Porter say by railway accepting Cronin's blandishments? (8)
I believe the answer is:
cajolery
'blandishments?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'porter say by railway accepting cronin's' is the wordplay.
'porter say' becomes 'Cole' (musician Cole Porter).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'railway' becomes 'ry' (abbreviation for railway).
'accepting' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are accepted).
'cronin' becomes 'AJ' (Scottish novelist AJ Cronin).
'cole'+'ry'='colery'
'colery' enclosing 'aj' is 'CAJOLERY'.
(Other definitions for cajolery that I've seen before include "Blandishment" , "Sweet talk, flattery" , "Coaxing" , "Flattering persuasion" , "Deceitful persuasion" .)