RICHARD FOSTER lets the train take the strain during a day out in Bronte country.

BRITAIN'S love affair with the steam locomotive is celebrated in true Yorkshire fashion on the Worth Valley Railway.

Each year thousands of passengers steam through the wild beauty of Bronte country, follow the footsteps of The Railway Children and get close to a remarkable Victorian literary family - thanks to the efforts of enthusiastic volunteers.

Members of the railway's preservation society work hard to recreate the best aspects of a 1950s branch line. The result is a charming symphony of steam, incorporating lovingly-tended stations, breathtaking countryside plus literature and screen heritage.

British Railways closed the ailing branch line to passenger traffic in December 1961 and the last freight train ran several months later.

The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway Preservation Society was formed and the line reopened in June 1968. Twenty years later it won the Independent Railway of the Year award. But the society has not rested on its laurels and it is always looking to develop the railway.

There is something magical about travelling on slam-door carriages pulled by a steam locomotive rescued from a scrap-yard. There's the distinctive smell of steam, coal, oil and smoke and the clickety-click of the moving train - that rhythm captured brilliantly by W H Auden in his poem Night Mail.

The heritage railway offers much to the enthusiast, including two tunnels, two level-crossings, two signal boxes and six stations.

The Worth Valley branch line starts at Keighley - its link with Britain's national rail network. Next stop is Ingrow West which, only a few years ago, was an unattractive halt. A new station has been built by dismantling the derelict station at Foulridge on the closed Colne-Skipton line and reconstructing it at Ingrow, which is also home to a museum run by the Vintage Carriages Trust.

Damens is the smallest station on the line, with a platform long enough for one coach only. It features as Ormston in BBC Television's Born And Bred.

Oakworth's Edwardian splendour has graced many a film, the most famous being The Railway Children. The 1970 screen adaptation of E Nesbit's children's novel captures the timeless, magical world of childhood.

The next stop on the Worth Valley line is Haworth, known for its literary association with the Brontes - Anne (The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall); Charlotte (Jane Eyre) and Emily (Wuthering Heights). The Bronte Parsonage Museum, next to their father's church, is well worth a visit.

Haworth is the railway's headquarters, boasting a locomotive depot where visitors can view the steam leviathans under repair or restoration.

The line's picturesque terminus is Oxenhope station, 660ft above sea level and an ideal picnic spot for me and my children - Sophie, 15, Daniel, 13, and 11-year-old Rachel. Suitably fortified, the four of us set out on what has become known as The Railway Children Walk. Features on the one-and-a-half mile hilly route include Three Chimneys - the house used for exterior scenes in film - and a 17th century pack-horse bridge spanning a babbling beck. The stone bridge was built to assist the movement of cloth to market when the wool trade was emerging as a major cottage industry in the area.

Fact file

Keighley & Worth Valley Light Railway Ltd, Haworth Station, Keighley, West Yorkshire BD22 8NJ

Tel: 01535 645214; 24-hour information line: 01535 647777

Website: www.kwvr.co.uk

Tickets: Family Day Rover £25; Adult Day Rover £10

How to get there: Keighley is about 45 miles from York. Once in the town, follow the brown tourist signs to the station which has its own car park.

Updated: 09:20 Saturday, September 13, 2003