South Devon Railway - Easter_Report

The
South Devon Railway
Bumper Easter Weekend

The summer like weather over the Easter weekend brought out record crowds for the line's Transport Extravaganza and Real Ale Festival. The vintage vehicle display at Buckfastleigh was the best yet with over 120 entries each day. The trains ran crowded and largely on time with no major glitches. At Staverton the Real Ale Festival went down a treat with all 18 barrels of various tasty brews being totally consumed by midday Monday. The on train real ale bars also sold out. It is planned to make this event an annual or even bi-annual occurrence!

Something like 3500 visitors came to the Railway over the holiday weekend. The cafés were busy and the sunshine resulted in all the ice cream being sold out as well!
Both ends of the line were exceedingly busy with the Rare Breeds Farm at Totnes seeing a high number of visitors - this year joint tickets are available with the Railway and, at Buckfastleigh, the Butterfly Farm had an excellent couple of days.


3803 near Hood Bridge with GWR/BR(W) rake of coaches	D7612 at Caddaford with BR rake of coaches

5526 at Hood Bridge with BR(W) rake of coaches	D7612 & 5526 at Hood Bridge with BR rake of coaches
	All photographs © Pete Hotting 2007