Sixty five years ago the carriages may have been full of tears and anxious faces as children were evacuated away from their homes and families to unknown destinations and far from the threat of Hitler's bombs.

But while children packed a Mid Norfolk Railway train to resconstruct the wartime evacuation scenario there were plenty of happy smiles and laughter as these youngsters from Scarning Primary School knew they would be coming home at the end of the day.

The school had organised the trip for reception and Year 1 children to round off their Second World War topic which they had been learning about this term.

Year 1 teacher Gail Bartlett, one of the organisers, said as the older children in the school had been taken to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford they felt this was a better option for the younger ones.

And thanks to the Mid Norfolk Railway they had a special train all to themselves.

'The children have been learning about what it would be like to be evacuated, how they carried their gas masks and what food they had to eat so we thought that it would be good to really experience it first hand,' said Mrs Bartlett.

She said they children dressed up in 1940s clothes, made gas mask boxes and had their names on labels around their necks.

'Some of the parents came and waved them off - but we did stress that they were coming home again as a couple of children were a bit worried. They loved looking at all the animals out of the windows and I think history really came alive for them.

'One of the highlights was eating their rationed lunches and some of them had their sandwiches wrapped in brown paper with no luxuries like they usually have.

'The Mid Norfolk Railway were so helpful and they even put our school's name on the front of the train.'