Swanage town mayor Mike Bonfield and a long serving railway volunteer Carol Wright have unveiled a plaque and a wooden memorial to recognise the hard work of the soldiers from the Royal Corps of Signals and the volunteers who helped to rebuild the Swanage Railway.
The ceremony on the platform at Herston Halt on the outskirts of Swanage in Dorset, took place on Saturday 5th July 2025 in front of invited guests who have been involved with the development of the station since it opened in 1984.
Herston Halt was first opened in 1984
Herston Halt rebuilt in 2008
Herston Halt was the first station to be built by the Swanage Railway, as its volunteers steadily relaid the tracks up to Harman’s Cross, where another new station was built in 1988.
The original Herston Halt was smaller than today’s structure with the platform originally constructed of wood with the handrails being made from recycled metal boiler tubes from small industrial steam locomotives.
The first passenger train from Swanage ran to the halt on Good Friday April 1984 – the year that the Royal Corps of Signals began its association with the Swanage Railway.
In 2008, members of the Royal Corps of Signals dismantled the old wooden platform at Herston Halt and replaced it with a large 1930s concrete sectional platform that had been salvaged from Woodside in South London during 2005, when the Croydon Tramlink was being built on a former railway line.
Carol Wright (centre), a volunteer gardener at the halt for almost 25 years with her late husband Peter, unveiled the wooden memorial with the Swanage town mayor Mike Bonfield (right) and Swanage Railway Trust chair Frank Roberts (left)
Plaque marking the 40 years of partnership between Swanage Railway and The Royal Corps of Signals
“Wonderful feeling of community, family, camaraderie and shared purpose”
Volunteer Swanage Railway Trust chair Frank Roberts said:
“There was a wonderful feeling of community, family, camaraderie and shared purpose when the memorial and the tribute plaque were unveiled.
“It was good to welcome the families of some of those people, sadly no longer with us, who played such an important part in the development of Herston Halt over the years.
“It’s important to remember those people whose determined volunteer work has contributed to the maintenance and development of Herston Halt over 40 years.”
Frank Roberts (left) with The Royal Corps of Signals rebuilding Herston Halt in 2008
Along with rebuilding the station platform, the Royal Corps of Signals was also responsible for laying telephone cables alongside the rail track
Communication infrastructure installed
The first Royal Corps of Signals exercise on the Swanage Railway in 1984 saw 15 soldiers from the 30 Signal Regiment, based at Blandford Forum in Dorset, install lineside wooden poles and telephone cables along the one-mile of track between Swanage and Herston Halt.
As Swanage Railway volunteers slowly laid the railway tracks to Harman’s Cross, Corfe Castle and Norden, soldiers from the Royal Corps of Signals installed lineside wooden poles and telephone cables as well as telephone exchanges at Swanage, Harman’s Cross and Corfe Castle stations.
Further information
- More about Swanage Railway
