Father and son make history 37 years down the line

A father and son will be making a special piece of Dorset railway history when they travel on the first train from Wareham to Swanage since 1972 – 37 years after the pair rode on the last British Rail train between the two Purbeck towns.

Peter Sills and his father Frederick, who both live in Wareham, were one of 500 passengers who travelled on the last BR passenger train from Wareham to Swanage on the night of New Year’s Day, Saturday, 1 January 1972.

On Wednesday, 1 April 2009, the pair will again be travelling by train from Wareham to Swanage and back on Wednesday 1 April 2009 on a long 12-coach train with a mighty Class 66 diesel-electric locomotive at each end.

Peter and Frederick will be passengers on an historic ‘Purbeck Pioneer’ charter train run by UK Railtours that departs London’s Victoria station in the morning and returns to the capital’s Waterloo station that evening.

It’s a day that 51-year-old Peter and his 86–year-old father have been waiting for since that sad night 37 years ago when a then 15-year old Peter paid 25 pence for a child’s ticket and his father Frederick paid 50 pence for an adult seat on the last British Rail train between Wareham and Swanage.

Tickets for the first London to Swanage train have cost the pair a good deal more than those 1972 prices – £160 each – but that is for a first class dining train seat.

Peter explained: “It was too good an opportunity to miss and we will be carrying our last British Rail train to Swanage tickets from 1972 as a poignant reminder of that sad Saturday night from 37 years ago.

“Riding on that last train from Wareham to Swanage as a 15-year-old was a very sad occasion because everyone thought the railway was gone for good but there was also an air of celebration – it was almost like the first train from 1885 because people packed the train and watched from the line-side.

“After watching the seven miles of track from Furzebrook to Corfe Castle and Swanage torn up for scrap in just seven weeks during the summer of 1972, everyone was sure the railway would never ever come back. It seemed such a massive job against all the odds – financial, practical and political.

“I grew up with the Swanage branch line because one of the signalmen at Worgret Junction – where the line for Corfe Castle and Swanage departed the main London line fromWareham – allowed me up into the signal box.

“What a contrast from the sadness of 37 years ago because I’m sure this first train from London to Swanage will be the first of many. The rebuilding of the Swanage Railway across 30 years shows just what determination and the power of the human spirit can achieve against all the odds,” explained Peter, a Swanage Railway director and volunteer signalman.