The district's own St Francis of Assisi has again rescued an animal in distress after a lamb was spotted lying in the path of an Easter special on the South Devon Railway.

Volunteer fireman Charlie Dennis was on the footplate of the 11.40am from Buckfastleigh with driver Lance Dale on Sunday when they saw the motionless animal between the rails. The train was brought to a rapid halt and the pair jumped down to see what was wrong.

Mr Dennis, a chimney sweep who last November was praised for rescuing animals from a neighbour's burning house, told the Advertiser: 'When I saw the lamb I thought right, here we go again. I thought it was dead at first. there didn't appear to any life in it at all.

'We took it up on to the footplate and it just slumped, so when we got moving again I hung it out of the cab to give it some air and cool it down and that seemed to help.'

Dick Wood, the railway's general manager, was on board and rang ahead to the Totnes Rare Breeds Farm to ask owner Barrie Tolley for help.

'Upon our arrival I picked up the very tired and grubby looking lamb from Lance and Charlie who were both very pleased not to have run the animal down with the train,' said Mr Wood. 'I suspect they were glad to hand it over because the poor animal was not looking at all well.'

But once in the farm's care the hapless creature soon picked up and the next day was brought out to be reunited with Mr Dennis, now dubbed 'Larry' by his colleagues.

'It panicked at first, perhaps because it remembered what had happened the previous day,' he said.

'But as soon as I had hold of him I knew he was on the mend and it was lovely because as we were going along the platform all the passengers were taking photos.'

The lamb, now nicknamed Lucky, is thought to have been separated from its mother and attempts are being made to identify the farm from which it came.