THE engine arriving at a North-East rail yard yesterday may just have been a humble colliery workhorse, but it could not have produced a prouder moment for a group of steam enthusiasts.

Eleven years and five months after the Weardale Railway team set their sights on restarting a passenger service in the west of County Durham, volunteers and workers turned out to welcome the locomotive which will pull their first train.

The Newcastle-built Robert Stephenson Hawthorn Austerity No 49 marked a milestone when it rolled off a transporter on to newly laid track at the Wolsingham Railway Centre, at the eastern end of the first stretch of line.

There will be time for real razzmatazz in nine days' time, on Saturday, July 17, when the railway reopens with a celebration run from the restored Stanhope Station to a new platform at Wolsingham.

Yesterday, there was a brief half hour to watch the unloading before it was back to work getting everything ready for the first passengers to arrive.

Austerity is one of two engines pulling the first carriages. Owned by Richard Charlton, it is on loan from the Tanfield Railway for the opening and is going back in a fortnight's time.

Commissioned by the War Department in 1943 to move men and armaments, it saw long years of service at Backworth Colliery, in Northumberland.

It was a rusting wreck when Mr Charlton bought it in the 1980s, but after four years of restoration it has covered 6,500 miles on the Tanfield track.

In a similar gesture typical of the camaraderie of steam enthusiasts, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway has loaned the line's second loco a NER P3, which is due to arrive on Friday.

For Dave Foxton, a volunteer since February 1993 and now working full time as depot manager at Wolsingham, Austerity's arrival marked the end of an unforgettable era.

He said: "It means the first phase is over and we are starting something fresh.

"We become an operational railway at one minute past midnight on Saturday and for us that means a new beginning.

"It is also the end of 11 years and five months of hard slog."

Volunteer Derek Brunskill, 62, from Crook, said: "My 11-year-old son Dale wants to be an engine driver. It means everything to me to get this line open again and if it means jobs for lads like him it will be tremendous."

Seats are available on the inaugural return run between Stanhope and Wolsingham on July 17 at 11.15am.

Fares are £30 for adults, £18 for children, and include presentation bags. Normal fares are £5 return for adults, £4 senior citizens and £3 children, or ask for family rates. Telephone 0845 600 1348 or (01388) 529566.

* Don't miss a souvenir supplement on the opening of the Weardale Railway - published on July 14.