Heritage Activities
Heritage services generally operate between Meldon Quarry and Sampford Courtenay with extension to Bow or the DR/Network Railway boundary on special event days. The former stations at North Tawton and Bow remain closed to passengers. Both stations are in private ownership and have no public access. The heritage service uses a variety of rolling stock which include a Class 205 "Thumper" unit restored to its original livery and number. Services also operate using restored diesel locomotives in push-pull trains and top and tail mode with a variety of coaching and ex EMU stock. A Steam service also operates occasionally. Volunteer support for the railway is provided by Dartmoor Railway Supporters Association (DRSA). Volunteers assist the railway operation in many of its activities.
British American Railway Services Ltd, a new company created by Iowa Pacific Holdings of Chicago, became the new owner of the Dartmoor Railway CIC on 4 September 2008. The company announced its intention to develop freight, passenger and tourist services on the railway.
A proposal was made to restore and reopen the disused down platform at Yeoford. Thus far it has not been possible to agree arrangements with Network Rail who own Yeoford Station and the section of line from near the site of the former Coleford Junction towards Yeoford and Crediton. If this were eventually achieved it could allow the extension of Dartmoor Railway passenger services and provide the possibility of interchange with the Exeter - Barnstaple "Tarka line".
Read more about this topic: Dartmoor Railway
Famous quotes containing the words heritage and/or activities:
“Flowers ... that are so pathetic in their beauty, frail as the clouds, and in their colouring as gorgeous as the heavens, had through thousands of years been the heritage of children—honoured as the jewellery of God only by them—when suddenly the voice of Christianity, counter-signing the voice of infancy, raised them to a grandeur transcending the Hebrew throne, although founded by God himself, and pronounced Solomon in all his glory not to be arrayed like one of these.”
—Thomas De Quincey (1785–1859)
“When mundane, lowly activities are at stake, too much insight is detrimental—far-sightedness errs in immediate concerns.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)