A GUINNESS World record holder and York built pioneering train is running again after 88 years.

Sir Ron Cooke, chairman of Yorkshire and Humber Heritage Lottery Fund Committee and Stephen Middleton, chairman of the NER 1903 Electric Autocar Trust launched the ‘autocar’ and trailer coach in to traffic last month at Embsay Station.

Credited by the Guinness World Records organisation as being the world’s first internal combustion-electric railcar, the autocar was the origin of today's passenger trains.

Two were built in 1903 by the North Eastern Railway at York Carriage Works and operated on railways around Yorkshire and the north-east. Withdrawn in 1931, the body of the first was used as a holiday home until it was purchased in 2003 for restoration.

A charitable Trust was formed, led by Stephen Middleton, an experienced vintage carriage restorer, and with the help of a wonderful and dedicated team of volunteers and a £531,000 National Lottery grant the body has been repaired and restored to a very high standard.

Mr Middleton said: "We could not have restored the autocar without the Heritage Lottery Fund or the dedication and generosity of our membership. As well as the grant award, we were also fortunate in receiving support from PRISM and the Ken Hoole Trust.

"The Transport Trust also advanced a loan facility of £46,000. My grateful thanks to all of them. I am immensely proud of our achievement in restoring this 'missing link' between the steam and diesel eras."

The Trust's engineers have constructed a replacement chassis around an adapted Great Northern Railway underframe and a new Darlington built diesel power unit from Cummins.

The autocar is scheduled for regular public services in 2019 on the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway, with the possibility of visits elsewhere.

In addition to the autocar, the Trust has also restored an unpowered trailer coach, also from the North Eastern Railway, built in 1904. This will allow a truly unique Edwardian Diesel Multiple Unit to be operated and the Trust is very grateful to the NER coach group at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for donating this coach.