BNFL's new private railway company was due to operate its first passenger train on the Furness line on June 1, 1996, as part of the 150th anniversary of the route.

Two Class 20 diesels due to pull the train were part of a batch of ten bought by BNFL for Direct Rail Services, the company it set up to haul nuclear flasks to and from Barrow docks and other sites.

They were hauling the 'Cumbrian Coaster' train carrying 800 rail fans from as far away as Bristol to travel over five long viaducts on the scenic route from Carnforth to Workington, where one engine was due to be named 'Furness 150 in a ceremony.

It would carry a plaque donated by the Cumbrian Railways Association, which had also published a commemorative book for the line's anniversary.

The run, with stops at Ravenglass and Sellafield, came 150 years after the first goods trains on the route.

In 1996 The Mail reported that lottery cash was to rebuild a historic train which used to run on Furness Railway.

Called simply Furness Railway Engine Number 18, the locomotive would be re-built at a total cost of £130,000, of which £97,500 would come from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The train was owned by Furness Railway Trust and the rest of the restoration cash would come from grants awarded by the PRISM Fund of the Science Museum, Cumbria County Council, the Idlewild Trust, Furness Railway Trust and local fundraising events.

The re-build would take at least two years, including the commissioning of a new boiler. It was hoped much of the work would be done locally.

No 18 was first built in 1863 as part of a batch of eight locomotives supplied to Furness Railway.

In 1870 it was sold to Barrow Haematite Steel Co and continued to work until 1960. It stood outside the George Hastwell School in Barrow until it was bought privately in 1983 and moved to Steamtown, Carnforth.

It was hoped that, when restored, Furness Railway No 18 would run on the Lakeside to Haverthwaite Railway.