Barnoldswick's Mr Robin Higgins played a major role in the celebrations when he took the controls of the steam locomotive used in Friday's recreation of the original run.

The idea that the community should run the Worth Valley branch line itself after British Railways pulled out came from the late Mr Bob Cryer MP at a meeting in Keighley in 1961.

Robin was at that meeting and went on to join the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Preservation Society the next year. He has been heavily involved ever since.

The Mayor of Keighley provided the official send-off for after making presentations to Robin and other volunteers. The Lord Mayor and Mayoress of Bradford headed the list of guests greeting the train at Oxenhope, where music was provided by Whitworth Vale and Healey Brass Band, who played at the original ceremony.

Robin went on to help form the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Trust and the LYR Preservation Society, with restored vintage carriages and locomotives from that company now part of an admired collection on the KWVR.

Originally a volunteer guard and diesel railbus driver, he became a fireman in 1969 on the steam engines and a driver in 1974.

"There were a lot of people there, some who have retired from the railway scene and it was really nice to catch up with old friends from those early days," said Robin.