A man who moved into a North Yorkshire railway station says it is the 'perfect family home'.
Tim Hill and his wife Elly relocated from Bourne, Lincolnshire, to the former station building at Battersby in 2007, bringing their three young children.
The station, now a four-bedroom bungalow, sits on the Esk Valley Railway.
Mr Hill said: "We wanted to live in the countryside and have some more traffic-free space for the kids.
"We went to view the house and even before we'd stepped inside it, we just knew it was the right one for us.
"It’s a peaceful and beautiful place with ever-changing views of the hills.
"It’s been the perfect, safe family home for the kids to grow up in."
"We also made regular use of the train for trips to other places on the North York Moors and the beach at Whitby."
Tim and a few other locals helped form the Friends of Battersby Station, an adoption group that now looks after the station throughout the year.
"When we first moved here in 2007, it wasn’t just the house that looked a bit sad and unloved – the station itself did too," Mr Hill said.
The group has since transformed the site with benches, picnic tables, planters, and wildlife habitats.
Mr Hill said: "We bought new benches, picnic tables and installed planters which we tend to year-round.
"The watering of plants in summer takes quite some effort.
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"I’ve installed bat and bird boxes on the mature pine trees, sown wildflower seeds, and we even have a bug hotel on the platform."
There are station adoption groups at each of the 17 stations along the Esk Valley Railway.
They work with the Esk Valley Community Railway Partnership to make the stations more pleasant and welcoming places for passengers to visit.
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