THE National Community Rail Festival is to be hosted for the first time in the South-West with a variety of events on the Looe Valley and Tamar Valley branch lines and in Plymouth on Saturday 20 September.

Festival day follows the fourth annual presentation of the National Community Rail Awards on Friday evening at the Plymouth Pavilions to celebrate the nation’s rural and local railways.

Organised by the Plymouth University-based Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership in which the rail industry, local authorities and other interested parties promote use of both counties’ branch lines, the festival is designed for wide appeal.

Trad jazz will be the order of the day on the 11.30 train from Plymouth to Gunnislake and the 15.15 from Liskeard to Looe courtesy of John Shillito’s Select Four. And the more energetic can enjoy guided walks from Liskeard, Looe, Bere Alston and Calstock stations.  Also, a free vintage bus service will link Gunnislake station with Morwellham Quay.

A Tamar Belle Heritage Centre open day at Bere Ferrers station will give visitors the chance to work a hand-pump trolley, ride in a coal truck and pull signal box levers.

A fete at Plymouth station will feature a LEGO competition, balloon modelling and magic shows and offer a seat in the cab of a First Great Western HST, while free open top bus tours of the city start from the station along with free bus links to the Plym Valley Railway at Marsh Mills.

Also, to celebrate the centenary of the Bere Alston, Gunnislake and Callington Railway, the South West Film and Television Archive’s film show will run twice in the Roland Levinsky Building at Drake Circus on the main University of Plymouth campus.