The Dartmoor line is a railway line in Devon, England. From , the line runs alongside the Tarka Line to the site of the former Coleford Junction where it diverges west to . Previously a heritage line, it is owned by Network Rail. The route was originally part of the London and South Western Railway's route from Exeter to Plymouth, which was opened between 1865 and 1879. In 1968, British Rail closed the line beyond Meldon (two miles beyond Okehampton) as part of the Beeching cuts. The Exeter to Okehampton passenger service was withdrawn by British Rail in 1972. The line itself remained open for freight services from the railway ballast quarry at Meldon. From 1997 to 2019, the line was operated as a heritage railway by the Dartmoor Railway community interest company. During this time, Great Western Railway ran a public service between Exeter and Okehampton on summer Sundays. Meldon quarry was mothballed in 2011, ceasing the use of the line for freight. In July 2021, as part of the government's Restoring Your Railway programme, the line was transferred to Network Rail ownership, and regular national rail passenger services began in November of the same year. History Construction The Okehampton Railway, an independent company supported by the London and South Western Railway, was authorised on 17 July 1862 to build a line on the northern margins of Dartmoor from Coleford Junction (north west of Crediton) to . Before the line was built it had been leased to the LSWR and an extension authorised to Lidford. In 1864 it was renamed as the Devon and Cornwall Railway (which was absorbed into the LSWR in 1872, before the new line opened) and construction finally started. It opened slowly in sections: from Coleford Junction to on 1 November 1865; from there to Okehampton Road (later renamed ) on 8 January 1867; to itself on 3 October 1871; and finally to Lydford on 12 October 1874. This allowed trains to run a through service to . The constructors of the line adopted a policy of navigating around natural obstacles, rather than going over or through them as earlier builders had done. The section from Coleford Junction through to North Tawton is simple and contains a straight section, but the line soon begins to curve as it climbs the edge at Dartmoor, at a 1 in 77 gradient. Okehampton station is located on the