Crowds out in force to celebrate diesel at Swanage Railway
THE presence of ten visiting locomotives helped to attract thousands of people to the Swanage Railway diesel gala on May 5-7, as well as to the preview day on May 4.
Four main line locomotives attended the gala. Colas Rail supplied 56096, while GB Railfreight sent 66741 Swanage Railway (which attended the same event in 2015, when it was named after the line), 73119 Borough of Eastleigh and 73961 Alison.
Colas had also planned to send 47749 City of Truro, but the locomotive was instead on hire to GBRf in Scotland.
Other visiting locomotives were 1842 (47192) from Crewe Heritage Centre, 5343 (26043) from Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, D8059 (20059) and D8188 (20188) from the Severn Valley Railway, 45041 Royal Tank Regiment from the Midland Railway - Butterley, and 50026 Indomitable. The latter is based at Arlington Fleet Services’ Eastleigh Works, and was making its third visit to the event.
Resident locomotives in action were D6515 Lt Jenny Lewis RN and 33111.
The preview day on May 4 involved diesel and steam locomotives re-creating cross- country trains from the 1960s that ran on the former Southern Region.
The main gala ran from May 5, and included late night running on the first two days. Organisers told RAIL on May 6 that the event was “busy” and that they were happy with the attendance figures, which were still being counted.