FIREBUGS have wrecked hours of painstaking work by dedicated railways volunteers.

Vandals broke into an old railway carriage and set fire to materials being stored, including old furnishings which had been carefully reclaimed by members of the East Lancashire Railway Preservation Society.

The carriage had been in sidings at Buckley Wells, Bury, when the vandal attack occured at midnight on Wednesday

Mr Graham Vevers, a spokesman for the society, said: "The firemen did a great job putting the fire out quite quickly, so we didn't lose everything.

"It could have been much worse."

Fire investigators believe someone broke into the carriage, dragged out some materials and then set fire to them.

Mr Vevers said: "It's so frustrating. Volunteers have worked hard to salvage these materials and, while it is impossible to put a monetary value on them, they will be difficult to replace.

"Some are becoming rare -- we cannot just get them, we have to wait until they become available. We have a team of volunteers giving up their own time to work on projects which attract 100,000 people a year -- they can do without this sort of vandalism."

The railway -- which is 90 per cent operated by volunteers -- has 15 steam and 15 diesel mainline trains and about 30 restored carriages.