THE chairman of the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway (K&WVR) has hailed the "spectacular" impact made by the Flying Scotsman steam engine during its nine-day visit.

Dr Matt Stroh said the locomotive, which was on loan from National Railway Museum, had been hugely well received by locals and by visitors from all over the UK and beyond.

"It showed the railway and our volunteers at their absolute best," he added.

"The sense of achievement among the hundreds of volunteers who gave their time during that nine days is palpable. Everyone worked so hard.

"We probably had over 100 volunteers rostered for each of the nine days Flying Scotsman was here.

"The feedback we received, which ranged from the chairman of Network Rail to the various other passengers I spoke to, was incredibly positive.

"We had about 17,000 visitors over the nine days, including 12,500 passengers who travelled on the Flying Scotsman.

"This means that in another day or two we'll have carried 20,000 people in a fortnight, which is very impressive.

"We're finalising the accounts from the Flying Scotsman event, and the money from it will go towards the greater good of the K&WVR, and will be invested into our future projects.

"The Old Hall in Haworth offered a supper to some of our volunteers last night as a 'thank you' for the extra trade we helped bring them over the last couple of weeks, and I think that's symptomatic of what this event contributed to the local economy.

"A lot of the passengers who came to travel on the Flying Scotsman stayed on the line and in the villages, because they really wanted to make a day of it, which was great."

Dr Stroh said booking information showed visitors had travelled to the K&WVR from as far away as Europe and even further afield, with one family even coming from Australia.

He said the family from Australia included a young boy with autism who enjoyed a "journey of a lifetime" on the railway, and had been thrilled to meet train driver Noel Hartley.

Dr Stroh said: "As a railway it'll be our 50th year next year. We've been asked how long it took us to prepare for the Flying Scotsman and in a sense it has taken 49 years of preparation, because we'd not have got the locomotive here if we weren't good enough."

To celebrate the locomotive's visit, Eagle Intermedia an Internet marketing consultancy firm which runs the Bronte Country website, held a raffle for tickets to raise funds for the charity Bradford and Airedale Eyesight Trust.

The raffle was won by Stockport resident Gillian Mawson, a wartime historian and author of Guernsey Evacuees and Britain's Wartime Evacuees.

For her prize Mrs Mawson and her husband enjoyed afternoon tea in a carriage hauled by the Flying Scotsman locomotive along the K&WVR.

The raffle ticket sale is now closed, but people can still visit justgiving.com/fundraising/Eagle-Intermedia to donate to Bradford and Airedale Eyesight Trust.

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