News

Dana Wiffen makes a 400 mile day trip to Dartmoor.

This was our second trip on UK Railtours, their charter train was due to leave Waterloo early on Saturday 29th October 2011.

It was an early start to get to Waterloo on time and safely aboard the 8.02am, the very long train comprising of mainly dining cars and double headed by diesel left on time.

It is a long journey of almost 200 miles to Okehampton, via Exeter with two stop-offs at Salisbury and Yeovil Junction, where we were able to alight. Charter trains have to fit in with scheduled trains and with a track ahead our train had to wait for 20 minutes until a through train had passed.

Yeovil Junction is an interesting station and has a preserved side with turntable which is open most Sundays for enthusiasts.

Photo: Dana Wiffen

Then it was on through Axminster and Honiton with another short stay at Exeter-St-Davids before passing Crediton and finally changing from network rail to The Dartmoor Railways line stopping at Sampford Courtenay Station for those that were travelling on to Castle Drogo.

We continued to Okehampton and the wonderfully preserved station.

Photo: Dana Wiffen

From here you could travel onto Meldon Station to catch the wonderful views from Meldon Viaduct and walk along the now closed line that heads towards Tavistock over Dartmoor, passing under many railway bridges and closed remnants of railway halts.

Up to this point the weather had been wonderful warm and sunny giving the additional treat of the autumn colours from the train windows.

Photo: Dana Wiffen

As we had visited this section back in September we decided to take the optional trip into North Devon and visit The Launceston Steam Railway, but Dartmoor and North Devon are a law to themselves with weather, and it soon became cloudy at Okehampton and misty and wet as the coaches drove towards Launceston.

A narrow gauge railway has been built on a section of what used to be part of the North Devon Railway, the three coaches all received a warm welcome from the volunteers of the Launceston railway and they had opened especially for our visit.

There was plenty of steam on view for everyone and two trips to cater for the coach load of visitors, with time for coffee and cake and buying gifts from the souvenir shop before returning to Okehampton and home.

It was a long journey of nearly six hours each way but the carriages are very comfortable and there is a superb buffet. And with a normally pretty good crowd of people, it’s not like being stuck on a commuter train those hours, but maybe it's not for everyone.

We eventually arrived home after 11pm so it was a long day but both The Dartmoor and Launceston Railways are great to visit.

Hawkinge Gazette and Channel Coast News 2011©