West Coast Railway Company (WCR)
has been a licensed Train Operating Company since 1998, when it became the first privately owned company to obtain a licence, under rail privatisation, so allowing the Company to co-ordinate and run its own trains without third-party involvement.

Based at Carnforth, Lancashire, having developed from Steamtown Railway Museum, which opened there in 1968, the year when steam was finally withdrawn by BR, it currently operates three regular timetabled services, which, together with its other charter operations, amount to approximately 400 train operations per annum.