THESE poignant pictures record the end of an era at Blackburn Station.
Taken in 1954 they are of Bobby the last remaining shunt horse who was facing ‘redundancy.
The 13-year-old horse had been working at the station for eight years on shunting duties and previously on delivery runs.
He is pictured with shunt horse driver Bob Walker. Rail bosses had decided that the cost of keeping Bobby - £1.25 per day - was not cost effective and the last working horse on the railway was heading out to pasture.
Forty years earlier, the station had a staggering 180 horses performing a variety of tasks. But mechanisation had gradually seen the numbers dwindle to just one
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