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The UK has an impressive industrial past, which notably includes its railways. Through years of innovation and determination, lines were built up and down the nation as villages, towns and cities became connected.

Many of the lines still stand today, yet just one is recognised as being the world's oldest. Parts of the line date back to 1725 and are still in use as a heritage line. A passenger service runs along the three-mile route every Sunday.

The Tanfield Railway runs through Gateshead and County Durham. It started as a horse-drawn colliery wooden waggonway, then became a rope-and-horse railway, and finally a rope-and-locorailway.

Preserved industrial steam trains still head down its route between East Tanfield, Durham, and Sunniside, Gateshead. The railway claims the title of the oldest in the world, as it runs on a section dating back to 1725, with other parts in use since 1621.

The Tanfield Railway was built to transport coal, rather than passengers, to the River Tyne for shipment to London and beyond. They used the latest technology of their time, as wooden wagons and wooden rails were pulled by horses.

This was 100 years before iron rails and steam made their appearance on the railway. Today, volunteers have taken on the task of keeping up Tanfield Railway's legacy.

They celebrated the railway's 300th birthday last year and appeared in a BBC documentary, The World's Oldest Railway. Tom Hartley has been a volunteer since 2004 after his imagination was captured when his parents took him on the North Polar Express train.

When he was 19, Tom and three other volunteers decided to renovate their own steam engine. They bought National Coal Board No. 38 from another older volunteer, Peter Weightman, for £1, so it came to just 25p each.

The volunteers have put in thousands of hours of work and money to restore the train, which they hope will be up and running again soon.

Peter said: "It was frightening to see so many lovely machines that were getting scrapped in the 1960s, and that was my motivation really. Somebody had to do it before we lost our history, our local history.

"It has taken a lifetime to do it all, but I have confidence knowing that the next generation is going to repair it and get it working." Some 170 people volunteer at Tanfield, which also hires three full-time staff members.

General manager David Watchman said: "I am really proud of our railway; we have a fantastic bunch of volunteers. Everyone has their own skill set. It is all about the people, and we have volunteers aged 12 through to 92. The railway wouldn't exist without them."