The Swanage Railway runs from the Dorset seaside town of that name via the picturesque village of Corfe Castle, with its imposing ruined castle, to Norden where there is a park and ride facility and a museum and narrow gauge railway depicting the workings of the ball clay industry, which is run by a separate but inter-dependent organisation, says Dave Vaughan.
The line was rejoined to the national network via Wareham in 2007 and occasional through excursion trains were ran from 2009. Today the heritage line takes a lot of visitors to the seaside, as it did in the days before it was closed by BR in the early 70s. Its primary purpose was to transport large quantities of Purbeck stone for buildings in London and all over the country. Fine quality ball clay from mines in the Norden area for the potteries of the Midlands also provided regular traffic.
The ‘Roads to Rail’ event on 23-24 June, featuring mainly steam road vehicles, was started last year to
