but over twentyseven miles by train via Barrow. Someone travelling on the market day extra from Coniston took 96 minutes to get to Ulverston, if all went well. This was an improvement in 1882, but a millstone when road travel improved in the following century. In Summer 1907 eight trains left Coniston for Foxfield Monday to Saturday, with three on Sundays. The Winter service was weaker - in 1910 five trains left Coniston (still listed as "Coniston Lake" in Bradshaw) for Foxfield, with two on Sundays. By the summer of 1922 nine trains left Coniston (no longer Coniston Lake, even in Bradshaw) daily, with four on Sundays. This weekday pattern continued until closure, though Sunday services were more variable, especially during the Second World War. Steam railcars were used for many years, but from 1950 if not earlier the core motive power was a push-pull set powered by a late-LMS 2-6-2T designed by Henry George Ivatt as in the photograph above. Great effort and money was expended on tourist services to Lakeside, but Coniston received much less attention in railway days and remains a relative backwater today. Few Special Trains travelled the branch and few Summer only trains reached Coniston from far away places. The exception which proved the rule was the Summer Tuesdays and Thursdays only service from Blackpool which survived until 1958, the line's last summer. In the 1930s the train also had a Summer Saturdays only variant which started at and returned to . This service was the only timetabled passenger train in BR days to travel direct between Dalton Junction and Park South, avoiding the long loop through Barrow. Two initiatives were introduced to encourage people to use the line, as opposed to special trains - Camping coaches and lake steamers. From 1934 a camping coach was placed at and three were positioned a short distance north of Coniston station on a siding off the branch to the Copperhouse. Campers were required to buy four adult returns from their home station. The Torver coach was not replaced after the Second World War, but those at Coniston were, 2 coaches were here in 1954 and three from 1955 until the end of the 1957 season. The steamer service was aimed at a socially select ridership, as underlined by its prices and literature. It was marketed as part of a suite of circular tours taking in trains, lake