So when Bob, of Wakefield, spotted one at a York car boot sale, he was delighted.

Then, when he opened the bag , the 65-year-old said he was left rooted to the spot and on the verge of tears.

He explained: "I couldn't believe my eyes. I opened it up and there was my father's name. After all that time looking for a bag like his, I had found his actual bag. I was left speechless, I got goosepimples up my back."

Bob's dad, Albert, worked as a guard during the golden age of steam.

As a young boy, Bob recalls visiting stations to watch his dad at work – and living the schoolboy dream of riding the railways.

He said: "I went with him as often as I could. I remember being on the engine, as a six-year-old, with a guy known as 'Mad Jack' Duddington who broke the world speed record on Mallard.

"There was a train known as the 'fish and pea train' that came from Hull, going to Billingsgate Market in London. It would pass through Cudworth and Stairfoot, loaded with fish and vegetables.

"Mad Jack didn't get his nickname for nothing. I remember my dad saying to him 'Bloody hell Jack you nearly turned it over back there, what is up with you?'"

In a trick that would give today's Health and Safety police a heart attack, Bob remembers trains slowing through the station and he would hop on without it stopping.

"He would open the guard's door and pull me on. You would never be allowed to do that now," he said.

One day when young Bob jumped on to the famous Master Cutler train at Wombwell, near Barnsley, led to him having a close encounter with the young Princess Elizabeth.

"My dad pointed to a carriage and said the princess was in there," he said. "That was in May 1952, so just a year later she became Queen."

Mr Hibbert senior hung up his flags in 1957, when he left for Bishop Auckland to be a preacher in the Assembly of God church.

His son also has preached all over the world. He has also built a collection of railway memorabilia, which includes 112 model engines and an original LNER watch carrying a serial number similar to his dad's.

Bob, of Basford Street, said: My daughter gave me that watch while I was on the Grosmont Railway for my birthday. I couldn't believe it, I had to go and sit in the car for a while, there were tears in my eyes."

But the bag will always have pride of place. "I sometimes look at it and wish it could talk, thinking about the stories it could tell."