Woody Bay Devon England United Kingdom - Plans to extend Lynton & Barnstaple Railway have moved one step closer to reality.
 
As part of a £16 million expansion of the line, the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Trust wish to extend it by four miles to Wistlandpound Reservoir and restore the railway stations at Blackmoor and Parracombe.
 
This week, the Trust's outline application, which includes plans for an engineering centre and rolling-stock sheds at Blackmoor Gate, was submitted to North Devon Council.
 
A spokesman for the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Trust, Tony Nicholson, said:  "If the planning applications are approved the extension of the line will provide a major boost to the tourist industry of North Devon. It will directly support 24 full-time jobs and many more in the wider service sector locally. Apprentices will also be trained in the engineering centre. The net local economic benefit compared to continuing current operations is calculated as an additional £62 million into the local area over the first ten years of construction and operation."
 
The steam railway currently operates over a mile of track between Woody Bay Station near Lynton and Killington Lane and carried a record 48,000 passengers last year.
 
As part of the plans, The Old Station House Inn at Blackmoor Gate will be re-developed to include a ticket office and a shop.
 
A bank at Parracombe will be re-constructed with a culvert larger than a double-decker bus.
 
The project is expected to create about 80 jobs in the area, and is supported by local councillors, businesses, and landowners.
 
But not all residents are in support of the plans, including Louise Grob who owns land next to the track bed of the old narrow gauge railway on the outskirts of Barnstaple.
 
Mrs. Grob believes that the project will turn the Western Gate into something more akin to a theme park and that many homes will be destroyed to make it a reality.
 
But Mr. Nicholson said that the extension would be "North Devon's Eden Project," only one house would have to be demolished, and that the Trust was proposing to build two affordable homes in its place if they could agree on a price.
 
The narrow-gauge line across Exmoor was opened in 1898 and closed in 1935 before being reopened in 2004.
 
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