The Dartmouth Steam Railway, formerly known as the Paignton & Dartmouth Steam Railway or the Dart Valley Railway, is a 6.7-mile (10.8 km) heritage railway on the former Kingswear branch line between Paignton and Kingswear in Torbay, Devon, England.
Due to the location of this line – at the heart of the English Riviera – much of the railway's business is summer tourists from the resorts of Torbay who are transported to Kingswear railway station from where a ferry takes them across the River Dart to the historic town of Dartmouth.
The line is owned and operated by Dart Valley Railway plc, who also own Dart Pleasure Craft Limited. Dart Pleasure Craft, who also trade as River Link, operates the Dartmouth Passenger Ferry between Kingswear and Dartmouth, together with river and coastal cruises from Dartmouth, many of which connect with the railway. As such, it is unusual amongst preserved railways in that it is a for-profit operation, and does not rely on volunteer labour or charitable donations.
Famous quotes containing the words steam and/or railway:
““If Steam has done nothing else, it has at least added a whole new Species to English Literature ... the booklets—the little thrilling romances, where the Murder comes at page fifteen, and the Wedding at page forty—surely they are due to Steam?”
“And when we travel by electricity—if I may venture to develop your theory—we shall have leaflets instead of booklets, and the Murder and the Wedding will come on the same page.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)