Swanage Railway

About

The Swanage Railway, also known as the Purbeck line, is a railway branch line between Wareham and Swanage in the county of Dorset, United Kingdom. The railway line opened in 1885 and is now operated as a heritage railway. The independent company which built it was amalgamated with the larger London and South Western Railway in 1886.

The passenger service was withdrawn in 1972, leaving a residual freight service over part of the line handling mineral traffic. After the passenger closure, a heritage railway group revived part of the line; it too used the name Swanage Railway and now operates a 9.5-mile (15.3 km) line which follows the route of the former line from Wareham to Swanage with stops at Norden, Corfe Castle, Harman's Cross and Herston Halt. It provides a regular park-and-ride service, normally steam-hauled, from Norden to the sea at Swanage including Corfe Castle village and ruins of Corfe Castle.

In 2023, regular trains ran through from Wareham (with National Rail connections) to Swanage.