Keighley's Vintage Carriages Trust (VCT) has scooped a historic railway award for the second time in a decade.

The Ingrow-based charity is joint winner of one of the country's top awards for small railway societies and museums. Curator Jackie Cope collected the trophy - a plaque made from a carriage used by Queen Victoria a century ago - from the Association of Independent Railways and Preservation Societies at the group's annual ceremony in Man-chester on Saturday.

The society represents the bulk of preserved railways and railway-related museums in the country. Mrs Cope says to be picked out is quite an honour for the VCT which shares its award with Swanage in Dorset. "The award has been presented for the way we maintain and preserve our stock," she says. "With our engines and carriages ranging from 40 to over 100 years old we have to be very careful in the way we treat them."

The museum has drawn up precise rules for hiring out and using its rolling stock and locomotives, to ensure that they remain in running order to give visitors a 'working museum', but also to preserve them for future generations. The railways' association is also impressed by the way in which museum volunteers provide information about the golden age of trains for visitors.

The museum jointly collected the same award - for the large vintage railways category - at the beginning of the decade with neighbouring Keighley and Worth Valley Railway for their work restoring Ingrow station.

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