History
Swanage lies at the tip of the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula bordered by the English Channel to the south, and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the north and east. Since the 12th century, the area around Swanage has been well known for the Purbeck Marble that was mined locally and shipped out by sea. The presence of this industry, together with the Purbeck Ball Clay works in the area to the north, attracted railway promoters once the L&SWR main line reached Wareham in 1847.Several schemes were promoted and failed, but eventually the Swanage Railway received its Act in 1881 and opened on the 20th May 1885.
Swanage station was constructed with two platform tracks, on either side of a single passenger platform. The longer of these tracks had a run round loop, and was flanked by a station building built in the grey Purbeck stone. A single track goods shed provided facilities for general merchandise, and a turntable, coaling stage and single track locomotive shed were provided for use by the steam locomotives that operated the line. In order to handle the anticipated volumes of stone traffic, a four track goods yard was constructed. One of the lines in the goods yard was extended as a tramway running in a narrow alley behind Station Road to a stone store near the waterfront. This tramway should not be confused with the earlier Swanage Pier Tramway that linked nearby stone stores to a pier in Swanage Bay.
Towards the end of the 19th century, Swanage started to develop as a tourist resort. Through coaches and through trains were operated to Swanage from both London and from the industrial towns of the Midlands and North of England. To accommodate this traffic, the station was extensively altered in 1937, with extensions to the station buildings using matching materials and in a design blending well with the 1885 original. The new facilities provided a parcels office, ticket office, a waiting hall, a newsagents shop, and an extended goods shed. However the use of lorries to transport the ball clay, Purbeck stone, and Portland stone, and the increase in private car ownership in the second half of the 20th century eventually made the line unprofitable. Closure was first proposed in 1967, and despite local opposition the line finally closed on the 3rd January 1972.
After closure, a strong campaign was waged to allow the railway to reopen both as an independent community railway linking with the main line at Wareham and as a steam locomotive operated heritage railway. The Swanage Railway began operating a steam service at the Swanage end of the line in 1982. The passenger station, goods shed and locomotive facilities have been restored to their 1937 configuration, although the goods yard is now the site of a supermarket.
Read more about this topic: Swanage Railway Station
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