The Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway opened in 1854. Owned by the LNWR and the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire (MS&L, later Great Central) it had a semi-independent existence and in 1928 was electrified on an overhead 1,500 volt dc system.
In 1863 the Cheshire Midland Railway, promoted by the MS&L and the Great Northern, opened an extension from Altrincham to Northwich.
In 1869 the West Cheshire Railway opened a futher extension form Northwich to Helsby at the western end of the Wirral. This became part of the Cheshire Lines Committee in 1866. This was a grouping created in 1865 by the Great Northern and MS&L as part of a strategy to reach Liverpool and Birkenhead. It was also joined in 1866 by the Midland.
The route westward from Northwich had to cross the river Weaver and the Weaver Navigation for which a long viaduct was designed by the West Cheshire. Their engineer proposed to use bricks, but when it became part of the Cheshire Lines Committee, the engineers of the Great Northern and MS&L agreed that local red sandstone should be used. In all it is 676 m (739 yds) long and carries the railway on forty seven arches and a wrought iron bowed plate girder span over each of the two waterways, with a further stone arch between them. It is a massive and impressive structure.
It is a Grade II Listed Building.
By road: On A533 and close to A559.
Awdry, Christopher, Encyclopedia of British Railway Companies, Guild Publishing CN 8983 (1990)
Biddle, Gordon, Britain's Historic Railway Buildings, Oxford University Press, ISBN-10: 0198662475 (2003)
Biddle, Gordon & Nock, O.S., The Railway Heritage of Britain : 150 years of railway architecture and engineering, Studio Editions, ISBN-10: 1851705953 (1990)
Bolger, Paul, An Illustrated History of the Cheshire Lines Committee, Heyday Publishing, ISBN 0-947562-00-1 (1984)
Butt, R.V.J., The Directory of Railway Stations, Patrick Stephens, ISBN 1-85260-508-1 (1995)
Conolly, W. Philip, British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas And Gazetteer, Ian Allan Publishing, ISBN0-7110-0320-3 (1958/97)
Dixon, F. the Manchester South Junction & Altrincham Railway. Oakwood. ISBN 978 08536111 65 (1973)
Dyckhoff, Nigel, Portrait of the Cheshire Lines Committee, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-2512-5 (1999)
Hitches, M. Cheshire Railways. Tempus. ISBN 13 978 0752 449 791 (1973
Holt, G. A Regional History of the Railways of Britain: North West. ISBN 0 7153 7521 0 (1978)
Hurst, Geoffrey, Register of Closed Railways 1948-1991, Milepost Publications, ISBN 0-947796-18-5 (1992)
