An encounter that was all too brief:
Its buildings are now ramshackle, but Sarah Ebner finds Carnforth railway station is to get a new lease of life

The tale of tender, unfulfilled longing captured in the film Brief Encounter has lost little of its power in the 56 years since it was made. Its setting, however, has not fared so well.

Carnforth Station in Lancashire is the place where the protagonists played by Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard meet, fall in love over tea and Bath buns, and, just weeks later, say their tearful farewells. But, today, there is not even a whiff of romance about the railway station. Instead, the impression is one of gloom, with paint peeling off the walls, dank subways scattered with puddles and hardly any people to be seen - all in complete contrast to the hub of activity portrayed in Brief Encounter, which was directed by David Lean.

But in the past month, work has begun to regenerate the station. "We're trying to recreate the mood of the Brief Encounter era but still have a 21st century station with closed-circuit television and information offices," says Peter Yates of the Carnforth Station Trust.

He grew up in the town and has spent the past 10 years trying to raise funding to restore the station. "I remember it as it was," he says, "and I found it upsetting to see it derelict, especially after it was so alive. It's been a battle just to save it from demolition. Yet we've got the original from a film that's world-acclaimed and people had let it fall apart. That's madness."

The planned work - funded by a variety of sources, including Railtrack, the North West Development Agency, Lancashire County Council and the David Lean Foundation - is in two phases.

The first, which should take about six months, will secure the now ramshackle buildings and create a number of shops. Phase two, due for completion by the middle of next year, intends to create a refreshment area, including a restaurant based on the tearoom in the film, as well as a visitor centre, with the aim of attracting 40,000 people a year.

"People from all over the world still come here," says Yates. "They travel from New Zealand, America, Europe and especially Japan, where Brief Encounter is a cult film. But for decades there's been nothing to see. Now we'll no longer have to be embarrassed when these tourists visit us."

Meanwhile, the station looks worse than ever. The famous clock has been taken away for repairs - it hadn't worked for years - and scaffolding surrounds most of the main platform. There is also no glass left in the windows; it was knocked out before work got under way.

Still, the gently rising subways, which saved the actors from having to run up and down stairs between platforms, are still there. They are what attracted David Lean to Carnforth, renamed Milford Junction Station in the film.

"It's all very different from my day," says Elaine Maudsley, 75, who was an extra in the film. "When I was growing up you could get anywhere from here, all the way from Scotland to London. It was such a thrilling, busy place. I'm really pleased about what's happening now and hope it will change things for the whole town."

Maudsley is almost the first person you see in the film, pacing up and down the platform in the evening shade.

"It was exciting," she says. "I wore my best suit - the one I took on my honeymoon - and I had to walk up and down the platform three times. We filmed everything at night because that's when the trains stopped.

"It was lovely to be in the film and I got a meal and a few sweets, which was wonderful because rationing still existed. I also got 35 shillings a night when I normally earned around 10 shillings a week."

Maudsley worked in the real refreshment room at Carnforth and saw most of the station scenes being filmed. But the location also provided her with real-life romance. It was there, at the age of 20, she met her husband, John, a soldier 16 years her senior. They met soon after the war and were together until his death nine years ago.

The revitalisation of Carnforth is not only tied up with its cinematic heritage. Yates is keen to stress that environmental issues are also at the forefront of campaigners' minds.

"We're in a fantastic geographical location here," he says. "We're only a couple of miles from the motorway and just 12 miles from the Lake District. The government is always talking about taking people off the roads and Carnforth is perfect for that. It could be an artery link, getting cars out of the Lake District."

The station has certainly suffered since the West Coast mainline platforms were taken out of service 30 years ago. Trains used to head north, south, east and west from Carnforth. Soon, 140mph electric trains are scheduled to hurtle through, affording little more than a fleeting, very blurred, glance.

Still, Yates - looking way beyond phases one and two of the project - is keen to prevent that from happening.

"It's a pipe dream, but my ultimate aim is to get the mainline platforms back," he says. "This town was built for the railways and I would love to see Carnforth station as it once was."

Perhaps the make-believe of Brief Encounter might one day make that pipe dream a reality.

An encounter that was all too brief - Financial Times - 01 September 2001

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