The Manchester, Sheffield & L:incolnshire Railway had reached Birkenhead by 1871 as a member of the Cheshire Lines Committee along with the Great Northern Railway and the Midland Railway. The CLC had opened a goods depot at Shore Road on the south side of Morpeth Dock in that year and followed this with the development of a second depot at East and West Float on the Wallasey side of the docks in 1892. An engine shed was provided at Shore Road by the CLC in 1888. The MSLR and its successors had the responsibility for provision of shunting engines at both depots.
The MSLR constructed the engine shed at Bidston in 1897. The shed was concerned mainly with freight activity and the provision of motive power for local passenger services was largely the responsibility of the sheds at Chester Northgate and Wrexham. Some reference will be made to the role of Bidston in support of passenger traffic but the reader is directed to the December 2019 issue of Backtrack for a fuller account. Reference is also made to selected working timetables from the GCR era to the British Railways era.
The Great Central era
The MSLR had long been desirous of linking the North Wales coalfield to the Birkenhead and Wallasey Docks and in conjunction with the Wrexham, Mold & Connah’s Quay Railway had constructed a line connecting Hawarden Bridge in Flintshire with Bidston on the outskirts of Birkenhead. The line opened for goods traffic on 16th March 1896 and for passenger services on 18th May 1896.
The line between Hawarden Bridge and Bidston became known as the North Wales & Liverpool Railway and provided access at its northern end to Seacombe (in Wallasey) on the Wirral Railway, to the CLC route linking Chester with Manchester, and at the southern end to Wrexham on the WMCQR. The MSLR became the Great Central Railway on 1st August 1897 and the NWLR was formally absorbed by the GCR on 1st January 1905.
The engine shed at Bidston was located approximately 200 yards from the Wirral Railway shed at Birkenhead Docks (Birkenhead North in LMS days) on the other side of the River Birket. The shed building was approximately 210ft in length and 35ft in width, and contained two tracks. The shed yard comprised four tracks and included coaling and watering facilities. A turntable was not provided and tender engines departing smokebox first on freight would need to turn on the Bidston triangle, Bidston East, North and Junctions. Adjacent to the engine shed was a carriage shed of similar dimensions and a marshalling yard consisting of nine sidings, known as the Bidston Yard, was located nearby.
Why was the MSLR attracted to the Birkenhead and Wallasey Docks? First, it is necessary to understand the size and scale of the dock system. The docks on both sides of the River Mersey were owned and managed by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. The Birkenhead and Wallasey Docks had the advantage over the Liverpool Docks
