Time Capsules - Old Photographs from the past

1427 at Buckfastleigh station, South Devon, 1958

This station was opened by the Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway on 1 May 1872. The railway was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway in 1897 and this in turn was nationalised into British Railways on 1 January 1948.

The station closed to passengers on 3 November 1958 although goods traffic on the line continued until 7 September 1962. This means that the passenger train in the photograph was one of the last to operate on this line.

See picture #759 for details of the Great Western Railway 1400 Class 0-4-2T locomotives, of which 1427 shown here is one.

The South Devon Railway Trust now operates tourist trains along this line, having taken over from the previous Dart Valley Light Railway, which reopened the line on 5 April 1969. The current railway is six and three quarter miles long, and stretches from Totnes (Littlehempston) station to Buckfastleigh station. The rolling stock preserved on the line includes GWR 1400 Class number 1420, so this photograph could presumably be re-created today with a locomotive of the same type.

Photo © The Step Back Through Time Collection
Text courtesy of Peter Langsdale