A £1m European funding boost is putting back steam trains on an historic rural railway this summer.

More than half a century after the last regular passenger service ran through picturesque Weardale, the track is re-opening in July with backing from the European Regional Development Fund.

The project has already received £200,000 from the fund to help with development work, with an additional £800,000 coming on stream in future months. Together with support from One NorthEast, the cash will mean that the Weardale Railway Company can meet its target of July 17 for running peak season steam specials between Stanhope and Wolsingham stations.

Volunteers have been restoring engines and rolling stock since the mid 1990s and started clearing the track last year.

Over the next five years services will extend to Eastgate and Bishop Auckland and will eventually connect with the main network route to Darlington, attracting 90,000 visitors a year and putting an estimated £3m into the Weardale economy.

Links with the new £10m Shildon Railway Village and Darlington Rail Museum should create an unrivalled network of attractions.

* Yesterday, seven months before it opens, the Railway Village was re-christened Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon.