Merseyside was the home of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, opened in 1830 as probably the first steam-worked passenger railway. Birkenhead, “over the water” from Liverpool on the west bank of the Mersey estuary, was also an important port and it did not take long for it to seek connection with the growing railway network. The Chester & Birkenhead Railway was authorised in 1837, with the intention of cooperation with the Chester & Crewe Railway, and opened in September 1840, by which time the C&C had been taken over by the Grand Junction Railway, which saw the C&B as a threat to its traffic to Liverpool. It therefore insisted on separate stations at Chester when it opened eight days after the C&B, with all goods and passengers having to be…