A TOUR of rail history was provided by Andrew Naylor at a Bowness conference held by the Cumbrian Railways Association to mark the 40th anniversary of its foundation in 1976.

The change from steam power to diesel locomotives, station closures, preserved railway lines and Cumbrian locomotives which have survived in unusual places, all featured in the illustrated talk at the Windermere Hydro Hotel.

His pictures includes a "black five" steam locomotive on the now-demolished turntable at Millom station and a peculiar "fireless" engine from Ulverston's Glaxo plant which is still in storage at for the Steamtown at Carnforth.

It would be filled with boiling hot water and steam away like a big kettle for a couple of hours before needing a top-up.

This almost forgotten piece of railway heritage was worked into the 1990s at Ulverston and was the last steam locomotive in commercial use in Britain.

Steamtown is now a base for heritage excursions and carriage repairs but was once a museum.

He said: "It very soon had quite a large collection of locomotives."

Many of them are now at the Ribble Steam Railway at Preston.

He described an era when it was still possible to travel direct from Barrow to London Euston and when industrial locomotives still hauled long trains of wagons to West Cumbrian coal pits and chemical works such as Marchon.

Also featured in the talk was the locomotive used when the Barrow-based Furness Railway started services in 1846.

Old Coppernob, or Furness Railway No. 3, worked for more than 50 years before being retired and placed in a glass canopy at Barrow Central Station.

It was damaged - and the canopy destroyed - in 1941 air raids.

Coppernob is now at the National Railway Museum, York, but has made return visits to Furness.

Mr Naylor said it had a "cousin" on display at Cork station, Ireland.

This locomotive is No. 36 from the same Bury, Curtis and Kennedy builders as Coppernob - but a year younger.

He said: "In many ways it is quite like Coppernob."

West Cumbrian had its own locomotive maker called Fletcher, Jennings at Lowca and several of its Victorian products survive, including one built for a sugar refinery in Mauritius.