Weymouth could lose its train specials next year

The operator of the twice-weekly seasonal railtours which bring hundreds of people to the coast is threatening to pull out because it is proving too costly.

This is because there is no turntable at Weymouth to turn the engines round so an extra engine has to be brought in to haul the train back up the line.

Managing director of the Railway Touring Company Nigel Dobbing claims authorities should be more supportive in his quest to site a turntable and is considering running his trains to Poole in the future.

The Railway Touring Company of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, has been running summer specials, known as the Dorset Coast Express, from London to Weymouth for a few years. For the 2011 season it started running a weekly train from Bristol as well, the Weymouth Seaside Express.

The trains are hauled by historic steam locomotives and stop in Weymouth to give passengers a few hours exploring the resort.

The trains are regularly full and an estimated 7,000 people travelled on this year’s tours which started in July and ran to earlier this month.

Mr Dobbing predicts there will be enough interest to run a thrice-weekly train next summer but he is having doubts.

He explained that at present when the train arrived in Weymouth the locomotive was sent up the single line to a turntable at Yeovil Junction to turn round. It is not possible to do this in a few hours due to time constraints so a second locomotive, sent from Yeovil, is on standby to take the train back.

This operation costs £8,000 extra per train, said Mr Dobbing.

He said: “This situation could be resolved and I could run trains to Weymouth far cheaper if there was a turntable available.

“There is an under-used car park near the station between the mainline and the harbour branch which could be used for this purpose which is owned by Network Rail and sub-leased to South West Trains but so far I’ve not been able to get an agreement. I’ve had better luck at Poole where there is land available for a turntable.”