A Keighley museum has helped add a touch of class to the latest film starring Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow. The Vintage Carriages Trust (VCT), based in Ingrow, has provided two old carriages which featured in The Railway Children for a new movie called Possession.

The carriages -- an 1886 Midland Railway six-wheeled composite carriage no 358 and its 1888 East Coast Joint Stock six-wheeled third class brake carriage no 143 -- were used on scenes filmed on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

Paul Holroyd of the VCT explains: "The carriages are no strangers to the world of film and television having both appeared in the 1970 EMI film version of The Railway Children. The East Coast Joint Stock carriage has appeared in ten other productions, including Timewatch, The Woman in White and Jude. "The Midland carriage has also appeared in the 1969 film The Virgin and The Gypsy."

Adapted from the Booker Prize-winning novel by A S Byatt, Possession, directed by Neil LaBute, stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Dr Maud Bailey, Jeremy Northern as Randolph Henry Ash and Jennifer Ely as Christabel La Motte.

The film makers also used two Great Western Carriages, no 14 of 1889 and no 37 of 1897, owned by Stephen Middleton of Stately Trains.

The carriages are normally based at Embsay and used on the railway's Strawberry Specials.

A full list of the Vintage Carriage Trust's film credits and a database of more than 3,600 preserved railway carriages and 2,600 photographs can be accessed through its web site at http://www.neotek.demon.co.uk/vct/