The Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway opened its twenty-mile line in 1840 in Lancashire, England.

The Lancaster Canal Company had a yearly lease of the line and was unwilling to spend money on improvements without security of tenure.

No proper system of safe operation was imposed and in 1848 a rear-end collision took place at Bay Horse station exposing the shortcomings.

By then the London and North Western Railway was exercising oversight of the L&CR, and formal transfer to the LNWR took place in 1859.

As the railway network of Great Britain developed, a line connecting the north-west of England to Scotland was suggested by Joseph Locke in 1835.

The North Union Railway was authorised in 1834, taking up unused powers to build a line to Preston from the south.

[1] The company made its Preston terminus at Dock Street near the Lancaster Canal, but the site had no other accommodation.

Mutual running powers at Preston were to be included in the arrangement, and the L&PJR was to reimburse the NUR’s expenses within a month of the outlays.

[11] As Greville and Holt put it, having paid its share in the making of the connecting line, the L&PJR was certainly not going to pay tolls for using it.

[11] The NUR discovered that the L&PJR track was of poor quality and considered that its locomotives were being damaged in running over it; there was evidently friction in day-to-day operation too.

[13] The L&PJR terminus at Dock Street was little more than a siding with buffer stops and a short, low timber platform.

The NUR feared that B&PR plans to duplicate the route from Euxton to Preston station might be revived.

[8] The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway was authorised on 6 June 1844,[15] and the west coast main line was being created.

From 22 September 1846 the L&CR opened its line from Kendal to Lancaster, and its trains ran on to Preston without formal authorisation.

Meanwhile L&PJR trains operated independently from the original Lancaster station to Preston Dock Street.

The Company, acting under this impression, applied to Parliament for powers to elect a new direction, but the committee of the House, to whom the Bill was referred, refused to entertain the application unless it was accompanied by a revision of the tolls upon the line, which, having been authorized in 1837, were much higher than those of the more modern lines.

The Company preferred remaining without a direction to consenting a revision of their high tolls, and withdrew the Bill.Finally, the Lancaster and Carlisle Company gave notice that they would run their own trains over the line, and that they would pay whatever the law should declare to be a legal rate of toll to such parties as should be entitled to receive it.

They keep a regular account of the amount of their traffic which passes over the line, and deliver a copy of it monthly to the Canal and to the Lancaster and Preston Railway Companies, and they state their readiness to abide by the decision of a court of law as to what amount of toll they should pay, or to refer that question to the decision of the Railway Commissioners, or to the arbitration of any disinterested parties.It results from the preceding explanation, that the Lancaster and Carlisle Company are now running their trains over the Lancaster and Preston Railway, not only without the consent of the actual possessors, but in defiance of their opposition, and that till the differences still pending between the proprietors of that line and their lessees are decided, neither party will feel much interested in or will go to much expense to maintain the efficiency of the Railway.

The speed of the express was reduced when the driver saw the stopping train ahead, but a collision at 8 mph took place; one person was killed and several injured.

He reported that he found that the signals at the stations were of the rudest description, and that though they might have sufficed for the traffic when this Railway was only a small local line, they are utterly insufficient to provide for the public safety now that it forms part of one of the great chains of railway communication with the North.

At some of the stations an attempt is made to keep the flag square with the line by fixing to it small cross sticks, but at others, and particularly at the Bay Horse station, where the present collision occurred, there is simply a small stick at top, and the flag not being held down in any way, blows about freely, and can scarcely be perceived when the wind blows up or down the line.

On Monday, when I was at the Bay Horse station, it was a remarkably fine bright day, and having directed the signal to be hoisted.

At last, on 13 November 1848, agreement was reached for the L&CR to take over the management of the Lancaster Canal including the L&PJR, confirmed by Act of 1 August 1849.

[19] The outstanding toll payments for the L&CR trains having run over the Lancaster-Preston line from 22 September 1846 to 31 July 1849, which had been retained but not handed over, amounted to £83,616.

[15] The Preston to Carlisle section of the West Coast Main line was electrified on the 25kV overhead system; it was energised on 25 March 1974.