The Dean Forest Railway Society (DFRS) was formed in 1970 to become the volunteer support organisation for the Dean Forest Railway (DFR), whose objective was to preserve the last remaining section of the Severn & Wye Railway.
The Dean Forest Railway is built, maintained and operated mostly by unpaid voluntary members of the Dean Forest Railway Society. Gloucestershire Probation Trust's Community Payback team also provides offenders sentenced to unpaid work by the courts to work on the railway preservation works.