On New Year’s Day, the driver of a Swanage Railway train was the same man who drove trains to the town in the years before British Rail withdrew services along the branch.

The driver was Mel Cox, who joined British Railways in 1964 aged 15 as a steam locomotive cleaner at Bournemouth.

By the late 1960s, he had been promoted to become a driver and was driving diesel-electric multiple unit trains on the line from Wareham to Swanage until British Rail ran its last passenger trains on the branch line on Saturday, 1st January 1972.

53 years later, on Wednesday, 1st January 2025, Mel, a Swanage Railway volunteer driver, drove T3 class steam locomotive No. 563 with a rake of heritage carriages on return trips between Swanage and Corfe Castle. At last year’s Heritage Railway Association‘s Annual Awards, the Swanage Railways gained two awards for its restoration of 563.

At Corfe Castle station, Mel was welcomed by the station’s last British Rail signalman, Bob Richards, who signalled the last British Rail train through to Swanage on the last day of service. While discussing old times, Mel and Bob were reunited with the staff used by the Corfe Castle signalman to grant permission to train drivers to travel along the single track from Corfe Castle to Swanage and back to Corfe Castle.

Bob said it was strange to hold the staff again as it brought back many happy memories of the branch, the railway staff, and the train drivers.

The staff is an engraved steel tube dating from the late 1960s. It is a historic item that was used to prevent two trains from running on the same track and is preserved in the Swanage Railway Trust‘s museum at Corfe Castle station. Bob Richards transferred to Wareham when the Swanage branch line closed, where he continued working as a signalman at Wareham station signal box until he retired in 2007 after 45 years working on the railways.

The Swanage Railway has occasionally run trains through to Wareham, but has shelved plans for permanent services as they are not commercially viable.

“It doesn’t seem like 53 years since the last British Rail trains ran from Wareham down to Corfe Castle and Swanage – driving them through the lovely Isle of Purbeck was like entering a more leisurely and friendly world. It was great to meet Bob Richards again at Corfe Castle station. Some drivers at Bournemouth didn’t like branch line work but I loved it because it was different from the hustle and bustle of the main line at Bournemouth and trains to London Waterloo. The Swanage branch staff were like a family and it was a slower pace of life. It was very sad when the line was closed and the tracks were lifted six months later. Like myself, most of the other train drivers and guards at Bournemouth never thought the Swanage Railway would or could be rebuilt – because the task seemed so huge but several generations of dedicated Swanage Railway volunteers have proved us very wrong.”

Mel Cox