The South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA) is the regional film archive for the South West of England. Established in 1993, SWFTA's core collection comprises of the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and TSW (Television South West). The archive also cares for a significant number of donated film collections, both amateur and professional, dating back to the early 1900s.
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The Devon Belle on the Dart Valley Railway
The 1638 Devon Belle steams through Staverton Bridge Station
From the collection of:
Overview
The 1638 Devon Belle, filmed entirely from the outside, steams with its four Pullman carriages through Staverton Train Station on the Dart Valley Railway line. The Devon Belle was a luxury express passenger service running between London Waterloo, Ilfracombe and Plymouth from 1947 to 1954. An observation car at the back of the train went a long way to restoring the scenic family outing image the Southern Railway aimed to portray after the Second World War.
Despite its initial popularity the service to Plymouth was dropped in 1949 and the service closed in 1954. There were two observation carriages and both were preserved, No. 13 joining the Dartmouth Steam Railway service and No. 14 moving to the Swanage Railway in Dorset after working in San Francisco, California with the Flying Scotsman tour in the early 1970s. The Dart Valley Railway is today the South Devon Railway operating between Totnes and Buckfastleigh.
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