Teenager’s railway discovery from the smallest constituent company of the LMS to go under the hammer

NEARLY 60 years ago, teenage trainspotter George Maund was cycling the lanes near the track of a local freight-only line that branched off the WCML at Garstang & Catterall, north of Preston. It was a regular route for George, but on this particular day in 1961 something caught his eye near the site of Cogie Hill Halt, which had closed to passengers three decades earlier.

Recalling the incident, George: “I investigated and felt something hard beneath my feet in the undergrowth beside the line, and discovered a cast-iron sign that was absolutely filthy and covered in tar.”