A TRAIN enthusiast has praised the first class service given by the people of Okehampton when he and more than 400 other rail passengers descended on the town recently.
Stuart Browning from Guildford was one of the passengers on a special charter train from Paddington to Okehampton organised by Herefordshire Rail Tours.
In a letter to the Times, the visitor has expressed his thanks to Okehampton Chamber of Trade for providing a coach free of charge to take the less able into the town and returning them to the station.
'My first class journey on this occasion was very different from my last visit by train to Okehampton in the early 1960s,' he said.
'Then, 600 or 700 of us came by "troop train" and it took all day from Surrey, and there was no dining car either. Our cooks provided some hot tea and corn beef sandwiches.'
Mr Browning, who was in the Territorial Army for 20 years, said he was able to visit Okehampton's 'most interesting museum' and he would return for a longer visit to the town next time with his wife.
The visiting train was the latest loco diesel pulling 13 Southern Railway coaches in the style of the 1960s. The trip was entitled 'Lost Tracks'.
'The station at Okehampton is very commendable and it is lovely to see the people of the town taking such an interest in it,' added Mr Browning, who has been on rail trips all over the country to discover tracks which are not regularly used anymore. 'I hope one day they will re-introduce a commuter train.'
The rail fan's trip was a blessing for the museum, which has been trying to get memorabilia relating to Okehampton camp from the second world war onwards. On finding out about the appeal, Mr Browning is busy collating photographs from his time at Okehampton.