ONCE they were an essential mode of transport, much loved by thousands of soot-covered passengers the length and breadth of Britain.

Today the steamy romance lives on at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, where eight locomotives are in use along the 17-and-a-half-mile branch line from Grosmont to Pickering.

Some of the pictured locomotives can still be seen hauling passenger carriages over the picturesque North York Moors. Another 13 locomotives are being repaired and renovated.

Engine number 45428, built in 1937 by Armstrong Whitworth of Newcastle, started work on the private railway in 1973 and has since had tens of thousands of pounds spent on its restoration.

Jennifer, the 1942-built steam tank engine named after a Stokesley teacher's wife, was one of the first locos to join the railway when it opened in 1973.

The engine, which worked for the National Coal Board before being bought privately, later left for a new home on the West Somerset railway.

Two steam locomotives, a class Q6 built in Darlington and a rare 0-6-0 tank engine from County Durham, were greeted by hundreds of enthusiasts when they arrived in Grosmont with the help of a modern diesel engine more than 25 years ago.

Updated: 12:38 Friday, July 19, 2002