Class 33 diesel locomotive arrives at its new home on the Swanage Railway

Photo report dated 10th October 1999 - all photographs are copyright Andrew P.M. Wright.

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Ex-BR Class 33 diesel locomotive No. 33012 (D 6515 from the 1960s) has come from the Mid-Hants Railway to Swanage. It belongs to the 71A Group and used to work down the Swanage branch during the 1960s. It is not push-pull fitted.

The shots show the Class 33 just after arriving at Norden on Thursday, October 7th, 1999 and at Swanage taken the following morning.

The Class 33 arrived at Swanage on October 7th, 1999. It was on October 3rd, 1969, that the last timetabled Swanage to Waterloo train (hauled by a Class 33!) left Swanage. They had first come down the branch on London trains from 1963.

Class 33s made occasional forays down the Swanage branch between October, 1969, and January, 1972, on ramblers' trains - often dropping off their passengers at Corfe Castle and then picking them up later from Swanage.

The last Class 33 to go down the branch was in late June, 1972, when it was sent down with a steam crane to pick up for lineside permanent way huts for use on the main line in the Wareham area.