Carnforth station in Lancashire is to be fully reopened in a joint scheme involving Railtrack and local enthusiasts.

The development of shops, a transport interchange and a recreation of the film set should be complete by Easter 2002.

It is the result of a decade of campaigning by local residents who formed the Carnforth Railway Trust in 1996.

Movie heritage

The tea-room where the film's Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard begin their journey of forbbidden love will be turned into a visitor's centre.

David Taylor, the project manager, said Brief Encounter fans had played a key role in the station's preservation.

He said: "The clock is being rebuilt by volunteers after one of them tracked down its original workings to a shop in Twickenham.

"He paid � 2,500 to buy them back."

Regeneration

The developers have exploited the station's strategic crossroads position on the West coast mainline and it will be manned for the first time since the 1970s.