YORK’S four remaining Normandy Veterans have paid an annual visit to the city’s only heritage railway.

Ken Smith, Ken Cooke, Bert Barritt and Douglas Petty were given VIP treatment during their trip to the Derwent Valley Light Railway at Murton Park, on the city’s eastern outskirts.

“The railway reserved a special coach for them and gave them VIP treatment, including an on-train buffet and hot drinks,” said Nick Beilby, a coordinator for the Normandy Veterans’ Association.

“The veterans are honorary members of the railway and Ken Smith said that it is always a very special day for them and a highlight of their year.”

He said they went up and down the line three times, in a carriage pulled by a train named Ken Cooke in honour of the veteran.

The veterans’ visit came just weeks after they attended a service in York to mark the 74th anniversary of the D-Day landings, at which Ken Smith and Ken Cooke vowed to return to France one more time next year to remember their fallen comrades.

The landings in 1944 saw 156,000 troops from the allied countries join forces to launch an attack on the beaches of Normandy which helped lead to the defeat of Nazi Germany.

The Light Railway originally opened in 1913 and ran for 16 miles from York to Skipwith near Selby, via villages including Dunnington, Elvington, Wheldrake and Thorganby.

Passenger services ended in 1926 and the line closed in 1981, but passenger trains began to run again in 1993 on a half-mile section of track at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming at Murton, and the railway celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this year.