| Swanage Railway | |
|---|---|
| The Purbeck Line | |
 56XX Tank No.6695 on the Swanage Railway viewed from Corfe Castle | |
| Terminus | Wareham Norden Swanage |
| Commercial operations | |
| Built by | Swanage Railway Company |
| Original gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Preserved operations | |
| Stations | 5 |
| Length | 9.5 miles (15.3 km) |
| Preserved gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Commercial history | |
| Opened | 20 May 1885 |
| Closed | 1 January 1972 |
| Preservation history | |
| 1979 | Line re-opened at/alongside King George's playing fields |
| 1980 | Steam returns to the Swanage Line, officially |
| 1982 | Swanage station re-opens officially |
| 1984 | Herston Halt opens to the public |
| 1988 | Swanage Line extends to Harman's Cross |
| 1989 | Harman's Cross opened officially |
| 1993 | Corfe Castle and Norden Park and Ride extension completed |
| 2009 | Swanage Line sees first public through passenger service between London Victoria via Wareham and Swanage since closure |
| 2014 | Lease signed for entire line from Swanage to Worgret Junction |
| 2017 | Regular passenger service on entire line from Swanage to Wareham |
| Headquarters | Swanage |
The Swanage Railway is a railway branch line from near Wareham, Dorset to Swanage, Dorset, England, opened in 1885 and now operated as a heritage railway.
The independent company which built it was amalgamated with the larger London and South Western Railway in 1886. The passenger service was withdrawn in 1972, leaving a residual freight service over part of the line handling mineral traffic.
After the passenger closure, a heritage railway group revived part of the line; it too used the name Swanage Railway and now operates a 9.5-mile (15.3 km) line which follows the route of the former line from Wareham to Swanage with stops at Norden, Corfe Castle, Harman's Cross and Herston Halt. It provides a regular park-and-ride service, normally steam-hauled, from Norden to the sea at Swanage including Corfe Castle village and ruins of Corfe Castle. In 2023, regular trains ran through from Wareham (with National Rail connections) to Swanage.