A setting starved of love

Stephen McClarence finds fresh hope for a station where a great romance blossomed

Weeds and brambles sprout from some of the platforms. Dank puddles fester in the subway. Most of the windows  are either broken or boarded up. Not without  reason., was Carnforth railway station., in the top.left hand corner of Lancashire voted Britains.worst station in a national  newspaper  poll
Peter Yates  is undeterred.'. What I want to get across he says , turning up his coat collar, against the wind whistling down Platform Three"is that this station is the most romantic in the country, No, in the world."

    Tourists flock to Carnforth station from Britaiin and abroad for one reason. It was the setting for Brief Encounter David Lean's wartime weepie which came second (after the Third man) on the British Film Institute's Millennium list of  the 100 greatest British films.
    The semi derelict unmanned station as  melancholy as the film's" Rachmaninov' s sound- track has. been saved  from demolition by Carnforth Station and Railway Trust. which has been campaigning to raise 1.5 million for an ambitious restoration' project The aim is to recreate the now-locked Refreshment Room where the film's guilt-ridden"lovers. played; by Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. pursued their repressed romance over tea and Bath buns.

    The long stopped Station' clock - under which Johnson palpitated with improper  passion will he set working again. A visitor centre will be opened and Platforms  rebuilt so that main line trains can call at Carnforth again.   As it is London to Glasgow expresses on the West Coast line scream through   without stopping.
    This station is a place of pilgrimage. a place where people come out of "nostalgia" says Peter Yates, the trust chairman. "Look at the visitor book over the past two months it lists visits by film buffs from Canada.,. South Africa,   Spain, Holland, Australia the USA and. in particular Japan
    ''Its a  cult film in Japan" says Yates ''It's apparently shown to children in school to teach them restraint and how to deal  with relationships. But when they come here they are gobsmacked by the condition the station is in. It's so  desolate you might as well be standing on the moors. Its an insult to the country
   The trust, which has an information centre in the former stationmaster's offic has secured pledges of �950,000 in grants and a further �550,000 from Railtrack. Restoration work is due to start in June.
    David Lean chose Carnforth. its platforms built n a sweeping curve, partly because of its unusual subway.
Between Bath buns, Johnson spent much of her lime running through the subway,' Carnforth's gently sloping I amps saved her from clattering clumsily up and down steps.
    Filming at night when the station 'was quiet, Lean recruited local extras, including Alf Bergus, the fireman on l.~cnmotive 2429, which features in the film.
    "The film people were here hit a fortnight and started filming every night at 9..~) after.the last Barrow to London mail train had gone." he says,. "Celia chatted with us every night she came on the loco once - but Trevor was very reserved. He rarely spoke to us."
    Bergus, 76 opens. the Brief Encounter file he has put together. Inside is a dog-eared manila envelope with  a George VI stamp. He unfolds the two letters inside - neatly written greetings from Johnson and Stanley Holloway, who played the stationmaster - and proudly smoothes them out.
   "It was all very exciting." he says. "And that's why there's interest in Carnforth station the world over. People come in regularly to have their photos taken under the clock."
• Carnforth Station and Railway Trust. 01524 732805. Carnforth has direct trains from Manchester and Leeds (0345 484950).

� The Times 12 ^th February 2000

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