ELATED volunteers are celebrating after winning a coveted civil engineering award for the restoration and upgrade of a three-mile section of Purbeck railway.

The work enabled a trial passenger train service to run from Swanage and Corfe Castle to the main line at Wareham for the first time in 45 years.

A registered charity for more than 40 years, the volunteer-led Swanage Railway has won the annual Institution of Civil Engineers’ (ICE) South West Engineering Award 2017 in ICE’s projects costing less than £1 million category.

Part of the Swanage Railway’s Project Wareham, the £950,000 work took place over two years between Norden station and half a mile short of Worgret Junction, on the main London to Weymouth line west of Wareham.

The transformation saw three miles of little used former Network Rail line restored to a passenger-carrying standard, overgrown embankments and drains cleared, a quarter-mile long embankment upgraded, while half a mile of new railway track was also laid.

Swanage Railway Trust chairman Gavin Johns said: “I am delighted by this award and feel very proud of the excellent team effort.

“This prestigious award recognises their hard work and dedication – it’s a real feather in their caps because the Institution of Civil Engineers Awards is the benchmark for recognising excellence in civil engineering in the United Kingdom.”