4555 RETURNS TO OLD SOUTH DEVON HOME
1960s-style Dart Valley reunion as ‘45XX’ rejoins Nos. 6412 and 1369.
In an appropriate follow-up to its 50th anniversary year, the South Devon Railway has hosted ‘Small Prairie’ No. 4555 – the first engine to arrive on the line in preservation.
The Churchward 2-6-2T, part of the Dartmouth Steam Railway fleet, was the star guest at the SDR’s ‘Old Friends Reunited’ gala on March 14/15, the title referring to the fact that it was meeting up with two other stalwarts from the early days of the then Dart Valley Railway – resident ‘64XX’ and ‘1366’ pannier tanks Nos. 6412 and 1369, the latter making its debut in GWR ‘shirtbutton’ livery following overhaul.
Delivered to Buckfastleigh along with Collett 0-6-0 No. 3205 on October 2 1965, No. 4555 went on to haul the railway’s official reopening train in 1969 – but last worked on the Buckfastleigh line in the 1980s. Its short reappearance, for the gala weekend and photographic charters, preceded a move to the East Somerset Railway for a two-year loan.
Pairings of No. 4555 with a three-coach GWR rake, No. 6412 with autocoach No. W233 and No. 1369 with a GWR goods train, drew in an estimated 1,000 visitors and 700-800 passengers, in what proved to be one of the last galas before the countrywide closures owing to the coronavirus outbreak.
SDR PR & Business Development Manager Dick Wood said: “We had a really good, busy and hopefully profitable event after costs, which will help stave the proverbial ‘wolf from the door’ for a short while.
“It came at the end (hopefully!) of a very long, wet and miserable winter which has depressed everyone; it was the start of the main daily running season for us after the short February half-term week of running over only half of the line; and No. 4555 was a big draw as it had been the branch engine in both the BR and early Dart Valley years.
“Many people simply wanted to get out ahead of the expected Covid-19 shutdown to enjoy themselves. I heard many similar comments that ‘we just wanted to get out of the house and enjoy this event before we can’t go anywhere fairly soon’.
“Operationally, we had a few challenges with timekeeping, some perhaps down to ‘rustiness’ of some staff which always happens during the first week of running after the closure period.
“The traffic levels were quite good on Saturday but much quieter on Sunday because of the awful weather and advancing fears over Covid-19. Several people rang to tell us they had planned to come but felt the risk too great. Others rang to ask if we were open and were pleasantly surprised to discover we were.
“Overall, given all the current external influences, we think the weekend went as well as could be expected and we certainly made the right decision to run it. Had it been scheduled for a couple of weeks further on, we may have been having different conversations about it. What happens from here onwards does not look too rosy.”