THE train took the strain as the Olympic torch arrived in North Yorkshire yesterday.

After travelling down the coast from Teesside and east Cleveland, through Lythe and Sandsend, it arrived in Whitby and was entrusted to local torchbearer Louise Heggarty, from Egton Bridge, on the North York Moors, who handed it on to 25-yearold PE teacher Kelly Williams.

Supported by 220 schoolchildren and local group the Whitby Pirates, she carried the torch onto the North Yorkshire Moors Railway – much to her surprise. She said: “I knew I was passing it onto the train and I thought that would be the end of my little bit, I was really excited to actually bring it onto the train. It’s been a real thrill.”

At Grosmont, they changed trains and boarded the Sir Nigel Gresley, one of the most famous steam locomotives in the world, which carried the torch to Pickering.

The Mayor of Pickering, William Oxley, said: “For the town, it’s a chance to be part of history – a once-in-alifetime opportunity for the people to be part of the biggest international sporting event in the world.

The town has really been up for it.”

Former Olympian Rooney Massara, 69, who lives in Pickering and represented Great Britain in rowing in the 1972 Munich Olympics was on the platform to welcome the torch. Mr Massara said his father took him to the 1948 Olympics at Wembley and that gave him the interest.

“For it to come to Whitby and Pickering like this seems to make a full circle for me. I think it’s wonderful,” he said.

The torch returned to the seaside in the afternoon with 18-year-old Jamie Green, from Malton, carrying it into the open-air theatre in Scarborough in front of a crowd of 6,000 people.

It had started the day on Teesside, where James Coupland, 17, from Middlesbrough, carried the flame along the town’s Transporter Bridge before it headed to Redcar.

Once there, the 80ft vertical pier, which is taking shape on the seafront, was used as a platform for a firework display as the Olympic torch passed through the town.

To mark the occasion, specialist pyrotechic experts were drafted in by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council to entertain the crowds while Keith Wilcox ran his leg of the relay.

The torch finished the day in Hull and will today travel to York, via Knaresborough, Harrogate and Ripon.

Tomorrow, it goes through Thirsk, Northallerton, Aiskew, Bedale, Aysgarth, Leyburn, Richmond and Barnard Castle.