A PASSENGER train hauled by two giant steam locomotives will pass through Huddersfield next year to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Liverpool-Manchester railway.

Railway enthusiasts across Britain - and there are an estimated five million of them - are expected to clamour for seats.

The special train will run on Saturday, March 4.

But although some seats are costing as much as £95 for the journey which starts and ends at Liverpool Lime Street, organisers Kingfisher Railtours of Weymouth, Dorset, are expecting a sell out.

A spokesman said: "This is one of the most spectacular special steam hauled trains of early 2006. It is due to start at Lime Street at 08.40 and then go to Manchester Victoria and then to Stalybridge.

"It will then go to Huddersfield, Hebden Bridge and over Copy Pit to Blackburn and through Darwen to Manchester.

"It is a fantastic tour to commemorate the anniversary of this pioneering railway with two highly appropriate locomotives."

The two locomotives, now preserved, both worked on the route in the hey-day of steam traction.

They are former 45407, known as a Black Five and 76079.

The locomotive 45407, officially a Class 5MT was built in 1934 for the former London Midland and Scottish Railway. It weighs 72 tons two cwt and that is without its tender!

More modern, in so far as it was built in 1953 for working on almost anywhere on the then British Railways network, 76079 is a Class 4MT weighing 69 tons.