COULD it really be true... Blackpool Tower is being thrown on the scrap heap in favour of a younger model direct from the USA?

No. But local train enthusiasts have got steam coming out of their ears after learning that the Fylde's other iron lady -- an adopted locomotive freight engine called the Blackpool Tower -- is set to be dropped.

The ill-fated Class 37/4 locomotive was named by then Transport Minister, Dr Brian Mawhinney, at ceremony at London Euston in 1995 and has been a frequent visitor to the resort over the years.

After amassing a whopping 8,000 engine hours, the Blackpool Tower came up for the rail equivalent of an MoT which showed that the locomotive was in dire need of an overhaul.

This , along with the arrival of 250 brand new engines shipped to Britain from General Motors in America, prompted owners, freight firm EWS, to retire the 40-year-old locomotive from service. It has spent the last couple of years lying redundant in a depot at Crewe. But members of the Blackpool & Fylde Rail User's Association (BAFRUA) were dismayed to hear that the Tower has been moved and is now waiting to be scrapped at a rail yard in Wigan.

They are worried that it will follow the same fate as the Our Eli -- another EWS locomotive named in memory of its Blackpool driver, Bill Baildon -- which was disposed of at the same Wigan yard in 2001.

They are now hoping to attract the attentions of a preservation society or to get hold of one of the Blackpool Tower's two name plates in a bid to display it as a tribute to the locomotive at Blackpool North Station.

But BAFRUA Chairman, Paul Nettleton, says there is only a "remote" chance that EWS will take part in the venture and are pinning their hopes on locating the mysterious whereabouts of a third nameplate presented to the town's Mayor in 1995. Paul said: "Ideally we want the Blackpool Tower to attract the interest of a preservation group who would restore her and put her to good use because she's still got a lot of life in her yet.

"And with all the regeneration plans around at the moment, the council and local civic trust members may also be interested in her -- if not as a working attraction, then as a decorative monument.

"We did try to get the current owner of the locomotive to donate one of the nameplates which could be displayed at Blackpool North.

"Unfortunately, as EWS are a freight company and don't have a presence in our town, they thought the chances of doing something were remote.

"We missed out a couple of years ago, when Our Eli 'bit the dust' at Wigan and it would be sad to see yet another piece of railway that has local connections disappear for good."