My daughter came up at Xmas by train. However, as the most convenient route on the West Coast Main Line from London Euston to Preston was part closed due to upgrading, she opted to travel from King`s Cross to Leeds.  Now I had planned to use my newly aquired Senior Citizen`s Railcard by going to meet her at Preston.   But Leeds !!!!  A true Lancastrian needs to think twice before venturing into Yorkist territory.  Anyway, off I went to Accy Station to catch the 12-19. This is a hourly service from Blackpool to York which doesn`t stop at some of the smaller stations such as Rishton, Church & Ossy, Huncoat, and Hapton just to name a few locally. With reference to my comment "smaller stations": Accrington station is only a shadow of its former self, not even providing toilet facilities.   And so to Leeds. The last time I was on Leeds station was coming on leave during wartime and even if I had a good enough memory it would have been to no avail. The station was was rebuilt in the 1960s and a further massive restructuring took place as recent as between 1999 and 2002. There are 17 platforms making the station the largest outside London.  I had time to have a stroll around, sort out the platform for the return journey and enjoy a snack before the train from London arrived.  Then there would be 20 minutes in which to get ourselves up one of the escalators and across to the departure platform.   There would be time to spare.  Then of course came the announcement that the train from King`s Cross was running 25 minutes late.  I saw the Accy train start off just before the London train arrived.  Ah well, only an hour to wait.    To be continued.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank BERT for taking the trouble to do this ...If any other member would like to share thoughts or memories please send them via e-mail to lancashirereunited@fsmail.net