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Getting up a head of steam
THE platform now standing at Thornton is just waiting for a train.
And ideally not just any train – but a heritage engine-hauled train.
Steam is dead, long live steam? That's the rallying cry as local campaigners commemorate the official end of the line for steam with the regeneration of lines across the country.
Music mogul Pete (Hitman) Waterman has given the campaign a massive shunt forward with his plea to the Government to "do the locomotion" and cut road traffic.
Restoration of the Thornton to Fleetwood line, be it for passenger traffic, freight, or – the generally favoured – heritage service could prove a big economic boost for Wyre.
Council chiefs are currently studying a draft report by Network Rail which was commissioned by economic portfolio holder Coun Peter Hawley.
"These things take time," he admits, "but we want to get it right. It could bring considerable benefits."
Waterman, 61, of Warrington, agrees. A heritage steam buff himself, he argues that rail is the most sustainable form of transport for the future, but points out there's a national shortage of skilled railway engineers.
He wants government support to help him set up an engineering school, here in the North West, and usher in a new golden railway age.
Waterman adds: "Doing nothing is not an option. It's important we are not left behind the rest of Europe. The current railway workforce could also be retrained to meet future challenges."
It's 40 years since Oliver Cromwell (Number 70013) booked "her" place in the history books by pulling the last ever British Rail steam hauled train.
It was the 15 guinea special, to Carlisle from from Liverpool Lime Street – the station where thousands of holidaymakers started their pilgrimage to Blackpool.
Oliver Cromwell, part of the National Railway Museum collection, reached the end of a four year restoration project in time to take pride of place at the commemoration party in York, reunited with footplate workers from that momentous day in 1968.
But, locally, a "new model army" await.
Members of the Poulton and Wyre Railway Society have mounted an almost quixotic battle to restore the Thornton to Fleetwood line, last used for passenger service in the late '60s.
But it's already full steam ahead for volunteers determined to do for Wyre what heritage rail enthusiasts have done for Bury and Rawtenstall via the showcase East Lancashire line. Cynics had argued that one of the pivotal points of the long disused line – Thornton Railway Station – had been neglected to the point of no return.
They may soon be forced to think again. The platform has been transformed by hard working volunteers into a thing of beauty – even if you’re not a steam buff.
Members are also restoring an historic railway carriage, believed to be 140 years old, which was used as a chicken coop on farmland in Thornton for almost a century.
The council will consult the society on the way forward for the Poulton, Thornton and Fleetwood railway.
Another study, published last year by consultants Halcrow, has already suggested extending trains from Ormskirk to Fleetwood.
The most popular option is to hand the line over to the Poulton and Wyre Railway Society for heritage rail services.
Steam engine fans from the Fylde are already involved in the running of heritage rail services at East Lancashire and the Riversway rail museum at Preston, which recently loaned a loco, Martha, for Fleetwood’s Transport Sunday festival.
Others volunteer to adopt working railway stations, with Squires Gate, an unmanned halt on the Blackpool South line, spruced up as part of a rail partnership involving communities and businesses with rail routes.
It’s all a far cry from 1936 when more than six million people travelled to the Fylde resorts by rail.
The best known local casualty of cutbacks was Blackpool Central in 1964, which had opened in 1863 as Hounds Hill Station, little more than a shack at the end of a single track line from Lytham.
Central became one of the busiest stations in Britain, thousands flocking here in the glory days of steam excursions, dropped in the heart of the resort rather than sidelined at Talbot Road.
Even in the summer of 1963, just a year before closure on November 1, thousands arrived at Central Station.
On the same night Central Station closed the last train from Fleetwood’s “top station” on Queens terrace made its run to Blackpool North, ending a link of 65 years.
Less than 18 months later the quayside station was closed leaving Wyre Dock as the port’s rail terminus until it, too, was closed in 1970.
And while infamous Transport Minister Dr Beeching got the blame, Blackpool councillors fired the bullet – voting to keep the station Beeching planned to axe: Blackpool North.
n For the record, the last scheduled steam train in normal BR service came from Preston into Blackpool South on August 3, 1968.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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