40 years later, the Railway Children's train steams home

Fiona Evans

A STEAM engine which appeared in the film version of The Railway Children will return to West Yorkshire’s Bront Country next month.

Exactly 40 years after the children’s classic was filmed on location on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, the steam engine which the story called “The Scotch Express” will return to the line as the star of its winter gala from February 12 to 14.

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It will be only three weeks before the 45th anniversary of the engine pulling the first ever train on the line, under the preservationists’ control, when carriages and wagons stored at Keighley were moved on March 6, 1965, to the headquarters at Haworth – the first sign for many that the railway was about to return to life.

Up to seven locomotives will be in steam and operating trains over the three days of the gala, with visitors able to enjoy everything from a traditional “pick up” goods train to all line vintage trains of wooden bodied carriages from the Museum of Rail Travel.

Expresses will run non-stop from Keighley to Oxenhope and there will be local shuttle trains and all-stations services.

The railway’s traffic manager Sam MacDougall said: “The gala is sure to appeal to all the family as well as to railway enthusiasts – the event offers a rare chance to travel as people did a hundred years ago, in authentic carriages behind locomotives of the period.

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“Normally many of these engines and coaches are tucked away in the museums where specialist care is needed to conserve them, but we have been able to bring some together for this truly remarkable event, which will start our year of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the filming of The Railway Children.”

The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway was used as a location for the 1970 film version of The Railway Children, which starred Bernard Cribbins, Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett and Dinah Sheridan.

The engine known as The Green Dragon, from the film, is also expected to be in service during the gala.

A free heritage bus will operate in addition to the train service, between Haworth and Oxenhope, and behind-the-scenes tours will be offered of the workshops and carriage sheds at Oxenhope and the locomotive works at Haworth, which are all areas not normally open to the public.

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