AIR raid sirens will ring out, soldiers will scamper to avoid attack - and tourists will flock to see the whole affair.

The Pickering Wartime Weekend returns this Saturday and Sunday, bringing with it a host of events.

Not only will there be the array of the now-traditional events along the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, but there will be wartime singalongs, an exhibition of reminiscences, evening dances and re-enactments.

On Saturday, the town centre will be closed for a major parade which will include 40 tanks and 800 re-enactors. Paul Harper will be there to inspect the troops in his role as a Field Marshal Montgomery look-alike and Geoff Pearson, who organises the event with Ivon Baker, said: "He really looks the part, and even talks like 'Monty'."

Elsewhere, there are three dances being held over the weekend at the Memorial Hall, featuring the Kirkbymoorside Silver Band. Tickets for the Saturday dances are completely sold out but, at time of going to press, there were still a few tickets available for the Friday evening event.

Another traditional part of the wartime weekend is the Pickering Musical Society review.

This year's show is When The Lights Go On - which also serves as an opportunity for visitors to see the newly-refurbished Kirk Theatre.

Devised and produced by Maureen Symonds, there is music to suit all tastes in this non-stop extravaganza.

As ever, demand for tickets has been high - with all shows now sold out.

But for those who can't get to the shows, the society has offered an ingenious alternative.

A video is being produced of the Saturday performance, costing £14 including postage and packaging. Anyone interested in obtaining one should send a cheque (payable to Pickering Musical Society) to the Kirk Theatre in Pickering.

At the over-60s club on Sunday, the Rye Writers group will be staging an exhibition of their work. The work on show will cover both times of peace and wartime, and follows a previous exhibition which proved to be a great success.

The group, which has concentrated on collecting people's reminiscences, has also published two collections of members' work, and meets every Tuesday at the over-60s club from 2.15pm until 4pm.

For more details, contact John Dean on (01439) 771639.

Over at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, the station will look as if it has stepped straight out of the Second World War, right down to the WVS canteen.

Trains will be running all weekend along the spectacular 18-mile journey from Pickering to Grosmont, calling at Pickering, Levisham, and Goathland.

In conjunction with the Wartime Weekend, the Beck Isle Museum is holding a display of material relating to the Second World War.

Including the museum's 'Local Wartime Memories' project, it will be on show from Saturday to Tuesday, 10am to 5pm.

Visitors will be able to hear interviews with a number of people about their wartime memories, some here at home, others from the battlefields. This recorded oral history has been a project of Roger Dowson, a freelance researcher, who is continuing to work on the project for the Beck Isle Museum.

In addition to the activities at the museum, display boards with photos and other items are set up at Pickering Library. The library display will be in place for two weeks.

At the museum, there will also be access to a computer, with databases on casualties from the area for both world wars, as there was last year, so that relatives can search to gain information on their family members.

Updated: 12:22 Wednesday, October 15, 2003