South Devon Railway operated a ‘snow’ timetable yesterday, March 18, and also helped some people home who’d been trapped in their cars by the wintry showers, as well as a few cold cyclists.

Alan Taylor, who was helping run the railway, said: ‘Saturday went reasonably well, but due to the bad weather forecast we came up with a ‘snow’ timetable.

‘Sunday dawned without the overnight predicted fall so we decided to run the normal two-train service which started off well enough.

‘But when the 10.45 am train from Buckfastleigh reached Staverton it started snowing heavily, although not sticking to the roads or rails.

‘By the time it made Totnes it was blizzard conditions and two inches on the rails and everywhere else.’

Alan said ‘in driving snow’ the crew managed to clear the points to get the loco to run round but visibility was diminishing rapidly.

He added: ‘Then it got held at Staverton on the return as the electric motor points had failed but, with a bit of juggling, they managed to cross and got back to Buckfastleigh 30 mins down.

‘By this time in heavy snow, it was really time to think about the rest of the day, so a decision was taken to run one train ’top and tailed’ (with a loco each end so no running around at terminals) for the rest of the day which worked successfully.

‘I understand we managed to get at least two people home to Totnes who’d been stranded by the road conditions at Buckfastleigh, plus some cyclists.’