1,500-tonne train makes history

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FROM THE RAILNEWS PAGES.

First GBRf: Class 66 shows its paces on Purbeck Hills route
1,500-tonne train makes history on Dorset line
Posted 12 November 2007 12:00 | From Railnews print edition, Nov 2007
by ANDREW P M WRIGHT


First GBRf has helped to make Dorset railway history. A Class 66-hauled engineers’ ballast train ran from the national network down to the preserved Swanage Railway’s relaid Purbeck Line for the first time since the late Sixties.

The use of the Swanage Railway’s connection with the national railway system at Motala, near Furzebrook, for the running of the high-tech ‘auto-ballaster’ train took place on the morning of Wednesday, 10 October.

FirstGBRf drivers Paul Lemon and Graham Bethell formed the crew.
Hauling the 15 specialist ballast wagons cut out the need to run 45 lorries on the Isle of Purbeck roads.

It was the heaviest train – at 1,476 tonnes – ever to run on the Swanage Railway since the line to Corfe Castle and Swanage opened in 1885.

It was also the longest train – the equivalent of 14 coaches in length – to run on to the Swanage Railway since World War 2 troop trains and the end of BR steam railtours of 1967.
The train’s return trip to Eastleigh was signalled off the branch at Worgret Junction by Network Rail’s Wareham signaller Bob Richards.
It was the first time he had signalled a ballast train from the Swanage branch to the national railway system since he was a BR signalman at Corfe Castle in the late 1960s.

The ‘auto-ballaster’ train brought stone ballast costing £10,000 – quarried in the Mendip Hills and from the Scottish Highlands – to support the railway track between Motala and Norden.
It started its rail journey in Eastleigh, then made several runs over each stretch of line that needed to be ballasted.

With the predominant gradient between Motala and Norden being 1 in 80, falling towards Corfe Castle, the Class 66 needed all its power to move the long train up the incline at the slow speed required for the ballasting operation.

Swanage Railway chairman Bill Trite said: “This was a very big and momentous day in the history of the Swanage Railway – something that several generations of volunteers have been working towards since British Rail closed and lifted the branch line to Corfe Castle and Swanage in 1972.
“The running of this ballast train shows the importance of our newly commissioned connection with the national railway system between Norden and Furzebrook.”

The ballast train was also a chance for the Swanage Railway to assist with the training of staff working on the national railway system run by Network Rail.

The job of depositing the ballast on to the track between Motala and Norden was carried out by employees of contractor Balfour Beatty, who were halfway through a special course on how to operate the ‘auto-ballaster’ trains used in track maintenance throughout the country.
The running of the train was supervised by Bournemouth-based Network Rail mobile operations manager Terry Williams.