Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

with a return fare to Longsight the nearest station to the venue at 5/9d, whilst the following day Doncaster was the destination. ‘Crab’ #42719 from Bury Sheds (26D), worked an excursion from Todmorden to Blackpool Central through Accrington on the 3 rd . It returned after a 5½ hour stay. With no Stanley in the league, football trains were still available for the Rovers and Burnley supporters, and Burnley were away at Birmingham City whilst Rovers were away at Wolves in the early part of the month, the return fare to New Street was 21/6d and to Wolverhampton 17/3d. At a hearing in Manchester of the North West Traffic Commissioners, British Railways made an objection to the applications by several coach operators to operate coaches to London for the local football clubs’ supporters. The applicants included J. Benson’s Motors, Robinsons Tours, Ribblesdale Coachways, Ribble Motor Services, Frasers Motors, Holden’s Tours (Oswaldtwistle) and Harry Duckworth (Clayton). For the group Mr J. Robinson, MD of Robinsons, said there was considerable support for both Blackburn Rovers and Burnley Football Club in the area, and he had received many requests from supporters for transportation to the capital for league, FA Cup and international games. He stated, “Money is getting tighter, so why should fans have to fork out 48/- on the trains when we can take them for 35/-?” Mr Backhouse, on behalf of the operators said, “Out of the last seventeen Cup Finals eleven had involved northern teams, whilst regarding international games there was also a growing interest”. Mr G. Dawes from the Ribble Company was in agreement with these remarks, but said they should only concern journeys to London when the ‘local’ teams were involved. There were two spokesmen for BR the first of which, Mr E. Frost, told the Commissioners, “We are extremely concerned as the new motorways had given an advantage to coach operators which had worked to take passengers off the railways”. Mr G. H. B. Beames, stated “This is nothing more than a paper application and is not supported by the needs of the passengers. These operators should be denied the opportunity to operate carte blanche where they like”. Having heard these arguments the Chairman, Maj. Gen. A. J. F. Elmslie, stated he would reserve a decision to a later date. “Good weather had encouraged many day trippers to use the special excursions to Blackpool, Southport and Morecambe, which were full with many more using the service trains to the coast”, commented the person in charge of the station booking office, after the three trips on Saturday, Sunday & Monday to the Illuminations had returned. Southport was one option on Sunday, the 16 th , with a ramblers’ train to Llangollen at 15/-, departing at 10:01, Church 10:04 also calling at Chester 10/6d, Wrexham 13/- with organised walks from Trevor (calling on the outward journey only) and Llangollen. With the exceptions of December 26 th , to the 29 th , there were day trips to London every Wednesday and Saturday for 48/6d return, travelling on the 08:00, or every Thursday and Friday, travelling overnight on the 22:15 departure both with a change in Preston. Return was from Euston on certain specified trains. October There were organised walks from Silverdale and Grange-over-Sands from the excursion to Barrow, which ran on Sunday, the 2 nd , whilst the cheap day and half-day trips to Blackpool and to Southport would continue up until the 26 th . A strike by members of the NUR scheduled for Wednesday, the 5 th , was in protest about the announcement that some railway workshops would have to close. Mr S. Greene, the Union’s General Secretary, warned the Labour Party Conference that more strikes would follow. This one day stoppage had appeared to make a difference to the situation in Accrington. Mr. J. Rushton, the local Branch Secretary, claimed there had been 100% support by his 150 members. Whilst they had congregated at the Labour Hall to collect their 10 shillings strike pay, the station was deserted with only the Stationmaster, Mr J. Searson, visible in his uniform and no other workers about, even the signal boxes were closed. On Sunday, the 28 th , Millom was revisited whilst with BR’s ‘any train - any day’ offers from Accrington, Blackburn could be visited for 1/8d return, Blackpool for 7/9d, Bolton 4/6d, Burnley 1/11d, Bury 3/3d, Manchester 5/-, Preston 4/3d and Skipton 5/9d. November On the 4 th , there was a ramble off the 10:22 to Windermere with a fare of 12/9d. This would also call at Lancaster at 7/- and Carnforth at 8/3d. There were trips to Southport and to Blackpool every Saturday on the 11:00, 12:00, 13:03, 13:45, 14:20 and 15:03 throughout the month, returning by any train. ( Despite the fact that a declaration had been made that Accrington’s general holidays would be June 22 nd to July 6 th , and the September break Monday and Tuesday, the 9 th & 10 th , a huge impasse

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