STEAM enthusiasts re-created a scene from a bygone era on a restored rail line at the weekend.

Tanfield Railway staged a weekend of nostalgia on its three-mile working line in north-west Durham.

Visitors were invited to the railway's Military Weekend, with displays of vintage vehicles, staffed by personnel in period costume, while steam trains ran at regular intervals on the line, which takes in the Causey Woods and passes Causey Arch, the world's oldest surviving rail bridge.

The Andrew's House station adopted a 1944 theme, with posters, sandbags and music from the era, as well as an Army field kitchen.

There was also 1940s-style dancing and an enactment of a Royal Engineers team dealing with an unexploded bomb.

A Sunday service was staged at the Drum Head section of the attraction for those visiting yesterday.

The event was backed by volunteers from the Tyneside Locomotive Museum Trust, which owns and operates the railway, the Northern World War Two Association, the North-East Military Vehicle Museum and Club, and the Royal British Legion.

Among the attractions for visitors was the line's recently opened £120,000 engine shed, where up to eight of the railway's carriages are restored and maintained.

The railway, off the A6076 Sunniside to Stanley road, stages Sunday runs through the summer, as well as events throughout the year, including its popular Santa Special rides before Christmas. Two steam trains will run from 11am on Sunday and next Monday.