The crowds gather at the platform as the plume of steam signals the start of their journey.

Taking them back in time to an era which spawned the famous film, The Railway Children, the steam trains which trundle up and down the track from Keighley to Haworth provide an experience for travellers to pass by the scenery which created a back-drop to the aforementioned film shot around these parts.

The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway is a popular destination for tourists eager to navigate the track to the Bronte homeland by steam, but there are fears the potential coal shortage, posed by the collapse of Scottish Coal and a large fire in a Warwickshire mine, could impact on heritage lines such as this.

Ralph Ingham, a fitter with the KWVR, is charged with the responsibility of ordering coal for the railway which, over a year, amounts to 800 tonnes.

Throughout the summer, when the railway is at its busiest, they average deliveries about every fortnight and use the same suppliers passed down from his predecessor.

Ralph suspects it could be a temporary issue, but he adds that not all heritage railways use UK coal. Some import from Russian and Eastern European countries.

“It just shows that from a union that is built on coal, the loss of our coal fields has been keenly felt,” he says.

In terms of supply, Ralph says he is ‘reasonably confident’ of continuity. “But we recognise for the movement as a whole we have to be careful and keep an eye on prices and supply for future.

“I am as concerned as the rest that prices have, over the last ten years, doubled in coal, partly due to the fact that prices tend to be linked to the dollar and also all the mines are open cast so a lot of dual fuel in extracting the coal.”

Ralph says all the railways are having to absorb those costs. “Nobody is in the heritage railway to make a profit. It is ploughed back in for the next generation to enjoy,” says Ralph.

Stephen Walker, business manager for the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway, says while their merchants have kept them supplied they were concerned about a potential fuel shortage and were already putting measures in place.

“We are trying to save coal. We have been burning wood in the station fires and running shorter trains. We are doing all we can to economise to make the coal go further,” he says.

Retired coal merchant David Peel, whose son now runs the business Haworth and Whitaker in Haworth, believes open cast mining could be the way forward in future.

“I think people are trying to get coal out, there is a mine in Wales which is opening up again and I think really that is the way forward. I don’t think they will get back to going to deep mining because it will cost far too much, but we have tremendous reserves,” says David, referring to the potential fuel of the future lying under our feet.

A spokesman for the long-established family coal merchants, F B Guest based in Keighley, says while he hasn’t any concerns of a fuel shortage this year, next year could be different.

“Next winter could be a different kettle of fish,” he says.

Demand for household coal has grown due to two years of unseasonal weather and the popularity of installing open fires and stoves dictated by interior trends.

“More and more people are opening their fires up and putting stoves in – our customer base is growing every year. We are increasing business every year.

“Over the last two years, we haven’t had a summer. We expect to do nothing for five or six months of the year, but the last two years have been unbelievable. On the last week in April last year, we did four tonnes and in April this year we have done 40 tonnes.

“The only thing that lets the British coal industry down is it is the only coal industry in the world that isn’t subsidised and that is why it is cheaper to get coal from Poland, Columbia, Australia and Russia and that is why the coal industry in Great Britain can not make any money. That is what I’ve been told.”