CONTINUING the saga of the early weeks of 1963, which while they were even colder than those we have experienced recently, also brought far more snow, much of it wind-driven into deep drifts.

Wednesday, January 9, 1963, had seen a return of the blizzard snow, which had engulfed an up goods train at Lydford, and also the 'N' class 2-6-0 sent to its assistance, as well as the two snowplough-fitted '700' class 0-6-0s sent to clear the line.

Thursday was devoted to hand-digging the snowdrifts, but by the end of the day, despite the best efforts of around 100 men, only the goods train at Lydford had been released.

It is said the army personnel, working from the Tavistock end, even tried using explosives, without any great success.

This is somewhat reminiscent of the attempts made to speed up the clearance of snowdrifts during similar conditions in the north of England in 1947.

On this occasion it was decided to try using an aircraft jet engine mounted on a flat wagon to blow the snow away.

While this had some success with the snow, the jet exhaust did not discriminate between snow and ballast, removing the latter with equal efficiency!

The trail was soon abandoned.

Work continued in Devon all through Friday, January 11, resulting in the release of the 'N' class 2-6-0 No.31838, which had gone out to help the goods train.

This was done in daytime temperatures not above minus 4 degrees C, with minus 8 degrees C recorded at Exeter airport that night.

My diary entry for Saturday, January 12, says: "Extremely cold all this week. Christmas snow still on the ground."

Indeed it was to remain for another month or more.

In an attempt to see something of what was going on, that Saturday I travelled up to Exeter on the up 'Cornishman', intending to go on to Okehampton.

But unfortunately the 'Cornishman' was running late, and I missed the connection to Okehampton by seconds.

Shades of the past, when the GWR and Southern Railway were never very eager to connect with each other. And perhaps shades of the future, now we've lost our direct trains from Paignton and Plymouth to Waterloo, both First Great Western and South West Trains may each regard their own timekeeping as more important than the other. We shall see.

By missing this connection, I may have missed out on seeing one of the snowplough '700's being hauled back to Okehampton, though this may not have been achieved before all daylight had gone.

Sunday, January 13, saw the eventual release of the other '700' class snowplough engine.

Though this was not achieved without a struggle, and despite lighting paraffin-based fires underneath the engine, it still took violent measures by another 'N' class 2-6-0 to release it from its four-day incarceration in the snow.

Although it had been expected that the line would re-open on Monday January 14, this was not possible, because a snow bank at Sourton had collapsed on to the line and it took all day to clear it again.

So it was Tuesday before normal service could be resumed — for the time being.