Join us on a thrilling ride from Plymouth to Exeter, exploring Devon’s rail history and its historic viaducts. Witness the railway revival that’s breathing new life into old tracks!
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Join Rob Bell as he uncovers the hidden stories of Britain’s lost railways, exploring the landscapes and histories shaped by a vanished network. This series goes beyond trains, delving into the nation’s past, the transformative impact of the railways, and the new worlds born from their remnants. It’s a journey through the tracks that once connected the heart of Great Britain.
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[Music] a century ago Britain’s rail network was the Envy of the world you could get a train from almost anywhere to almost anywhere else but many of these lines were considered unprofitable and in the 1960s Dr beaching was recruited by the government to come up with a plan that would stop the railways from hemorrhaging money he famously brought the axe down on over 4,000 Mi of track and 2,000 station almost overnight 30% of the network was closed down 50 years on I’m going on a journey to discover just a few of those lost [Music] lines this time I’m in Devon walking the Lost Railway between Plymouth and exitor Via Dart mall it’s a 50 m journey in total a train still runs from Plymouth to beer Alon but from beer Alston onwards this goods and passenger Railway is lost for 18 miles almost to Oak Hampton the line started in Plymouth one of the most historic ports on the south coast it ran through the Fertile farmlands in the heartland of West Devon and across a unique iron Viaduct with a 150 ft drop f it let go I’ll see first hand where the very best Railway ballast came from I want to understand why so many people want to bring this lost Railway back to life and how they’ve already succeeded in restoring the rest of the line to [Music] exitor one of the biggest challenges walking lost Railways can be getting started finding the exact point where the old track bed begins they can be completely overgrown and sometimes have been built right on top of once you find it you’re well away especially if you’ve got an old map that shows you the exact route where the Old Railway used to go that’s why I’ve come here I’m looking for the garage that belongs to house number six and here it is and it’s in here that I’m hoping to find my start point for the journey walking the Lost section of the London and Southwestern Railway hello hello is it BR good afternoon it is nice to see you nice to see you come on in thank you very much look at this thanks Bruce oh this is amazing Bruce is a model Railway Enthusiast I’m hoping to find some Clues as to where to start start my journey amongst his meticulous scale model of beer Alon station what I am trying to do is walk the route that the old line took um and the tricky thing for me is finding the point where today’s Railway stops and the lost Railway that’s no longer there begins and it’s not always easy because you’re trying to find the start point of something that’s no longer there anymore yeah the first thing Bruce does is emulate the train I’ll be coming in on from Plymouth which still runs to this day this could be you from your train from Plymouth excellent the train journey from Plymouth to beer Alston is about 8 Miles when you arrive on the train at beer olston you need to head that way just as little choppie here will fantastic BR have you made this especially he was made over the weekend and once you get to the end if you’re down the ramp and along the track for about 200 M and then you’ll come to a dead end and to carry on is walking all the way to Oak Campton field so Bruce has given me an idea of where I need to head now I need to do it for real I’m just off the train from Plymouth and I’m here at the real beer olon station this is as far as the train comes in this direction these days but having spoken with Bruce and seen all this on a miniature scale pretty confident I know where the old track bed runs it’s this [Music] way ah bit stuck here well that’s that’s Obviously good to see Railway infrastructure but this fence is not what I wanted to find here and that’s obviously overgrown so the track went on through there that’s all overgrown now but this fence is blocking me through here that big Bank means I can’t go up that side that fence goes all the way to the bank over there I can’t get through here and you can’t just go climbing over fences okay it’s a very think um so I want to keep following the line on a roughly Northerly direction through here but because of this obstruction I think I might have to take a bit of a detour that’s all right this is all part of the adventure with walking these these lost Railways this is in its very nature it’s partly lost my job is to try and find it again so I’m thinking if I head back out from the station and try and find some roads which may cross the line so here we are uh where am I yeah here we are so from beer Al actually this is good okay this is good I’ve got a good few roads off of here that cross and pass either under or over the railway so that’s where I’m heading now back out and along the road see if I can get back onto this line it might not look like it but this is one of the most complete lost Railways in the country overgrown it may be but uniquely all the track bed is still intact there are people up and down the line campaigning for it to be reopened and that’s because so many of the transportation needs that motivated the building of this Railway 130 years ago still exist today h this is what I’ve been looking for some brick walls along this road because this will be a bridge over the Old Railway line if my map Reading is correct anyway yes look at that my goodness that’s a long way down and it’s some very steep embankments woo good Echo too at this beautiful brick work stunning Al the last Bridge allowed me to go over the top of the Railway this one allows me to come underneath it so they’re different in that respect but I’m worried they might be the same in that I cannot get up onto the railway still ah ah looking for a nice easy way up back onto the line I say back on hardly been on it yet this looks like it might have been walked try this this is definitely the easiest way up to the line or down to the line I’ve had yet it’s definitely not proper foot forth it yet all right bit of a track see how we go glad I got trousers on there’s a lot of stinging nettles here hard goinging though it is I’m finally on the track bed ouch and with 17 miles to go who knows where this will lead [Music] me I’m following the route of the London and Southwest railway from Plymouth to exitor but I’ve barely walked a mile from where I first started at beer Alon following the routs of long forgotten Railways can be extremely challenging the lines have been closed for more than 50 years and if the land’s been left unattended they can become extremely overgrown and in summer virtually impossible ouch a couple of Miles later I’ve been forced back on the road sadly not every Viaduct is safe to walk on but by keeping sight of the Lost line at least I can see I’m heading in the right direction a thickly wooded Avenue of trees conveys the Lost Railway into the town of Tavistock and for the first time on this journey I can easily walk the track bed thanks to a public walkway across the Great tavestock Viaduct it breathes life back into this gigantic structure imagine people’s excitement when steam trains first ran across this Railway in the Sky towering as it does above the ancient streets below Tavistock is the birthplace of Francis Drake the man who was playing bowls when the Spanish Armada was spotted coming up the English Channel surrounded by Rich Farmland it’s always been an important Market Town lavish buildings like the town hall are also a reminder that by the 19th century it became extremely wealthy from the proceeds of a nearby copper mine for all all these reasons and more Tavistock was a perfect candidate for the railway and still would be today but I’ve stepped off the line and into the center of town to try and Sample one of Dart Moore’s Delicacies in the Heyday of the railways rabbit was an extremely popular and abundant meat dartmore was full of them both wild and farmed the warrening industry as it was known offered a cheaper alternative to other meats it’s been calculated that from a station nearby at one point there were more Dead Rabbits traveling on trains to London than there were people and I’m hoping some of that rabbit’s still available cuz I’m Keen to try it out harmer’s butchers have been in business since 1962 6 years before the railway was closed so they should know a thing or two about rabbits hello hello Rob this Duncan how you nice to meet you very nice to meet you you good good to see you this is lovely all this D I tell you what though there is one question that I need to ask you first up do you still serve rabbit we do definitely you do y all year round lovely year is it it’s still a popular meat in these parts is is rabbit still in demand still very popular when when we can get it fresh then we sell it in the counter but this time of year we sell it frozen always keep it frozen so um have you got any have you got any around SE let me just let me go and get a couple yeah let’s have a look there oh here we go that is a Frozen whole rabbit this is the whole rabbit that’s the whole rabbit and people still come in today and and will ask for for rabbit meat y they do yeah it’s normally the older generation that buy it what do you think that is well I I think if you go back to the World War World War II where meat was scarce rabbit wasn’t and how how are they served up today how how do you tend to serve them today if you come up this way I have rabbit pies they look very tempting and I it it’s about the time of day where I am getting a bit peckish be able to sample one course you can yeah no problem at all thank you very much one pies are my weakness and these look [Music] delicious oh don’t ni cracking let put a whole new bent on meat pies for me bring back the railways bring back the rabbit delicious after tavestock the Lost Railway line hugs the western edge of dartmore all the way to Oak Hampton I’ve come up to take a Peak at this glorious Wilderness rabbits still Thrive here although not in the numbers they used to too high for the railways and indeed for most of the population just 33,000 people live amongst this rugged landscape yet it covers an area eight times the size of Manchester strong winds acidic soils and an abundance of granite outcrops mean that dartmore has remained largely untamed and untouched the next station on the Lost line is brentor a village topped by a curious Rocky outcrop it backed down the hill to the track bed and civilization for me trains don’t like [Music] Hills I’m back on the road again this is all private land around here so I actually walk the line but I’m expecting to cross the line on this road here very soon actually right where the station was and this is actually called Station Road so it should be around here somewhere hang on I caught this out the corner of my eye right well that’s definitely the station that almost still looks like get open let’s going to have a look see what’s out here interesting facts for you whilst we’re here Station Road is actually the second most used road name in Britain first one being High Street now what’s going on here I mean it’s all given away here look Station House that is a station yeah we go hello there hello hi yeah I’m Rob hello I’m Richard hi hello Richard not can to help you um I’m just um I’m walking a lost Railway line the Lost Railway line between beer Aon and Oak Hampton right and kind of there are bits along the way that interest me particularly old stations okay and to the right place then well this is the old station I mean it’s pretty obvious right yeah absolutely and walking past the road I I knew roughly well I knew I was expecting to see the station there right but I wasn’t expecting to see anything like this it’s almost as if it never closed down this is or was brentor station until recently it was a B&B but the new owner Richard Meredith is restoring it with the kind of forensic skills that might be applied to an old Master wow look at all this we’re standing here just underneath this can of be here so so that building there is what you see behind you there Richard’s station is like a period fil film set complete with old gas lamps level Crossings and porters trolley loaded up with heavy luggage I’m not a raway Enthusiast it’s not as if I’m a train spotter or anything like that trains themselves don’t actually really float my boat it’s purely the historical aspect of it I wanted when we were looking to buy something we were looking at an old church okay or or a old school Victorian school yeah there there something about the Victorian area that may be interested they built things to last from everything they did was properly engineered it is fantastic you must get a huge amount of enjoyment by having this then is that is that what it’s about just enjoy partly just enjoy it yeah yeah yeah just I listen to what can you hear nothing you know just so quiet yeah and I pray absolutely pray that they don’t open it up again cuz you’re probably aware there is there’s a quite a decent movement behind it but yeah I know tell me about it not everybody’s campaigning to bring this line back to life and with everything Richard’s done to restore this glor ious station who can blame him for fearing he might lose it where are we here then well this is the main ticket office um what would have happened here is the public would have come in through these doors through here okay yeah which are sealed now they’ have come in through there yeah and then they’ have gone to the ticket hatch there this is brilliant it’s fantastic isn’t it which obvious we know use it as a lounge but so I was going to say I was going to say so this is the main ticket hle also looks like yeah your living room absolutely um what an amazing features to have in the middle of your living fantastic isn’t it is there actually a ticket office behind there or is that yeah want to see it a look yeah I’ll take and show you okay this is probably the most historical part of the whole property when I first came and saw the house this is the bit that really was like wow this sells it to me it’s fantastic this just gets better and better it gets better and better yeah these are tickets here so you would obviously they’d come there they’d ask say where they wanted to go yeah take the appropriate ticket from the the Box stamp it with the ticket machine typic stamping machine here you know pass it over take the money and and away they go your your station here is like a Living Museum yeah yeah Richard’s Great Western Railway map reminds me that lidford is the next station on my lost Railway route known for possessing the deepest and most idilic gorge in the whole of the Southwest the railway managed to transform a local Beauty Spot into a national mustsee destination it was the upper class escapades 18th century tourism that first truly celebrated the natural beauty and mystical charm of this spot much of which centered around the dramatic centerpiece of lford gorge the white lady waterfall and it is a truly impressive Cascade it’s unlike anything most people would have experienced anywhere else at the time but it was the arrival of the Railway Station in lford in 1874 which brought tourists here in their droves and from all walks of life suddenly day trips for the working classes from the likes of exitor or Plymouth were easy and affordable and you can imagine their reactions when confronted with [Music] this as I progress on my journey I’m round about here near lidford station now now my lost Railway the London Southwestern continues up Northeast to Oak Hampton but if you can see here there’s a split and another Railway heads West out through lawston it’s another lost Railway and I’m actually on it right here now you can see these deep cuttings on each side of me now I’m taking this small diversion let’s call it West out here to a place called lton because there’s a factory there that’s been in operation for over a hundred years that was only originally built there at lifon because of the existence of this Railway and I’ve got a strong feeling it’s going to take me right back to my [Music] childhood my fian friends in the field here give a a bit of a clue as to why I’ve taken this detour up towards lawston Devon is of course famous for its Dairy produce in fact the southwest of England is home to around a third of the country’s dairy cows but it’s one product in particular that I’ve come to [Music] explore I’m on my favorite kind of Road St Road in the village of lifton and I’ve come to meet Tony Simmons very good to meet you very good to meet you um I finding it a little hard to actually figure out exactly where I was big clue for me was the fact that um got Station Road along there that I was walking along um but I couldn’t really take the full the exact line of the route because your great big Factory here was in the way oh right so the factory is built on the rout of the of the foral Railway and uh we’re stood on on the railway at the moment this road is this road is the path of the original railway the railway so let’s have a look at this there’s the Factory and there’s a level cross is that a level crossing looks like a level crossing we actually stood in front of the the the spot at the moment that’s just fantastic so if you say so that that’s heading up towards laon yes so I’m coming this way from lford and so that is where the train went across this level crossing and through what is now the site of the factory it’s quite hard to imagine that now isn’t it certainly is yeah that’s yeah and the house on our left is just in the side of this picture the old station Master’s house and that’s this one here that’s this one still standing here and that’s yeah let’s have a look that’s the station Master’s house still there see I love all of this you have to know your history you could quite easily walk past all of this without having any clue that the railway used to be here Could you actually these I mean these these triangular rofes of the factory are quite distinct you still and they’re still there you can see one of them uh through the Gap and uh yeah they were uh this was the factory as it was beginning to be built in the late 1950s H the current factory gotcha I can now reveal that the product I’ve come to explore is none other than rice pudding the Ambrosia Factory owes its very existence to the railway it was built alongside lifton station for the express purpose of bringing milk and rice into the factory and dispatching cans of rice pudding out to the rest of the country Alfred Morris opened the factory in 1917 52 years after the railway was first laid here initially it was used to make milk powder then just before the outbreak of the second world war Morris’s team invented a way of making rice pudding in a can unopened it lasted for years and so became a wartime Staple in Red Cross Parcels distributed to prisoners of War all around the world we got all our empty cans here so then first things first is rice going in is it so the rice is filled on this machine yeah um into each of the cans and the rice is raw at this point and this is the uh the quantity of rice that goes into each pan hey the process is fascinating to follow a milk and sugar solution is added to the rice and the can is then sealed we don’t want anything getting in or out of the can because we’re going to use the can if you like a more pressure cooker to cook and sterilize the product and kill all the bacteria the contents are cooked inside the can in massive ovens then cooled and cooked again only then do they become genuine canned rice pudding ready to [Music] eat luckily for me every batch of rice pudding is tested and tasted for quality control and I’m available well I mean I’m stand looking at it I think we just got to get in there haven’t we yeah dig in dig [Music] in [Music] lovely now I a lot of people have their rice pudding hot I I enjoy my rice pudding cold I have to say for me it feels like tasting it pure tasting it pure um can I can I get in I’m really excited [Music] about that tastes pretty good to me honey I’m following the route of the London and Southwest railway from Plymouth to exitor and I’m now 23 mil into my journey it it’s hard going through here thankfully for me things are about to get a lot easier because I’ve just arrived back on the outskirts of lidford and from here on for the next 11 miles to Oak Hampton the Old Railway line has been turned into a dedicated pedestrian and cycle route so I won’t be needing that anymore plain sailing for me now in comparison to what’s back [Music] there built in 1874 and straddling a particularly deep valley the meldon VOD duct was a spectacular addition to this section of the London and Southwest Railway constructed from rought Iron and cast iron as opposed to the more conventional stone or brick arches the elegant and unique melden Viaduct is now a scheduled Monument I’ve come to meet engineer Simon Holier who’s responsible for maintaining the fabric and safety of the structure I do have a picture of what it was like shortly after it was built wow you’ve noticed something think that’s that’s only got one am I yeah that’s only got one line of umle the expansions yeah the trestles well yeah originally it was built as a single track um four years later they’d open up a second one and there were two reason to do that i i a to get an extra line in there and at the time when they first opened it it was very very nerve-wracking for the people to drive the uh trains across it because obviously the curve on the V up and the wind the thing used to shake around a bit as you can see in the photo it’s a very very slender structure yeah it is so with a new structure which opened about four years later that stiffened the whole thing up you you’ve got wider at the base kind of um I guess you are lowering the center of gravity and you are keep giving it a much wider that’s correct structure for it to every 6 years Simon examines every last rivet beam stay and strut as part of a rigorous inspection program and today he’s agreed to take me with him and that means AB sailing down the iron trusses on ropes as you can see you have an unusual technique there we go let go this is a fantastic way to come and inspect this product Wooh it’s only from this vantage point that you can begin to imagine how the the second half of this structure was built the second row of trusses were assembled in a railway siding then pushed onto the original Viaduct and swung out into position by cranes each truss was installed within 2 hours and 30 minutes which meant it was possible to arrange the work around the railway timetable and unbelievably allow trains to continue to run s this is fantastic what a way to view this structure what a jobs we’ve got what a job we’re getting paid for this what a job so I mean and so not only is it a great view along the vict here and the structure but this is a great way to come and inspect well I mean this is this is why you do it yeah that’s right you need to touch every part of it it’s the only way you can do it hey you’ve got the manuf rivets good Nick oh more just been put in that is brilliant look at that it’s good fun hanging around doing this sort of stuff but at the end of the day you got I’ve got to do a job when I’m here yeah and it can be quite difficult yeah absolutely and as you can see it’s very very complex it is it is it takes quite a long time to go through the whole structure and I guess part of that complexity is that a number of different additions have been made to this structure over the years to shore it up and to deal with the the elements and the traffic that was going over the top of it that’s right and it is those later additions which have given us the most problems is it really the early Victoria materials and the early Victorian structure is still holding strong V iron C iron is very good against corrosion Wow Let’s go down another a little look see what else we can find this is fantastic although the line was closed in 1968 the viaduct continued to be used for shunting local Quarry wagons it wasn’t until the ’90s that it was deemed too weak to carry rail traffic 6 years later it was refurbished and given a new lease of life as part of the Granite way cycle and footpath once over the viaduct the Old Railway line continued alongside a now disused local Quarry when the London and Southwestern Railway were Excavating the foundations of the melden viaduct their workers were impeded by layers of an extremely hard local Stone but while that stone impeded the building of the Railway in one sense it was an enormous help in another as it was found to have the perfect properties for something called Railway ballast and it’s this stuff here it forms a very stable track bed it also allows for good drainage of water through it and it’s so hard it won’t Crush under the weight of the sleepers the rails and the passing trains over the top it’s quite literally the foundation stone of the railways and you’ll find it under almost every mile of track laid in Britain and millions upon millions of tons of it came from right here meldin Quarry first excavated in 1897 expanded to 200 acres in 1902 and by 1953 producing 340,000 tons every year meldon Quarry became one of the biggest sources of of Railway ballast in the country walking through the Quarry now is an extraordinary experience the sheer size and scale of this place is intimidating I’ve joined greme Hicks who used to run the Quarry he’s going to take me to where they conducted the very last excavation blast before the Quarry was closed in 2011 what rock made up Railway ballast they were seeking the hornfels as Railway ballast other geological types here hornfels that’s that was the name of the rock type was it yes yeah and it’s very hard tough very abrasive to work and so where where where are we coming to here we’re coming here now this was the last blast and this is the hornfels mineral the last blast and that was probably in about April or May 2011 yeah and as you can see a lot of it still there unprocessed so it was blasted and never consumed but this this is hornfels is it it is this is the rock that was being used for Railway ballast but that obviously this is all this stuff’s way too big I mean what goes off to a Crusher and you looking for something I think with a maximum size of about 63 mm all right so what this that’s probably a bit big that is it but that kind of thing that sort of area yeah it’s very hard cuz I guess that’s what you want wouldn’t it you want a rock that isn’t going to move isn’t going to get crushed under the weight of the train when it comes along and gives you a real stable track bed yeah yeah stable free draining hornfeld did that performed very well so the Ballas from here was being transported where how far and wide from from from here well it was really you know by the 30s it was known as the Southern Railway so it’s south and west of the country really yeah it’s quite a large area though it was a good area so they were doing good business out of this Quarry they were doing hundreds of thousands of tons a year wow wow sadly with few new Railways being built the demand for Railway ballast has fallen over the years the Quarry has been mothed until that is they bring back all those lovely Branch [Music] lines less than a mile away from meldon Quarry and up on the high MO is Oak Hampton army [Music] camp for as far back as the bronze ages dartmore has been used as a defensive location and in the late 19th century the completion of the London and Southwestern Railway kickstarted military training here in Earnest bringing soldiers to and from Oak Hampton station before making their way here to Oak Hampton army camp up on the high Moors but there’s a short section of Railway hidden away out there somewhere that helped those soldiers with their Sharp Shooting crisen we good to go let’s do it let’s M up and head out the London and Southwest Railway never ventured up onto dartmore itself the gradient was too steep but a very different kind of Railway was constructed here built in the shape of a figure of eight the sole purpose of the rot tour Railway was to provide moving target practice for the Army fallen into disuse in recent years leftenant Colonel Crispen de piche has offered to show me what’s left of it after an extremely bumpy ride we arrive at what looks like a stone bunker here we are we’ve got ourselves some Railway Trail and what looks like Railway sheds wow there you are inside is what’s known as a Wickam trolley a railway engineering personnel carrier [Music] look powered by a standard four-cylinder car engine each Wickam trolley was adapted to a specific use I even got a registration number this Wickham trolley could be expected to be shot at and shelled on a regular basis so to protect it it was thoroughly armor plated which is why it ended ended up looking more like a small tank this is an infantry Target okay so this is a the charging man yeah um and what you do in R to be a much bigger Target it’d be an anti it’d be a replicate to your tank we’ put this here trundles along and and therefore what you’re H is the people firing they don’t see the engine they’re not engaging the engine they’re engaging the target got and um and then you’re getting indications to whether they’re hitting it or not so now I’ve seen how it all works chrispen shows me the route the railway line took the moving Target on okay yes there the look turning Loop here yep and then it just putts along comes around keeps on going come backs on itself and then goes back down this way an embankment was built along the straight section of the target Railway to protect the Wickam trolley from being fired at this where you want to be engaging in your target okay on the long straight on the long straight so that way it’s it’s it’s your your moving Target right to left left to right having grasp how the target Railway works we Retreat to one of the firing positions over the years generations of recruits would have perfected their aim on this firing range that Target’s quite small from here thankfully for the Sheep this rifle’s been decommissioned it’s got a kick like a mule I’m following the route of the London and Southwest railway from Plymouth to exitor I’m back at melden Viaduct station waiting for the next Heritage line train to take me the last 3 miles onto Oak Hampton I’m being joined by Richard Westlake Richard spent his entire life working on the railways he regularly drove trains just like this one along the entire length of the Lost line I’ve just walked before it was closed in the 1960s these are the excellent compartments you have all first class I want to hear what life was like working on the railways in their Heyday and I want to understand why Richard thinks this lost line should be [Music] reopened oh here we go there’s a whistle yeah hey there we are here we go and the little toot from the engine and we’re away look hey so this will be quite a short bit of of line here it’s fairly important this this is a this is a Heritage Railway now running here it’s an Heritage Railway which runs from here and from M that’s right it’s been that’s been running for how long oh I suppose about 10 years now before that it was the main line the southern region main line to Plymouth your relationship with this line goes right back to the very start of your life doesn’t it I I suppose in a way I was bought up in a railway family my father was a train driver had six or seven brothers I I think seven and all were on the railway was it was so that that is your immediate family was the railway then kind of an extended family for you and everybody else who worked on their be an actual relative or not very much so and and they always did say and I think there’s some truth in it that to get on to the foot plate on the railway you had to be a part of that family you you had to have a father who was a fireman or a driver I think some of it was because of the shift system used to work you could come on at any time day and night 1:00 2:00 3:00 in the morning and if you were perhaps unreliable you overset you didn’t turn up then you could always have a word with father or some of the family say come on uh you got to back up otherwise you won’t have a job so it it was it was a very close-nit community and everybody knew everybody and we all worked together and they were very enjoyable days Richard believes the Lost line I’ve just walked could be reopened and brought back into the rail network I want to know why I want to give a bit back and I therefore I’m a part of the oak rail forum uh who are really campaigning hard to get this line reopened to ampton what’s happening now is there’s a Resurgence in rail travel and to not to be on any network at all is is is really a downside I think I think for tourism but not only that for the economy of the region I I’m sure to oh Campton to be back on the map again uh to be a a major rail head uh will make a huge difference are you hopeful then that the service will be extended back along where I’ve come from all the way back down I I’m hoping that I’ll live long enough so I’ll be able to ride on a train again from exitor to Plymouth via Oak count through dartmore through dartmore and what better scenery could have anywhere in the country it would be a huge achievement for Richard and the oak rail Forum if the Lost line between Plymouth and Oak Hampton was reopened and there’s a Fighting Chance it might after after all Oak rail was successful in reopening the oak Hampton 2 exitor line and bringing it back into the network in 1997 this is the end of my lost line and the beginning of the refound line that will take me from here to my final destination exitor walking this line I’ve seen the abundance of uses it was put to over its almost 100 years of service the fact is that many of the demands that drove the development of this Railway in the first place still exist today so the call to reinstate it isn’t purely nostalgic and it’s only due to dogged campaigning like Richard’s Oak rail Forum that I’m able to complete my journey from Plymouth all the way to exitor just as they did 50 years ago on the train the 1759 Great Western rway service for ex Davids is now ready toart please stand well and [Music] clear next time I walk the Lost Lakes line from penrith to cocka mouth it’s a great unknown built to ease the backbreaking strain on Miners and their beasts before it was a horse and cart well where you going to go with a horse and cart but became useful for all sorts of reasons quite a few people use the RS to have one girlfriend in gazik and one in penrith and they made sure they never met you see and I consider the future of the route something like driess pods there’s a thought [Music] yeah