Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

The Accrington to Manchester via Clifton Junction section opened on August 17 th , and by 1849 there were eight trains in each direction between Salford and Accrington via Bury and Clifton Junction. During the 1850s the service between Accrington, Blackburn and Preston had settled to seven daily, all of which ran through to Burnley, with a similar number connecting Accrington with Manchester via Bury. Third Class tickets were only available on two of these trains, which ran one in the morning and one in the evening. These were called ‘ Parliamentary ’ trains, as by 1855 the Government had passed a law stating that trains had to provide covered accommodation for all Third Class passengers. After April 1 st , 1872 the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway accepted Third Class passengers on all trains that were not exclusively First Class. By 1882 there were fourteen trains between Colne, Bury and Manchester in either direction. The East Lancashire Railway was not averse to running excursion trains for recreational purposes, sometimes it must be said stretching itself to the maximum as was the case in 1858. One such was a day outing from Rawtenstall to Harrogate via Accrington. Departing in the late morning with a reversal at Ramsbottom, this train took twelve hours to reach Harrogate. The following day the return journey took over thirteen hours, with two long delays between Harrogate and Todmorden, the remainder of the trip was by being coupled to the rear of other trains finally arriving back in Rawtenstall at 4:30am. On the early excursion trains to Blackpool and Fleetwood, ladies were carried at a ‘slightly’ reduced fare. An urban myth was that men in drag had attempted to obtain these reduced rates. ACCRINGTON STATION - THE FIRST PASSENGER FACILITIES (circa 1852) Accrington Railway Station was 17¾ miles by rail from Preston and was constructed on an area of land known as the ‘Fauce Pits’. Much of the way in which Accrington’s railway infrastructure developed was due to the fact that it was firstly connected to the system from the Bury direction. The station itself was therefore constructed adjacent to the Bury line, which for a time was the terminus of the trains. The first station building was built of hard pale grey stone quarried locally. Eventually it contained a refreshment room, waiting rooms and a telegraph office. It was surmounted with a tower which had clocks on each of its four faces, the booking hall being on an upper level. However, the main entrance to the station was on the Paxton Street side up a steep walkway. This required passengers to cross over four running lines on foot, to visit the booking office and the one platform. Its passenger infrastructure consisted of an open wooden construction, which was the only refuge for passengers. The original track layout at Accrington Station was concentrated on to the one low platform of 60 yards in length on the Eagle Street side at the foot of the Baxenden incline. Later the level of this platform was raised above the level of the original East Lancashire Railway’s only platform. There were two waiting rooms on this platform. Contrary to the policy of the East Lancashire Railway Company, it was felt that a refreshment room could be incorporated into the infrastructure such was its strategic position, but it actually only received a gentlemen’s toilet in its original facilities. Trains from three directions, Blackburn, Burnley and Bury, were required to use this single platform, with trains from Blackburn having to run through and onto the Viaduct and reverse back onto it. This situation lasted for just over thirty years until the station was rebuilt by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. With several trains all needing to use this platform, passengers had to cross the running lines whilst shunting of stock and reversing of trains was being carried out. This was potentially a very dangerous situation. As can be seen there was the possibility to connect the two major routes without having to run through the station, and avoiding lines were put in thus forming a triangle. This enabled trains entering from one direction to run through, reverse back and return in the same direction without uncoupling the locomotive and re-marshalling the stock. It also allowed goods trains to run through without occupying the platform line. To the east immediately beyond the end of the East Lancashire Railway’s single platform the line passed over a high viaduct which always required a speed restriction, especially when approaching from the east, and which did not allow trains starting in that direction to gain speed up the admittedly gentler incline of 1:165 towards Huncoat until they had crossed Whalley Road. The first Stationmaster was Mr James Shaw, who lived in a house adjacent to Platform 1. For the first two years after opening the person who was Traffic Manager at Accrington Station was also the

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