Schoolchildren were given a return ticket to the 1940s to experience what it was like to be a Second World War evacuee.
More than 1,000 pupils from schools across the city and county descended on Loughborough's Central Station, yesterday.
In an evocative curtain-raiser to the Great Central Railway's Wartime Weekend, they boarded stream trains for a trip along the heritage line to its Leicester North station at Birstall.
At Quorn, they joined in with a 1940s wartime sing-song, learned about agriculture and Britain's land army and learned about life in Nazi Germany during the conflict.
Christine Brown, who organised the event, said: "The children were all dressed in period clothing and had to assume their grandparents' names, so we had a few Hildas and Alberts."
Joining the pupils was Maisie Walker, 83, from Loughborough, who told them about her experience as a little girl being evacuated to Leicestershire from London in 1941.
They also wrote letters home to their mums and dads, as the wartime evacuees would have done.
"It is hard to imagine how difficult it would have been for children to leave home and then go to stay with someone they didn't know," said Ms Brown. "Their day with us gave them a flavour of the emotion involved."
The Wartime Weekend features period entertainment, vintage fly-pasts and displays. For more pictures of the event, see Monday's Mercury.
www.gcrailway.co.uk
