[wadey]

Steamtown

Not far from Carnforth railway station is what used to be the 'Carnforth Motive Power Depot' where many steam engines were based in steam's heyday. However, on 13 August, 1968, the very last job undertaken by a steam engine on British railways was completed at Carnforth. The fires in engine 44871 were allowed to drop that evening. And so ended the steam era in Britain.

During the last weeks of steam, Carnforth became very popular with enthusiasts, and sometime in 1969, Steamtown was born out of the ashes, so to speak, of the old Motive Power Depot. Over the years, Steamtown preserved and restored many engines, and for quite some time was the home of such famous locomotives as The Flying Scotsman, Mallard and Sir Nigel Gresley, not to mention many others familiar to rail enthusiasts. Incidentally, the train featured in the Harry Potter films, called the Hogwarts Express on screen is stored in the sheds at Steamtown.

Regrettably, due to the increase in commercial work at Steamtown, the decision was taken to close the site to the general public for safety reasons in 1997. Work still goes on at Steamtown. Of slight note for enthusiasts, the concrete coaling plant there was built during the Second World War, apparently by Italian prisoners of war. This coaling plant is still functional, an in fact still uses the original electric motors!

BBC