A prestigious boiler-making firm could move to Keighley as part of a century-spanning galaxy-crossing new project.

Steam-train engineering would be taught alongside space-age science at Keighley College in a linkup with local tourist attractions. The town could become a centre of excellence for all kinds of transport while attracting tourists, businesses and talented students.

The multi-stranded initiative involves spacecraft, steam locomotives, vintage buses, airliners and modern-day cars.

It would grow out of various Keighley College developments tied-in with its proposed move to a new £23 million Dalton Lane campus.

One strand could bring to Keighley a 202-year-old firm that repairs traction engines and steam locomotives used by leading heritage railways. Another will see Keighley College and Skipton's Craven College training staff at Leeds Bradford Airport in skills ranging from management to aeronautics.

A third aspect could bring together Keighley College, Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and the planned new Keighley Bus Museum to provide joint training and work experience.

There would also be potential for increasing tourism, as well as links to the college's new £1.5 million Science Technology and Aeronautics Regional Centre.

College principal David Gates said that while there were several separate projects, together they could put Keighley on the map in relation to transportation.

He said the college was perfectly placed to provide the foundation skills common to all engineering, whether steam or space.

It could also provide specialist engineering courses -- with hands-on experience repairing vintage buses and locomotives -- as well as associated subjects like heritage studies, management and customer service.

He said: "We could make more of that -- a heritage centre where the skills regarding transport are taught. It could even be a working museum."

Mr Gates believed there would be scope for jobs with the growing number of heritage centres and steam railway lines around the country.

The initiative is being driven by Keighley College's involvement in the recently formed Transport and Engineering Skills Training Trust.

Members, who include the Traction Engine Trust and the National Railway Museum, hope to preserve traditional engineering skills that may still be needed.

TESTS is led by 202-year-old Bradford boiler-making firm Israel Walton, which specialises in traction engines and repairing steam locomotives. Among its customers are many preservation societies including the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and the Ingrow Carriages Trust.

Under the TESTS plan -- being devised with government development agency Yorkshire Forward -- Israel Walton would be transformed into a new company focusing on young apprentices

Mr George Walton said: "The college with my input would develop some courses. We have David Gates firmly on board. We've been looking for new premises within the Bradford district. We'd prefer it to be Keighley."

One potential site is believed to be be a strip of land owned by the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (KWVR), between Parkwood and Ingrow on the disused Great Northern rail line. Talks have been going on for about three months with the KWVR.

But in a written statement KWVR secretary David Pearson said: "The railway has no proposals to build a boiler works on its land, it has no internal proposals to take over any company of any sort, nor has it received any proposals from any external party to undertake such a project."