The use of Southern Region Bulleids on the Western Region main line between Exeter St. Davids and Plymouth North Road in the 'fifties was in order to familiarise the Southern footplatemen with the line between those two locations so that in the event of a blockage on the Southern line via North Dartmoor and Okehampton there would be an alternative route open to the Southern services. Peter Kerslake cannot now recall the Southern line being blocked in those days, but on 22nd November 1953 the reverse happened, when a derailment at Dainton of the early morning freight from Newton Abbot to Plymouth Marsh Mills yards resulted in a twelve hour blockage of the Western line, with all their services being forced to use the Southern line to and from Exeter. This at Teignmouth looks like the holiday season and Westward Ho has a Southern Region headcode disc in position, but displays it to indicate a stopping passenger working, rather than a route indication which would have been the practice had it been on a Southern line.