It's love and carriage on steam railway

COUPLES can get their marriages on the right track after Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway was licensed for weddings.

The railway joins a host of alternative venues across South Devon where people can now get hitched.

Railway fans have been using the steam train for receptions and as transport as part of their big day for many years.

But the railway recently had a licence approved to hold civil weddings and civil ceremonies in the booking halls at either Paignton or Churston station.

The company, which also runs cruises on the River Dart, are also offering boat trips as part of the package following the romantic steam adventure.

The railway's in-house wedding designer, Teresa Waring, said: "It is very exciting that we are now offering a complete wedding day package aboard our steam train and riverboats, with wedding celebrations on the lovely River Dart, an area of such outstanding beauty."

The company says couples have already made bookings and are very excited at the prospect of exchanging their vows in a venue which will no doubt 'get their marriages started on the right tracks'.

Scores of people already flock to the English Riviera and South Devon to get married.

Other venues which are already licensed in the area include the 500,000-year-old Kents Cavern in Torquay and the Babbacombe Cliff Railway.

The first couple got married on the cliff railway in 2006 and a couple became the first to get married in the caves at Kents Cavern last year.

The steam railway has just launched a new website dedicated to weddings at www.dartmouthweddings.co.uk