THE amazing range of sound effects from a 90-year-old Wurlitzer organ brought a vintage celluloid steam locomotive to life in the latest silent film screening at the Royalty cinema in Bowness.

Film fans enjoyed the 1929 movie Flying Scotsman on Saturday, accompanied on the organ by Ian Midgley.

It featured Pauline Johnson walking along the outside of a moving express train and a first film role for Ray Milland, who later achieved Hollywood stardom.

The real star of the film was the London and North Eastern Railway locomotive 4472 Flying Scotsman, which was in Barrow shipyard for repairs in 1978.

Both cinema organ and picture house are celebrating 90 years in 2017 – although they started life thousands of miles apart.

The Royalty was built in 1926 by public subscription and opened as the Public Hall.

It was designed to provide silent cinema, theatre and dance facilities.

The hall was officially opened in March 1927 by H. L. Groves, chairman of Windermere Council, and the first film was The Wanderer – with an appearance by Billy Barnes, the broadcasting entertainer.

The building was controlled by the Windermere Public Hall and Cinema Limited and around 1930 was renamed as the Royalty and came under the control of Windermere and Ambleside Cinemas – which also had the Windermere cinema.

The Rex Wurlitzer Organ was built in 1927 and installed in the Almira Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.It was shipped to England in 1934 and installed in the Rex Cinema, Stratford, London, where it was opened by the organist Sandy Macpherson. It has two manuals and seven ranks of pipes.

The bingo era of the early 1970s saw the organ being removed and put into storage before passing to the Furness Theatre Organ Project group, led by Mark Latimer.After a major restoration, the organ was played for its first concert at the Royalty in October 2012.

The last of this year’s vintage film screenings at the Royalty is on Saturday, October 28.

There is a 10.45pm start time for the vintage American horror for Halloween called The Cat and the Canary, accompanied by Mark Latimer.

It was released in 1927 and stars Laura La Plante, Forrest Stanley and Creighton Hale in a haunted house.

There is also a lunchtime concert on the Wurlitzer organ from 12.30pm on Tuesday, October 17.

You can find out more about The Furness Theatre Organ Project on its website at http://ftop.weebly.com/