Seaside special

I thought that it would be nice to visit the seaside for a day so I booked a trip to Weymouth on a steam train from Woking Station. The date was 12th July 2011 and the weather was not looking too good for the time of year. We seemed to be in for a day of grey cloud and possible rain.

The departure from Woking was at 10:06am and here is Tangmere pulling alongside the platform.

 

After Basingstoke there is a stretch of track that is slightly downhill which gives the engine the chance to 'stretch it's legs'. We touch 80mph but as you can see wee were only doing 77 when I took this photo.

 

We stopped at Bournemouth to let some passengers off. The station is quite attractive with its brick construction and curved girders.

 

As the train was pulling into Poole we crossed over the main street.


Further along our route it was time for Tangmere to take on water. We stopped at Wareham and a fire tender filled us up.

 

Even though Wareham is a main line station it does have a traditional look to it.

 

We arrived at Weymouth at 13:45

 

Passengers were taking the opportunity to look at the engine that had done all the work on our outbound journey.

 

The beach at Weymouth.

 

I had met up with an old college friend of mine. We went for a pleasant lunch at a seaside cafe overlooking the bay.
After lunch we found it rather breezy on the sea front and walked until we could get some shelter from the wind at the Customs House Quay.

 

We then headed back along St.Marys Street towards the station.

 

My friend who lives in Weymouth walked back with me to the station as he wanted to see the new engine being coupled onto the front of the train. We were due to have Britannia at the front and Tangmere at the rear pushing. This double banked arrangement was to get the train up the steep embankment at Upwey that has a 1 in 50 incline.

 

The picture above and below is Britannia but my colleague never did get to see it as it arrived an hour late. Apparently it was consuming excessive volumes of water and nobody was sure why.

 

It seemed possible that the train may not make it to the planned water stop at Eastleigh. Eventually an extra water stop was arranged and we all set off about 80 minutes behind schedule, and hoping that we would get home tonight.
Having helped us get up the steep hill, Tangmere was de-coupled at Dorchester South and then the train continued passing by Poole harbour.

 

The next stop was at Bournemouth with another opportunity to see the station design.

 

We then pressed on with two water stops. One just before Southampton Central where the fire tender had stopped on a road beside the track, and a final fill at Eastleigh.
After that the train was able to build up some speed and we were back in the 70mph region on some sections. At 9:25pm we reached Woking where I left the train to catch a bus home. Many of the passengers were heading back to Waterloo albeit 90 minutes behind schedule.

 

I had enjoyed my trip to the seaside despite the delays on the return journey. Nobody seemed really concerned by the unexpected delays as we were all in holiday mode.

Peewit