PASSENGERS and staff celebrated 40 years of high speed trains on the East Coast Mainline at York Station.

And two special guests came along for the ride.

Retired rail engineer Steve Hoather and former train manager Noel Proudlock were invited to travel in the cab of one of Virgin's 14 high speed trains as it travelled from London King's Cross to York on Tuesday, May 8.

Steve, 72, was based at York Station and recalls working on the new train on its first journey from London to Edinburgh. He said: "It actually failed in Edinburgh so I had to mend it for the return journey.

"They cut an hour off the journey time from King's Cross to Edinburgh. The fact that they are still running so well after 40 years delights and amazes me."

Steve said engineers faced a number of challenges with the trains, including fixing the brakes and on one occasion when 66 train windows all broke.

He added: "You had to think on your feet. To me it was one of the hardest but most fascinating jobs I ever had in my career."

Noel, 84, also worked on the line from York Station and said the trains were much faster but the speed was almost unnoticeable.

He said: "It was marvellous. It was very different then because we had never gone 100mph before and then we were going 125mph. But we didn't notice the speed, the window sill level was raised so you couldn't see things that were close by and that changed the sensation of speed."

The train, decorated with a 40th anniversary banner, arrived at York at 3.30pm on Tuesday.