TODAY we take a journey through time, as the railways developed across East Lancashire.

The railway boom came in the 1840s, when previous isolated lines, operated by small private companies, developed into a national network, though still run by competing companies.

In our corner of the county, services were originally operated by the Blackburn and Preston Railway and the Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington and Colne Extension Railway.

These two companies were absorbed into the East Lancashire Railway in the mid 1840s - but this only lasted 13 years, until it then became part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1859.

The success of the railways here was linked to our industry - the network providing a vital link for the transportation of goods, bringing in raw materials to our mills and factories and taking finished products to market.

It also provided a leisure time service to workers, who travelled to the coast and countryside during the Wakes weeks holidays.

During the First World War, the country's entire railway network was brought under government control and byu 1923, the companies that still remained were grouped into a 'big four'.