Blackburn to Skipton

       The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway had several routes that converged end on with the Midland Railway route from Skipton at Colne. The history of these lines is of course more complicated as the two large pre-grouping railway companies took over various lines whose promoting companies had been absorbed by ever larger railways. Once busy with freight and excursion traffic, as well as local passenger trains, many of these lines closed in the 1960s and 1970s but the Blackburn to Colne line has survived and the campaign to reopen the Colne to Skipton route continues. This volume looks at the stations, routes and traffic from the Victorian era to the present day.

Review:

'Highly recommended.'
(M.Nield, Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society Journal) 

'Mark Bartlett's contribution to the Middleton Press collection is somewhat different because it is just as much words as images. Its lengthy and fact-filled captions are stories in themselves, so this is certainly a whole evening's read from an author whose local knowledge is clearly apparent.'
(Steam World, August 2024, Issue 446)

'Quite a portmanteau of Lancashire lines in this book...
   ...'The author has clearly been to trouble to research their history adding pictures of what survives of these lines today.'
(R.Backhouse, National Railway Museum Review, Summer 2024)