The East Lancashire Railway operated from 1844 to 1859 in the historic county of Lancashire, England. It began as a railway from Clifton via Bury to Rawtenstall, and during its short life grew into a complex network of lines connecting towns and cities including Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Blackburn. During a period of rapid growth the company acquired several of its competitors, including the Blackburn and Preston Railway, which it purchased to gain access to Preston. It faced competition from companies such as the North Union Railway, and was involved in a notable stand-off in 1849 with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Following several years of discussions, the East Lancashire Railway was in 1859 amalgamated with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Parts of the network remain in use today, and a section of the original line between Bury and Rawtenstall is now operated as a heritage railway. History Manchester and Bolton Railway In 1830, the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal Company began to promote the construction of a railway along the line of their canal from Salford, to Bolton and Bury. Following an act of parliament to enable them to become a railway company, they built their line from Manchester to Bolton, although on a slightly different alignment than was first planned. This was mainly to preserve the canal for the use of mine traffic, which would not have been provided for if the canal had been infilled and replaced by a railway. A new Act had been required for the new alignment, but due mainly to the objections of the company's engineer, the connection to Bury was never built, as it would have required a tunnel on a gradient of 1 in 100, at the time a difficult and expensive proposition. The new railway therefore became known as the Manchester and Bolton Railway. Manchester, Bury and Rossendale Railway On 14 September 1843, a group of local businessmen including John Grundy, Thomas Wrigley and John Robinson Kay met at a public house in Bury to discuss the creation of a railway connection for the Bury and the Rossendale districts. Their proposed railway offered better facilities than those also proposed by the Manchester and Leeds Railway (M&LR), whose planned connection at Bury would be made with their Heywood branch line from Castleton. The Manchester, Bury and Rossendale Railway Company (MB&RR) was thus created, its purpose to build a railway from Bury