Over the first weekend in January, the Swanage Railway will hold a ‘Winter Warm Up’ weekend starring four historic locomotives from the 1890s to the 1960s.

Locomotives appearing will include London and South Western Railway T3 Class steam locomotive No. 563, ex-Southern Railway 1940s rebuilt Battle of Britain Class Bulleid Pacific No. 34070 Manston, Southern Railway U Class No. 31806, and ex-British Railways Class 33 diesel-electric No. D6515 Lt Jenny Lewis RN.

T3 Class The oldest locomotive will be T3 Class No. 563, which was built in 1893 and has been restored by the Swanage Railway Trust after the National Railway Museum donated it to the railway in 2017.

Battle of Britain Class Bulleid Pacifics such as Manston were a familiar sight on the line hauling trains from London to Swanage from the 1940s to the end of steam in 1967.

U class No. 31806 was built in the late 1920s, and was also a familiar sight on the line to Swanage during the 1950s. Earlier this year it helped the Kent and East Sussex Railway to celebrate its 50th Anniversary Gala.

Classic heritage diesel traction is represented by D6515 Lt Jenny Lewis RN, which hauled trains from London to Swanage during the summer of 1966.

It was also the last locomotive to run from Poole to Broadstone and Wimborne when that line between Southampton and Dorchester closed in May 1977.

As well as passenger services, the weekend will also see a re-creation of a nostalgic freight train of wagons and box vans similar to those used across the south of England, including the Swanage branch, up to the 1960s.

The event takes place on Saturday and Sunday, 4th and 5th January 2025, and is the Swanage Railway’s first event to mark the start of the national Railway 200 celebrations.

At Corfe Castle, it is hoped the goods shed museum and the station’s ‘have a go’ signal box museum will be open throughout the weekend.

At Norden, the Purbeck Mining Museum that celebrates the 2,000-year-old history of ball clay mining will also be open, and provided that volunteers are available, the Swanage station shop will be open.

“The ‘Winter Warm Up’ will be wonderful and nostalgic weekend celebrating the best of steam and diesel trains with the undoubted star of the show being the Swanage Railway Trust‘s unique and delightful Victorian T3 class London and South Western Railway steam locomotive No. 563 built in 1893. Freight trains, like those we will be re-creating during our ‘Winter Warm Up’ event, ran across the south of England for decades reliably 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 in 1972.”

Alex Atkins, driver Swanage Railway Trust deputy chair Winter Warm Up event organiser, and volunteer driver