The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway has celebrated a milestone as it marked its five millionth passenger.

Train fanatic Richard Marsden was the lucky traveller and railway bosses presented him with a giant ticket, a free pass for the day and a bottle of bubbly.

Leeds-born Mr Marsden, 34, is secretary of railway model club "Tex-N" in Dallas, Texas, where he now lives. He said he was "very surprised".

He said: "I was about five or six when I first became interested in trains, but I was about two when I first travelled one."

His wife, Marcy Brown Marsden, 37, said she was excited to ride on the steam train. "It is not something people see in the US," she said.

The five-mile railway, from Keighley to Oxenhope, was taken over by a preservation society in 1968 after it had closed six years earlier.

Founder member of the volunteer-run service Ralph Povey presented Mr Marsden with the five millionth ticket.

Mr Povey, 84, said: "We never thought that it would not be successful. We always believed we would get it going and keep it going and that is what we intend to do - not just for the residents of Keighley but for the visitors as well. We get people from all over the world."

Paul Brown, the railway's chairman, said the steam trains attracted a lot of interest. "There are museums all over the country but we are moving and in action," he said. "It is much different.

"We rely on volunteers to run the service. It is about a 98 per cent volunteer workforce and they come from far and wide. The way things are going it will still be going in the next 50 years."

l The K&WVR shot to international recognition in 1970 when it was used in the filming of The Railway Children.