The Wombles returned to the award-winning National Motor Museum at Beaulieu to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its monorail.
Britain's best-known litter-pickers left Wimbledon Common for the day to mark the line's half century, having opened it at the height of their fame.
The two trains are thought have travelled half a million miles and carried 13.5 million passengers since they started running in 1974.
Loud speakers played Wombles theme song as Lord Montagu and his sister, Mary Montagu-Scott, greeted Orinoco and Great Uncle Bulgaria.
Lord Montagu said his late father saw an elevated mini-rail system at the 1967 Expo event in Montreal and decided that the museum should have a similar attraction.
He added: "Ours was built by Butlins, who already had monorail systems at Skegness and Minehead. The trains looked a bit like 1950s spaceships, which were quite fun but not quite right for Beaulieu."
Museum bosses decided to go for a more functional look, possibly inspired by new high-speed trains operating on the UK rail network.
The line goes through an opening in the museum's roof, passing above hundreds of exhibits on the floors below, before emerging from the other end of the building.
Lord Montagu said he rode on the monorail himself, adding: "I find it very useful for keeping an eye on things."
Mrs Montagu-Scott was only nine when the Wombles performed the opening ceremony.
"I was a huge Wombles fan," she said. "I was so excited that they were coming to Beaulieu and we were actually going to meet them.
"I got to sit next to Wellington. I was very shy but we became great friends. It was a huge moment in my childhood."
Visitors attending the anniversary celebrations were kept entertained by two singers, Laurence Marshall and Phoebe Douthwaite, who are on a nationwide tour.
The event are featured a monorail-themed cake created by Amanda Black, of Milford-on-Sea, whose grandmother took her to Beaulieu on the day the line opened as a sixth birthday treat.
The Wombles made their debut in a series of children's books by Elisabeth Beresford in the late 1960s.
She got the idea after taking her own children for a Boxing Day walk on Wimbledon Common, where her daughter Kate repeatedly mispronounced Wimbledon as "Wombledon".
Ms Beresford based most of the characters on members of her family and named them after places they had associations with.
The Wombles gained national fame in the 1970s following the success of a BBC TV show based on the books.
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