Description

This is the story of Dorset’s only preserved railway which opened in the 1880s and closed in the British Railways run-down period of the early 1970s . It combines rare archive material including LSWR M7s hauling branch trains from Wareham to Swanage, locos such as Tangmere, Tornado and Oliver Cromwell coming in from the main line and a good look at more recent line features and furniture.

Fortunately, the spirit of local people and enthusiasts alike decided not to let the wholesale track lifting of 1972 see the end of the Swanage line.  From that bleak period came the Swanage Railway Trust who began the long and sometimes weary path to re-building the railway all the way back to Corfe Castle in 1995 and beyond to connect with the main line again in 2002.  We hear from a Trust member how the railway operated from the early years up to closure in 1972 and the great variety of locomotives used.

You will also enjoy rare archive films from the 1950s onwards showing the much lamented M7 class operating with push-pull carriages.
Many scenes illustrate the operation all the way along the ten-mile branch line from Wareham, including the junction at Worgret.
Through archive films and interviews, we hear of the re-building of the line in the late 1970s through to the 1990s, which required every piece of rail to be laid along the empty trackbed.

With the railway fully opened to Corfe and the new station at Norden again, the year 2002 witnessed the re-connecting of the branch with the main line at Motala and the first main line movement with a Virgin Trains’ Voyager arriving at Swanage station for naming.

This epic 2-hour programme tells the whole story spanning three centuries from the 1880s through to the 21st century.

Additional information