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| CAMRA - North Hampshire Branch |
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| This Page: |
Swanage Real Ale & Diesel Gala |
| Published: |
May 2009 |
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Swanage Real Ale & Diesel Gala - Saturday 9 May 2009
... written by Phil M - North Hampshire CAMRA |
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| We arrive at Basingstoke station around 09:30 and get in the long queue
for the ticket counter, so we can take advantage of South West Train's
Group 4 Saver offer. As we wait we see the information board change to
show that our 09:50 to Wareham is cancelled, further info tells us that
the problem is at Swaythling and there will be an altered service. We grab
our tickets and form a plan to get to Winchester and pick up the next fast
train from Woking, great plan, except that because the 09:50 was cancelled
the fast train is now a stopping train. Our ETA of 11:20 was now 12:40
and severely eating into our valuable drinking time, thanks SWT. The journey
took us through some great scenery, so all was not lost, but it did mean
we had to miss out on a detour across the Sandbanks chain ferry on the
open top bus, maybe next time. At Wareham we were greeted by a vintage
1975 double decker bus that had been specially put on by Wilts & Dorset
Transport to transfer us to Norden, in the shadow of Corfe Castle and our
first glimpse of a loco at the Swanage Railway Diesel Gala. |
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As we waited for our Class 26 loco to pull us away we caught a glimpse of the incoming train headed by a Class 55 Deltic. As we departed we managed to get some good shots of Corfe Castle before arriving at Harman Cross and the main reason for our journey, the beer festival. The 60 plus beers were housed in a marquee adjacent to the station, where the only interruption to the drinking was the sound of an incoming or departing lump of noisy, smelly nostalgia. What is it with beer and trains, they just seem to work together, the sunshine helped of course. We managed to work our way through a selection of the 60 beers between us and between a bit of loco spotting. There were 4 beers on offer from Art Brewing all of which got a big thumbs up, especially the Art Nouveau and Tempest Stout. |
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| After a quick check of the timetables we make the decision to split the
return journey and hop off at Corfe Castle station for a quick demonstration
of how the token system works on a single track line. We take a short walk
to the Greyhound in the village for a pint of Bath Ales Gem, before heading
back to the station and the Class 45 Sherwood Forester back to Norden and
its collection of unusual gnomes. On the free bus back to Wareham station
we check out the Good Beer Guide and decide to try out the Duke of Wellington
for a quickie. We walk the final mile back to Wareham station and get the
sleeper train back to Basingstoke. |
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| Phil M, 9 May 2009 |
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