THE Duke of Edinburgh was in the region yesterday to open a flagship science unit where anti-cancer drugs are being developed.

Spending the day in York, Prince Philip toured the £7m Biocentre and visited the University of York's £25m biology research centre, due to open in the summer.

The High Sheriff of North Yorkshire, Mark Evans, and the Lord Mayor of York, David Horton, accompanied the Prince on his tour of the Biocentre, at York Science Park.

It has been set up to help biotechnology companies and research groups get started.

Once established, the companies will move from the premises and new projects will be given a chance.

Before unveiling a plaque, Prince Philip said: "I would like to congratulate all those involved for getting together and making this possible."

The second half of the Prince's day was spent at the National Railway Museum, which he opened in 1975.

Once through the doors, he stepped back more than 100 years as he boarded one of the region's most treasured Royal saloons. The carriage, a personal favourite of Queen Victoria's in the late 19th century, has undergone £50,000 worth of restoration works and is on show in the Palaces on Wheels exhibition.

As well as meeting local children and conservation workers, the Prince heard about the painstaking Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Signalling School project from museum volunteers Bob Brook, David Eastoe, Len Greenhorn and Peter Munthe Webster.

The team has been working on a long-term project to restore a table-top model railway that was built by Bassett Lowke in 1912 and was used until 1995 to train signallers.

In the evening, he attended a dinner of the Cambridge Society of York, at the Merchant Taylors' Hall, Aldwark.