Heritage railway enthusiasts are restoring a historic engine which helped in the defeat of Nazi Germany.

But in order to do the work they are having to get parts from the only place which manufactures them nowadays - China.

The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway has launched a £100,000 project to return the S160 Big Jim to its former glory. When completed in about four years, it will be decked out in its old military colours of battleship grey with the words 'US Army Transportation Corps' emblazoned on the tender.

Some of the first parts to arrive on site at Haworth yard are two sets of bogies from China.

"The parts arrived just before Christmas and the team involved in the restoration couldn't wait to get the box opened - it was like a Christmas present," said the railway's Ralph Ingham.

The equipment had been sent from Harbin, China, a town which in December suffered a toxic chemical spill into its major river.

The town still manufactures locomotive parts, with many of the designs based on American patterns first copied from rail stock which arrived in the country after the Second World War.

Big Jim, a Second World War US army transportation corps engine, was bought by the heritage line in the 1970s from Poland and ran along the five-mile line between Keighley and Oxenhope until about ten years ago.

Soon afterwards it was commissioned to play a major role in the John Schlesinger movie Yanks, much of which was shot in Keighley and along the Worth Valley line in 1978.

It was removed from service because the bogies on the tender had become very warn.

The overhaul involves stripping the engine down to its component parts. Volunteers have already removed the boiler, cab and the rolling gear.

The latest parts came in two steel containers 8ft long by 5ft wide and 3ft high comprising the wheel sets, frames and springs. But the box also revealed some Christmas goodies - an automatic door trap for the firebox and an American chime whistle which has a more melodic tone than the standard BR whistle.

The S160 was built in its thousands and used in Britain throughout the war ferrying freight and war munitions about the country. It was a familiar sight on the Aire Valley line.

When the Germans began to retreat, they were shipped over to Europe to help in securing the victory. "They were built just to last about 15 years, but many were still useful up to the 1970s," Mr Ingham said.