VISITORS flooded into a North Yorkshire town as the streets filled with 1940s glamour for its Wartime Weekend.

Pickering’s three-day wartime festival draws thousands of tourists dressed in military uniforms and forties clothing into the town every year.

In addition to events in the town and at Pickering’s Showground, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway transformed its stations into historic locations from the era.

Philip Benham, general manager of the heritage railway, said: “We handed the railway over to the re-enactors at 11am and the clocks turned back to 1943. It’s always 1943 at the Wartime Weekend, which means this year we are marking a 70th anniversary.”

The event began with children from Pickering’s St Joseph’s RC Primary School playing the part of evacuees. They headed from their school to the town’s railway station dressed up in clothing from the era. Women from the WRVS walked them on the journey.

The Wartime Weekend was originally launched to commemorate the part railway workers played in the Second World War, but has since ballooned into a major event across the town.

About 2,500 railway workers were injured in the war and 395 railway personnel killed.