The South Devon Railway (SDR) has announced that it has received confirmation of a significant National Lottery grant of £124,800 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
It will be used for a number of exciting heritage projects, all of which will help the scenic seven-mile former GWR branch line recover from the enforced closure of the railway during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The grant was awarded through The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Emergency Fund which aimed to help heritage organisations survive and recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The SDR has previously had National Lottery support for the replacement deck of Nursery Pool Bridge in 2002.
The Heritage Emergency Fund grant will fund a number of separate projects and to provide immediate help with the costs of re-opening the line by covering certain items, such as the wages of essential staff brought back from furlough to prepare for trains returning. In the SDR’s case, this will be for re-starting services with the ‘Polar Express™’ trains for the Christmas period. The costs of this task were identified as £78,097 up to the end of November, which is the date limit set by the Emergency Fund.
Details of the return to work will be communicated directly with the staff involved with regards to the order, start dates and priority tasks. We also have to ensure workplaces are COVID-19 safe and have appropriate risk assessments in place.
The National Lottery grant will also cover the costs of SDR projects stopped by the CV19 loss of income, but which are essential to protect the railway going forward. To this end, the SDR’s bid included £24,523 for essential work identified to upgrade the railway’s museum at Buckfastleigh and enable it to re-open. .
There was a further £22,180 within the grant total towards moving the overhaul of iconic former GWR steam ‘auto’ loco No.1420 forward to cover the manufacture of the remaining firebox boiler plates and a new foundation ring.
These are critical to enable the SDR to build the new boiler using their own skilled staff and keep our loco restoration timeline on track to maintain future operations.
The grant is made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, and is a considerable boost to the SDR which sadly has been unable to run any trains for over six months now.
The SDR has also applied for a further grant from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) Culture Recovery Fund too for a further £332,000 towards ongoing costs, which is currently under review.
The South Devon Railway is the oldest heritage railway in the West Country having re-opened in 1969, and usually welcomes up to 100,000 visitors every year. It is a registered charity and has a small number of paid staff and over 600 volunteers who run the railway every day from March to October, plus at Christmas and New Year too.
The SDR has an extensive, well-equipped workshop which repairs the line’s own locomotives as well as undertaking complex, contract engineering jobs for other heritage railways and owners, plus main-line Train Operating Companies too. As a result, it is well placed to make the new boiler plates for GWR loco No.1420 and bring the popular steam engine back to life soon. More follows
Commenting on the grant award, SDR Limited Chairman Jon Morton said: “We are naturally thrilled to have received this fantastic grant support thanks to National Lottery players which is a timely shot-in-the-arm for us, and we are confident the projects will help get the much-loved South Devon Railway running again soon.”
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Photo credit: South Devon Railway
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