TRAIN enthusiasts at Bere Ferrers are getting all fired up about bringing a steam locomotive back to life at Bere Ferrers.

The Tamar Belle Heritage Centre has owned the 1938 shunting loco 'Hilda' since 1996, but it has not been steamed up for 40 years. All that will change next spring when the project comes to fruition.

A new fire box is being made at Buckfastleigh and work on the boiler is being carried out in Dorset.

The centre has applied for planning permission from West Devon Borough Council to construct a building for storing the engine, which has in the past has always stood out in the open on the demonstration siding at Bere Ferrers Station.

Recycled materials will be used to build the shed from a railway station at Kingsbridge.

Volunteer Chris Grove said that for the past 15 years there had always been a desire to get the train working again as a steam engine and thanks to a community project that was now on the cards.

'Lots of people have put money in for the restoration of the loco and we are selling shares in the engine so everyone gets ownership of it,' he said.

'Once it is up and running, a lot of money will have been spent on it so it needs to be kept under cover.'

The 0-4-0 saddle tank engine was made by Peckett and Sons Ltd, of Bristol, and was used at Beacon Hill Plasterworks in Newark until 1971 when it was replaced with a conveyor belt.

The redundant engine was then stored at the Great Central Railway at Loughborough before coming to Bere Ferrers.

Mr Grove said the steam train would go up and down the 800ft demonstration siding and be able to pull something behind that visitors could sit in.

He said the engine was not big enough to ever pull a train along the Tamar Valley Line, which runs from Gunnislake to Plymouth, and the cost of having licence plates to run on a Network Rail line would go into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

There are still opportunities to buy £500 shares in 'Hilda' and money can be paid in instalments. Anyone interested can contact Chris Grove on 07813 360066.