At least one author has penned an excellent and detailed account of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company’s locomotive works at Horwich, near Bolton, Lancashire. Reference is made to M. D. Smith’s Horwich Locomotive Works, a product of Wyre Publishing, 1996. Smith’s book is a wellillustrated account of the rise and fall of the Works from its opening in 1886 until closure in December 1983.
The book includes a bibliography of books related to the Horwich Works, some well-known authors among them: John Marshall, O.S. Nock, G.E. Holt, Alan Earnshaw and Eric Mason. To repeat what has been already written would be trying the patience of readers, and is not the purpose of this article. Instead, the development of Horwich as a railway town is seen through the eyes by…