrops along the North Dorset Trailway – 11\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Abandoned railway furniture on the North Dorset Trailway – 11\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lamb House Bridge, Shillingstone – 11\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are several posters from the age of steam as well as a museum packed with railway artefacts on view at Shillingstone railway station – 11\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I loved this imaginary painting of what might have been and the S&DJR survived the Beeching cuts which hangs in the station tea rooms (Steve Hiscocks, 2012) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 Diesel Loco Works No. D1186 ‘Ashdown’\u00a0passes Shillingstone signal box – 11\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

‘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.\u00a0She 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ruston & Hornsby Diesel Shunter No. RH305302 (DS1169) ‘Little Eva’, Shillingstone – 11\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.\u00a0 She was purchased in 2015 and moved to Shillingstone and underwent full restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yoshi strikes a pose alongside Class 62 Yankee 0-6-0 Tank Locomotive No. 30076, Shillingstone – 11\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yoshi enjoyed spending time on a sniffari during our walk along the former S&DJR track bed – 11\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the weekend of 11th<\/sup>\u00a0\/ 12th<\/sup>\u00a0February 2023, the Swanage Railway held a special \u201cBehind the Scenes\u201d event with the aim of encouraging more volunteers to help out maintain and run the railway.\u00a0Passengers 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 \u2018Eddystone\u2019 was available for footplate visits and Class 08 diesel shunter No. 08436 \u2018Beighton\u2019 was the focus of a \u201cdriver for a fiver\u201d experience while SR Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 \u2018Manston\u2019 ran passenger trains between Swanage and Norden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Class 08 No. 08436 waits patiently in the bay platform at Swanage – 12\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Side detail of Class 08 No. 08436 – 12\/02\/2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2018Eddystone\u2019 parked up in the station and to watch \u2018Manston\u2019 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019m 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 \u2013 you can share our experience in the video below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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