Signalman and passenger – now a driver – reunited 50 years on for Swanage closure anniversary special
A RETIRED railwayman who signalled the final BR train from Wareham to Swanage through Corfe Castle on the evening of New Year’s Day 1972 has welcomed a special train marking the 50th anniversary of the event.
Bob Richards was on the platform at Corfe Castle station on the morning of Saturday, January 1, 2022 to greet driver Peter Frost, a dedicated Swanage Railway volunteer for 45 years – and a teenage passenger on that last BR train 50 years before.
A delighted Bob said: “It was really great to see Peter driving the special train into Corfe Castle on the 50th anniversary of the last BR train because I remember him as a child, growing up in the village and being very keen on the branch line and its trains.
“It doesn’t seem like 50 years ago since BR closed the line to Swanage. We thought the line would be saved and come back to life but when the tracks were lifted in seven weeks during the summer of 1972, everyone thought that was the end.
Volunteer effort
“It is incredible what Peter and the other dedicated Swanage Railway volunteers have achieved over the past 45 years in bringing the line back from the dead – relaying the tracks, building new stations, developing the infrastructure to maintain the railway, and linking up with the national railway network.
“You have to admire the grit and determination of several generations of Swanage Railway volunteers in not taking ‘no’ for an answer and for battling on – and winning – against the odds.”
Bob started as a teenage junior porter at Corfe Castle station in 1962 and retired from Network Rail at Wareham station signalbox in 2007.
Retired engineer Peter, who grew up in Corfe Castle, drove a 1960-built three-carriage Class 117 DMU that formed the commemorative service between Norden, Corfe Castle and Swanage.
Now living in Swanage, Peter said: “It was great to drive the special train into Corfe Castle station and see Bob waiting on the platform – like he used to when he was a signalman there 50 years ago. It was a brilliant day that I will always remember.
“I have very happy memories of Bob. He was very kind to me as a youngster when I was growing up in Corfe Castle because he could see I was fascinated by the railway.”
Post-Beeching closure
“When I rode on the last train as a 13-year-old, I never imagined the railway would be rebuilt and that I would be lucky enough to be a volunteer on it for 45 years. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, and the work is incredibly rewarding with great people,” added Peter who became a volunteer driver in the early 1980s.
In April, 1971, just nine months before the branch closed, Swanage station’s remaining staff of three people – booking clerk Maurice
Walton and porters Bill ‘Taffy’ Hazell and George Sims – were awarded third prize in the Southern Region’s best-kept station competition.
That held no sway with the powers that were, who had already been forced to hold off on a series of proposed closure dates because of opposition from local councils and residents who claimed that the replacement bus services would be inadequate.
When the higher echelons of BR management named January 1 as the latest closure date, this time they were successful.
The closure took place nearly seven years after the departure of BR chairman Dr Richard Beeching, who had pruned most of the seaside
branches west of Weymouth.
Nobody has ever established the exact reasons for the decision to axe the Swanage branch.
Composed of two three-carriage 1957-built 3H (later Class 205) DEMUs Nos. 1110 and 1124, that last train left Wareham at 9.45pm bound for Swanage – running through Corfe Castle at 9.55pm heading for Swanage and at 10.24pm on the return.
Commemorative tickets for each passenger
With 500 passengers on board, each of whom had purchased a speciallyprinted BR Edmondson card ticket costing 50p for an adult and 25p for a child, the last train departed a gas-lit Swanage station platform at 10.15pm before passing through Corfe Castle at 10.24pm and pulling into Wareham at 10.40pm – on what was the start of the line’s 87th year of operation.
The 10-mile branch line, which opened in May 1885, officially closed on Monday, January 3, 1972 despite five years of opposition from local people and councils.
A knock-on casualty of the branch closure was that of the surviving narrow gauge ball clay tramway system at Norden weeks later, with the track lifted shortly afterwards.
However, after three years of campaigning by railway enthusiasts and community volunteers – and following a referendum among Swanage residents in 1975 – the town council gave the fledgling Swanage Railway Society a oneyear lease to use the disused terminal station.
Fast-forward to August 1979 and the first heritage-era passenger train services ran over a few hundred yards of the branch from a scaffolding platform under Northbrook Road bridge in Swanage to just beyond Swan Brook stream bridge behind the engine shed.
The services comprised 1957-built Fowler 0-4-0DM industrial shunter No. 4210132 May, which had arrived in 1977, and Bulleid coach No. 4365. ➜ The Swanage Railway welcomes new volunteers. Anyone interested in finding out more should contact volunteer recruitment and retention officer Jonathan Evans on 01929 408466 or email iwanttovolunteer@swanagerailway.co.uk. For more information about paying a visit to the railway and what’s on offer, visit https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk, where you can subscribe to a virtual newsletter to receive regular updates.