Swanage railway station is a railway station located in

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. In the Unit ...

, on the

Isle of Purbeck The Isle of Purbeck is a peninsula in Dorset, England. It is bordered by water on three sides: the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome, Dorset, River Frome and Poo ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

county of

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

. Originally the terminus of a

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exete ...

(L&SWR) branch line from Wareham, the line and station were closed by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

in 1972. It has since reopened as a station on the

Swanage Railway The Swanage Railway is a railway branch line from near Wareham, Dorset to Swanage, Dorset, England, opened in 1885 and now operated as a heritage railway. The independent company which built it was amalgamated with the larger London and Sout ...

, a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...

that currently runs from Norden station just north of

Corfe Castle Corfe Castle is a fortification standing above the Corfe Castle (village), village of the same name on the Isle of Purbeck peninsula in the English county of Dorset. Built by William the Conqueror, the castle dates to the 11th century and ...

to Swanage station. It now also runs to Wareham on certain services, but not on regular services due to signalling problems.

History

Swanage lies at the tip of the Isle of Purbeck, a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

bordered by the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

to the south, and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and

Poole Harbour Poole Harbour is a large natural harbour in Dorset, southern England, with the town of Poole on its shores. The harbour is a drowned valley ( ria) formed at the end of the last ice age and is the estuary of several rivers, the largest being th ...

to the north and east. Since the 12th century, the area around Swanage has been well known for the

Purbeck Marble Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone found in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England. It is a variety of Purbeck stone that has been quarried since at least Roman times as a decorative building stone. Geology S ...

that was mined locally and shipped out by sea. The presence of this industry, together with the

Purbeck Ball Clay Purbeck Ball Clay is a concentration of ball clay found on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. Geology The main concentration of ball clay in Dorset is to the north of the Purbeck Hills centred on Norden. Ball clays are sediment ...

works in the area to the north, attracted railway promoters once the L&SWR main line reached Wareham in 1847. Several schemes were promoted and failed, but eventually the Swanage Railway received its Act in 1881 and opened on 20 May 1885. Swanage station was constructed with two platform tracks, on either side of a single passenger platform. The longer of these tracks had a run round loop, and was flanked by a station building built in the grey

Purbeck stone Purbeck stone refers to building stone taken from a series of limestone beds found in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Group, found on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset in southern England. The best known variety of this stone is Purbeck ...

. A single track

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before, after, and during loading to and unloading from a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, althou ...

provided facilities for general merchandise, and a

turntable A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...

coaling stage A coaling tower, coal stage, coaling plant or coaling station is a facility used to load coal as fuel into railway steam locomotives. Coaling towers were often sited at motive power depots or locomotive maintenance shops. In the early years o ...

and single track

locomotive shed A motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds" or just "sheds". Facilit ...

were provided for use by the

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s that operated the line. In order to handle the anticipated volumes of stone traffic, a four track goods yard was constructed. One of the lines in the goods yard was extended as a tramway running in a narrow alley behind Station Road to a stone store near the waterfront. This tramway should not be confused with the earlier

Swanage Pier Tramway The Swanage Pier Tramway was a narrow gauge tramway in the port town of Swanage, in the English county of Dorset. It opened about 1858 and closed in the 1930s. Overview From the 12th century, the Swanage area was well known for the quarrying of ...

that linked nearby stone stores to a pier in Swanage Bay. Towards the end of the 19th century, Swanage started to develop as a tourist resort. Through coaches and through trains were operated to Swanage from both

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and from the industrial towns of the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

and

North of England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. Officially, it is a gr ...

. To accommodate this traffic, the station was extensively altered in 1937, with extensions to the station buildings using matching materials and in a design blending well with the 1885 original. The new facilities provided a parcels office, ticket office, a waiting hall, a newsagents shop, and an extended goods shed. However the use of lorries to transport the ball clay, Purbeck stone, and Portland stone, and the increase in private car ownership in the second half of the 20th century eventually made the line unprofitable. Closure was first proposed in 1967, and despite local opposition the line finally closed on 3 January 1972. During the final few years of the line's operation under British Rail, passenger train services were operated by two-car Class 205 diesel electric multiple units (also known as type 2H). After closure, a strong campaign was waged to allow the railway to reopen both as an independent community railway linking with the main line at Wareham and as a

operated

. The Swanage Railway ran its first train in August 1979 from a temporary platform under Northbrook Road bridge up to the council yard. It began operating a steam service at the Swanage end of the line in 1982. The passenger station, goods shed and locomotive facilities have been restored to their 1937 configuration, although the goods yard is now the site of a

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

Future

Water Tower Project

Swanage Railway recovered a stone based

LSWR The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

Water tower from Salisbury and are currently relocating the tower to the South East side of Northbrook Road Bridge. They will also install a spring water extraction system as this will save money in the long-term. The railway is currently dependent upon mains water which damages the boilers of the steam locomotives.

National Rail services

In 2020, it was announced that the government would provide funding for a feasibility study into reinstating regular passenger services between Wareham and Swanage.National Infrastructure Strategy
National Infrastructure Strategy p.41

Services

Services run every day from the beginning of April to late October, with weekend only operation in March, November and December. The level of service varies from 6 to 17 trains a day in each direction, depending the season and the day of the week. Northbound, trains operate to stations at Herston (trains stop only on request),

Harman's Cross Harman's Cross is a small village on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A351 road between Swanage and Corfe Castle. The village is within the civil parish of Worth Matravers, which is itself within the South Dorset c ...

(10 mins),

(20 mins), and

Norden Norden is a Scandinavian and German word, directly translated as "the North". It may refer to: Places England * Norden, Basingstoke, a ward of Basingstoke and Deane * Norden, Dorset, a hamlet near Corfe Castle * Norden, Greater Manchester, a vill ...

(23 mins) also to Wareham on certain services, but not regular service because of signalling issues. Regular summer services to Wareham are planned for 2023.

Facilities

* ''Station Kiosk (in booking hall)'' – Open daily. * ''Railway Shop'' – Selling railway books and paraphernalia, open daily. * ''Bus Station'' – Two bus stops where all of Swanage's bus services terminate.

References

{{Dorset railway stations Swanage Heritage railway stations in Dorset Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1885 Former London and South Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1972