The runaway success of steam train co that grew

A leading Westcountry tourist attraction is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, after making impressive tracks over 2010.

This Easter, the South Devon Railway (SDR) Trust will mark the two decades since it acquired its heritage steam line, which runs between Buckfastleigh and Totnes, from Dart Valley Railways with a celebration event.

The anniversary follows a significant year for SDR, which during the period, secured the freehold on its railway line, acquired a specialist engineering firm and achieved an increase of almost four per cent on it passenger numbers. The heritage group now has an annual £2million turnover.

South Devon Railway Trust general manager Dick Wood said: “We’re all very proud of achieving our best ever results with a record number of passengers carried in 2010 and some major milestones passed in the last 12 months.”

SDR acquired the “uneconomic” heritage steam line from Dart Valley Railways, which had saved it from the swing of Dr Beeching’s axe in the 1960s, but by the 1980s felt that the enterprise was no longer viable.

The volunteers who had been operating the line and hoped to take it over, discovered a Buckfastleigh based company, the Dumbleton Hall Locomotive, had the charitable status necessary to help the enterprise to pay.

As newly formed company, the South Devon Railway Trust, it took over the Buckfastleigh branch line on January 1 1991. The company inherited only a leasehold on seven miles of railway line and no locomotives or rolling stock. “We just took on a length of track,” said Mr Wood. “Dart either sold or took the locos.”

Yet, over the past 20 years, SDR has built up a fleet of 13 rescued steam engines and 20 serviceable carriages.

Five of the locos are now fully operational and further three are anticipated to be up and running within a couple of years; restored to former glory by SDR’s volunteers and steam enthusiasts, together with a now 10-strong professional engineering team that is part of the railway’s growing commercial success.

In February 2010, the company finally secured the freehold of the seven miles of track for a peppercorn payment of £1. The real cost to SDR was a more substantial £1.1million in legal fees, over the 10 years it took for the complex acquisition to be achieved.

In August, the SDR Trust acquired Tavistock boiler repair company R K Pridham Engineering for an undisclosed sum, transferring its operations and three staff from Tavistock to a purpose built base at Buckfastleigh. The deal saw the South Devon Railway Engineering (SDRE) company’s team expand to 10 and has enabled it to expand the contract repair services it provides to other vintage railway companies.

SDR is also the only heritage steam company to work on behalf of mainline rail operators. It is one of just two organisations in the whole of the UK to specialise in replacement steel ‘tyres’ on engine and rolling stock wheels. Clients include FirstGroup.

“It’s an expanding business,” said Mr Wood. “The only way we can survive as a heritage railway is to look at all income streams.”

Profits from this business and SDR’s PLC, which runs its restaurant and model and gift shop, are administrated by the Trust and support the cost of maintaining the heritage line itself as a charity.

“We get a lot of business from the model railway sector,” said Mr Wood. “You could probably buy cheaper online, but people prefer to see them in the ‘flesh’ and the expertise of our staff. That’s what we’ve built out business on.”

The South Devon Railway association has around 2,500 members, around a fifth of whom volunteer on the railway and are a valuable asset to the Trust, which also employs up to 40 full and part time staff. There is huge support for the attraction from the local community, with visitor numbers boosted by loyal Devon and Cornwall enthusiasts who return year after year.

Trains operate 250 days a year on the line, which carried a record 112,000 passengers in 2010, including 10,000 during snow-bound December.

“Throughout all the mayhem, we didn’t miss a single train,” said Mr Wood.

“I’m not saying don’t get leaves on the line and frozen tracks, but we have no electronic difficulties to worry about. Steam railways are an enduring form of transport.”