Published:
9:00 AM March 14, 2021
(L to R) Bideford Railway Heritage Centre chairman Andrew Mills proudly shows off the Bideford nameplates with auctioneer Neil Booth
- Credit: BRHC
Bideford Railway Heritage Centre, its volunteers and members, are celebrating this week after its bid to bring nameplates from a steam locomotive called ‘Bideford’ back to the town was successful.
The heritage centres’ bid at a recent Railwayana auction was successful, with the centre purchasing a set of nameplates and the only smoke box number plate from ‘our’ Bulleid Pacific 34019 for display in the town.
The locomotive was named by the then mayor, William Chubb, at Bideford station in 1946. It was scrapped by British Railways in 1967, after pulling trains across the south of England, to places as far apart as Ramsgate and Padstow, but its nameplates were retained.