In the mid-nineteenth century, the tract of land to the west of Garstang, in the Fylde area of Lancashire, was an unworked expanse of moss.

In 1863, local landowners led by Wilson F France, the Squire of Rawcliffe, promoted a branch line railway.

They saw that transport links to market for agricultural produce were essential; their line was to connect Knott End, opposite Fleetwood on the estuary of the River Wyre, by way of Pilling, to Garstang station on the London and North Western Railway[note 1] main line between Preston and Lancaster.

The prospectus explained that the object was to improve the outlets for agricultural produce by giving easy access to the markets at Preston and in the towns and cities of industrial Lancashire.

The line, it claimed, would link up with Yorkshire, Humberside and Newcastle upon Tyne, and could become part of a main artery between the east and west coasts.

In December 1867, the only work accomplished had been the making of the formation for the first half mile, and it was decided to abandon plans to build beyond Pilling.

[2] The company could not afford to purchase a locomotive, and train services were operated using a hired 0-4-2 saddle tank named Hebe.

Four passenger coaches were procured by a group of debenture holders, who formed the Garstang Rolling Stock Company on 12 October 1870 for the purpose.

There was no reserve rolling stock, and when Hebe needed repairs in March 1872, the line was closed for two days.

The company later acquired another engine, an 0-6-0 saddle tank name Farmer's Friend, which started work the following year.

However it gradually made progress, and in 1890 it began to pay interest to debenture holders: by 1894 it had paid off its debts.

The KER had just as much difficulty in raising capital as its predecessor, and it took ten years to build 4+1⁄2 miles of line.

In 1920 a steam railmotor was hired in from the London and North Western Railway; it operated the passenger service until that was withdrawn.

He observed that there was "a considerable haulage of goods and coal, together with that of military requirements for an artillery camp in the neighbourhood of Knot-End.

Several guns for the camp, which had just arrived by train, were standing in the station yard at Pilling at the time of our visit."

They were six wheelers, with the body carried very low, and entry was from end platforms, the seats being arranged either side of a central gangway.

Before the lease expired, however, the railway purchased the locomotive from the lessors, and it continued to work upon the line until 1900, when it was sold and replaced by a new engine, "New Century"...

The United Alkali Company built a large works near Preesall: in its early period, in 1909 55 tons of salt were carried by the railway.

In April 1912 United Alkali opened a branch railway siding 1+1⁄2 miles long from near Knott End.

The Alkali works had a mineral railway system with a wharf on the river, and these tonnages may have had short transits by rail.

Due to the absence of any transport facilities capable of handling the volume of salt, an area on the west side of the river, at Burn Naze, south of Fleetwood, was selected as the location of a purifying works, operational from 1889.