absorption by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in May 1859 - the L&Y then routing significant quantities of trans-Pennine freight over the route to the port of Liverpool. By 1877 traffic demands had reached the point that the 2-road depot adjacent to the junction was deemed inadequate by the L&Y and work on a new, much larger facility began. This was built on a site between the LO&P and B&P lines immediately south of the passenger station and was opened in 1881, with the old depot then becoming a carriage & wagon repair shop. The new shed would become the L&Y's main loco servicing facility for the entire Preston area (and beyond) and in due course the volume of traffic utilising it and the routes it served became so great that additional trackwork improvements had to be made to alleviate matters. These began with the re-opening of the Farington line in 1886, with the junction there altered to face south rather than north as previously, followed by the construction of two new connections between the East Lancs line and the newly quadrupled (and by now jointly owned) main line from Wigan north of where the two lines crossed each other. The first of these (from west to north) was commissioned in 1891 as part of the main line upgrade works, whilst the second (east to north) followed in May 1908, creating a second triangular junction to the west of the station and a second route to Preston. This complex network of lines allowed for considerable operational flexibility in the years that followed, as both full trains & light locos could be routed from there towards either side of Preston station without conflicting with the main line. It was also possible for trains from the north heading towards Blackpool or vice versa to be routed through Lostock Hall to avoid the need for an awkward & time-consuming reversal manoeuvre at Preston station and this became a regular feature of the timetable at peak times during the summer months right up until the closure of the East Lancs side of Preston station in 1972. The lines would pass briefly into the hands of the London and North Western Railway from January 1922, before the 1923 Grouping saw the London, Midland and Scottish Railway take over. The station & depot then became part of the London Midland Region area of British Railways upon