50-year journey taking in royalty, the Orient Express, Flying Scotsman and that Christmas Train of Lights

Formally known as the Torbay Steam Railway and then the Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway, the company now operates as the Dartmouth Steam Railway & River Boat Company.
MD John Johns ran a special private celebration train for invited guests. The Company contacted the original employees from 1973 from the Operating, Maintenance and Commercial departments to host them all at the special anniversary.
The DVR was among the first heritage standard gauge railways to re-open following the Beeching cuts. It was formed in 1966 and started with the Buckfastleigh to Totnes line in 1969. In 1971/72 they had the opportunity to take over the Paignton to Kingswear line, as a request from Devon County Council because British Rail were proposing to close the line. To raise the money for the purchase the company went public and issued shares in 1972, which was highly successful and the line was purchased outright.
DVR was completely unique in that there was no closure order issued. British Railways stopped running on the line on Saturday December 30, 1972, and DVR started running on Monday January 1, 1973.
As a requirement from the council, the company starting running commuter and school trains to serve Kingswear and Churston Grammar schools - the service came to an end two years later.
To promote the railway, the company was able to attain the world-famous locomotive, the famous Flying Scotsman, which had just been rescued by Sir William McAlpine from America having been completely overhauled at British Rail Derby Loco Works. It then spent 10 weeks running between Paignton and Kingswear. This really raised the profile of the line and a large number of special trains, charters and dining trains were operated while the loco visited the line. Twenty years later in 1993 this famous locomotive was again a visitor for the summer season.
The company expanded and bought Dart Pleasure Craft and GH Riddalls & Sons, both operating services between Dartmouth and Totnes. The company also purchased a number of buses so that the award-winning Round Robin excursion could be operated between Paignton, Dartmouth and Totnes. The company developed the business further by purchasing the Western Lady Ferry Service in 2012. This enabled sea going trips between Torquay, Brixham and Dartmouth.
During these 50 years, Dartmouth Steam Railway & River Boat Company has been host to two Royal train visits, the Orient Express, the Flying Scotsman, arranged the return of the paddle steamer Kingswear Castle on long term charter to her home waters on the River Dart (charter just extended by a further 25 years), refurbished one of the last two remaining Devon Belle observation carriages in the world and initiated the very first UK, highly successful Christmas Train of Lights - with other heritage railways following suit.
Colin Harmes, the footplate fireman from 1973 took out the first loco on the first day of running under the DVR operation.
He said: "This time 50 years ago it was all about to start. I can’t remember seeing the New Year in, as I had to get up about 02.00 for an 03.30 start at Paignton, because the then Dart Valley Railway was about to commence running the train service between Paignton and Kingswear. What I do remember is that the last British Rail train ran on the Saturday (December 30), and with no booked Sunday service the first train under new ownership was to be Monday January 1. At that time New Year’s Day was not a bank holiday, so just after 02.30 it was on the trusty Bonneville for an extremely cold run over to Paignton. When I got to the station yard all was in darkness, but luckily we had already sorted out lighting up wood and the engine, 4588, was fully coaled. Driver Fred Heath was groping around sorting out the cans of oil, and very soon we had it all under control and had a nice steady light up.”
“I cannot remember the exact running times but I think it was 07.30 first train down, and what must be borne in mind is that it was 1973! This was a time when heritage railways closed for the winter, so any steam movement was not the norm: there were no Santa trains, carols down the line or mince pie specials. That was all yet to come, so the local press made a bit of a news item out of steam engines on commuter trains. Whatever next."