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A
brief history ... Carnforth is synonymous with railways.
In 1846 the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway was opened and
a small station was built near the site of the present station.
Shortly after in 1857 the Furness Railway was opened with
Carnforth as its terminus linking Barrow and the Furness Peninsula
with the main West Coast London to Scotland route. A joint
venture between the Midland Railway and Furness Railway Companies
resulted in the opening of the railway line in Wennington
in 1886 thus linking Carnforth with the Midland Railway to
Settle and Leeds.
The present station was built in 1880 and took a unique
position in railway history serving as the junction of three
railway companies.
Carnforth grew as a railway town with extensive sidings
and engine sheds for each company and alongside this the
iron and steel and mineral extraction industries developed
taking advantage of Carnforth's strategic location.
In the 1960's Carnforth's importance fell into decline.
The electrification of the West Coast main line in 1970
saw the closure of the main line platform. Since then the
station has fallen into decline and today the fine stone
and slate buildings with their neo-Jacobean mullioned windows
are in an advanced state of deterioration and decay and
the station while still operational is unmanned.
The film industry
has however left us with a picture of Carnforth in its heyday.
In 1943 the platform scenes in the film "Brief Encounter"
were enacted on Carnforth Station and many of the memorable
features, the clock, the subway and the refreshment room remain
to remind us of the short-lived romance between Celia Johnson
and Trevor Howard.
This strategic importance
of Carnforth continues today. Not only is it the junction linking
by rail Carnforth with Lancaster, Preston, Manchester, Barrow
and Leeds and the railways encircling the Lake District, the
station is within one and a half miles of the M6 motorway reputed
to carry many millions of people to and from the Lake District
and Scotland every year, people in search of leisure.
Carnforth once the hub of the north western railways is still
central to Britain and is an entry to Morecambe Bay and the
Lake District.
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