A major model railway exhibition was on the right track as more than 1,000 locomotive enthusiasts came along for the ride at the weekend.

The Workington Model Railway Exhibition attracted train lovers to Energus at Lillyhall where they could get hands-on with models, tinker with layouts and meet like-minded people.

Exhibition manager Philip Tuer said the event, which is now in its sixth year under not-for-profit team Solrail, was a huge success.

He added: "It went very well and the numbers were up on last year, which was a bad year, which was something we were really pleased with.

"The weather helped this year because it was cold but dry and there were no problems on the roads.

"I think people wanted to come out and see and support us.

"There was a layout called Derwent Sidings which I think a lot of people wanted to see and the other one was Curwen Bank, which was based on what an area in Workington could have looked like if the Curwen family had got their way.

"We get a lot of people that were involved in the local industries who like to look and we also had several layouts which the younger visitors could actually have a hands-on experience with.

"They tell me that never stopped all weekend.

"I think everybody had a great time and we're looking forward to doing it all again next year."

Next year's event has already been booked for November 17 and 18.

Attractions included layouts which have recently feature in national model railway magazines, controllable trains on layouts including one based on Thomas the Tank Engine, and Derwent Railway Society's latest O gauge layout, Derwent Sidings.

The fictional layout, which took 18 months of work to put together, is inspired by Workington’s industrial heritage and features a pair of tunnels and road bridges as well as a signal box.

The displays ranged from classic clockwork pieces to modern digital command control systems, with some even incorporating authentic sounds.

Trade stands provided anything the modeller needs, while demonstrators were also on hand to help people get the most from their models, from making finescale track and building authentic looking trees to weathering models and building kits or models from scratch.