Locos to swap identities - for just one day!As part of the celebrations to mark 40 years since the reopening of the South Devon Railway as a steam line, a visiting loco is to masquerade as the engine that pulled the first train in the preservation era. Visiting GWR pannier tank locomotive no 6435 from the Bodmin & Wenford Railway in Cornwall will, for just one day - 5th April, the actual 40th anniversary of the running of the first train - double as class sister no 6412, the engine that pulled the first train. Both locomotives meet again after some years apart. 6412 and 6435 were purchased for preservation at Buckfastleigh in 1965, straight from BR service. They were regular performers on the line until they both went to the Paignton & Dartmouth Railway. 6435 was sold to Bodmin last year in working order. 6412 was sold to the West Somerset Railway in the 1970s but last year was bought by the SDR and has returned home for restoration and rebuilding.
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