THIS month’s exhibition in the Darlington Centre for Local Studies in Darlington library has been curated by the North Eastern Railway Association (NERA) and tells the story of east coast railway holidays before and after the Second World War.

Day tripping to the Yorkshire coast peaked during the 1930s when the private railway companies ran all sorts of excursions and specials. After the war, the nationalised British Railways offered similar inducements with special tickets on Sightseeing Day Tours, Holiday Runabouts and Special Excursions. In the 1950s, when money was still tight, the railway for many people was still the most affordable way to have a seaside holiday.

Yet the motor car was becoming more available, and this golden age of railway good times by the beach was coming to an end. Through NERA’s extensive collection, the exhibition recreates those good times through posters and photos.

The exhibition, A Grand Day Out, runs in the library until September 28.

THIS great picture, above, from the exhibition shows a classic day out in 1907. These daytrippers are pictured outside the North Eastern Railway’s Motor Booking Office in Scarborough ready for an 18 mile excursion to Forge Valley – as can be seen advertised on the windscreen. The man at the front left is holding a sign indicating that this is “Car No 3” making up the trip to the 6,000-year-old woodland where charcoal was once produced for use in forges, hence the name. The daytrippers are travelling in a 40hp Fiat char-a-banc – French for a “car with benches” – when no one had to wear a seatbelt but large hats were the order of the day.

A daytrip to Scarborough exactly 136 years ago today, when the seaside special was even calling at Trenholm Bar, a station south of Yarm that we visited last week on our tour down the A19 READ MORE: THE MILEPOSTS, AND STORIES, OF THE A19

A train of daytrippers returning from Whitby West Cliff to Middlesbrough in 1956. This loco, No 67754, was cut up at Darlington in 1963 as the steam era came to an endRavenscar, between Whitby and Scarborough, here in 1956, was reputedly the windiest location in the entire North Eastern railway network – once the wooden waiting room even blew onto the tracks. It is also one of the most interesting, because in Victorian times, a clifftop seaside resort to rival Whitby was laid out here – you can still see the street lines – but nothing ever came of it, probably because of the steep drop down to the beach

READ MORE: HOW BRIAN CLOUGH'S PLAYING CAREER CAME TO AN END EXACTLY 60 YEARS AGO

A North Eastern Railways summer holiday brochureAfter coming to Scarborough by train, what more could you want than another railway journey, this time on a miniature railway. The North Bay Miniature Railway opened in 1931 and was so popular that this engine, Triton, was added in 1932. On its ¾-mile journey, the miniature railway went past the children's boats, water chutes and the open air theatre