The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway today landed a £599,000 lottery grant.

The windfall will be used by the historic organisation to house its treasured collection of railway carriages which currently stand out in the open.

Members of the railway trust, who recently celebrated the line's 30th anniversary, were overjoyed at the news.

Trust chairman Nigel Ward said: "It's really wonderful that we've finally got this grant. We've been working on the application for more than a year.

"The money will mean that our fleet of carriages will be able to be kept under cover in a large shed.

"At present, volunteers spend a lot of time restoring a coach but then it is kept out in the open and rapidly deteriorates."

The award was made by the National Lottery heritage fund. Anthea Case, director of the fund, said the KWVR was an excellent example of a popular community project which encouraged public participation.

The railway runs for five miles from Keighley through Haworth and into the Pennine Moors and is run entirely by volunteers.

It was one of the first, and most complete, preserved railways in the country. Despite being closed by the British Rail board in 1962, the line was saved by volunteers and reopened in 1968. Today, the railway enjoys a national reputation, partly thanks to its role as the setting for the film The Railway Children.

A Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £312,000 was also awarded to the North Yorkshire Moors Historical Railway Trust to restore the Grade II listed Pickering railway station.

Meanwhile, members of the society which owns, manages and runs the Keighley and Worth Railway were also celebrating after being praised by Parliament for their 30 years of service to the public.

Some 14 Labour MPs, including Ann Cryer and Terry Rooney, signed an Early Day Motion congratulating the railway for its achievement in running its public passenger service.

Society chairman Graham Mitchell said: "We're thrilled and delighted to accept such a ringing endorsement of the millions of hours of unpaid toil by hand and by brain freely given by society members in the on-going management of one of the country's best loved railways."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.