Wessex Belle - Purbeck

Fantastic evening on the Swanage Railway’s Wessex Belle dining train with a 5 course meal as we traversed the line pulled by 257 Squadron which was a very impressive engine. The restaurant car was immaculately prepared. Dinner was perfectly cooked and the main that I had of lamb shank was delicious and tender and the other main that our party chose of salmon was good too. Starter, Desert, Cheese and Coffee finished of a fine meal. Full bar on the train but note cask only with very friendly staff and servers. We travelled up and down the line twice taking in the sights before the sunset. Corfe Castle with the sun setting was a beautiful sight. Would thoroughly recommend for a special occasion. Very different.

The dining experience in the evening is a must. the five course dinner was excellent and the staff were very good, and to cap it all strict dress code made the evening

We had lunch today on the new Wednesday lunch trip on Swanage Railway. Up and down the line twice in fine weather and pulled by the T9 engine. A really nice and relaxing meal with lovely scenery and a passed the Flying Scotsman at Corfe.

We bought this as a belated birthday gift for my MIL, after the last couple of years we were very much looking forward to it. Unfortunately, as we arrived we were told that we would be stationary for the majority of the meal as the driver had been working all day and will now be over hours. We stated that this is not what we had paid for and all we were told was “they were trying their best”. We were fine with accepting that it would be a diesel train instead of a steam train due to the heatwave, but to sit in a hot carriage with a view of Swanage’s finest COOP was not the experience we were expecting. We feel poor planning by the organisers if they are reliant on only 1 or 2 drivers for an event that had to be booked months in advance. We spent over £200 for this much awaited birthday gift and the only compensation we got was just £10 off our bar bill. Would not recommend this line. Also, do not choose the crumble, it came burnt and is served dry with no cream/custard/ice-cream.

We went on the Wednesday luncheon special last week ,it was the most disappointing trip that we have been on in a long time mainly because we were not pulled by a steam engine but by a diesel ,the only reason we booked was we love the steam experience and thought we would pay the extra to have dinner as well ,what was there not to like, seemingly everything.The meal was spread out over 3 hours whilst travelling up to Corfe Castle and back to Swanage twice at one point overlooking a field in the siding whilst eating our main course,my husband could see Corfe Castle not so me,the food itself was mediocre soup was lukewarm ,the cauliflower was raw ,pork was actually very nice the saving grace of the main course,apple pie was delicious.The staff were all very pleasant and helpful no complaints there .On hindsight should have just gone on the regular train to Corfe as they had the steam engine and had a dinner back in Swanage and saved ourselves a bit of money and a lot of disappointment of not having the steam experience we thought we had paid for,would not do it again I would like to know who decides which engine steam or diesel pulls which train as the luncheon excursion is not cheap by any means.