The Swanage Belle will run from London Victoria through to the Swanage Railway on Thursday 16th July. The service is headed by Steam Locomotive No. 61306 "Mayflower" and will allow a rare opportunity to use the connection from Network Rail via Wareham onto the heritage railway itself.
Hopefully in the not too distant future this connection will become in regular use as the line is close to running a service next year using a heritage DMU unit which is itself being refurbished at Eastleigh to bring it in line with HSE requirements. The line too has undergone a lot of work including resignalling, track relaying, ballasting and point-work to connect to the main-line, so it's not a matter of "if" nowadays it's just a question of "when".
Browsing their own website they hope to be publishing a timetable for the service in 2016(*) into Wareham itself.
Back to the special service though, and while it's a great opportunity to visit a lovely corner of this region it would surely have been better to have found a Southern Region loco rather than an LNER class B1? Even if it is in British Railways colours and number scheme...
As delightful a loco as Mayflower is however...it's out of place so far off it's own region, but maybe I am missing the point, it's a "Special" I guess so the rarity of the appearance of an LNER class on SR metals is also worth the money.
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| IN BR LIVERY NO 61306 MAYFLOWER |
Will depart from London Victoria at 08:45 and aims to arrive at Swanage 14:15. [There are additional stops along the route to pick up Staines (09:35), Woking (10:10) and Basingstoke (10:40)].
Having taken the line from Wareham through Norden, Corfe Castle and onwards on the Heritage line itself you can enjoy the magnificent views of Corfe Castle as we head towards Swanage. There will be more than three hours for everyone on board to enjoy the heritage railway and explore the pleasant seaside resort of Swanage with its sandy beach and Victorian pier.
The Swanage Belle will depart for it's return journey at around 17:15 and will be diesel hauled as far as Southampton where steam locomotive No. 61306 Mayflower takes over once more for the rest of the return.
The route back to London will be slightly different from the outward journey, travelling via Romsey to the outskirts of Salisbury where it will join the West of England Main Line at Laverstock North Junction. Travel up the main line through Andover and then stop at Basingstoke (20:05), Woking (20:35), and Staines (21:10), to set down passengers once more.
The train is due to arrive in London Victoria soon after 22:00.
(*) For more details on their efforts to rejoin the line with National Rail at Wareham check out their site or view this useful download.
(it's in a PDF format you can save this and open in Adobe Acrobat reader).
http://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/userfiles/downloads/sr_purbeck_line.pdf
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