Short answer: Four lines run festive services: the Dartmouth Steam Railway, the South Devon Railway, the Lynton & Barnstaple and the Seaton Tramway. Book in November — they sell out. The Dartmouth line is the best all-round day because the ferry connection lets you make an afternoon of it.
2026 dates: confirmed dates are added here as organisers publish them. Always check with the organiser before travelling — times and road closures change late.
Devon has three preserved steam railways and an electric tramway, and all four run festive services in December. They are the single biggest Christmas draw for families in the county, and they sell out — book in November rather than December.
The coastal run from Paignton to Kingswear, and the best all-round day of the four. The reason is the connection: at Kingswear the passenger ferry takes you across into Dartmouth, so a train ride becomes a whole afternoon with a town, a quay and somewhere good to eat at the other end.
Paignton has a mainline station, which makes it the easiest of the four to reach without driving. Torquay and Brixham are both minutes away if you are staying in the bay.
Buckfastleigh to Totnes along the Dart valley. Worth knowing what is at the Totnes end: the Rare Breeds Farm is reached through the steam railway station, with pigs, goats, owls and guinea pigs, most of which you can feed for a pound a bag. Wheelchair accessible throughout.
The station car park is around £7.50 and there is free parking on the nearby industrial estate — a saving worth knowing about on a day you are already spending on tickets.
The smallest and most remote, up on the edge of Exmoor. A short narrow-gauge run rather than a long journey, and the appeal is the setting as much as the train. Pair it with the Lynton and Lynmouth cliff railway and a walk in the Valley of Rocks for a full winter day.
Not steam, but do not dismiss it. Open-topped narrow-gauge electric trams running three miles up the Axe estuary to Colyton, and with over four thousand reviews it is the best-rated attraction in east Devon. The trams run through the winter anyway, and the Colyton end has free parking and a good café doing home-made cakes.
The free alternative is Brunel's sea wall line at Dawlish and Teignmouth — not a festive service, but real trains running a few feet from the promenade with the sea behind them, and in a December swell the waves break clean over the wall.
Pick a town and plan the day around who's with you.
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