THOUSANDS of people have flocked to an open air museum to enjoy a festival of steam creating a sense of the roads and railways of the Home Front during the First World War.

The Great War Steam Festival at the Beamish Museum, near Stanley, County Durham, got underway on Thursday, (April 7) featuring a whole host of road vehicles, engines and trains from the period up to 1918.

The line-up included around 120 exhibits includes with locomotives, around 26 road steam vehicles and up to 80 motor vehicles, such as motorcycles, cars and lorries and a fire engine or two.

The event also saw the opening of a brand new narrow gauge railway section running from the Colliery Yard to Pockerley tram stop.

Beamish’s No. 18 Lewin steam engine was hard at work on the Colliery Railway and there were passenger steam train rides from Rowley Station.

Military groups will added authenticity to the Great War atmosphere. They included a Gordon Highlanders camp and Royal Army Medical Corps in The Pit Village and Durham Pals in The Town.

Paul Jarman, Assistant Director Transport & Industry at Beamish, said: “Although contemporary lorries were commandeered for Army service, huge growth in road transport took place during this time.

“This has been a spectacular commemoration of the men and women, and their machines, who played a largely unsung role in supporting the fighting troops throughout the years of conflict, 1914 to 1918.”

The Great War Steam Fair marks the start of this year’s Great War Festival of Transport, which also features Horses at War on April 16 and 17 and Old King Coal from April 20 to 24. For more information visit www.beamish.org.uk.