The posters have gone up in pubs and clubs

Posters showing a pair of oily handprints on a woman's tight jeans have been put up in clubs and bars across York to try to tempt younger people to become volunteers at the National Railway Museum.

The poster uses the slogan "Get down and dirty" while another uses the text message "Ifu think trAns R ZzZz thnk x2" (If you think trains are boring think again).

Managers, who currently rely heavily on train enthusiasts over 40, want to bring down the average age of their volunteers.

We couldn't find a text language relating either to trains or to volunteering so we had to invent one Kate Waddon, volunteer development officer

The museum currently employs 190 volunteers who are involved in a range of activities from restoration work and cleaning locomotives to driving the miniature children's train.

Volunteer development officer Kate Waddon said: "We are two-thirds reliant on over-40s.

"We have some of the most active and dedicated volunteers in the UK but we are concerned about the need for more young people to join the teams.

"We set about creating posters that young people could relate to easily.

"The only problem was, we couldn't find a text language relating either to trains or to volunteering so we had to invent one."

The museum is registering three new text words with the Oxford English Dictionary; trAns (trains), r@lwZ (railways) and vlntrs (volunteers).