UK Vacation 2024-01: Revisiting an old friend

Well, after what feels like forever, I finally got on a plane and went on Vacation again. Oh we’ve taken trips, and done things (like my Northern Ontario Rail adventures last year), but I haven’t been on a plane or out of Ontario since the end of 2019. Even then, I haven’t gone farther afield than New York City since we were last in the UK at New Years 2017/18. Obviously, a lot has happened since then, but with April 2024 being our 10th Wedding Anniversary, we planned our first big trip in many years. After looking at a variety of options, we decided to go to England and Wales. This meant a lot of opportunities to do railway things, both old and new. This is the first of several posts about heritage railways and active railway railfanning from our trip. This also, explains why I haven’t been writing about the layout, as I haven’t been home for most of April to work on it, but I’ll be getting back at it soon.

When we looked at the trip, and started trip planning, the first thought keeping tabs on things was to go to the Swanage Railway and visit an old friend. Since we were last in the UK, London & South Western Railway T3 #563 has been de-accessioned by the National Railway Museum to the Swanage Railway, and undergone a restoration to steam. In the lead-up to our trip, I’d been in touch with the 563 Locomotive Group and the Swanage about making sure we could at least get access to the locomotive if she wasn’t out running, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Past times with LSWR 563. During her 2011 visit to Toronto at the Toronto Railway Museum for a production of “The Railway Children”, and back in England at the NRM’s Locomotion in 2014 before her de-accession and donation to the Swanage Railway.

I was involved with the crew that prepared 563 for her Canadian theatrical debut in 2011 when she travelled across the Atlantic to the Toronto Railway Museum. At the time, the prospect of her ever steaming again was almost zero, but for her presentation to the media and for the show, stage effects made her look like she was steaming. We saw 563 on our Honeymoon in 2014 at the NRM-Locomotion museum, under cover and looking like she was going to be back to a life as a museum piece. How much things would change in the coming years.

So, onto our trip. Nothing says clever like an overnight flight arriving at Heathrow at 6am, and immediately getting into a rental car and driving for 2.5 hours on the wrong side of the road to chase trains! Well, that’s exactly what we did. After a slight delay in arriving, we were quickly through customs, and off to the car rental pickup. We were on the road before 8am, and adapting to the rental car and the opposite side of the road from normal (or normal for us at least). After an uneventful drive to the south coast, we arrived at the Norden Park and Ride at the end of the railway, and started to get sorted. After some time for a nap for my better half, while I got some shots of a Class 50 50026 Indomitable on test, and the DMU on the 2nd service train, I woke my better half up so we could catch the service train hauled by West Country Pacific 34028 Eddystone from Norden to Swanage. At Swanage, we were meeting up with Will Sheret from the Swanage/563 group to do some international relations for the museum, and get to see 563 in the shed where she was undergoing running maintenance and tuning as they learn her behaviour post restoration and as she settles into hopefully many years of running on her boiler ticket.

LSWR 563 on shed in Swanage undergoing adjustments and maintenance following the event with intensive use the weekend before. Compare the cab of a working locomotive with a display piece in 2011 above, similar but subtle differences.

With 563 not out running (which of course was my real hope, but one can’t control that when dealing with things built in the 1890’s!), we were able thanks to Will to get up close and personal with 563 in the shed at Swanage. This is frankly, the next best thing to riding as this is an area not open to the public on a normal basis, it is a working shed, with the crews for the day coming and going, and the locomotives in use being serviced at the start and end of the day. Will was in board meetings, so his taking the time out for a couple of weary travellers was greatly appreciated.

Myself (left) and Will Sheret (right) with LSWR 563 at Swanage Shed.

After our visit to the shed, we made a contribution to the railway through the gift shop (Leather bookmarks and pin badges among other things, but these are the things I get everywhere!), and got set for our return run to Norden. While our tickets would have let us ride more, we were nearing the end of our energy after a very long day, and we wanted to get into Poole to pick up some groceries for our cooler and picnic lunches for the days to come, and into our hotel for a rest and body clock reset to be ready to go for the rest of our trip. During the mid-trip stop at Harmons Cross to wait on the crossing train, the crew of Eddystone gave me a wave up into the cab, I realized the crew were the volunteers we’d been chatting with at the shed earlier. A quick visit to the cab, something I absolutely love and treasure even as a middle aged man, as so often the chances are appropriately given to kids to build the next generation of railfans and volunteers. One of the few big ticket things I want to do is a Steam Drivers Experience course in the UK. I haven’t managed to make it happen yet in any of my many trips, but I do have a fund started for it, in all honesty its the cash gifts left when my Scottish grandparents passed. I will put those to a fun purpose in their memories.

Swanage in September 2004 at their 25th Anniversary Autumn Steam Gala. My only previous visit to the line.

Swanage in 2024. Lots of change, some similarities, West Country 34028 “Eddystone” being one of the service locomotives on both my visits!

As you can see above, we had a good day, with decent weather, it was dry and sunny adjacent! Even managed to semi-recreate shots I took almost 20 years ago now and my only previous visit. All in all, it was a nice way to start our trip, a relaxing and rewarding day out after travelling, and setting ourselves up for more heritage rail and railfanning to come over the next 10 days we were over.