A sea train sort of day

We made a bright and early get up to walk (or lurch, in my case) to Poole Quay to catch the City Experiences Fortuna boat to Swanage to then go on the Swanage Railway. This is all thanks to Nick and Sue for my birthday present way back in April.

This is actually our second attempt. We tried last month at a time when we were having a rare UK heatwave, only City Experiences cancelled the trip. Why, I hear you cry! Because of adverse weather expected the day of our trip. It was a real shame as the weather was stunning, however, it was super windy and the view was that the boat wouldn’t be able to dock safely at Swanage. Safety first, and all that. So we’ve been keeping an eye on the forecast and any emails coming through suddenly cancelling the trip again, but nothing. All good to go. Hurrah!

Alexa, when asked, advised me we had a 20% chance of rain in Poole at 10 am. We decided to take a gamble and not plan or dress for rain. With cloudy/bright/sunny intervals weather, we set off on the first lap of this experience.

We were given an amusing, yet informative commentary which was definitely worthy of an exit tip. We had a gentle amble around Swanage. The sea was super clear, the weather was certainly a couple of degrees cooler than in Poole and considerably more breezy, but we weren’t in a hurry, we’d got all day.

Off we trotted for a mocha and some toast for me and a flaky sausage roll for Nick at the Italian Bakery. This seemed a really popular bakery/cafe, but was super organised and well run. After our snack, we just thought we’d appreciate the sea views and found a bench to just gaze at the awesome view and chew the fat.

We reckoned we were ok to amble to the train station to do the next part of this experience, the steam train to Corfe. We’d noticed the sign had said half a mile from the pier to the train station, so no worries. The next sign we saw for the train station was…half a mile. Ok, have we found ourselves in Groundhog Day? Our amble increased to a bit of a walk still heading in the direction of the train station. Oooooohhhhh, the next sign said a quarter of a mile. We’re evidently getting closer. Our walk started to increase to a mild brisk walk (if there is such a thing? I don’t know, but we exhibited signs of this trend, which it has to be said, will catch on). You guessed it, the next sign said a quarter of a mile. Yikes, ok, we’re now clock-watching and starting to actually walk briskly. We then see a variety of signs to the train station but in different directions. Ok, slight panic is now setting in as I consider getting anywhere on time, as actually late. We opt for one of the signs and as luck would have it, choose correctly. At last, we could see the train, but we had a long road to walk, what felt to me, going back on ourselves. As coaches and double-decker buses arrived at the train station, I’m feeling there won’t be any space left for us.

How wrong was I? I should not have fretted. We got on the train with 5 minutes to spare. Then the plaintive, haunting toot of the train’s whistle and the chug of the carriages signalled we were off. Remember back in the day when you could run along the platform if you’d missed the train? Like those bygone days, with this train, you would easily be able to run for that missed train. We opened the windows for maximum noise and smut. And got both. The smell of the coal and the gentle sway of the train was quite hypnotic. There was the all-pervading “diddly dum, diddly dee” sound as we trundled at a speed that wouldn’t have upset anyone’s nerves. It seemed we were a bit of a phenomenon as folks on the sides of the tracks were waving.

Like Swanage station, Harman’s Cross was picture perfect and yet again, a memory of years gone by when train stations were ‘romantic’. It was evident the staff were hugely proud in what they did and I was amused to see a couple of lads, barely having left school, taking their roles very seriously. Are they fulfilling a childhood dream? Or their parent’s or grandparent’s dream? Whatever the reason, they all looked super smart and were super helpful.

Our journey to Corfe was over way too quickly and we made a snap decision to change our plans. I feel, for the better. The steam train only ran at certain times, but there was a diesel train too at other times. We’d originally thought we’d have time to do a bit of Corfe Castle and come back on the steam train, then dash back to the quayside to get the boat back to Poole. When we redid the calculations, we realised we couldn’t do it as running is out of the equation for both of us. We didn’t want to come back on the diesel train. So we decided, that as we’d done Corfe a couple of times before, we’d give it a miss and come back on the next steam train.

Ohhhhhh, there was a nice little railway carriage turned into a cafe where cheese scones were sold. Well, that’s me sorted then. The lady very helpfully gave us our scran on a dainty China plate, but also gave us a bag so that we could take our snacks away. Genius. We had half on the China plate and half on the return train. A stack of train spotters (ourselves included) gathered on the bridge, cameras at the ready. In the distance, the plaintive toot and chug of the train could be heard.

I felt lucky that I’d done a fair amount of homework for this trip. There were a variety of times for the boat and a small volume of times for the steam train. Someone on our trip had no idea about the timings and I heard someone else ask if the next train would be diesel or steam, so I don’t think it was well-publicised, or maybe it was just my usual OCD kicking in.

We sat on the opposite side going back, so that we could have a slightly different experience and view. When we arrived back in Swanage, everyone was smiling and no one seemed in a big hurry to leave. Us included. At this point, I donned my best smile and asked the driver if I was allowed on the footplate. Yes indeed, by all means, came the reply. Happy days. I sat on the driver's seat, as the evidence shows, until the heat of the coal fire sent me reeling back onto the platform. Reluctantly we moved on from the train station after we watched them decouple the locomotive so that they could go back and do the journey again.

A day at the seaside wouldn’t be right without an ice cream. Scoopies had a good variety of choices, so I went for ginger and rhubarb and Nick for mocha-coffee ice cream. We protected them well as the seagulls dive-bombed everyone with food.

As the late afternoon progressed, the wind really had picked up and the chill seemed to settle when the sun went behind the clouds, so we wussed out on our return to Poole and chose downstairs instead of up top on the boat. After all that sea air and excitement and a walk back to ours, we were ravenous. As we haven’t really got into a routine since returning from Norway, we realised we didn’t have anything in stock for dinner tonight, so ended an exhausting, but thoroughly memorable day with a takeaway from our local, Isan Thai. As ever, it didn’t disappoint.

Thank you, Nick and Sue, we’ve had a truly epic day and I hope that I will finally sleep the sleep of the Just tonight.

Enjoy the arrival of the train at Corfe Castle station