This one’s not of Rock Lane, but a very atmospheric shot all the same of Rock Ferry Station taken from the south side of Bedford Road on a damp murky day in what, 1965-ish? That’s a Stanier Class 4 tank on the Up Slow line, so it’s probably on an all-stations ‘stopper’ through to Chester. Over on the siding is a 16T Mineral wagon being unloaded (by hand) onto the back of the Coal Merchants’ lorry. I love photographs like this, taken from unusual viewpoints of the everyday…
It’s interesting to note that the siding the wagon is sat on is not shown on the Rock Ferry Signal Box diagram that is in my possession (which was found in an antique shop in Preston(!!) about 20 years ago). I’m guessing that because its hand (lever) operated within the confines of the yard, it didn’t need to be shown in the box?
See the photos below of the (cleaned) part of the diagram (note the signals appearing on the photo correspond to signals 48 and 56 on the diagram), and also another of what it looked like halfway through cleaning it (it was covered in nicotine - must have been a very fuggy signal box!)