Carnforth MPD

Carforth MPD

Importance of Carnforth

Main article: Carnforth railway station

District railway map, Carnforth (right), 1914

Carnforth was not an important or well developed village before the Victorian era railway age, but was geographically strategically located to make it so. While supplies of lime stone made it interesting, access into Cumbria, the Lake District and the coast beyond made it an ideal transport hub point.

Carnforth railway station opened as a single platform wooden structure for access to the then village, but was made into a permenant stone structure by the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (L&CR) in 1846. In 1857 it became a junction station when the Ulverston and Lancaster Railway used it as a terminus, as did the Furness Railway soon afterwards. In the 1870s architect William Tite redesiged the station and layout, allowing Midland Railway trains access. The regionally competing London and North Western Railway (LNWR) hence took over the L&CR, and hence created a jointly operated station.

This growth continued from the late-Victorian era to post World War 2 into the early 1950s. At its height Carnforth handled up to 100 trains a day of holidaymakers, commuters, freight and fuel bound for the seaside, cities, ports and industrial centres.

History

When the Midland Railway reached Carnforth in 1857, it developed an extensive roundhouse depot and maintenance shed to service its locomotive stock. The building today is still in use as a light industrial facility. In the 1880s the LNWR had rebuilt the small 2-road L&CR facility adjacent to the station into a standard-pattern LNWR 6-road facility.

Carnforth MPD

LMS Jubilee Class No.5690 moves towards one of the two giant cast-concrete coal stages at Carnforth MPD, built during the 1944 reconstruction of the shed

After railway grouping in 1923, the London Midland and Scottish Railway absorbed both the MR and the LNWR. While the former MR roundhouse was used for passenger types, the former LNWR shed was used for freight locomotives.

However, from 1936 onwards under instruction from the Air Ministry's Sir Kingsley Wood, in a programme headed by Herbert Austin many key industries in London and the industrialised Midlands, had created a shadow factory infrastructure to enable production should war break out. Many of these shadow factories, plus a number of Royal Ordnance Factories, had been purposefully located in Cumbria and the Northwest coast, out of range of the bombers of the Nazi Luftwaffe. Consequently, when World War 2 did break out, with a combination of additional staff moved and recruited to these facilities, plus the raw materials going in and requirement of distribution of output, the transport result was a relative boom in both freight and passenger traffic.

With the United States involved in the war from 1941, planning for Operation Overlord the invasion of Europe began. The Port of Liverpool and the west coast ports of Scotland were key to importing war machinery and suplies from North America, as well as distributing US Army and Canadian Army troops across England for training, again initially in the northwest and northeast.

The combination of these factors put a huge strain on local locomotive servicing facilities at Carnforth. Therefore in late 1942, the Government agreed to fund the construction of a new shed at Carnforth, to allow for the new and planned level of locomotive servicing requirement. Built on the site of the former LNWR facility and opened in 1944, it allowed for the servicing of many more locomotives, and together with highly-mechanised supporting infrastructure greatly reduced the need for operational manpower.

On nationalisation in 1946, British Railways inherited an almost brand new depot (Code:10A), which was bigger - due to a now lack of war activity - than was required. This allowed them to initially close a number of other local and older/less efficent sheds, and secondly to keep the shed open longer than many when the decision to modernise traction to electric and diesel came. As a result, Carnforth MPD remained relatively undeveloped from its reconstruction in 1944, by the time it closed in 1968.

Steamtown Carnforth

Immediately after closure of the depot in August 1968, a group of steam railway preservationists led by Dr Peter Beet proposed to preserve the former Lakeside branch, and use part of Carnforth MPD as their terminus and maintenance workshops. Negotiations with BR resulted in an agreement to rent out: the former wagon works; west side sidings; and 3-roads of the former MPD.

Named 'Steamtown Carnforth, the resultant visitor attraction became a mecca for steam enthusiasts now facing a national ban on steam traction on the BR network. With the assistance of the Lancaster Railway Circle, an increasing number of steam engines arrived at Steamtown from 1967 onwards, which lead to agreement with BR to rent out the whole site from 1970.

Westcoast Railways

Main article: Westcoast Railways

With increasing Heath and Safety regulations, and an increased reliance on supplying steam locomotives to power enthusiast train, the decision was taken not to reopen Carnforth for the 1998 season.

Steamtown Railway Museum Ltd still exists and operates an extensive railway repair and operating facility on the site. It wholly owns West Coast Railway Company Ltd which operates heritage trains across the UK national network.

Steamtown was intended originally as a workshop for the scheme to preserve the Lakeside branch in Cumbria. With the assistance of the Lancaster Railway Circle, which became the Lakeside Railway Society, an increasing number of steam engines arrived at Steamtown from 1967 onwards. When the depot was closed to steam by British Rail in August 1968 first three roads in the shed were rented and then the whole site. However it rapidly developed into a major tourist attraction after an initial open day in March 1969. This caused a split within the Lakeside Railway society in 1970 and four of the engines and the Lakeside Railway Society moved away to open what became the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway. Steamtown continued under the leadership of Dr. Peter Beet to develop the site at Carnforth into a tourist attraction and repair facility.

Bill McAlpine became a shareholder in 1974 and the Flying Scotsman made Carnforth its home for many years. Bill later acquired a controlling interest in the company in order to fund the purchase of the site from British Rail. Eventually in the late 1980's decline set in and in 1990 Bill's controlling interest was sold to David Smith. He bought out most of the minority shareholders although some still remain in 2011. He also set up a subsidiary company the West Coast Railway Company which operates heritage steam and diesel trains across the national UK railway network.

External links

• Photographs from the Carnforth area @ RailBrit.co.uk