The organisers of a family event celebrating wartime Britain have been forced to hire security staff to eject anyone who attends dressed in Nazi uniform.

East Lancashire Railway, based in Bury, has been criticised by Holocaust survivors and MPs over the past decade for failing to prevent participants wearing full Nazi regalia attending its annual spring bank holiday 1940s weekend. Bans and warning signs at stations have been largely ignored.

Following talks with police, the Community Security Trust and local Jewish community leaders, ELR chairman Peter Duncan said new measures will include the vetting of all participants and the presence of security guards.

He said: “I was appalled when those who broke the rules last year were not challenged. This year, there are security staff to back up our own staff if we have a difficulty with someone who had been legitimately asked to leave. Trusting people in the past hasn’t worked.”

CST spokesperson Mark Gardner said the steps were “proportionate and worthwhile”.

l A Christmas card signed by Hitler and four paintings by him are to be sold by a Shropshire auction house next week. Mullock’s, of Church Stretton, expect the letter to fetch £5,000