THOUSANDS of people stepped back in time to enjoy Pickering’s annual wartime weekend – giving the town’s traders a much-needed boost.

Bosses at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway estimated a record-breaking 12,000 people steamed into Pickering for the three-day Railway At War extravaganza. The town was transported back to the Second World War with wartime entertainment, mock air raids and even a 1940s hairdresser.

Highlights of the weekend included a parade of 1940s cars, civilians in clothes from the period and military vehicles.

Phil Bustard, the railway’s marketing manager, said: “It has been a phenomenal success. I’m pretty sure we will see some records broken in terms of visitor numbers and ticket sales.”

The weekend began on Friday when children dressed up in authentic 1940s clothes and found out what it was like to be a wartime evacuee. They were taken, with gas masks and name tags, to the town’s station and put on board the 10am steam train bound for Goathland.

“It’s great for them to understand what it was like to get packed off away from the towns and cities that were being bombed,” said Mr Bustard.

Away from Pickering, the station at Levisham was transformed into German-occupied Le Visham, complete with a French-style café, accordion-player and troops in German uniforms.

Visitors watched partisans attack the railway to disrupt troop movements, prompting action from rail staff and the German infantry.