Virgin Trains has named one of its flagship Pendolinos ‘Blue Peter’ to mark the 60th birthday of the world’s longest running children’s TV show.

Former presenters including Peter Purves, Konnie Huq, Janet Ellis, Richard Bacon and Liz Slater all jumped onboard ‘Blue Peter’ today ahead of the special diamond anniversary programme due to be screened on the CBBC channel and again this weekend on BBC2.

The train naming continues the show’s longstanding association with the railway. A steam engine also bears the name ‘Blue Peter’ and has been a regular feature on the programme over the years.

“We’ve all grown up with Blue Peter,” enthused Gaynor Stewart, General Manager for Virgin Trains in the North West. “We wanted to mark the milestone, especially now the programme is filmed in Manchester. And great to see the smiles on people’s faces when they’ve spotted the nameplate. I am sure it has helped conjured up a lot of memories from the past 60 years.”

Fans of the show, and train, will be able to look out for Pendolino ‘Blue Peter’ as it travels up and down the west coast route, clocking up around 350k miles each year on its visits to London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh and stations in between.