Swanage Railway bounces back with a great gala
Nine heritage diesels tracked by Realtime Trains over the three-day event.
THE Swanage Railway (SR) in Dorset has staged an annual diesel gala every year since 2006, apart from 2020 and 2021, and it has grown to be a popular and highly regarded event. This year’s gala was held on May 6-8 with a mixed-traction preview day on May 5.
An intensive, three-train service was run, while a wellattended beer festival was held in the station yard at Corfe
Castle. Services were tracked by Realtime Trains with live information on the trains and locos appearing on screens at Swanage, Harman’s Cross, Corfe Castle and Norden stations.
Operations
The main centre of operations was Corfe Castle with trains from Swanage terminating there, in addition to an hourly service running through to
Norden and beyond to bridge No. 4 at River Frome. This is the boundary with Network Rail on the line to Wareham, via Worgret Junction.
With only two resident mainline diesels, Class 33s No. D6515 (33012) Lt Jenny Lewis RN newly restored in BR green and 33111 in BR blue, the SR has become renowned for its interesting and varied fleet of locos brought in mostly by rail especially for the event.
Visitors this year were Class 25 No. D7612 (25262) courtesy of South Devon Diesel Traction; Richard Goodyear’s Class 31 No. 31128 Charybdis, courtesy of Nemesis Rail; HNRC’s Class 37
No. 37703/37067 (D6767); newly restored Class 50 No. 50026 Indomitable courtesy of PTG Tours; and Class 44 No. D4 Great Gable (44004) and Class 46
No. D182 (46045), both from the
Peak Locomotive Co. Class 73 No. 73136 Mhairi was a late addition from GBRf.
Most of these locos arrived in convoy on May 3, which had taken two days, starting with main line-certified No. 31128 from a stint on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
No. 31128 failed on Friday and was initially replaced the next day by ‘ED’ No. 73136, but was fixed for the afternoon runs.
Attractions
GBRf sent along one of its new fleet of Class 69s, No. 69004 recently rebuilt from Class 56
No. 56069. Each member of the class is being turned out in a different former BR livery, this being in Railway Technical Centre red and blue. It was displayed at Swanage station, giving most visitors the first chance to see one of these locos.
It was there to raise money for the GBRf’s chosen charity, Prostate Cancer UK.
A Ruston & Hornsby 48DL was hauling a train of ball clay wagons on the Purbeck Mineral & Mining Museum’s 2ft gauge line alongside Norden station.
The ‘Thirty-Seven Thursday’ preview event was held on May 5 with diesel and steam-hauled trains between Norden, Corfe Castle and Swanage. This was supposed to be No. 37067/37703, but it failed in the morning and was replaced by No. 33111.
The 37 was running again for its last train of the day and for the main event.
This was the SR’s 15th diesel gala since 2006. That inaugural event featured one visiting locomotive, Class 37 No. 37324 from the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. The event has come a long way since then.