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Heritage railway in Dorset, England

The Swanage Railway is a railway branch line from near Wareham, Dorset to Swanage, Dorset, England, opened in 1885 and now operated as a heritage railway. The independent company which built it was amalgamated with the larger London and South Western Railway in 1886. The passenger service was withdrawn in 1972, leaving a residual freight service over part of the line handling mineral traffic. After the passenger closure, a heritage railway group revived part of the line; it too used the name Swanage Railway and now operates a 9.5 mile (15 km) line which follows the route of the former line from Wareham to Swanage with stops at Norden, Corfe Castle, Harman's Cross and Herston Halt. It provides a regular park and ride service, normally steam hauled, from Norden to the sea at Swanage including Corfe Castle village and ruins of Corfe Castle. In 2023, regular trains ran through from Wareham (with National Rail connections) to Swanage.

The Isle of Purbeck had extensive quarrying and ball clay activities before Victorian times; some of the clay was processed locally, but much of the mineral output was transported away for use elsewhere. Movement of heavy minerals was chiefly by coastal shipping, and in some cases simple tramways were built for movement within the quarries and to the various loading points situated within the natural Poole Harbour.

The Southampton and Dorchester Railway opened its main line through Wareham in 1847; it was worked by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), and amalgamated with the LSWR in 1848. The new line gave the area a through railway connection to London, but it did not come close enough to influence the mineral traffic, which for the time being was mostly conveyed by coastal shipping, as before. The building of the main line railway through Wareham encouraged several schemes to connect Swanage or the mineral workings in Purbeck, but they failed to gain the support they needed.

A scheme for a branch line was successful: the Swanage Railway obtained an authorising Act of Parliament on 18 July 1881, with share capital of £90,000 and permitted debenture borrowings of £30,000. It was built under the supervision of consulting civil engineer W. R. Galbraith. The line was opened on 20 May 1885 and was operated from the start by the LSWR. The branch diverged from the main line at Worgret Junction, over west of Wareham station; the branch was in length and single track. An extension from Swanage station to the pier tramway had been authorised by the Act, and would be built "if required by the LSWR", but the larger company did not activate this requirement and the pier line was not proceeded with. The branch intersected the pre existing Furzebrook Railway, a narrow gauge industrial tramway concerned with conveying ball clay to a river wharf, and the Middlebere Plateway which conveyed the mineral to Poole Harbour; however the proprietors of those lines were slow to arrange interchange facilities with the Swanage Railway. There was one intermediate station, at Corfe Castle. Gradients were undulating, with a ruling gradient of 1 in 76 or 1 in 80, falling for from Worgret Junction and then rising to a summit at Furzebrook; falling again to Corfe Castle and rising to a summit about halfway to Swanage, and then falling. The Swanage Railway was amalgamated with the LSWR by Act of Parliament of 25 June 1886. The Transport Act 1947 imposed further reorganisation, taking the railways into national ownership under British Railways in 1948. In the period after 1945, the local trains on the branch were operated as push and pull trains. Through carriages from Weymouth trains were conveyed by some branch trains and if the branch engine was propelling the branch coaches, the attached main line coaches would be behind the locomotive, which was sandwiched. In the 1960s, usage of rural branch lines declined rapidly as road transport for both goods and passengers improved. However, the line was not mentioned in the report The Reshaping of British Railways, published in 1963, which recommended the closure of many such lines. From 1966, steam traction was eliminated from the area, and the branch passenger service was operated by a diesel electric multiple unit set of BR Class 205. In 1969, a through train from London was operated on summer Saturdays, worked by a diesel locomotive. In May 1967, the government announced passenger services to Swanage would end after a review of unprofitable branch lines. In late 1967, British Railways issued a notice that the Swanage line was to be closed by September 1968. However, due to opposition focused on the problems in providing a replacement bus service during the summer months, the closure was deferred. A Department of the Environment Inspector ruled that the line should remain open, but that decision was later overturned by the Secretary of State for the Environment. The line closed to passenger services from 3 January 1972, this was standard phrasing which meant no trains ran on the 'from' date. On 10 May 2007, the permanent connection with Network Rail network was used for the first time, allowing four ex BR diesel locomotives running from Eastleigh Works to participate in the diesel gala and beer festival. They were later accompanied by a preserved four carriage electric Class 423 unit provided by South West Trains. The first public passenger service between Wareham and Swanage since 1972 was "The Purbeck Pioneer", a 12 coach diesel hauled railtour from London Victoria on 1 April 2009, with a repeat service on 2 April 2009. The first public passenger carrying steam service since 1967 was "The Dorset Coast Express" from London Victoria on Saturday 2 May 2009, which was hauled by a Southern Railway Battle of Britain class Bulleid Pacific locomotive number 34067 Tangmere. The first Swanage to Wareham steam service since 1967 was "The Royal Wessex" on Monday 4 May 2009, hauled by 34067 Tangmere.

Trains operate between Swanage and Norden Park & Ride every weekend and Bank Holiday from January to the end of the year, and every day of the week from Easter to the end of October. Each year during December, the railway runs Santa Special services as a seasonal attraction. At summer peak times, trains operate up to every 40 minutes, which is one of the highest frequency operations on a heritage railway in the UK. As well as the main Society, other groups are based at the Railway. The Southern Catering Project Group has railway wagons stored on the railway. The railway works at Herston, on the outskirts of Swanage, are not physically connected to the running line. Movements of locomotives for overhaul are carried out by road transporter as the Swanage Railway has been unable to reach agreement with local landowners to build a branch connection into Herston Works.

There were no regular timetabled trains between Swanage and Wareham, as the rail service from Swanage operated only as far as Norden. The Society continued to work with Network Rail and the local authorities to identify suitable rolling stock and the infrastructure needed to enable regular services. In July 2010, DCC and Purbeck District councils voted to allocate up to £3 million over three years, to part fund re signalling work by Network Rail at Worgret Junction, which connects the Swanage branch to NR's main line near Wareham. The upgrade enables scheduled train services to operate between Wareham, Corfe Castle and Swanage. Swanage Railway ran its first diesel hauled passenger train into Wareham station on 13 June 2017, to mark the start of a two year trial public service using diesel trains operating on 60 days during that summer. Trains with diesel locomotives at each end were used because of delays in the refurbishment of the diesel multiple units (dmus) planned to operate the service; passenger loadings were good but the cost was uneconomic. In 2018, as the dmus were still not ready, South Western Railway ran trains to Corfe Castle on summer Saturdays; these were noteworthy for their low price (£10 return from Salisbury and westwards, £5 from Weymouth and Wareham) and involving a record number of reversals for any scheduled service (4, at Yeovil Junction, Yeovil Pen Mill, Weymouth and Wareham). Due to industrial action, these ran on fewer Saturdays than intended. Periodically, railtours from other parts of the country operate over this section. The Swanage Railway has won the annual Institution of Civil Engineers' (ICE) South West Engineering Award 2017 in ICE's projects costing less than £1 million category. Part of the Swanage Railway's "Project Wareham", the £950,000 work took place over two years between Norden station and half a mile short of Worgret Junction: three miles of little used former Network Rail line restored to a passenger carrying standard, overgrown embankments and drains cleared, a quarter mile long embankment upgraded, and half a mile of new railway track laid. The £950,000 work also involved the installation of a level crossing across the Wytch Farm oil field access road near Norden station, and the creation of a nearby road rail interchange for locomotives and carriages. The interchange construction involved the excavation of 2,500 cubic metres of earth that was recycled and used to extend a quarter mile long embankment near Furzebrook. In 2021, the government announced that the line had been approved for additional funding as part of its "Reverse Beeching" proposals to restore lines closed by the Beeching Report (though the Swanage Railway was not included in the original report). Regular summer services were planned to start in 2022: however, they were then postponed to 2023. A four day a week service has been announced to run between 4 April and 10 September 2023.

The railway has numerous heritage carriages and a project has been started to restore them. 4 out of the 11 are complete, with 1 currently being worked on:
LSWR Ironclad Third Corridor No. 728 is awaiting restoration. SR Maunsell Open Third No. 1323 is awaiting restoration. SR Maunsell Open Third No. 1346 is operational, having entered traffic on 15 October 2022. SR Maunsell Open Third No. 1381 is operational, entering service on 16 July 2019. SR Maunsell Brake Third No. 2768 is awaiting restoration. SR Maunsell Brake Composite No. 6697 is awaiting restoration. SR Maunsell Brake Composite No. 6699 is awaiting restoration. BR Bulleid Brake Third No. 4365 is operational. BR Bulleid Brake Third No. 4366 is undergoing restoration. SR Bulleid Composite No. 5761 is operational. SR Bulleid Open Third (Restaurant) No. 1457 is currently in use as a workshop

Swanage Railway recovered a stone based LSWR water tower from Salisbury, and is currently relocating the tower to the South East side of Northbrook Road Bridge. It will also install a Spring Water Extraction System which will save money in the longer term because it is currently dependent on treated water from the mains which causes damage to the steam locomotive boilers.