Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

1851 the possibility of an amalgamation of the two was being talked about. When serious talks did take place in 1854 the Midland Railway, fearful of such a move, did all in its powers to delay this joining together. The London & North Western Railway joined forces with the Midland in 1856 in their efforts to stop this amalgamation. But an agreement was reached in January, 1857, although it took until August 13 th , 1859 when the Act was finally passed. The assets of the East Lancs Railway were at that time valued at in the region of £3·5 millions, which along with the assets of the L & Y at just over £9 millions took the total to £14·5 millions. The East Lancashire Railway was very much a ‘locally’ financed and managed railway, with much of the profit being put back into the Company for improvements. Although the transportation of passengers was a relevant factor on the East Lancs Railway, it was the movement of goods and freight which provided the Company with its greatest source of revenue. The figures show that it was profitable and by 1850 was paying a dividend to investors of between 7% and 8%. Other figures available show the

revenue generated as follows – Year January December 1846 - £6,606 1847 £6,100 £14,406 1848 £12,786 £19,985 1849 £36,785 £45,113 1850 £34,860 £53,396 1851 £54,150 £65,368

It is little wonder then that the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, instead of seeing the East Lancashire Railway as a bitter rival, preferred to take it over, and on May 13 th , 1859, rather than continue in the state of hostility which had culminated at Clifton Junction in an infamous and violent confrontation. This came about over a dispute about the collection of tolls when trains were halted by L & Y staff as trains passed onto their system, in order for the number of passengers to be counted. The East Lancs retaliated by stopping trains from Manchester going through to Hellifield in order to carry out a similar rigmarole. At the amalgamation of the East Lancashire Railway with the L & Y there were 1,531 goods wagons, 77 cattle wagons, 40 ballast wagons, 135 mineral/coal wagons. 25 brake vans, 26 covered goods vans, 38 timber wagons. At the time of the merger there were a further 204 freight vehicles either in construction or on order. It is fair to assume that in the period immediately following the amalgamation of the East Lancashire Railway into the Lancashire & Yorkshire, the locomotive stock of the ELR was kept in place until either withdrawn, due to failure, or replaced by newer locomotives. Of a total of just over 600 route miles of track only about 25 miles were level running, which gives an indication of the terrain over which the system operated. Whalley Viaduct The viaducts in Accrington and at Martholme, which were both built of stone, were not the only great structures on the lines through East Lancashire. However, these paled into insignificance when compared to the massive structure which carried the railway over the River Calder in nearby Whalley, which makes it worthy of entry into this work. The history of this line through the Ribble Valley began in 1846 when the Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe & North Western Junction Railway cut its first sod on December the 30 th , of that year. At 679 yards long, and 70 feet high, it consisting of no less than 49 arches, containing approximately seven million red bricks and 12,338 cubic metres of stone, it became a huge drain on the resources of the company, who had set aside £600,000 for the construction of the line. These bricks were supplied by Thomas Hilton who was sub-contracted by George Clark of Buckinghamshire, and used clay from taken Hardle Common near to the Riddings Lane brick kilns in Whalley. The harsh winter of 1849/50 plus the collapse of two of the arches on October the 6 th , 1849, which resulted in the loss of three lives, caused construction to be curtailed at Chatburn. (It was left to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway to complete construction to Hellifield, where it joined the Settle to

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