Railway record

Railway buffs and local historians alike will enjoy leafing through this carefully compiled book on the development of the Furness Railway from its earliest planning stages in the 1800s to the present day.

The book attempts to show how the railway influenced the development of Barrow and the town's industries from iron and steelworks to the shipyard.

Drawing together dozens of photographs, maps and illustrations, the book gives an insight into the expansion of the town and the industrial developments that sculpted Furness as we see it today.

The level of detail and care taken over this book could be explained by the fact that it started life nearly half a century ago when the author Michael Andrews enrolled in a London University night school.

He drew on contacts at the Public Record Office, the House of Lords Record Office, the British Library and the British Transport Historical Records before completing a dissertation on Barrow's railway system.

For years, the work was lodged in Barrow Reference Library. But five years ago, a Barrow man who had read and appreciated the material suggested that it could be updated and published.

A small team knuckled down and got to work and the result was the updated, glossy publication we see today.

Beth Broomby