In early January, the Swanage Railway will be holding an evocative ‘Winter Warm Up’ event with a mixture of steam and diesel passenger trains and a nostalgic re-creation of a freight train from the 1950s and the 1960s.

The event will take place on Saturday, 7th and Sunday, 8th January. Two 1960s main line heritage diesel locomotives and two main line steam locomotives, one from the 1920s and the other from the 1940s, will be in action. One of the heritage diesels will be the last locomotive to run from Poole to Broadstone and Wimborne when the line closed to freight trains in 1977.

Trains will operate to an intensive timetable between Norden, Corfe Castle, Harman’s Cross, and Swanage between 9.45am and 5.10pm. Locomotives running will be subject to availability and short-notice change.

Steam locomotives planned to operate are ex-Southern Railway U class No. 31806 which used to haul holidaymaker trains to Corfe Castle and Swanage during the 1950s, and unrebuilt Battle of Britain class Bulleid Pacific No. 34040 Manston. Bulleid Pacifics were familiar sights on trains from London to Corfe Castle and Swanage from the 1940s to the end of steam trains in southern England in 1967.

The first heritage diesel locomotive will be Class 50 No. 50 026 Indomitable, which hauled express passenger trains between London and Exeter through north Dorset during the 1970s and 1980s. Indomitable has a nostalgic 1980s British Rail Network South East livery.

The second heritage diesel locomotive will be Class 33 diesel-electric No. D6515 Lt. Jenny Lewis RN, which hauled London to Swanage trains during the summer of 1963. In the early 1970s it was renumbered to 33 012, and in 1977, it became the last locomotive to run between Poole, Broadstone, and Wimborne after the last section of the former main line between Brockenhurst, Ringwood, West Moors, Wimborne, Broadstone, and Poole closed to trains.

During the event there will be a rare and evocative sight with a re-creation of a nostalgic freight train of wagons and box vans of the type that ran across the south of England, including the Swanage branch, in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

At Swanage station, the shop and refreshment kiosk will be open subject to volunteer availability, and at Corfe Castle station the goods shed museum, the signal box museum, and the fund-raising book wagon will be open.

The Swanage Railway is always looking for new volunteers and anyone interested should contact the Swanage Railway on 01929 408466 or email [email protected].

Robert Patterson,- the volunteer chairman of the Swanage Railway Company which runs the trains for the Swanage Railway Trust, said:

“Freight trains, like the one we will be re-creating during the two days of our ‘Winter Warm Up’ event, used to run across the south of England for decades delivering goods and farm produce.

“British Railways stopped running freight trains to Corfe Castle and Swanage in 1965, a year before steam trains were replaced by diesel trains on the Swanage branch and six years before the line was controversially closed and demolished.

“It is not often that a Class 50 diesel-electric locomotive runs on the Swanage Railway so having the splendidly restored No. 50 026 Indomitable hauling some of the trains will be a real treat,” added Robert, a volunteer station porter on the heritage line that has been rebuilt from nothing since 1976.