West Coast Railway Company
(was  Steamtown railway museum)

Chairman and Yorkshire businessman, David Smith acquired the controlling shares in Steamtown Railway Museum from Bill McAlpine in 1990. Carnforth Railway Restoration & Engineering Services (a subsidiary of SRM) has been operating at the southern end of the site since 1984, its first contract being the restoration of the VSOE Pullmans. It maintains David Smith's two steam locos, 8F No.48151 and "Hall" No.5972 "Olton Hall" (aka "Hogwarts Castle") and newly-acquired "Jubilee" No.45699 "Galatea".

In addition to steam loco work, Carnforth Railway Restoration & Engineering Services also maintains some 65 Railtrack-registered Mk1 and Mk2 coaches (including the 1965-built former Manchester Pullman set) for operation on WCR trains. Contract work is also carried our for other loco and stock owners.

A number of withdrawn diesel locomotives are also stored on site, for future rebuild and use.

West Coast Railway Company was set up in 1994 as the trading name for most of the activities carried out by the group of companies, including the Fort William - Mallaig "Jacobite" Steam Train, which it took over in 1995. WCRC became a Train Operating Company in its own right in 1998, the first privately-owned company to do so. In addition to "The Jacobite", WCRC has also operated regular services this summer between York and Scarborough, which it intends to repeat in 2003. Additionally it operates frequent "one-off" charters for a wide variety of charterers, both steam and diesel, including the scenic Cumbrian Coast route. It has also supplied loco and coaches for the first two "Harry Potter" films.

Because of the increased commercial activity and regular movements on and off the site, public access was discontinued in 1997.

The West Coast Railway Company   have two websites, and can be contacted at:-

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http://www.carnforth-station.co.uk