FOR over a year I have been trying to catch a certain train and have not yet succeeded.

I tried last summer and failed because of the RMT strikes on successive Saturdays and so far this year I have had no success.

The train in question is the summer Saturdays only train to Corfe Castle. It is a really good idea by SWR. A train that originates from Waterloo comes down to Dorset via Yeovil Junction and Yeovil Pen Mill then runs to Weymouth, reverses and goes on to Wareham where it reverses again to go down the Swanage heritage line to Corfe Castle where passengers have access to the steam railway to Swanage,

A really good trip and a super idea by someone in SWR.

So far however I have been defeated in my efforts to catch it. I tried to catch it from Upwey the first time it ran in May. I waited for it then noticed the indicator said ‘cancelled’. I learned later that the train had been terminated at Yeovil because SWR did not have a driver available who had been trained for the line to Weymouth which is of course a GWR line.

This was odd because for months in the spring an empty SWR driver training train came down to Weymouth crew training on the line.

Oh well I thought everyone can make a mistake so I arranged to go from Maiden Newton on this train with some friends this last Saturday for a day in Swanage.

Yes you have guessed it!!

Cancelled again. Official reason ‘staff shortage’. But I would bet that they could not find a driver who had been trained for the Weymouth line as before.

I would put it to SWR that this really is incompetence.

Shall we try again this coming Saturday?

I wonder what the chances are of it being cancelled yet again?

Terry Putnam

Springfield Road, Weymouth