OLD friends of a railway classic celebrated its 50th anniversary on an historic stretch of track on Saturday .

The last through passenger train on the Wensleydale Railway ran between Northallerton and Garsdale on April 24, 1954.

About 120 people, including ten of the original passengers from the 1954 train, retraced the famous journey on Saturday afternoon, setting off from Leeming Bar station at 3.30pm in a modern train operated by Wensleydale Railway.

Railway spokeman Ruth Annison said that the day had also been about the future.

She said: "The Wensleydale Railway was built in the nineteenth century, closed to passengers in the twentieth century and it is re-opening in stages in the twenty-first."