A STEAM engine at the Severn Valley Railway is celebrating its 100th birthday.

The former Port Talbot Railway saddletank number 813 was built in 1901 for the task of shifting coal in the collieries of South Wales.

But last year, the engine was called upon in a crisis to haul passenger carriages for the first time, and did so well it is now being put in service.

It has been awarded its own series of passenger trains for its birthday celebrations and will make four round trips between Kidderminster and Bewdley, pulling three of the railway's classic vintage trains.

The trains will leave Kidderminster at 11.10am, 12.30pm, 1.45pm and 2.55pm, and from Bewdley at 11.40am, 1pm, 2.16pm and 3.20pm.

A cake-cutting ceremony will be held at Kidderminster before the 1.45pm train on Saturday, and in time-honoured tradition, a piece of the cake will be fed to the train through the engine's firebox.