Motoring & Transport, Swanage | Posted on January 3rd, 2025 | return to news
Swanage Railway marks 53rd anniversary of last BR trains to town
Mel Cox, who is now a volunteer driver, drove a steam locomotive to Corfe Castle to mark the anniversary of its closure to BR trains.
The first day of January 1972 was a poignant and sad day for the railway at Swanage as it was the last day British Rail trains served the town.
Now this 53rd anniversary has been marked by Mel Cox who drove diesel trains to Swanage in the dying years of the Purbeck branch line, as he was honoured to drive a steam train out of the station to mark the closure.
Mel started as a 15-year-old steam locomotive cleaner at Bournemouth station in 1964 and by the late 1960s he was driving three-carriage ‘Hampshire’ class diesel-electric multiple unit trains on the 10-mile branch line connecting the main line from London at Wareham with Corfe Castle and Swanage.
After a four-year battle to close the line – which opened in 1885 and was operated with steam locomotives until 1966 when diesel trains took over for the final five years of the branch line’s operation – British Rail ran its last passenger trains on the single-track branch line to Corfe Castle and Swanage on Saturday 1 January, 1972.
On Wednesday 1 January, 2025, Mel took to the controls of unique Victorian T3 class steam locomotive No. 563 which was hauling the heritage trains between Swanage, Herston, Harman’s Cross, Corfe Castle and Swanage. The T3 was built at Nine Elms in London during 1893.
As the steam train pulled into Corfe Castle station, Mel – who is a Swanage Railway volunteer driver – was welcomed by Bob Richards who was the last British Rail signalman at the village station and who signalled the last British Rail train through Corfe Castle on the evening of Saturday 1 January, 1972.
At Corfe Castle, Mel and Bob were united with a special piece of Swanage branch line signalling history – an engraved steel tube that was issued by the Corfe Castle signalman to the British Rail train driver as the permission for the train to run on the single track from Corfe Castle down to Swanage and back to Corfe Castle.
Dating from the late 1960s, the historic item – known as a staff and used to prevent two trains from running on the same track – is preserved in the Swanage Railway Trust’s Museum housed in the restored Victorian goods shed at Corfe Castle station.
Mel said: “It doesn’t seem like 53 years since the last British Rail trains ran from Wareham down to Corfe Castle and Swanage – driving them through the lovely Isle of Purbeck was like entering a more leisurely and friendly world.
“Between trains at Swanage station, we used to nip down Station Road to the seafront and buy fish and chips before returning to the station and eating them with the train guard who had also come from Bournemouth station.
“It was great to meet Bob Richards again at Corfe Castle station. Some drivers at Bournemouth didn’t like branch line work but I loved it because it was different from the hustle and bustle of the main line at Bournemouth and trains to London Waterloo. The Swanage branch staff were like a family, and it was a slower pace of life. It was very sad when the line was closed and the tracks were lifted six months later.
“Like me, most of the other train drivers and guards at Bournemouth never thought the Swanage Railway would or could be rebuilt – because the task seemed so huge – but several generations of dedicated Swanage Railway volunteers have proved us very wrong.
“It’s a privilege to be a Swanage Railway volunteer and drive stream trains though the Purbeck countryside and past the ruins of Corfe Castle. There is a wonderful camaraderie and thankfully we have young people joining the world of the steam locomotive footplate at Swanage – just like I did at Bournemouth station back in 1964 as a 16-year-old.
“The last days of the British Rail branch line to Swanage were very sad because there was the very real prospect of a bypass being built on the redundant railway trackbed through Corfe Castle with the glorious Purbeck stone viaduct and the Victorian station being demolished to make way for the new road,” added Mel who lives in Swanage and retired as a main line driver based at Bournemouth station in 2007.
Retired and living in Corfe Castle, Bob Richards said: “It was strange to hold that metal signalling staff that I handed to so many train drivers while I was a signalman at Corfe Castle but it bought back many happy memories of the branch line, the railway staff and the train drivers – including Mel who was a real character and still is.
“It’s good to know the signalling staff has been preserved and is on public display in the museum at Corfe Castle station – it’s part of the operation and history of the Swanage branch line,” added Bob who started his railway career as a station porter at Corfe Castle in 1962 before moving to Swanage station as a shunter in 1964 and then returning to Corfe Castle in 1967 as a signalman.
After the closure of the Swanage branch line in 1972, Bob moved to Wareham station signal box from where he retired in 2007 after 45 years working on the railways.
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