Children in the Okehampton area are being implored not to play on the railway line as the clock ticks down to the return of trains to the tracks.

Network Rail have confirmed that driver training is due to start on the Dartmoor Line in September — in preparation for the start of the daily passenger service from Okehampton railway station to Exeter in time for Christmas.

Matthew Thompson, spokesperson for Network Rail, who have been busy laying the tracks in recent months, was last week flagging up the safety message about staying off the tracks to visitors to Okehampton Show.

Network Rail staff will also be going into local schools in the coming weeks to share the safety message about not playing on the railway line, particularly when the first trains start running for driver training in September.

Matthew said: ‘We have to engage with the kids to ask them to stay off the trains, because there will be trains running up and down the line.

‘We don’t want kids playing on the railway line and we haven’t yet been able to engage with the community about it so the show has been a really good opportunity to do that.

‘Driver training starts in September so there will be trains running up and down the tracks.

‘We are hopefully going into schools and talking to lots of staff and children about the dangers.

‘There is also a lot of fencing that needs to be renewed alongside the track before the service starts.’

Network Rail have now completed the mammoth task to relay the new rail track between Okehampton Station and Coleford Junction, in preparation for the two-hourly train passenger service to Exeter beginning by December.

As well as giving out the safety message, Okehampton Show also provided Network Rail staff with the opportunity to chat to people in the area about the return of the service to the town.

Matthew added: ‘People just love the opening of the railway. They really can’t wait for it to reopen. Everyone has been really positive about it and people can’t wait to have it back.’

The Dartmoor Line is due to be up and running by the end of the year.

Currently Network Rail’s efforts are concentrated on getting the railway station in the centre of Okehampton ready.

The company has reassured everyone that the look and feel of the station, in the green and cream Southern Railway livery of its 1930s heyday, will be retained.

Work by Network Rail is concentrating on installing a card-only ticket machine, information screens and CCTV and resurfacing the car park and installing pay and display marchines.

The station was restored by Devon County Council back in the late 1990s, in preparation for it being used for heritage services and the subsidised ‘Sunday Rover’ service which helped make the case for the return of the passenger service, also much promoted by OkeRail and the Dartmoor Railway Association (DRA).

The return of the main line service comes as the town also celebrates the 150th anniversary of the coming of the railway for the first time around to Okehampton.

A big celebration of those first trains in 1871 is being planned by campaign group OkeRail over the weekend of October 2-3.