Great memories rekindled by the shots of Wareham as I remember it! Worgret Junction cabin also exactly as I remember the token being taken up. I remembered when I saw the view from Corfe Castle of the unit going by, a lifetime ago watching an M7 tank loco and it's train doing exactly the same thing. Seeing the crowd on Swanage platform makes me wonder how it ever closed. It always seemed to be busy yet after closure the replacement bus was never full, so I can only assume that most of the regular clientèle must have begun to use their cars, or had to acquire one to get to work or whatever they were wanting to do. Great that the line is open as a heritage railway but sad it no longer does the job it was meant to! Thanks for the memories!

Nice n I scrb you 👍♥️

thought it was a 'Warship' but no - SO SO SAD that none of these were saved.😭

Is that loco a Warship? 😮

We were there when the railway was open and saw it close. We holidayed in Swanage right from when I was a child up to when we lost mum and dad. I cant bear to go back there now its very upsetting I just see THEM everywhere. I do love the town though my brother and I walked the cliff path every year round to dancing ledge Chapmans Pool and Durdle Door! We also used to walk the abandoned track bed to Wareham throuhg ' The Wilderness' as its known - cant do that anymore though so pleased it reopened. Its now possible to get a train again FROM LONDON TO SWANAGE. Thanks for the memories.

I went to Swanage in the summer of 1969 (aged 11) for a summer holiday with my parents. Maybe we were on that train! (Doesn't look like we were on the platform!)

I like to see more about the "Sprat & Winkle" Line please.

Pity that the modern day reintroduction of the Wareham to Swanage service was so short lived. I used it a lot last year, so sad that one of the principal objectives of the restoration movement had to be abandoned.

Great video. Did that swing bridge ever operate? I never seen it working.

This is now the Tarka Trail cycle route.

You can get a cream for Itchen Abbas.

Thank you for sharing this. My father was a driver on the Hastings to Ashford line in the 60's 70's and 80's.

Excellent 👍👍👍👍

How unusual. It’s raining in Okehampton. Or, as we call it, liquid sunshine!

Do you have anything from Shawford to Sutton Scotney on the DNS...?

One of my earliest memories of the railway was a Merchant Navy thundering through St Denys while I was sat on a Hampshire Unit from Fareham. 13 years later, I would be working on the Railway at Southampton on the St Denys Totton resignalling scheme as a PW junior technical officer.

Fascinating to see some rails still in situ at Fullerton with some glimpses of the Mayfly. Did you actually walk on the line in this period to Stockbridge where the station site has of course completely gone. Presume the rails did not last too much longer after 1968?

Lovely film , just out of the stream era , into the new corporate blue era , gas lamps, signal boxes, a Austin Westminster gracing one of the station car parks, and a pre tops crompton comes thumping thru running light , 1970 feels a life time ago now . Thanks for the upload 😊.

I thik i prefer 1967 !

I lot of people on the platform wanting to go home

I remember camping with the Boys Brigade across the fields from Harmans Cross (no station then, I think) in the mid 60s and standing on one of the bridges to watch the already 'doomed' train go underneath. Lovely to see these old films. Mind you, the modern reincarnation is much tidier than these 'good old days' are shown to be.

Fascinating! Thankyou!

Thanks for sharing this important film. A railway thrown in the bin like an old coke can . Every asset then realised . Did you get to Andoversford Tunnel?

Mmmmmmmm things were different

Thank you, Thank you, it was film pioneers then that captured the flicks flocks film that kept a record of railway life at that time . Excellent work. My hats off to you and thank you for the insight to record these railway workings at the time . Nuff respects .

Great video but sad seeing railways disused 😢

Amazing that so much was still in situ more than three years after closure. Andover Town station didn't seem to be vandalised either.

Some lovely railway collectibles in this film

Thank you. Steam must had ended soon after this! Great you have this.

I can hear the Thumpers on the silent film. I must be old!

Well done you for capturing this as a lad. My late father did a lot of colour filming of the same era, but I was just a bit too young to get into it then.

Have cycled that stretch of line many times. Great to see how it used to look.

Incredible footage of a golden time, I made it to Cornwall in 1980 so I have a idea of things lost and the period, the universe doesn't run backwards so it's probably lost forever.

what beautiful video footage ! really many thanks for the upload. I used to get the train as a kid between St Leonards on Sea to Rye, with the exciting change in Hastings for the line to Ashford. Whilst I today enjoy the views across the southwest, the view of the marshes and the sounds of the diesel thumpers across the stunning Sussex and Kent scenery was very evoctive as youngster and have always loved trains since. Seeing footage of this era again is so lovely.

That film shows two (of the four) Wareham Station platforms that are not used now. The one the train pulls out of is part of the Station car park and the other one is overgrown. The two lines in the middle continue to be the 143 mile South West Main Line between London Waterloo and Weymouth which has both fast and stopping trains serving Wareham. Wareham Station still has many passengers using it, c300,000 a year and the station is well kept. It is possible to walk into Wareham town, there is a bus stop at the north side of the Station and taxis serve from the south side. The rail link to Swanage Station was re-established, and recent signalling improvements at Worgret Junction have enabled main line certification so that technically certified heritage line trains from Swanage can use the main line Wareham Station on a scheduled or occasional basis provided Swanage Railway funds allow.

When we had ports in Folkestone, Ramsgate and Dover! why get rid of them?! now everything bottlenecks in Dover!

Wow amazing footage, shame no sound. Would have been fantastic from a hymek

I was 2 y..o. then. I remember it well! 🤣

Thanks for posting this Alan. I was a Signalman at Wateringbury in 1984. Wye and Wateringbury crossing gates are now gone. Phil

Thank-you!

Fabulous save&share (upload) = thank you.

Brilliant trip down memory lane - thank you.

Went last year hauled by Manston Battle of Brotain one way pother was Lovely heritage diesel..

Thanks for this, Alan. I have worked in the Ticket Office at Ham Street for the last 11 years and live in St. Mary's Close, opposite the car park. The corrugated iron lamp hut is still there, though the signal box and foot crossing are gone, the latter went out of use in 2014 and the lines are now crossed by a footbridge with brick towers and lifts! Perhaps the biggsst change is in the overall aspect of the place, there are many more trees and, inevitably, houses. The old name lingers on, as some internal paperwork still shows it as Ham Street and Orlestone. Fond memories of the rest of the line, too...I travelled on it a number of times before Appledore to Ore was singled. Kind regards, Simon.

Memories of the 1960's, travelling from Bromley to Appledore picking up a thumper unit at Ashford to fish on the nearby Royal Military canal......happy days.

Beautiful beautiful England. Wasn't it worth fighting for?

Great collection of videos

Great old footage. Please feel free to like and subscribe

Delightful glance back to calmer times! It’s hard to imagine everything looked so bucolic so close to central London. Since everything has been built on, these scenes are distant dreams!

When I was a bus driver (1990s) one of the late shift rotas involved driving a 142 Poole to Swanage, then a 30 minute stop-over before returning. We would be given the key to the station staffroom so we could have somewhere to sit and take our break.