IT REALLY WAS LIKE THE MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE - 14th May 2007
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News Item and Press Release from Andrew P.M. Wright - dated 19th May 2007
Official photographer & press officer, Swanage Railway.
Photographs are copyright Andrew P.M. Wright unless otherwise acknowledged.
To view a larger version of any photograph on this page, just click on the thumbnail photograph and subsequently use the Back button on your browser to return to this page.

Andrew P.M. Wright has supplied over 90 photos of the return to the main line on 14th May, 2007, of the historic train which had arrived on 10th May via the Swanage Railway's new permanent link with Network Rail at Motala, between Norden and Wareham. We have split the photos over several pages.

Andrew's photos are predominantly in chronological order, and show the day's activities in detail. Please follow the links at the foot of this page for the complete set of photos.

By Andrew P.M. Wright.

Turning up at Swanage station at 7am on Monday, 14th May, 2007, it really was like the morning after the night before. The three historic and hectic days of the diesel gala and beer festival had ended and the guest locomotives and the 4-VEP waited to leave Purbeck and return to the main line.

The terminal station was quiet - with the only sound being early morning bird song - as was the engine shed with a solitary ex-BR Standard Class 4 Tank - No. 80078 built at Brighton in 1954 - on the turntable ahead of its scheduled services.

On the main line, the entourage waited to leave Swanage for the main line. The BR Class 52 No. D1015 'Western Champion', owned by the Diesel Traction Group based on the Severn Valley Railway, was at the station end under the Northbrook Road bridge.

Then came the 1967-built four-coach 4-VEP electric unit No. 3417 'Gordon Pettitt' - kindly supplied by South West Trains - while on the Wareham end were the two BR Class 73s - No. 73 136 'Kirstin' owned by the Class 73 Locomotive Preservation Group with No. 73 208 'Perseverance' - owned by BG Rail Freight - leading.

Next, the day's signalman at Swanage - Roger Denning of Corfe Castle - arrived to book on duty. At Corfe Castle, the day's signalman Mike Coomber did the same thing.

Roger and Mike made history by being the first signalmen to signal a train from Swanage and Corfe Castle on to the national railway network since the demolition trains of the summer of 1972.

At 7.30am, the entourage left Swanage bound for Corfe Castle.

At Corfe Castle, the train ran through the 'up' platform with the signalman Mike Coomber exchanging single line tokens with the driver of Class 73 No. 73 208 'Perseverance'. Then, the train swung out of the loop below the castle ruins and into the cutting through the Challow Hill of the Purbecks bound for Norden station.

At Norden, the train paused before slowly crossing the Norden park and ride access road - which was protected by marshals with Swanage Railway general manager Nick Brown waving the train through with a green flag when it was safe to do so - before entering the one mile construction section of line between Norden and Motala.

Back lit by the strong morning sunshine, the train slowly climbed the 1 in 80 gradient past the former Eldon's clay sidings by the Scotland road bridge to the Catseye A351 road bridge and then the 1 in 220 to Motala - some half a mile east of Furzebrook - and the permanent connection with Network Rail.

Reaching Motala at 8.30am, Swanage Railway General Manager Nick Brown and Alan Greatbatch of Network Rail climbed down from the train and walked up to the connection. Each carried their respective staffs that unlocked the ground frame.

After opening the gates, Nick operated the two sets of catch points - known as a double catch - before raising the green flag allowing the train back on to the Network Rail section of the branch.

With the breeze being heard through the branches of the pine trees next to the line at Motala, the ensemble steadily ran forward and crossed from the Swanage Railway to the national railway network - the first time that such a train movement had happened since the summer of 1972. Again, a thrilling moment indeed.

After the train was well clear of the connection, the points were returned to their normal state, the two staffs removed and the gates closed. Nick called the signalman at Wareham to say that the train was now on the Network Rail side of the connection.

There was just time for a quick historic photograph of Nick and Alan with their staffs at the ground frame - and a group shot of the train crew with Alan and Nick as well as Swanage Railway operations manager Steve Dyer - before the train moved off bound for Worgret Junction and the main Weymouth to London line.

After climbing the 1 in 220 gradient to Furzebrook, the train descended the 1 in 78 gradient down to the River Frome before a short climb up 1 in 80 to Worgret Junction. There, it waited for Wareham signalman Paul Akin to allow the train on to the main line. Being given clearance to leave the branch, Alan Greatbatch operated the groundframe and Worgret to allow the train on to the 'down' line - the groundframe being re-set behind the train.

The entourage then ran 'wrong line' into Wareham on the 'down line' - the passenger train being held just outside the station so that an 'up' train could pass. After the passenger train had left Wareham for Poole, the entourage used the crossover just west of Wareham to cross on to the 'up' line and enter the station.

Wareham signalman Paul Ankin had the honour of making his own piece of Dorset railway history - being the first main line signalman to signal out a Swanage to Wareham train via a permanent connection since the depressing demolition trains of the summer of 1972.

The last time that a train had left Swanage for Wareham was on Monday, 23rd June, 1972, when a steam crane visited the branch to collect four permanent way huts for re-use on the main Bournemouth to Weymouth line between Holton Heath and Wool.

The locomotive on that train was Class 33 diesel-electric No. D6580 and the train originated from the Eastleigh permanent way depot. The concrete lineside huts that were retrieved before the start of track lifting at Corfe Castle on Monday, 10th July, 1972, were at Swanage, Herston, New Barn and Corfe Castle. Work took most of the day with the locomotive running round its train via the Corfe Castle station loop.

Now back to Monday, 14th May 2007, at Wareham. At 9.06am - following a brief pause at the 'up' platform at Wareham, next to the north bay platform into which branch trains from Swanage and Corfe Castle arrived until 1972 - the three diesel locomotives and 4-VEP left the up platform bound for the South West Trains operated Bournemouth traincare depot.

The entourage passed through Poole at 9.10am and Branksome at 9.16am before arriving at the depot at 9.23am where the 4VEP was dropped off. At 10.34am - an hour earlier than planned - the three locomotives departed Bournemouth depot, running through Bournemouth station at 10.38am before continuing their journey back to Old Oak Common in London where they were due to arrive by 4.30pm.

As the train accelerated past Wareham signalbox and under the bypass overbridge before disappearing from view heading for Holton Heath, I was left standing on the station footbridge at Wareham wondering if those four historic days on the Swanage Railway had actually happened. Or was it all a dream?

Here's to the next time.

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To visit the other pages featuring Andrew P.M. Wright's photos of the historic loco movements on 14th May 2007, please follow these links.
- To visit the second page of photos please click here.
- To visit the third page of photos please click here.
- To visit the fourth page of photos please click here.