The little three-wheeled Scammell mechanical horse was always admired for its pulling power.

It scuttled about goods yards and from station to warehouse with tons of freight in its articulated trailer in the days of steam travel.

If the driver was lucky and it carried a lightish load it might reach 18 miles an hour.

So when a speeding ticket landed on the desk of museum bosses in Keighley, they were amazed and bemused at the same time.

Greater Manchester Police claimed they had video footage of the 1948 vintage vehicle, registration number CAN 863, charging along Bury Road, Bolton, in Greater Manchester, at a break-neck 44 miles an hour in a 30mph zone.

And officers intended to prosecute.

But according to staff at the award winning Museum of Rail Travel at Ingrow, Keighley, next to the Keighley & Worth Valley heritage line, the little blue coloured unit had never budged.

And to cap it all, its old side valve engine was stripped down and having an overhaul and there were no seats in the driver's cab.

Staff even had their own CCTV evidence of the mechanical horse at the museum on the day it was allegedly burning along Bury Road.

"We were amazed," said Paul Holroyd, a museum trustee, who was himself a member of the civil staff of the Metropolitan police for 21 years.

"The Scammell mechanical horse is physically incapable of travelling at anything like 44 miles an hour - even downhill with a following wind.

"The first Scammells were such basic vehicles that when they were introduced they didn't have a speedometer - merely a light which illuminated when the speed exceeded 18 miles per hour."

The unit, on loan to Keighley from Tate & Lyle, had only ever left Keighley on one occasion before.

"And even then it was transported on the back of a trailer when it visited a vehicle rally at Alexandra Palace in London a few years ago," added Mr Holroyd.

So museum staff immediately wrote back to Manchester police pointing out the mistake and including their own evidence

And officers were quick to hold up their hands in apology. On closer inspection, the offending vehicle turned out to be Belgian.

A police spokesman said: "We have discontinued proceedings in this matter."

The Scammell is expected to be up and running at the museum and entertaining at galas and fetes in the Keighley area later this year.

The museum is open every day between 11am and 4.30pm.