Birkenhead Railway

Birkenhead Railway
Overview
LocaleCheshire
Merseyside
SuccessorBritish Railways
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Route map
Birkenhead Joint Railway
Cathcart Street Goods
Morpeth Dock Goods
Birkenhead Monks Ferry
Birkenhead Woodside
Birkenhead Town
West Kirby
Kirby Park
Rock Ferry
Caldy
Bebington
Thurstaston
Port Sunlight
Heswall
Spital
Parkgate
Bromborough
Neston South
Hooton
Hadlow Road
Ledsham
Little Sutton
Capenhurst
Mollington
Overpool
Upton-by-Chester
Ellesmere Port
Chester General
Stanlow and Thornton
Mickle Trafford
Ince & Elton
Dunham Hill
Helsby
Frodsham
Halton
Sutton Tunnel
Norton
Daresbury
Moore
Warrington Bank Quay

The Birkenhead Railway was a railway company in North West England. It was incorporated as the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway (BL&CJR) in 1846 to build a line connecting the port of Birkenhead and the city of Chester with the manufacturing districts of Lancashire by making a junction near Warrington with the Grand Junction Railway. The BL&CJR took over the Chester and Birkenhead Railway in 1847, keeping its own name for the combined company until it shortened its name to the Birkenhead Railway in 1859.[1] It was taken over jointly, on 1 January 1860, by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) and the Great Western Railway (GWR).[2] It remained a joint railway until nationalisation of the railways in 1948.[1]

Apart from the Hooton–West Kirby line which closed in 1962 almost the whole BL&CJR network is still in mainline use. Part of the railway is now used by the Chester branch of the Wirral Line, one of the two urban electric commuter rail services operated by Merseyrail on Merseyside.[3]

  1. ^ a b Casserley 1968, pp. 140–142
  2. ^ Hendry & Hendry 1992, p. 8
  3. ^ "Merseyrail: A Brief History" (PDF). Merseytravel. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 August 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2009.