Hey there! Thanks for visiting my page.

On the 18th of August 2018, a friend and I have set ourselves the challenge of travelling through all 49 National Railway stations in the county of Devon (plus two bonus ones in Cornwall).

I'm a Devon-born, Year 10 student, mildly obsessed with all things railway-based and came up with, and timetabled, this challenge a little while ago, as just a hypothetical thing, perhaps a little inspired by the AllTheStations guys  ... Well, someone suggested that it would be a great idea to do it for charity, and what better a charity than The Railway Children, who help homeless children in the UK, India and East Africa. We're really looking forward to the challenge, and to be sponsored any amount of money for this brilliant charity, would be amazing!

We have set up an Instagram page for this event, so that you can get updates on the fundraising, track our progress on the day and enjoy the glorious sights the stations of Devon have to offer . The page is linked here: Instagram.com/devoninaday

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, and if you're interested as to how we're going to do this challenge, then you'd better keep reading!

Here's something to make clear, right off the bat. Much like the 'AllTheStations' folks, we will not be getting out at every station. Instead, we have to be timetabled to stop at every station, otherwise, we wouldn't even get the Tarka Line completed! Request stops are a tricky one too. If the train is booked to stop at a request stop, but instead sails on through, that still technically counts as a station stop, and another one of the 49 ticked off the list. We will be starting at Barnstaple in the morning, and cover our last station, Whimple, late in the evening, before continuing home. We won't be covering the heritage railways, including the Okehampton branch, due to the fact that the rover services to Okehampton are Sunday only, and we are conducting this challenge on a Saturday. Obviously, a lot of this depends on the trains running to time, and if they don't, we might have to miss some stations. Don't worry though, because we will then draft an emergency timetable for the Sunday, and, if possible, we will then cover the remaining Okehampton Branch. And finally, all of the donations will go to the charity as we will fund our own tickets.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thanks once again,

Jamie Ward