MOST days there are people about at Okehampton Railway Station even though trains do not begin running again until the end of this month.

They enjoy sitting on the spacious south facing Platform 3 under the glazed canopy, especially when it is sunny, where the buffet is open seven days-a-week.

Members of Dartmoor Railway Supporters’ Association maintain carriages for the Heritage service between the town and Meldon, crew the trains, paint, repair, renovate the station, run the museum and look after the flower beds, tubs and baskets.

The railway is more than a train journey, it is an ideal way to get to the Moors and explore. A ride in the brakevan is really refreshing or warming, depending on whether you travel on the verandah or inside by the stove!

The 15-plus miles of track will be fully used by Great Western running the Summer Sunday Service from Exeter to Okehampton stopping at Crediton and Sampford Courtenay, every Sunday from May 19 to September 8.

The GWR trains link with the Heritage shuttle trains which will be running from March 30 every weekend and on Bank Holidays. See the Supporters website for up-to-date details of the services at: www.dartmoor-railway-sa.org .

Then on Platform 2 there is the Arthur Westlake Museum, named after a former Station Master, and a shop that sells, among other things, railway books and DVDs. Incidentally the buffet is named after Oliver Bulleid who lived at Belstone and was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway.

It is worth checking out this man who has been called "enlightened and unorthodox" who was instrumental in the building of the Merchant Navy class of express steam locomotives and then the light Pacifics. The LSWR website is fascinating too.

Okehampton was part of the London and South Western Railway, later to become the Southern Railway, before British Railways.

This summer, on Sundays, you will be able to make a connection “across the border” by bus from Okehampton Station to Gunnislake Station, with a return service running once in the morning and once in the afternoon via Tavistock Bus Station. This is being organised by Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership.

From Crediton you could have a day trip with a couple of hours in Lydford, or do the circular trip via Okehampton, Gunnislake, Plymouth and Exeter.

If this former mainline was opened up again as a regular route into Cornwall it is estimated that at least 100,000 residents of West Devon and North Cornwall would be in the catchment area for journeys east towards the capital.

It would also increase the resilience of the rail services West of Exeter to Plymouth and Cornwall, which depend now on just one line going through Dawlish.

The Supporters Association is always looking for new members and some come from Crediton and beyond.

One lady is an engine driver, another is a guard and there are a host of other opportunities. They try to make the gardens as pollinator-friendly as they can - there are at least 50 tubs and boxes - and they tend a herb area for use by the station kitchen.

It works both ways, the kitchen provides much of the compost material including tea leaves, and hollyhocks planted in it have grown so well that they reached the canopy!