TRAINS that used to be seen on the Weymouth-Waterloo line will be back in Dorset this week.

Volunteers at the Swanage Railway are rolling back the years by holding a ‘Push-Pull Day’ today.

It marks the 25th anniversary of the end of ‘push-pull’ slam door trains which ran between Bournemouth, Dorchester and Weymouth.

The train could be driven from either end and was a familiar sight on the line. Electrification of the Bournemouth-Weymouth railway saw them replaced by modern trains in 1988.

Six ‘push-pull’ trains will run between Swanage, Corfe Castle and Norden Park and Ride today.

One of the two 1960s-built Class 33 diesel-electric locomotives taking part will be No. 33111 which operated the last BR ‘push-pull’ train to Swanage in September, 1971 – three months before the line was closed.

It is on loan from the Bluebell Railway in Sussex and was named ‘Gordon Pettitt’ after the British Rail Southern Region general manager who formally opened the Swanage Railway’s new station at Harman’s Cross in March, 1989.

Swanage Railway Company chairman Peter Sills said: “The ‘push-pull’ trains were designed so the locomotive didn’t need to uncouple from the carriage sets at the end of each journey, reducing turnaround times.

“The locomotives pulled the carriages in one direction and then pushed them back in the other – with the driver controlling the locomotive from a small cab in the front of the leading carriage.”

The Push-Pull Day precedes Swanage Railway’s three-day Diesel Gala and Dorset Beer Festival from Friday, May 10 to Sunday, May 12.