THE county’s leading railway history group celebrated its 40 th anniversary with a conference for enthusiasts held at the Windermere Hydro Hotel in Bowness.

Acting chairman Philip Tuer and publications manager Mike Peascod described how it all got started in 1976.

Mr Peascod, has been a committee member of the Cumbrian Railways Association since the first meeting.

He said: “There had been talk of a Furness Railway Society but we thought, ‘no, let’s do Cumbria’.”

This was at a time when the new Cumbria had brought together Cumberland, Westmorland, the Furness district and parts of Yorkshire into an administrative area.

Had the new group decided to cover just the Furness Railway, its research interest would have ended in 1923 when the Barrow-based company vanished in a regional regrouping to become part of London Midland and Scottish.

He said: “We were very keen to make sure we covered the whole range of railway history.

"What’s happening today on the railways is important.”

The association’s first formal meeting was at the Brewery Arts Centre at Kendal with 40 people there.

Peter Robinson, from Grange, was elected as the first chairman and there is a memorial plaque on Grange station to mark his contribution to railways in the county.

The association established an extensive archive of pictures, plans and maps which has proved vital for use in journals for members and a series of books on the county’s railways.

He said: “If anything was available we would make an effort to buy it.

“Over the years we have built up a lot of material in the archive until the point where it is second to none.”

It is stored in the Kendal archive and local studies library and you can find out more about the association and its historic collections on the website at http://www.cumbrianrailways.org.uk/

Acting chairman Philip Tuer said: “We have a really fantastic photographic archive.

“There are thousands and thousands of them.”

The Cumbrian Railways Association will have a range of its pictures and publications on show at this weekend's, November 19 to 20, Workington Model Railway Exhibition which is being held on Saturday from 10am to 5pm and Sunday until 5pm at Energus on Blackwood Road, Lillyhall.