A COUPLE fear for their health due to plumes of smoke and "roaring" out-of-date trains disturbing them in the early hours of the morning.

June and Stewart Goodsir say they "literally can taste the diesel" from the 1960s Class 37 trains which park up on the rail tracks at night which are around 100 yards from the back of their home in Pennine Gardens, Barrow.

The Goodsirs have lived in their flat for just over two years and say things got worse for them and their neighbours from May 2015.

Mrs Goodsir, 67, who has written to trains operator Northern, the railway ombudsman and others, said: "We have concerns for our health. You sometimes feel a bit sick and you can literally taste the diesel, it sits on your stomach.

"They can be starting up at 4am, but recently it has been 2.30am, since October or November. It's awful. There were no trains on Christmas Day and it was brilliant.

"In the summer we had to shut the windows when we had visitors because of the noise and fumes and it got up to 30C inside."

The couple were frustrated to learn that Sprinter trains that had been in Barrow went sent to Chiltern - meaning they had to put up with the 1960 Class 37 diesel units.

Mrs Goodsir said: "We live next to the railway line, but we lived in Ulverston in Lund Terrace next to the rail embankment and there were steam and diesel trains going up and down and we never heard them or had a problem."

Mr Goodsir, 69, said: "Sometimes these trains are starting up between 2.30am and 3.30am.

"There are no problems with the Sprinter trains, but these things just roar. When they start them up sometimes it's like an Apache uprising and there is a plume of black smoke.

"In the summer you can't have your windows open because of the noise and the fumes. It's great that Bill McEwan and the council and supporting us."

The couple's daughter, Sandra Goodsir-West, also has problems with noise and fumes from the old trains at her home in Hibbert Road, Barrow, which is also next to the tracks.

Mrs Goodsir-West said: "It's just a nightmare, you can taste diesel. We have these 60s diesel trains and it beggars belief."