There will be a Wolf and two cats in Europe's best museum next weekend, as CHRIS TITLEY reports.

YORKATT and Eric are the kings of the road. They are always mooching around York, dispensing their furry philosophy and making thousands of Evening Press readers laugh along the way.

But next weekend the cartoon cats will leave the great outdoors and make tracks to the National Railway Museum. There, Yorkatt and Eric - or at least a cardboard cut-out of the pair - will be making a personal appearance among the shining locomotives.

Never before have they appeared outside of the frames of their strip on the Saturday letters page. And there will be another first too: their creator will be with them.

Today we can finally reveal the identity of Yorkatt and Eric's artist. Known until now only by his pen-name, Wolf, he is Richard Stansfield, who works at the York Castle Museum.

Richard is delighted to be emerging from anonymity to meet the public. And there could be no better event for this to happen than one which celebrates his great passion: drawing.

Next weekend, the NRM is having an art attack. It is staging a Big Draw event. This is an annual wheeze dreamed up by Drawing Power, a crusade to get everyone sketching, doodling and scribbling away.

Quentin Blake, Gerald Scarfe and David Hockney are among the artist patrons of Drawing Power. "If you can draw, even a little bit, you can express all kinds of ideas that might otherwise be lost - delights, frustrations, whatever torments you or pleases you," says Hockney.

Visitors to the NRM next Saturday and Sunday will be given a blank postcard and pencils, and asked to do a drawing of whatever takes their fancy.

Graham Relton, the museum's education team leader, said staff will be on hand to explain it all. He does not mind what anyone chooses to draw as long as they have a go.

"Whether they draw the buffer of one of the trains, or a wall, it's entirely up to them. They can go for the traditional trains, like the Bullet or Mallard, or for more obscure ones," said Graham, who has a degree in art and education.

All ages should get involved, he said. "We want the kids to bully the adults into it as well. We want the whole family to get involved.

"I would love to walk around the museum next weekend and see loads of people picking up a pencil and having a scribble. It could just be making a mark: it doesn't have to look like anything.

"Then they can send the postcard back to themselves at home, or to a relative or friend."

To make things even more convenient, there is a postbox at the museum.

Graham can also scan the finished postcard design into a computer and email it to an address of the artist's choice. At a later date he wants to use these electronic images to stage an online exhibition.

Art and the railways have always gone together. The NRM has a massive art collection, with fabulous colour posters from some of the top artists of the day.

In his Wolf clothing, Richard Stansfield has drawn some railway-theme Yorkatt and Eric postcards to mark the event. One of these is an hilarious pastiche of perhaps the most famous poster of all: the jolly fisherman skipping along Skegness beach. It will be added to the museum's permanent art collection.

This was Richard's tribute to an instantly recognisably classic. "It came out in 1904 and everybody knows it. And it was drawn by one of my artist heroes, John Hassall."

In other cards, Richard has depicted the cats admiring George Stephenson's "Rockatt", and sitting on top of the record-breaking Mallard.

Meanwhile, ten pictures of Yorkatt and Eric are hidden among the museum's exhibits. Anyone who spots the lot could win a prize. Some of Richard's postcards, signed by the artist himself, will be up for grabs.

Clearly he has a gift for art. "People say that it's a gift. But if you want to do it you can do it, if you work at it."

Now 52, Richard has been drawing since he was four. A formative memory was receiving a book of Giles cartoons for his eighth birthday: "I was knocked out. I wanted to do cartoons like that."

Yorkatt and Eric are based on his own pets, Kink and Eric. They were farm cats but now, with a lot of love and effort, they are domesticated.

Richard's link with the Evening Press goes back to 1988 when he won our cartoon contest. Cluff, whose cartoons appear in many publications, including Private Eye, presented him with the prize.

The Yorkatt strip began five years ago, and has been a firm favourite with readers ever since.

Isn't it tough coming up with funny ideas, week in, week out? "It gets easier and easier and easier. I am probably a fool for saying that. But your mind's always looking for ideas. And because people know you are doing it, they will suggest ideas."

Richard will be at the NRM next Saturday, helping out with the Big Draw event. "I'm going to get a real buzz out of it," he said.

The Big Draw event is at the National Railway Museum, Leeman Road, York, on October 18-19, from 10am to 6pm

Updated: 16:07 Friday, October 10, 2003