AS the country starts to reopen following a forced shut-down, it is full stead ahead for two historic engines which will be heading through Yorkshire each week between May and September.

“Scots Guardsman”, Number 46115, is set to pull both the Dalesman and Pendle Dalesman excursions over the spectacular Settle-Carlisle line, regularly voted one of the greatest railway journeys in the world.

And “Galatea”, Number 45699, will haul the Scarborough Spa Express through York to the East Coast seaside resort.

Coupled up behind each of the heritage locomotives will be West Coast Railway’s carefully renovated vintage railway carriages which date back to the old British Rail days of the 1950s.

Passengers can sip Buck’s Fizz while tucking into a full English breakfast on the outward journey – followed by a gourmet four-course dinner with wine and champagne on the way home.

And if some of those railway carriages look familiar, then that might be because they starred as the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter movies.

And they don’t come much more magical than “Scots Guardsman”, an 85-ton Royal Scot class engine built at Glasgow in 1927 for the old London, Midland and Scottish Railway.

She will haul both the Dalesman, which calls at Skipton and Leeds, and the Pendle Dalesman, with stops at Clitheroe and Long Preston, over the stunning Settle-Carlisle line.

This 72-mile route was a triumph of Victorian engineering when it opened in the 19th century, cutting through the northern Pennines and Yorkshire Dales with 22 viaducts and 14 tunnels.

While the Dalesman and Pendle Dalesman are heading North, the Scarborough Spa Express will be steaming East hauled by crimson-painted “Galatea”, a locomotive which always reminds me of “James the Red Engine” in the Thomas the Tank Engine books.

Another former LMS engine, this time of the Jubilee Class, “Galatea” was built at Crewe in 1936 and named after a newly-launched Royal Navy cruiser, which in turn was called after the Greek sea goddess.

The Scarborough Spa Express will pick up passengers at Hellifield, Skipton, Keighley, Shipley, Brighouse, Wakefield and Woodlesford.

Also watch out for the Northern Belle – described by actor Bill Nighy on Channel 5’s “The World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys” programme earlier this year which will be departing from several Yorkshire stations throughout this year.

For more details or to book, see www.westcoastrailways.co.uk and www.northernbelle.co.uk