Opinion & Answer 23 Edition 44: Tracing the Path of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company to the Big 4

 Hi Folks, 

Good Sunday Afternoon everyone, It's time for another edition of Opinion & Answer. In today's edition, I wanted to trace the path of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway to the Big 4. So it will be covering the origin of the L&YR and how it became part of the  London Midland and Scottish Railway under the Big 4 Mergers in 1923. 

Please Note: Most of this information will be from the Wikipedia page with the link below to read. 

-Conductor Wolf 

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Let's take a trip back in time to the year 1847 when the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway was incorporated in northern England as the 3rd largest railway system after the midland and North Eastern Railways. Prior to L&YR 1847's incorporation there were 15 independent railway companies that had their own merger within their companies:

1. Manchester and Leeds Railway, 4 July 1836 – 9 July 1847
• Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal Navigation and Railway, 23 August 1831 – 18 July 1846
• Huddersfield and Sheffield Junction Railway, 30 June 1845 – 27 July 1846, now the Penistone Line.
• Liverpool and Bury Railway, 31 July 1845 – 27 July 1846
• Preston and Wyre Railway, Harbour and Dock Company, 1 July 1839 – 3 August 1846 (joint LNWR from 28 July 1849)
• Preston and Wyre Railway and Harbour Company, 3 July 1835 – 1 July 1839
• West Riding Union Railway, 18 August 1846 – 17 November 1846
• West Yorkshire Railway, 1845 – 18 August 1846
• Leeds and West Riding Junction Railway, ? – 18 August 1846
2. Ashton, Stalybridge and Liverpool Junction Railway, 19 July 1844 – 9 July 1847
3. Wakefield, Pontefract and Goole Railway, 31 July 1845 – 9 July 1847
4. Manchester and Southport Railway, 22 July 1847 – 3 July 1854 (joint ELR)
5. Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway, 2 July 1847 – 14 June 1855
6. Blackburn Railway, 24 July 1851 – 12 July 1858 (joint ELR)
• Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe and West Yorkshire Railway, 9 July 1847 – 24 July 1851
• Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton Railway, 30 June 1845 – 9 July 1847
• Blackburn, Clitheroe and North Western Junction Railway, 27 July 1846 – 9 July 1847
7. Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley, Wakefield, Huddersfield and Goole Railway, 7 August 1846 – 2 August 1858 (acquired northern half of line)
8. East Lancashire Railway, 21 July 1845 – 13 May 1859
• Manchester, Bury and Rossendale Railway, 4 July 1844 – 21 July 1845
• Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington and Colne Extension Railway, 30 June 1845 – 21 July 1845
• Blackburn and Preston Railway, 6 June 1844 – 3 August 1846
• Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway, 18 August 1846 – October 1846
9. Fleetwood, Preston and West Riding Junction Railway, 27 July 1846 – 17 June 1866 (joint LNWR)
• Preston and Longridge Railway, 14 July 1836 – 23 June 1856
10. Blackpool and Lytham Railway, 17 May 1861 – 29 June 1871 (joint LNWR)
11. Lancashire Union Railway, 25 July 1864 – 16 July 1883 (joint LNWR)
12. North Union Railway, 22 May 1834 – 26 July 1889 (joint LNWR)
• Wigan Branch Railway, 29 May 1830 – 22 May 1834
• Preston and Wigan Railway, 22 April 1831 – 22 May 1834
• Bolton and Preston Railway, 15 June 1837 – 10 May 1844
13. Bury and Tottington District Railway, 2 August 1877 – 24 July 1888
14. West Lancashire Railway, 14 August 1871 – 15 July 1897
15. Liverpool, Southport and Preston Junction Railway, 7 August 1884 – 15 July 1897   
    

So through approval from Acts of Parliaments, these 15 railway companies merged together to form the L&YR in 1847. The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company operated a 75 year tenure with some big accomplishments such as the first to electrify some of its rail lines and operate a steamboat service up till 1922. On the 25th of March 1921, the L&YR agreed to amalgamate with the London and North Western Railway in 1922 so as a result the L&YR and the LNWR were dissolved and reformed into the brand new London and North Western Railway on January 1st 1922. Then in 1923, the L&YR and the LNWR's new expanded company LNWR that was formed a year earlier merged with the Midland and Caledonian Railway under the railway Act of 1921 to form the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). 

As the London Midland and Scottish Railway company in 1923, did little to develop the former L&YR routes, which in many places ran parallel to ex-LNWR or ex-Midland routes now forming part of the same network. Nationalization followed in 1948 followed by a period of rationalization and modernization.

A map of the former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------And that folks concludes another edition of Opinion and Answer. We'll be back with another edition next Sunday. Please click on the link for further reading. 

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Wiki page

By Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7026016