THE Mayor of Darlington was among those celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Bowes Railway.

Councillor Isobel Hartley attended the children's day at the railway, when pupils from schools across the region spent the day learning about the railway and its role in the North-East coal industry.

Coun Hartley has close connections with the railway, as her relatives worked on it for more than 100 years.

"I was born and brought up about a mile away from the railway, and my relatives worked on it from about 1865 onwards. Other relatives worked in the collieries," she said.

"From where I lived, you could go for a walk alongside the railway for picnics and things."

The line took coal from the collieries to the coal boats on the river Tyne, at Jarrow and Tynedale

Since the railway closed in the 1960s, a group has managed to restore some of the railway buildings at Springwell, near Gateshead, including a joiners shop and blacksmiths shop, and has kept a stretch of the line operating on open days.

The open days are every other Sunday during the summer. The next one is on Sunday, July 29.