RailAdvent
  • Home
  • News
    • All News
    • Freight
    • Infrastructure
    • Mainline Network
    • Heritage on the Mainline News
    • Narrow Gauge Railway News
    • Standard Gauge Railway News
  • Mainline Steam Info
  • All Railtours
  • Community
  • Online Shop
  • Simulation
  • Upgrade!
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
Cart / £0.00

No products in the basket.

  • Competitions
  • Email Newsletter
  • Reviews
  • Events Calendar
  • Video
  • Birthday Cards
  • Home
  • News
    • All News
    • Freight
    • Infrastructure
    • Mainline Network
    • Heritage on the Mainline News
    • Narrow Gauge Railway News
    • Standard Gauge Railway News
  • Mainline Steam Info
  • All Railtours
  • Community
  • Online Shop
  • Simulation
  • Upgrade!
No Result
View All Result
RailAdvent
No Result
View All Result
  1. Home
  2. Standard Gauge
  3. Swanage Railway
  4. Swanage Railway’s museum awarded grants to improve visitors’ experience

Swanage Railway’s museum awarded grants to improve visitors’ experience

Roger Smith avatar by Roger Smith
16th November 2021
in Swanage Railway
Reading Time: 4 mins read
1
SR museum volunteer Jim Tudor Corfe Castle ANDREW PM WRIGHT

Credit: ANDREW PM WRIGHT

2.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Volunteers at the Swanage Railway’s museum at Corfe Castle station are celebrating after winning grants to improve the museum’s experience for visitors.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded the museum a grant of £23,700.

Some of this will allow the museum to create audio pods, which will enable visitors to experience the sounds from a typical 1950s branch line station, and listen to recordings of memories from Swanage branch line staff and passengers during the 1950s and 1960s.

The money will also help to improve ‘front of house’ facilities at the museum, so that visitors can talk to staff about the railway’s history and access the archives.

Volunteers at Corfe Castle 2
Volunteers at Corfe Castle. Credit: Andrew P.M. Wright

A second grant came from the South West Museum Development Programme. This was for £4,000, which will pay for professional management advice and mentoring of the museum’s volunteer staff.

The museum opened in 2000. It is operated by the Swanage Railway Trust, largely funded by public donations and is a registered charity.

RelatedPosts

East Lancashire Railway Wizards Academy

East Lancashire Railway has days-out sorted with family events

3rd July 2022
Road traction engine

2022 opening dates announced for Hampshire Steam Museum

2nd July 2022
Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre. Vintage Car Show, 1st April 2018

Amberley Museum to celebrate steam locomotive Peter’s return

17th June 2022
Swanage Railway Roads to Rail Norden August 2021

Swanage Railway to hold nostalgic ‘Roads to Rail’ steam rally

16th June 2022
Load More

Housed in the goods shed at Corfe Castle’s restored Victorian station, the museum tells the fascinating story of the Swanage branch line from the 1880s.

Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, the museum attracted 48,000 visitors a year and was ranked twelfth in a Visit England tourist body survey during 2019.

Volunteers at Corfe Castle 2
Volunteers in the museum at Corfe Castle. Credit: Andrew P.M. Wright

A delighted Swanage Railway Trust chairman Gavin Johns said: “Thanks to players in the National Lottery, this much appreciated investment will allow our museum to begin a transformation to an even more inclusive and interactive space in which visitors, of all ages, can learn about the social and economic effects on the Isle of Purbeck of the Victorian Swanage branch line.

“I would like to thank everyone who has played a part in the success of this grant application which has been a huge and detailed collective effort – one in which we can all take great pride,” added Mr Johns who is also a volunteer signalman on the popular Dorset heritage railway.

Colin Stone
Museum volunteer Colin Stone. Credit: Andrew P.M. Wright

The railway to Swanage originally opened in May 1885, diverging from the main line at Worgret Junction, south of Wareham, then running through Corfe Castle to Swanage.

A Brief History of the Swanage Railway

British Rail closed the line in January 1972 and lifted the track later that year.

Five years of determined campaigning by railway enthusiasts and Purbeck community volunteers led to the Swanage Railway Society starting restoration work at a boarded-up Swanage station in February 1976.

Heather Denning
Museum volunteer Heather Denning. Credit: Andrew P.M. Wright

Second-hand track was slowly laid by hand at Swanage station until 1979 when the first trains ran over a few hundred yards of track, followed at Easter, 1980 by the first steam trains to run there since the summer of 1967.

In 1984 passenger trains extended to the one-mile mark at Herston on the outskirts of Swanage, to the one and a half-mile mark in 1987, the three miles from Swanage to Harman’s Cross in 1989, and in 1995 a further two and a half miles to Corfe Castle and Norden.

The railway was connected to the national railway system in 2006, then in April and May 2009 diesel and steam trains ran through from London to Corfe Castle and Swanage, the first such trains since 1972 and 1967, respectively.

In 2014, the railway’s signalling system was linked into Network Rail’s signalling system for the operation of the railway’s connection with the main line at Worgret Junction.

Jeff Anderson
Museum volunteer Jeff Anderson.. Credit: Andrew P.M. Wright

Where Next on RailAdvent?

Subscribe for More
Railway News
DVDs, Prints, Cards, Gifts and more
MAINLINE STEAM INFO
Competition Time!
COMMUNITY PHOTOS
FREE NEWSLETTERS

Tags: MuseumSwanage Railway
ShareTweetPinShareShare
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
guest
1 Comment
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Where Next on RailAdvent?

Railway News DVDs, Prints, Cards and Gifts MAINLINE STEAM INFO Competition Time! Share your pictures FREE NEWSLETTERS Subscribe for More
Previous Post

Ecclesbourne Valley Railway to welcome Deltic locomotive in 2022

Next Post

Inverness railway bridge set to be replaced later this month

Related Posts

1976 Shinkansen Bullet Train at the National Railway Museum
Museum

NRM’s new exhibition to showcase future rail technology

by Chloe White
12th June 2022
0

The 'Innovation Platform' exhibition will  is set to open on Wednesday the 15th of June and will run...

Read more
London Transport Museum

‘Act-on It!’ open days for London Transport Museum’s Acton Depot

7th June 2022
Appeal to get more volunteers at Swanage Railway

Swanage Railway is on the lookout for volunteers

6th June 2022
Platinum Jubilee loco headboards Malcolm Munro Norden station

Swanage Railway unveils special steam locomotive headboards for Queen’s Jubilee

31st May 2022
Load More

Top rated products

  • 48305 at Grosmont MPD, North Yorkshire Moors Railway 48305 at Grosmont MPD, North Yorkshire Moors Railway
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    £3.49 – £29.99
  • Ffestiniog Railway victorian dvd and bluray set Ffestiniog Railway - Victorian Weekend 2019 - 3 Disc Set
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    £19.99 – £21.99
  • North Yorkshire Moors Railway - Annual Steam Gala 2019 - Photo & DVD Set North Yorkshire Moors Railway - Annual Steam Gala 2019 - Photo & DVD Set
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    £16.99 – £17.99
  • Greetings card featuring Linda on the Ffestiniog Railway Steam locomotive greetings card, Hunslet Linda, Ffestiniog Railway
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    £2.99
  • Bellerophon at Kidderminster - Severn Valley Railway
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    £3.49 – £29.99

Our latest release

Watch Instantly

NYMR DVD 2019
FR Victorian DVD

You May Like

Latest Reviews

Whitland to Pembroke Dock cover
Book Review

Book Review: Whitland to Pembroke Dock by John Hodge

by Roger Smith

Newly published on 22nd April this year, Whitland to Pembroke Dock is the latest book in the West Wales Railways...

Read more
East Kent 001

Book Review: The East Kent Railway by John-Scott-Morgan

Load More

Latest News

Coradia Stream Intercity Next Generation train
World

Coradia Stream Intercity Next Generation Train revealed by Alstom and NS

by Chloe White
4th July 2022
Hackney Central New Entrance
Network

Second entrance opened at Hackney Central station

by Roger Smith
4th July 2022
Bodyworn Camera at station
Network

Body-worn cameras to be introduced by South Western Railway

by Chloe White
4th July 2022
David Lloyd George departs Porthmadog with the 13.15 to Tan-y-Bwlch
Narrow Gauge

Porthmadog-based Ffestiniog Railway reveals plans for the Summer

by Michael Holden
4th July 2022

FREE RailAdvent newsletters

Get the latest news, reviews, deals and more straight into your inbox.

Click here to sign up today !

Our latest release

Deals at Amazon

RailAdvent Online Store

  • Ffestiniog Railway Snowdonian DVD

    Reliving Preservation – Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway Snowdonians – 2 Disc DVD + 2 A4 Print Set

    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    £19.99 – £21.99
    Select options
  • Sale! Thompson Park Railway 7.25" Society AGM Gala

    Thompson Park Railway – 7¼” Gauge Society AGM

    £9.99 – £10.49
    Select options
  • 47712 at Appleby with the Staycation Express to Skipton - mousemat

    Class 47 diesel locomotive mouse mat – 47712 Lady Diana Spencer at Appleby

    £6.99
    Add to basket
  • Greetings card featuring steam locomotive 60009 Union of South Africa on the East Lancashire Railway

    Steam locomotive greetings card – 60009 Union of South Africa, East Lancashire Railway

    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    £2.99
    Add to basket
  • Taff Vale 85 and GWR 4144 approach Oakworth - Keighley & Worth Valley Railway

    Taff Vale 85 and GWR 4144 approach Oakworth – Keighley & Worth Valley Railway

    £3.49 – £29.99
    Select options
  • Crab 13065 at Ramsbottom on the East Lancashire Railway

    13065 stands at Ramsbottom – East Lancashire Railway

    £3.49 – £29.99
    Select options
  • Peter's Railway Racing Trains

    Peter’s Railway – Racing Trains

    £11.99
    Add to basket
  • Little Peter's Railway The Picnic

    Little Peter’s Railway The Picnic

    £2.99
    Add to basket

From RailAdvent

Peters Railway Books
RailAdvent

© RailAdvent Ltd 2014 - 2022
Registered in England & Wales
Company Number: 13512367
VAT Number: 392755949

More Links

  • About Us
  • Advertising on RailAdvent
  • How to Contact Us
  • RailAdvent Product List
  • Delivery, Returns & Refund Policy
  • RailAdvent Privacy Policy
  • LocoStop – The Railway Social Network
  • Mainline UK Steam Info
  • RailAdvent Points

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Cart
  • Home
  • News
  • Mainline UK Steam Info
  • Online Shop
  • Birthday Cards
  • Community
  • Book Reviews
  • Competition Time
  • Subscribe Today!
  • Simulation
  • Railtours
  • Streaming Video
  • Railway Special Events Calendar
  • Videos
  • Find A Railway
    • Railways In England
      • By County
      • By Name
    • Railways In Scotland
    • Railways In Wales
  • More Stuff
    • Miniature Railways In The UK
    • Museums In The UK
      • By Name
      • By County
    • Model Railways
    • Review of the week
    • Flying Scotsman
    • Throwback Thursdays
    • About Us
    • How to Contact Us
    • Advertising on RailAdvent
    • Featured Fridays
      • Share your Railway Photo’s & Video’s

© RailAdvent Ltd 2014 - 2022
Registered in England & Wales
Company Number: 13512367
VAT Number: 392755949

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Session expired

Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.

>
X
X