The South Devon Railway has announced that they have had confirmation that it has received a significant grant of £124,8000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The grant was made through the Heritage Emergency Fund which aims to help heritage organisations survive the coronavirus pandemic.
This grant will help fund a number of projects, and help with the costs of reopening the line, such as staff wages.
In the South Devon Railway's case, this will help with restarting services with The Polar Express trains at Christmas, the cost of this being £78,000 up to the end of November.
The grant will also cover the costs of other projects stopped by the pandemic. The South Devon Railways bid for the grant included more than £24,000 to upgrade the museum at Buckfastleigh.
There is another £22,000 to go towards the overhaul of GWR steam locomotive 1420, to allow the remaining firebox boiler plates, and new foundation ring to be manufactured.
Commenting on the grant award, SDR Limited Chairman Jon Morton said: “We are naturally thrilled to have received this fantastic grant support thanks to National Lottery players which is a timely shot-in-the-arm for us, and we are confident the projects will help get the much-loved South Devon Railway running again soon.”
All of this funding, along with the SOS Appeal, now means that the South Devon Railway has now raised more than £421,000, with is nearly 85% of their appeal target of £500,000.
The South Devon Railway would have normally have welcomed 80,000-85,000 visitors by this point, and their revenue deficit has been calculated to be over £1.2m, and is still rising.
Donations have been made in a number of ways, with the SOS Appeal now raising £297,114.74
- £169,732.25 – donations from the South Devon Railway members (a donation from a regular volunteer of £50,000 (£62,500 including Gift Aid) has been accepted in the last week).
- £75,735.91 – donations from various SDR Groups and the SDRA.
- £37,018.40 – Virgin Money Giving
- £8,886.08 – Facebook Appeal
- £5,741.90 – PayPal donations
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