have to set this as a challenge or offer a reward or something, because I have tried every avenue I know to find pictures of this junction and surrounding areas for over 10 years now and still cannot find anything,

the main reason is that my dad lived near to this junction in the 50s and 60s his friends house at the time overlooked the junction and has countless stories of the railways there,mainly of him and his freinds being tearaways on the railway line, but we can still not find even a single photograph.

for those that do not know, Langton branch Junction was a junction onto a short single line leading to the linacre gas works in Bootle , built by the Midland railway, on branch off the Cheshire lines railway situated between Soutport road and Fernhill road Bootle it closed in 1968, my dad was 12 at the time, he recalls trains from the docks with all sorts of mixed freights working very hard and slow on the line marked red, as it was a very steep line up from the docks, he remember black 5s mostly, and trains for the gas works, usually a black 5 with 20 or so mineral wagons backing into the gas works at dinner time, this is the line marked blue which was single line and climbed up over the leeds and liverpool canal and into the gas works, there where sidings here.

one story is that theyre was a home signal protecting the junction and my dad and his friends used to swing a rope around it and pull it down, so that the slow moving, hard working freight trains would have to stop and they would be rewarded with the spectacle of it trying to start off again on the steep gradient. theyre was no signal box here just a ground frame.

he also recalls walking the line several times, being in the tunnel when trains where there, and even in the days when the track was lifted, it has now been filled in.

If anyone has any photographs or info on this line we would be so so greatfull to see them, my dad has started work in a garage in between the lines 2 and it has brought back lots of memories, ive been giving him a hand there this week in the garage so will try and get photos as it is now as its enabled me to get into territory and vantage points I would never normally be able to get.

Ive only ever seen a few photos of the gas works from overhead, they dont show the branch, and also of the western end of Bootle tunnel, Ive never seen a pic of the eastern end of the tunnel and junction, the tunnel is on the line marked red in the bottom left of this picture, it runs/ran under Marsh lane, my dad said watching trains emerge there was amazing, as it was busy, every freight train was different, ie you wouldnt know what would be on the wagons, he remembers trains of ford anglias, and the fact that the steam engines where working so hard.






If anyone likes a challenge, I would offer this to them as the ultimate

it would have been a photographers dream as steam was still used until 1968 on the line and it was such a steeply inclined line, with low road bridges as vantage points.

thanks guys