| Purbeck Mining Museum | |
|---|---|
 Purbeck Mining Museum under construction | |
| Terminus | Norden |
| Commercial operations | |
| Built by | Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group |
| Original gauge | 3 ft 9 in (1,143 mm) |
| Preserved operations | |
| Stations | 0 |
| Preserved gauge | 2 ft (610 mm) |
| Commercial history | |
| Opened | 1854 |
| Closed | 1999 |
| Preservation history | |
| 2004 | Planning permission is granted to develop a museum at Norden Station |
| 2013 | Steam returns to the Line, officially |
| Headquarters | Swanage |
| Website | |
| www | |
The Purbeck Mining Museum exists to preserve and interpret the historic extractive industries in ball clay mining in the Isle of Purbeck. The museum is located adjacent to Norden station on the Swanage Railway and is open from the end of March to the end of September on weekends, some weekdays and Bank Holidays.
A redundant mine has been relocated to Norden with a railway laid around the site, a new engine shed and the restoration of wagons that worked on the lines around Norden.
One of the future aims of the museum is to construct a new building at Norden to house Secundus, a 2-foot 8 inch steam loco, wagons and other artefacts not on display at present. It will also contain a library and education centre.
It is planned to extend the narrow gauge railway to the other side of the Swanage Branch line to land owned by the group via Bridge 15. In 2010 a structural engineer surveyed Bridge 15, a skew bridge over the Swanage Railway. The condition of the bridge was good for a "temporary" bridge built in 1885. Since then the bridge has been involved in a serious incident in which it has been severely damaged.