am i right in thinking that all other places named must have had only one station at that period of time.
No, Bert; Chester had 3 stations, General, Northgate & Liverpool Rd. But I think only General belonged to the GWR/LNWR so that would be the only one the plaque refers to I guess.
Indeed a confusion. It is possible that what is being referred to as the Birkenhead Extention is not any railway created under an Act of Parliament but the railway's working name for the joint line. I don't think they would have referred to it as a branch. It would be interesting to know what the track diagrams in Chester signal boxes had it marked as. There used to through trains from Paddington to Woodside which used to reverse at Chester before going on to Woodside. As such it would be the extention of the main line !!
The main "Birkenhead Extension" act didn't come in until 1927 which was way after the great war.
That act was to do with electric lighting & not railways.
From Hansard
Electric Lighting Provisional Orders (No. 3) Bill [H.L.] (No. 49). A Bill to confirm certain Provisional Orders made by the Board of Trade under the Electric Lighting Acts, 1882 and 1888, relating to Birkenhead (Extension), Bishop Auckland (Amendment), Huddersfield (Extension to Golcar), Maidenhead (Extensions), Milford-on-Sea, Newquay, Penzance, Ramsgate, Sunderland Districts, and Tavistock.
Well, still no nearer to certainty in this matter. I think I was too hasty in dismissing the suggestion of 8HBOB who, from his previous posts, is very knowledgeable about the railways.
Upton's site has this snippet from the London Illustrated...
Quote
From The Illustrated London News - Saturday, April 3, 1847 Opening of the Birkenhead Docks
Monday will be an eventful day for the fast rising town of Birkenhead, on the shore of the Mersey, immediately opposite Liverpool. It is then proposed to open, with great ceremony, the Birkenhead Commissioners' Docks and the Dock Company's Warehouses, an extension line of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway to the Docks and the Park.
What do you reckon - could this be the extension?
Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
!!!
