David is a volunteer with Swanage Railway, our local heritage railway which runs a mixture of diesel and steam engines through the Purbeck countryside from Nordern, near Wareham to Swanage. He works as a signalman at either Harman's Cross or Corfe Castle stations as rostered.
In June the railway started a connecting service from the main line at Wareham station taking passengers from the main South West trains route through to Swanage. We have been meaning to go on the service for a few weeks now but demands on our time on Wednesdays made it difficult. So we went last week. Being optimistic we thought the weather would not be as bad as it was, but it was really bad!
The Swanage service even appeared on the station's destination board
Here's a pic of the train hired for the service (as Swanage Railway don't have their own diesel unit for main line operation) with some London Transport coaches. There is another diesel at the rear of this train which then becomes the front once it goes back out of the station.
When we got the Swanage we didn't hang around and went straight to a cafe for lunch, we were lucky as a lot of people were trying to get somewhere dry to get something to eat! This was the view from the corner of the High Street, looking out to sea - it certainly wasn't beach weather!
I love Swanage and often go there on that open top Bus when we go to Bournemouth. It is a lovely route. I was amazed the first time when the Bus went on the Ferry. What an interesting post about the new Train route. We have been on the Steam Train from Swanage a few times. It is so kind of David to Volunteer to keep the service running for all to enjoy. Marion x
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