Vandals 'caused havoc' after attacking safety equipment on the South Devon Steam Railway, leaving the trust with more than £1,000 damage to repair. The vandalism took place between Christmas and New Year's Eve, on the Buckfastleigh to Staverton line. Trespassers broke into a location box – which acts as a safety mechanism to stop trains crashing into each other – and disconnected the cables. Without this equipment signal boxes could not work, and operations manager John Haslam was forced to act as a 'human signal'. He travelled on every train as a visible sign to drivers they would not meet with another on Saturday's festive service. 'It was a great inconvenience, and very unproductive of my time, but an essential alternative safety measure.' he said. The next day, signal maintenance workers walked the three-and-a-half mile stretch to find the damaged location box, near Riverford Bridge. They also found a number of marker posts had been knocked over and one was recovered on the bank of the River Dart. Mr Haslam said that interfering in this way could have put passengers in grave danger and that it was a criminal offence. 'We take the matter seriously and have reported it to the police,' he said. A police spokesman said: 'It is a tremendous shame that something like this has happened to a trust which is run for the enjoyment of so many. 'We are asking for anyone with information to contact us as soon as possible, quoting reference JS/06/1796
