THE historic Blackburn railway station clocks may tick again, but a dusty storage room is the closest they will get to a return to the platforms.

The ornate Victorian timepieces clocked arrivals and departures for more than 100 years before they were removed three years ago as demolition men started work on a £6million station revamp.

A rail users' group, councillors and passengers condemned Railtrack's refusal to return the clocks to a prominent position.

But today, as they languished in an old storage area inside the station, a spokesman for Railtrack said: "It is simply not practical to put them back into a modern station but we have now offered them to the National Railway Museum in York.

"So far as I know, we have not yet had a response."

Acting secretary of rail users' group Ribble Valley Rail Ron Birch said the group had done all it could to have at least one of the clocks reinstated at Blackburn.

And Blackburn with Darwen Council has complained that Railtrack went back on an agreement to include the clocks in the new structure at the station.

Mr Birch said: "Ribble Valley Rail sought assurances from Railtrack officials prior to the demolition of the old station that the clocks would be incorporated into the new structure.

"We received verbal assurances from them that such consideration would be given serious thought. Now it seems Railtrack has reneged."

The only clock still featured at the station is located on the grade 2 listed frontage. It has failed to work for a year.

When the planning application for the massive station refurbishment was passed late in 1998 it said that the clocks should be carefully removed and salvaged for reuse at the station or offered for sale to a rail preservation society.

They were installed ready for its opening on September 12, 1886.

Railtrack handed over the day-to-day running of Blackburn station to First North Western in March, more than a year late.