The objectives of the railway are: For the public benefit to preserve and maintain the Tarka Valley Railway line through the Torridge Valley. To advance education about the history of transportation in the Torridge Valley area and railways in particular. These objectives will be achieved by establishing and maintaining an operating heritage railway alongside the Tarka Trail based upon Torrington Station. The railway will re-instate and re-open a section of the original railway which closed in 1984. The group gained planning approval in March 2013 for the first phase of its’ plan to extend the existing track by adding approximately 160 metres of running line and 110 metres of sidings on the original alignment of the railway in Torrington Station. This would take the line as far as the first occupation bridge over the trail after the station building. A lease was granted to the Railway from Devon County Council in April 2018 when the re-instatement work commenced. Since then, a great deal of activity has taken place.