A NEGLECTED locomotive that was once left to rust into dust has just felt the full rush of steam through its pipes for the first time in four decades, reports Jennie Dennett.

There were cheers as the Number 5643 chuffed into action at the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway, following 19 years of painstaking restoration work by the Furness Railway Trust (FRT).

"It was a very sweet moment," said FRT chairman Tim Owen, one of a team of around 12 men who have been supplying the elbow grease to bring the engine back to life.

"We put a fire in to warm her up on Saturday, then on Sunday we gradually raised the steam. Everyone was standing back to see what would happen, then she pulled away beautifully to a cheer all round. It was a time of great celebration for all concerned."

The team will now gently run-in the engine, do a bit more tinkering and give it a fresh lick of paint before hopefully putting it in to service carrying passengers on the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway in spring 2006.

It will be a new lease of life for the 80-year-old train, which was dispatched to a scrapyard in the 1960s.

Most of its parts had been ripped-out for spares and it looked like the end of the line for the Swindon-built locomotive that had spent its working life on the tracks of South Wales for the Great Western Railway.

But it was eventually rescued for restoration and, after a couple of aborted preservation attempts, was snapped-up by the FRT in 1986 for £20,000 the equivalent of paying pennies for a banger given that a working locomotive would fetch around £300,000.

Another £90,000 has since been lavished on the Number 5643, money raised through donations, events and 20 years of fund-raising gigs by the FRT folk band Live Steam.

Parts have also been painstakingly sourced from up and down the country, including brand new specially-cast bronze valves. It took no less than five years to source one crucial steam heading valve.

For most, restoring such a defunct engine would be too daunting a task but Mr Owen, a devoted steam enthusiast, said it had all been worthwhile. Indeed the FRT has another clapped-out locomotive to get its tools into next.

"It's taken literally thousands of man hours to get it up and running but in a way it makes it all the sweeter the fact we have been waiting for so long," he said.

l MEMBERS of the Lancaster, Morecambe & District Rail User Group have arranged a public meeting at Lancaster Town Hall on Tuesday November 15, starting at 7.30 pm at which there will be representatives from Virgin Trains, TransPennine Express and Northern Rail to answer questions.