The branch line connection from Wareham (still served by mainline trains to and from London) was opened in 1885, escaped the Beeching Axe in 1963 but was closed in 1972 thanks to fiddled statistics about subsidy levels and passenger-generated revenue and in the face of a campaign to keep it open. In 1975 a group of local enthusiasts acquired the route from the then British Rail and began to relay the rails; semi-regular services, using restored steam and other locomotives, commenced running between Norden (north of Corfe) to Swanage in 1995. Plans to reconnect the branch line to the mainline at Wareham are well-advanced.

The train we took was hauled by the ex-Southern Railway 4-6-2 West Country class Eddystone locomotive, number 34028. The two photographs below show it arriving at Norden Station, hauling 1960s-1970s slam-door passenger coaches.

    

Here are a couple of close-ups of the drive gear.

    

The Swanage Railway also has a collection of vintage rolling stock -- I remember running cranes and goods vans like this on the model railway I once had, way back in the 1960s....

    

And we're off! Two photographs of Corfe Castle as we rattle past, the first with wisps of steam in front of it -- an occupational hazard of travel on this particular railway, of course.

    

Opportunities to photograph stuff along the journey were limited -- sticking your head out of the window meant that more often than not you got a faceful of steam and cinders, and in any case (because it's a twin-track line) ran the risk of being decaptiated by a train coming the other way. So here's a view of the interior of one of the 1960s-1970s coaches, and next to it one of the other locomotives operated by the Swanage Railway, the BR Co-Co Class 47 Brush Type 4 Lass o' Ballochmyle number 80078, passed at Harman's Cross Station.

    

Below are two views of Harman's Cross Station, showing platform buildings in the Southern Railway's cream-and-green colours. Ah -- nostalgia....

    

Below is a sight you don't see on modern railways -- a raised signal lever, of a type which was removed in the 1960s and replaced by traffic lights. Note the white-painted board behind the lever, to make it easier for the locomotive driver to see.

Thus we arrive at Swanage, and photograph the antique lineside equipment. Below are views of the signal box (another cream-and-green Southern Railway job) and the water tower to replenish the steam locomotive's tanks.

    

Parked at Swanage Station was another of the vintage locomotives operated by the railway, the BR Bo-Bo Class 33 Crompton Stan Symes number D6515. It's seen here as 34028 Eddystone repositions itself to pull a train back to Norden Station.

We finish with two signs that we're at the end of the journey: Swanage Station's declaration of itself as the home of "The Purbeck Line" (an awful piece of heritage marketing, but probably just what one has to do to get the DCMS policy wonks to disgorge some funding) and the old British Rail logo. One can't imagine any of the bold, thrusting, go-ahead PFI wankers who run today's railways adopting anything remotely like it.