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Welcome to the Army Link site.

This site aims to be the link between the Swanage Railway and the Army involvement with both the town of Swanage and the Herston Halt project.

Herston Halt is the first station out from Swanage towards Corfe Castle and was restored with help from the 11th Signal regiment and local volunteers. Regular meetings are held to continue this work and we hope to advise and report on these on this site and via our twitter account.

More details about all of the activities can be found using the menu on the left.

Enjoy the site.

The Olympic Flame - Swanage on Fri 13 Jul

Lynne Connor (wife of Team Herston Des), and I, will be honoured to carry the flame on that day in Dorset, as will Rifleman Jack Otter who was the inspiration for Heroes Haven – Swanage which recently opened. You may know the background to this project (which can be seen on the Heroes Haven website) but having set themselves a target of around £80,000, the fundraisers have now raised in the region of £230,000! Taking the flame bit a stage further, at least five good souls associated with Heroes Haven are carrying the Olympic Torch; Austin Reynolds who supplied signs for Herston Halt in 2009, and the 300 free yellow Haven flags last year at the end of my 633 mile South West Coastal Path (SWCP) walk on 25 June 2011, will carry it in Greenwich. Then there is Alan Rowe MBE who is the drive behind the The Baton, which I carried round the SWCP will also ensure the flame gets on its way to London. Are there any more?

You can watch video of the opening of Heroes Haven on the BFBS site here

In my plan someone has also inserted on the next day (Sat 14 Jul 2012 which is also a Team Herston Day), run the Swanage Half Marathon with most of 3 (Harrogate) Sqn. It is likely that anyone who is associated with Swanage and the Heroes Haven who did carry the torch the previous day will walk the last 300m of the Half Marathon Route along Shore Road in Swanage (but I HAVE NOT yet sought permission to do this from the Carnival Committee). In the afternoon/evening I hope to be with friends either in The Globe or at home for a BBQ, or both (TBC).

The Olympic flame will come by road to Swanage, having been carried in Corfe Castle; it then will be carried from Swanage Middle School starting at 12:24. Although the direction is not clear, because the roads are one way in Swanage, the route must be past the end of Ancaster Road, along Victoria Ave, Shore Rd, High St and then back to Swanage Middle School. The Torch will then go by Road to Stoborough and will be carried from 14:21 through to Wareham.

As mentioned above, I hope a few friends will be around on the Fri, and also into Sat. If I’m running the Half Marathon, I will save most of my beer for Sat evening – be warned!

Please do get in touch if you would like to be part on another fantastic day in our beloved Swanage. Please do forward this information if you would like to.

Team Herston - 12 May 2012

Team Herston. Saturday 12th May: I am keen to enrol everyone who is able to come and assist on Swanage Railway on our usual monthly meet next weekend for WORK and/or drink BEER!!! There will be the usual 08:30 start on Sat 12 May 12, and soldiers from Blandford will also be attending.

Dave Harvey will arrive a day or two early and will be pushing on with the electrics at the Halt, so if any of the local residents can pop down and say hello & give a hand on Friday, that will be good.
The Diesel Gala is in fact three days long and will commence on Fri morning. One task we - collectively - have to do is to ensure there is lighting on the platform for both Friday + Saturday so the trains will stop (for us!) when we come back from the beer tent!

Accommodation. I am more than willing to put up any folk who would like to come down and stay on the Sat evening. There's a couple of camp beds, and lots of carpet, or grass next to my house if you want to bring a tent!

TH - May 2012

Team Herston / Topham Hatt, Saturday 12th May 2011.

16 members of the Royal Signals led by Sgt Pikendra joined the regulars and semi-regulars, Chris, Dave, Alan, Will, Jules & Paul all under the guiding eye and task-master Frank.

The most important task was to provide lighting for the platform to enable the trains to stop later in the evening. Temporary cabling and portable generators did the job!

Rewiring of the container by Dave, clearing part of the yard, recovering ¼mile of cable from under the platform and dredging the drainage ditch were the main tasks completed over the weekend.

Thelma & Doug did the planting and the tidying of the grounds while Will spent his time travelling up and down the line collecting for Heroes Haven raising an impressive £332 on Friday alone.

The event coincided with the Dorset Beer festival, held at Harman's Cross from 11th-13th. As reward for the effort put in, work finished earlier than usual so everyone could go visit the festival and 'relax'.