[21][22] There was a single track engine shed and a 42 feet (13 m) turntable south east of the station building.

[28][29][30] Railways in the area underwent a complex evolution with the development of Barrow-in-Furness in the second half of the nineteenth century.

When Coniston Lake (as Coniston station was originally called) opened in 1858 Barrow was at its early stages of emergence as an industrial town, with Ulverston (then commonly written as "Ulverstone") remaining the local market town, as it had since the Middle Ages.

The May 1865 Down (towards Coniston Lake) timetable shows three arrivals at Coniston Lake - morning midday and evening - from Monday to Saturday (the days are implied, not stated) with two on Sundays; all these trains travelled direct from Ulverstone, with connections shuttling between Barrow and Ulverstone along what was described as "The Barrow Branch."

By 1867 the pattern of provision had evolved so that most services shuttled along the branch to the Carnforth to Whitehaven main line at Foxfield, mostly making connections.

[36] 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.

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.

[37] 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 Torver and three were positioned a short distance north of Coniston station on a siding off the branch to the Copperhouse.

Coniston station's footbridge was donated to the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway but the building was abandoned and left to decay[47] until December 1968 when it was demolished by North Lonsdale Rural District Council's Roads Department.