Carnforth clock where the
"Brief Encounter" lovers met
'Brief Encounter' station reopen
CARNFORTH, England --One of the most romantic train stations in film history is to reopen after nearly 60 years of neglect.
Electric and diesel trains have replaced steam, but the clock where the so-English affair between the characters played by Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in "Brief Encounter" has been restored and remounted.
And true romantics can even imagine the strains of Rachmaninov's piano concerto -- the film's background music -- filtering across the northwest English countryside.
The station has reopened after a £1.2 million ($1.6 million) restoration and will act both as a heritage center and a train link.
The museum will attempt to bring alive the ill-fated wartime screen romance between the English suburban wife Laura and the impetuous married doctor Alec Harvey.
Director David Lean's 1945 film was shot amid much real-life steam at a fictional London railway station, Milford Junction. It was amid the gritty air, under the clock, that the lovers met while changing trains.
The tearoom, with its stale Bath buns, soldiers eerily plodding through, and feisty staff, formed much of the backdrop to the romance. Margaret Barton, who played the part of Beryl, will cut the ribbon when the center opens Friday.
Peter Yates, chairman of the Carnforth Station and Railway Trust, said: "Our ambition must be to get the West Coast Main Line trains to stop here once again."
Fans of Carnforth live in California, Australia, South Africa, Germany and Japan.
Local residents and the former rail infrastructure company Railtrack provided the funds to restore the station to its 1940s glory.