Pair travel 4,000 miles to see festive steam train

A mother and daughter from Minnesota, in the US, have travelled more than 4,000 miles (6,437km) to take a trip on Devon's Christmas Train of Lights.

Kristin Dore said the journey was the "trip of a lifetime" and a "dream come true" for her train enthusiast mother Jeanne.

The steam train is covered in Christmas lights and takes travellers on a festive return trip from Paignton to Dartmouth.

The pair enlisted the help of a local photographer so they could see the train from the outside travelling through the Devon countryside.

They had started planning the trip a year ago after Jeanne saw a video of the train on YouTube.

"Mum actually teared up, she was so moved by it," Kristin told BBC Radio Devon.

"I was a little less enthused, I'm not a train person, but my mum really loves trains.

"After my dad died a few years ago, my mum hasn't really wanted to do very much, and if there was something she really wanted to do, I wanted to make that dream come true."

They left Minnesota on Thanksgiving and arrived in London the next day.

Not drawn to the lure of the capital, they travelled straight for Paignton to experience the Train of Lights.

"She was so impressed," Kristin said.

"There weren't many people so we were able to walk from one end to another and look at the way the carriages had been decorated. She got her photo taken in every single one."

Kristin said they then "flew down the hedgerows" with a local photographer to capture the train as it moved through the countryside.

She said that "was the most amazing part for my mum - being able to see the train as she'd seen" online.

"Even not as a train person it was fantastic, it was beautiful."

The pair spent the next week enjoying "everyday" life in Devon - including shopping in Totnes, visiting pubs and going for beach walks - before flying back to the US.

Kristin said she enjoyed her first trip so much she was now planning to come back with more family members.

"What's 4,000 miles to travel to ride on a train for 45 minutes? Who wouldn't?"

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