Mersey Railway 0-6-4T No. 5 'Cecil Raikes'
Bootle, Lancashire, UK 		Location: National Museums Liverpool Store
Status: Stored
Posted: Nov 12, 2021 @ 04:11:18 by Steve Frost, European Editor
The locomotive is eventually be displayed in a new museum in Birkenhead. The project is due to start construction in 2022 and take two years to complete.
Posted: Jan 9, 2007 @ 16:01:09 by Steve Frost
The Mersey Railway ran from Rock Ferry and Birkenhead Park in the Wirral to central Liverpool via a tunnel under the River Mersey, a total milage of only 4.75 miles. However, this involved fierce gradients to access the tunnel section so powerful tank engines were required. Beyer Peacock built these tank locos with condensing gear for the tunnel operation. The exhaust steam was returned to the side tanks, where it was condensed. This loco has a little used wheel arrangement as well as outside frames. It also had a relatively short working life, being withdrawn after electrification of the line in 1903. As usual, a second career in industry followed and the condensing gear, remarkably, survived more or less in tact. Without the purchase of redundant locos by industry, we would not be able to see such a variety of locos from railways that were absorbed into other companies long ago. There is, even more remarkably, one other survivor, in Australia. (See J & A Brown No 5 at the New South Wales Transport Museum)