AN appeal has been launched for items from the 1940s to help museum visitors take a trip back in time.

Staff at Darlington Railway Centre and Museum are planning to give the annual September railway festival a 1940s theme, and want to borrow items for the event.

A house in McNay Street, Darlington, which adjoins the centre, will be filled with items from the 1940s, each with its own details and story displayed alongside the exhibit.

The museum already has gas masks and other items in its archives, but heritage manager Dr Stuart Nichols hopes to tell the story of Darlington in the 1940s with the help of the local people's possessions from the era.

"We would like people from Darlington to bring things to the museum that we would fit into the house," he said.

"It could be ornaments, it could be models, it could be anything from the war or from the 1940s that would have a story to it. What we want to do with those things is put them in the McNay Street house and make, for that two-day festival, a 1940s house."

Dr Nichols said that arrangements could be made with museum staff to transport any items too big to be carried to the centre.

"The idea is that any person lending an item for the house can tell us the story behind it, who owned it, where they lived and what they did in the war.

"We will build up a picture of the owner and tell their story alongside the item - a sort of history of real people of Darlington during the 1940s and a commemoration of their lives."

Photographs are also wanted for a display at the festival, which takes place on September 8 and 9.

Anyone who would like to help can contact Dr Nichols or museum curator John Wilkes on (01325) 460532.