STEAM train enthusiasts were treated to a piece of history in Huddersfield.

A 400-passenger train raced through the town’s railway station as part of a nostalgic 100-mile trip round former textile towns.

Nicknamed the Railtours UK Cotton Mill Express, the train departed from Manchester and visited Stalybridge, Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge, Burnley, Darwen and Bolton as well as Huddersfield.

Andy Brook, of PR company North Media, said: “There’s still a huge enthusiasm for steam.

“The 13 coaches were full, and there were 50 to 60 people who turned out at Huddersfield to catch a glimpse, from children to OAPs.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia, it doesn’t go away.”

The trip was being run as a ‘market tester' by charter trains company Past-Time Rail.

Ten carriages were pulled by a pair of locomotives ‘double-heading' along the route.

The LMS ‘Black 5' number 45407 – The Lancashire Fusilier – was commonplace on passenger and goods trains until steam gave way to diesel in 1968.

The second engine was a former British Rail standard class 4 number 76079.

There were period carriages from the 1950s and 60s.