VOLUNTEERS on the country's most popular heritage railway line are celebrating the most successful event in its 43-year history, after running Flying Scotsman services over seven days.

More than 8,500 passengers travelled on the renovated record-breaking locomotive as it steamed along the North York Moors Railway's18-mile line between Pickering and Grosmont, watched by countless others who crowded station platforms and lined the route to get a glimpse of the engine.

Other than an incident in which an elderly man fell on to the line from a crowded platform, a drone camera crashing into one of eight carriages Flying Scotsman was pulling and the loco briefly breaking down due to a vacuum break problem, bosses at the railway line said the event went off without a hitch.

Managers said the sold-out event, for which they had spent months planning, had involved its 500 volunteers, teams of British Transport Police officers and security staff from Fylingdales dealing with the unprecedented scenes.

The charity-run railway has yet to calculate what the event raised, but managers reported brisk sales in its shop and tearooms.

A spokeswoman said: "It has been the railway's most successful event over the seven days and we are delighted by how it went.

"There was a really nice atmosphere and it has been brilliant for the local economy."

Pickering councillor and steam railway enthusiast John Clark said the area had been buoyed by the legendary locomotive's visit.

He said: "The pinnacle of the steam age is the Flying Scotsman, what more could any resident or visitor want.

"It's been a great start to the tourism season, which will also see the Tour de Yorkshire bring crowds of visitors in."

Among those who saw Flying Scotsman in action one the line was Stuart Carr, 82, of Pickering.

He said he had not expected to see the locomotive on the line as its restoration had taken so long and that the smell of the steam engine took him back to the pre-diesel engine days.

Bagpipers John Atkinson-Millmoor and Doug Ratcliffe, of Bishop Auckland, said they were thrilled to have been asked to don their Royal Stewart regalia to give the Flying Scotsman a Scottish-style send-off from Grosmont.

Mr Atkinson-Millmoor said: "It was absolutely amazing the amount of noise. Even if there had been a full band here they would have been drowned out by the sound of the engine.

"It's a piece of art and an absolutely phenomenal piece of engineering."

Flying Scotsman is now on display at the National Railway Museum, in York, until May 8.