| FOR most of the 1980s, my home was In Carnforth,
Lancashire, and at the top of Hawk Street, where I lived, was a car repair business run by
Peter Yates. Peter had two great passions, a pair of vintage Rolls Royce's which he and
his wife used to do very nicely with at weekends for weddings - and an unstoppable desire
to see his local station renovated. Its claim to fame was that Brief Encounter -Trevor
Howard, Celia Johnson, Rachmaninov's piano concerto - was filmed there in 1945. It later
became (in)famous during BR's electrification of the West Coast route - when it became the
derelict station with no platforms! Local lore had it that contractors dropped a clanger -
but the result was that while the Furness platforms on the west of the station survived,
the main line platforms were stripped away! It rendered the station all but useless in
many ways. Anyone going north from Carnforth first has to travel ten miles south to
Lancaster and change.. and so on. Barmy
During my time in
Carnforth I remember sounding out BR and was told -Sorry no chance of putting the
platforms back - we can't possibly increase running times by the 16 minutes or so needed
to stop." Translation: we want to run on time - not carry people! Whilst I was there,
the ticket office closed, the station was boarded up and real, sad, dereliction set in -
but it still didn't stop hordes of tourists having their pictures taken beneath the famous
clock. It also didn't stop Peter Yates becoming Chairman of a local Trust, which battled
on, through thick and thin, and they raised £900,000 - and also persuaded Railtrack to
cough up a further £500,000.
Well done all round, everyone - especially Peter and the Trust. But
Carnforth remains a main line WCML with no station platforms.
The words 'Railtrack', 'Station Regeneration' and 'Gerald Corbett'
spring to mind. So, Gerald, how about putting those platforms back? How difficult can it
be to build a wall next to the track, fill in behind it, and top it with Tarmac?
Just think of the good PR - after all, the story has
appeared already in some newspapers and this cutting came from HELLO! for goodness
sake! In PR terms, it's a gift.
I'm sure the Carnforth Station and Railway Trust will work
with you, Gerald. Go for it.
Put the platforms back! If you travel by train though,
you'll have to get off at Lancaster -but you could put that right. Still, Peter could come
and collect you in one of his 'Rollers.' Over to you!
· Parting movie trivia: If you look closely over the
ill-fated couple's shoulders in BF -supposedly set in the south - during one of their
encounters, you'll see one of those clock-and-fingerboard things - indicating 'Trains to
Hellifield, Skipton and Leeds.'
|
