Date: July 7th
Category: Vintage Holidays | Lost Railways | Northern Escapes
Back in the days when the working week ended in a cloud of coal dust and clogs were standard weekend wear, Sunday meant one thing for thousands of Yorkshire folk: the seaside special to Morecambe.
Today, we step aboard a train that hasn’t run in decades — not through signal failure, but through short-sighted closure.
This was the Leeds–Morecambe line in its heyday: excursion trains filled with families, flasks, and fish paste sandwiches, rattling their way westward to fresh air, candy floss, and a paddle in the Irish Sea.
Let’s retrace the line, remember the joy, and see what still remains.
🚉 The Route
Starting point: Leeds Central (later merged with Leeds City)
Route highlights:
- Kirkstall & Horsforth – still operational today
- Ilkley or Skipton – sometimes branching north
- Through Hellifield and into the Lune Valley
- Ending at Morecambe Promenade Station — once a grand glass-and-iron terminus right on the seafront
Journey time (1950s): Around 2.5 hours
Fare: A few shillings — children half-price and allowed to carry a bucket and spade free of charge.
“You could smell the salt before you saw the sea. That’s when you knew you’d arrived.” – Doris, age 91
🎟️ The Day Out: Then & Now
THEN:
- Set off with a paper bag of sandwiches and a wireless tuned to the Light Programme
- Arrive in Morecambe before noon
- Spend the day riding donkeys, strolling the promenade, and sitting politely behind windbreaks
- Home again by supper — sunburnt, sticky, and smiling
NOW:
- The original Morecambe Promenade Station is long gone — closed in 1994, demolished shortly after
- Bare Lane and Morecambe (new) remain open, but the romance has faded
- Excursion trains are few, but nostalgia is strong — with heritage railways reviving the spirit across the North
🧳 Favourite Excursion Traditions
- Penny in the deckchair — to claim your seat while you queued for an ice cream
- Collecting railway badges from platform vendors
- Matching family outfits (sailor collars optional but encouraged)
- Carrying your Sunday shoes in a string bag to change into after the beach
“We only had the one good pair of socks. You didn’t wear them in the sand.” – Jack, retired signalman
🗺️ What Remains of the Route?
- Leeds to Skipton is still very much alive
- Skipton to Carnforth via Hellifield is open for freight and occasional diversions
- The Morecambe–Heysham section survives but feels neglected
- The original Promenade Station is now a retail park, but nearby plaques and photos recall its glory
🛤️ Keen explorers can walk some of the old alignment along the Lancashire Coastal Way, spotting bridge footings, old signs, and even fragments of station platforms in undergrowth.
🎡 Why It Mattered
These weren’t just jollies. They were:
- Lifelines of leisure for working-class families
- Rare escapes from industrial cities
- Fuelled by the “wakes weeks” tradition — when whole factories would close and towns would decamp en masse
- An affordable way to give children the magic of the sea
They were railway democracy, by timetable.
📷 The Guild Archive: Leeds to Morecambe Memories
📸 A 1938 excursion timetable — “Special Train to Morecambe, Fish & Chips at Destination”
📸 A snapshot of a family from Pudsey in matching straw hats beside the old station clock
📸 A post-war poster: “All the Fun of the Seaside — by Rail!”
📚 Want to Know More?
- The Lost Lines of Morecambe Bay by Martin Bairstow
- Holiday Haunts by Rail (1949 edition)
- British Railways in the 1950s – Excursion Trains by Peter Waller
- National Railway Museum Archive
💬 Your Sunday Specials: #SeasideBySteam
Did your grandparents take the excursion train to Morecambe? Still have the bucket, the ticket stub, or a deckchair photo?
Tag @TimeTravellersGuild and use #SeasideBySteam — we’ll feature the best in our Seaside Memory Gallery next Sunday.
