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 ON THE TRAIL 4: STAND BY TO CHECK  At last the run has started and the hounds make their way through the woods to the first check point. Rudolph, the hare, looks back expectantly as Ducky, Yakkidah and Squelcher make their way towards the old disused railway line. Bouncer stares into the distance in the hope that by some miracle the correct trail will leap up and make itself known to him. Rudolph and Bouncer are standing on what remains of the Great Western Railway line from Plymouth to Princetown which was opened in 1883. The railway, which has been called the only true mountain railway in England, never made a profit and was closed in 1956. Although the part of the railway around Burrator was constructed by the Great Western Railway Company, much of the line was built on the track bed of the earlier Plymouth & Dartmoor tramway which was completed in 1823. The tramway used horsedrawn trucks to carry loads of granite stone for building from the quarries near Princetown down to Crabtree Wharf at Laira, Plymouth, where it was loaded on to ships.
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