The Railway became affectionately known as the ‘Lanky’ and very quickly developed a huge amount of business moving raw materials and other goods throughout Lancashire and over the Pennines into Yorkshire. 

The L&YR built its own railway works in 1884 at Horwich, which by 1892 had become a railway town and the works had grown to include five erecting shops, iron and steel foundries, signal and point shops, a chain foundry and its own gas and electricity plants. By 1894 no less than 300 new locomotives had been built.

The L&YR consisted of three divisions:

Western Division:
Manchester to Blackpool and Fleetwood
Manchester to Bolton, Wigan, Southport and Liverpool
Manchester to Liverpool

East Lancashire or Central Division:
Manchester to Oldham, Bury, Rochdale, Todmorden, Accrington, Burnley and Colne

Eastern Division:
Todmorden to Halifax, Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Normanton, Goole and Doncaster

Passenger locomotives of L&YR were painted black, with red and white lining, freight locomotives were black with red lining.  Carriages were purple-brown lower panels and saddle (light brown) upper panels.

37 miles of routes in suburban Liverpool were electrified:

Liverpool to Southport and Crossens
Liverpool to Aintree
Southport to Meols Cop
Aintree to Ormskirk

The Lancashire and Yorkshire and London and North Western Railways merged in 1922 and were absorbed into the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923.