Norden railway station

Norden
The station platform looking towards Wareham.
Location
Place	Corfe Castle
Area	Purbeck
Coordinates	50°38′41″N 2°03′45″W / 50.6447°N 2.0624°W / 50.6447; -2.0624Coordinates: 50°38′41″N 2°03′45″W / 50.6447°N 2.0624°W / 50.6447; -2.0624
Operations
Managed by	None
Platforms	1
History
1995	Opened
Stations on heritage railways in the United Kingdom
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Norden railway station is a railway station located half a mile to the north of the village of Corfe Castle, on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. It is the northern-most station on Swanage Railway, a heritage railway that currently operates from Norden to Swanage. A Park and Ride site is adjacent to the station, and visitors can leave their cars, and ride the train to the beautiful village of Corfe Castle and the popular seaside destination of Swanage.

The Norden Nest Buffet is open at Norden station on most operating days. The site is also the home of the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum.

History

The Swanage Railway follows the route of the former London and South Western Railway line from Wareham to Swanage, a line that opened in 1885 and was finally closed by British Rail in 1972. From the time of closure, a strong campaign to reopen the railway as a steam locomotive operated heritage railway developed, and the Swanage Railway began operating a steam service at the Swanage end of the line in 1982. As the line was progressively extended northwards towards Corfe Castle, concerns grew that terminating the line there would make existing parking problems in the picturesque village worse. It was therefore decided to extend the line the further half a mile to Norden, and build a Park and Ride site there.^[1]

Although there was never a passenger station at Norden prior to the opening of the current station in 1995, the station is built on the site of the former Norden Ball clay works. These works were served by a siding off the Wareham to Swanage railway, and also by two narrow gauge railways that connected the Ball clay pits to the works, and the works to small ports on the south side of Poole Harbour. The earliest of these was the Middlebere Plateway, a horse-drawn plateway that opened in 1806 and was Dorset's first railway. At the beginning of the 20th century this was superseded by Fayle's Tramway, a conventional steam locomotive hauled railway. After the Second World War this railway was replaced with a local system that ran across the Skew Bridge at the eastern end of the station to the mines on the southern side of the A351. Because of this heritage, the Swanage Railway is developing the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum on the site at Norden.^[1]

Services

Services run every day from the beginning of April to late October, with weekend only operation in March, November and December. The level of service varies from 6 to 17 trains a day in each direction, depending the season and the day of the week. Trains from Norden travel southbound to stations at Corfe Castle (2 mins), Harman's Cross (12 mins), Herston (trains stop only on request), and Swanage (23 mins).^[2]

Although track is now complete through to the junction with Network Rail at Worgret Junction, the normal service on the Swanage Railway still terminates at Norden. Special services occasionally work to and from the main line.

Preceding station	Heritage railways			Following station
Terminus		Swanage Railway (normal service)		Corfe Castle
Wareham		Swanage Railway (special services only)		Corfe Castle

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Kidner, R.W. (2000). The Railways of Purbeck (Third Edition ed.). The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-557-8. 
2. ^ "2009 Timetable". Swanage Railway. http://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/n-timetable.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-21. 

External links

• Purbeck Mineral & Mining Museum web site