The scenic South Devon Railway has appointed Sarah Anne Harvey as its first ‘Photographer in Residence’ on the seven mile heritage steam railway line, which runs from Buckfastleigh to Totnes Littlehempston.

Sarah began her photographic career in Birmingham and then worked in Surrey and London for twenty five years before moving to Devon eight years ago.  She will admit only to have been in the photographic profession for ‘around 40 years’.   Her first book “Brixham and Beyond” was published in 2008, the same year she began to photograph the South Devon Railway.  But she effectively became a full time railway volunteer in 2009 when she created a complete photographic record of the SDR’s 40^th Anniversary Year, which celebrated the re-opening of the line on April 5^th 1969.

Whilst most railway photographers tend to only photograph trains in action Sarah has drawn upon the experiences of her long career in portraiture to create an extensive collection of the Railway’s volunteer force.  Sarah comments:  “It is the hard work that the SDR’s workers do behind the scenes that enables the trains to run efficiently and ensures that passengers can thoroughly enjoy their day out on the railway, yet is a subject so often ignored by photographers.”

Additionally in June of this year she created an ‘unofficial’ website for the railway – www.sdronline.org.uk -  which provides an almost daily update of news and a raft of articles and photo reports of all aspects of life on the South Devon Railway.  The website has quickly become a firm favourite with web browsers, railway enthusiasts and SDR volunteers alike with a hit rate that would be envied by many.

Sarah is joined by Maureen Douglas-Green, a Plymouth based photographer, who is appointed Assistant Photographer in Residence; the two having worked together for nearly three years.  Maureen’s speciality is botanical and nature photography which will be of particular benefit to the railway in providing a permanent record of what is effectively an important seven mile stretch of nature conservancy unaffected by modern farming methods.  In 2009 Maureen was awarded second place in the Plant Portrait category of the Royal Horticultural Society’s International Photographic Competition; with a photograph of a moss which can also be found on the South Devon Railway.

In a day of appalling road conditions and weather which brought Devon’s South Hams and Torbay areas to a complete standstill for hours, the South Devon Railway managed to run two of its three scheduled Santa by Steam services.  Wednesday December 23,  final day of 2009 Santa specials, could not have been worse as daylight brought chaotic weather conditions to the county – worst hit being the South Hams and the whole of Torbay.

The story begins with overnight lows in the county of -4°C bringing road surface temperatures plummeting to -7°C and then at approximately 7.30am rain showers which froze instantly as they hit the road surface.  The rain washed away the grit and salt that had been put down during the night and main routes, such as the A38, became mile after mile of black ice skating rinks.  By 8.00am multi vehicle crashes were bringing the A38 from Buckfastleigh to Chudleigh to a complete standstill, and subsequently many hundreds of vehicles did not move for up to three hours.  Torbay suffered the same fate with the closure of the ring road and the A385 Paignton – Totnes road due to accidents, with Totnes quickly becoming gridlocked to add to the problems.

The combination of traffic problems in both areas effectively sealed Buckfastleigh and the railway off from a high percentage of volunteers and staff booked to work the Santa By Steam services.  Individual stories of heroic attempts to reach the railway are many.  John Haslam and Ted Parrott tried every way possible to first get out of Torquay before they could even head towards Buckfastleigh and finally, two hours after leaving home, had to admit defeat having got to a dead end at Berry Pomeroy.  One volunteer and his car ended up in a ditch.    Dick Wood said “I got there at 11.40 in the end after a hellish drive, especially after trying to go cross country in the Disco and even that had real problems when I went down a steep hill sideways in low box and 1st gear!”

Charlie Fennamore walked from Ashburton to Buckfastleigh, only managing to stay upright by wearing a pair of socks over his boots – how more dedicated can you get than that?  Peter Bevan walked from Ipplepen, often across fields to avoid the frozen roads, to Staverton to open up the station; and that's a reasonable distance to walk under fine conditions!  If you have similar stories then please email us at info@sdronline.org.uk .

Meanwhile at Buckfastleigh Station Ian Short, rostered as Station Master, Ryan Maynard and Ian Yolland were taking as many telephone calls as they could from passengers who were stuck in the traffic chaos.  With such a shortage of train staff, crews and signalmen Ian made the decision at 9.30 to cancel running the 10.30 departure, which under the circumstances and for all the safety and common sense reasons was all he could do.

Those passengers who had managed to get to Buckfastleigh for the first train were assured that everything was being done to run the 1.00pm and 3.20pm trains and that they would be guaranteed seats.  The 16 adults and 13 children who decided to stay were escorted to the Refreshment Rooms and were rewarded with a special early visit from Santa (in the shape of Mick Stevens) who was loaded with presents.  It didn’t take long before Santa was leading a sing song to keep our passengers entertained.  Yet another instance of a sterling effort by a volunteer on behalf of the railway!

With arrangements in hand to gather bodies from every imaginable department on the railway a skeleton crew was put together in order that the two remaining trains could run.  Steve from Engineering found himself in control of Buckfastleigh South signal box whilst Charlie Fennamore was conveyed to Bishops Bridge box by light engine, since the roads around Staverton were largely impassable.  Conditions there were so appalling  that the enginemen had to put down hot ashes from the firebox before Charlie could walk the short distance from the locomotive to the box.  Young Ben Greening deserves a mention too, for jumping from one footplate to another to keep the trains running. 

There were so many instances today, of those volunteers who were actually able to get to Buckfastleigh, turning their hands to any job that needed doing – often jobs they had not done before.  Since we opened this website in June we have banged on about the volunteers; their expertise, their friendliness, their willingness to go that little bit further to make our passengers’ day out the best experience in Devon.  If ever there was a day to prove our words then Wednesday 23^rd December is that day.