Former Great Central Railway 2-8-0 63766 at Neston North, 1960

Image: © Alan Murray-Rust Taken: Unknown

The mid-Wirral railway was an outpost of the Great Central railway, separated from its main network by the Cheshire Lines railways of which it was joint owner. The 9G plate on the smokebox shows that this loco was allocated to Northwich shed, which would have been the nearest for this group of lines. By this time the major freight traffic over the mid-Wirral line – iron ore to Summers ironworks at Shotton – was handled by BR Standard 9F locomotives, so this was possibly a quite rare visitor at this date. Although a standard GCR type, this particular locomotive was one of a large number built for the Railway Operating Department during WW1, many of which were used abroad before returning to the UK for further employment. The station was named Neston & Parkgate when built, renamed Neston North in 1956, and finally plain Neston following the closure of Neston South on the line from Hooton to West Kirby

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0