Museums · South East England
Swanage Railway
Also known as: Rheilffordd Swanage
Swanage Railway — heritage railway and museum in Dorset, England, United Kingdom.
Wikimedia Commons contributors — see linked file page for photographer and licence licence
Plan your visit
- Typical visit
- 1.5 h–3 h
- Best time of year
- Year-round
- Nearest railway station
- Herston Halt · 0.1 km
- Family-friendly
- Wheelchair accessible
About
Swanage Railway is a museum in the United Kingdom. Wikidata describes it as: "heritage railway and museum in Dorset, England, United Kingdom". Coordinates: 50.6135°, -1.9824°.
Photo gallery
Protected designations
- Site of Special Scientific Interest: South Dorset Coast SSSI
- Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty: Dorset
Designations sourced from Natural England open data under OGL v3.
From the Wikipedia article
The Swanage Railway, also known as the Purbeck line, is a railway branch line between Wareham and Swanage in the county of Dorset, United Kingdom. The railway line opened in 1885 and is now operated as a heritage railway. The independent company which built it was amalgamated with the larger London and South Western Railway in 1886. The passenger service was withdrawn in 1972, leaving a residual freight service over part of the line handling mineral traffic. After the passenger closure, a heritage railway group revived part of the line; it too used the name Swanage Railway and now operates a 9.5-mile (15.3 km) line which follows the route of the former line from Wareham to Swanage with stops at Norden, Corfe Castle, Harman's Cross and Herston Halt. It provides a regular park-and-ride service, normally steam-hauled, from Norden to the sea at Swanage including Corfe Castle village and ruins of Corfe Castle. In 2023, regular trains ran through from Wareham (with National Rail connections) to Swanage.
Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.
Background
Description
In the first decade of the twentieth century, taking holidays at seaside resorts became a major pastime, and through trains from London were instituted in this period. The train service was gradually augmented; in the winter of 1931 there were thirteen daily passenger trains on the branch. The ball clay and other mineral workings on the Isle of Purbeck had not been connected to the branch at first, but by this time rail connections were made and the minerals were transported away by rail. The railways of Great Britain were subject to the Railways Act 1922 by which most of them were "grouped", and the LSWR became a constituent of the new Southern Railway. The Transport Act 1947 imposed…
Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Coordinates
- 50.6135, -1.9824
- District
- Dorset
- Parish
- Swanage
- Postcode
- BH19 2PH
- Parliamentary constituency
- South Dorset
- Nearest railway station
- Herston Halt — 0.1 km
- Official site
- swanagerailway.co.uk
Sources
- wikidata: Q7653559 (CC0)
- wikipedia: Swanage Railway (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- commons: Train corfecastle ontheswanage railway.jpg (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Frequently asked questions
- Where is Swanage Railway?
- Swanage Railway is in South-East England, United Kingdom (postcode BH19 2PH), in the parish of Swanage.
- Is Swanage Railway a protected site?
- Yes — Swanage Railway is part of the South Dorset Coast SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest and the Dorset National Landscape (AONB).
- How do I get to Swanage Railway?
- The nearest railway station is Herston Halt, about 0.1 km away. Drivers can navigate to postcode BH19 2PH.