🗓️ Friday 22nd – Sunday 24th March 2024
Enjoy a weekend of steam at Swanage Railway’s special Victorian Weekend event, which celebrates the pioneering era that built the original Wareham to Swanage branch line.
There’ll be four steam locos hauling trains across the weekend, including two special locomotives from the 1880s and the 1890s.
Visitors are encouraged to enter into the nostalgic spirit of the weekend by dressing in Victorian costume.
On the Saturday there will also be members of Weymouth’s Nothe Fort Garrison at Swanage Station and travelling on the trains, who’ll be happy to pose for photographs with you.
Also across the weekend at Swanage Station will be a fun craft stand, where you can try your hand at some Victorian crafts, such as making a peg doll or your very own thaumatrope optical illusion.
Locomotives in operation this weekend
- The 1893 London & South Western Railway T3 class No. 563
- The 1896 South Eastern & Chatham Railway 01 class No. 65 (visiting from the Bluebell Railway, West Sussex)
- 1920’s Southern Railway U class No. 31806
- 1940s Southern Railway Bulleid Pacific West Country class No. 34028 ‘Eddystone’
“Our Victorian Weekend will be an evocative and enjoyable three-day celebration and transport our visitors back to the Victorian period of enterprise, development and optimism as railways replaced the horse and cart as well as our waterways.”
ROBERT PATTERSON Commercial director, Swanage Railway Company
More information and updates can be found on the Swanage Railway website: www.swanagerailway.co.uk/events/view/victoria-weekend