Looking south west at the remains of the Ditton Marsh Branch at the point where it passed over Widnes West Diviation Junction and under the Ditton Junction - Weaver Junction line in the 1980s.
Photo by Roy Gough

The Ditton Marsh Branch provided a link from the Sheffield & Midland Joint Railway - Widnes Branch (later the Great Central & Midland) to the Hutchinson Dock estate at Widnes and to an iron works at Ditton Brook. The line was authorised as part of an extension of the Widnes Railway (the first section of what became the Widnes Branch from Barrows Green to Tanhouse Lane) in October 1874. Work started on its construction in April 1877, and it opened on 17 April 1878, being used only for goods services. Most of the Ditton Marsh Branch was elevated on either embankments or bridges. This was so that it could be carried over the numerous lines of both the LNWR and the Hutchinson Dock estate, both of which it had connections with. It connected to the Widnes Branch at Moor Lane Junction where there were sidings that facilitated movement onto and off the branch.

From 1 October 1904 the branch was worked by a pilotman. In 1923 the branch became the joint property of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) and the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). In 1926 'Electric Train Tablet' working from Moor Lane Junction signal box was introduced instead of the use of a pilotman, but from 10 June 1936 through workings onto the former LNWR lines ceased, and the line was worked as a siding. From 15 October 1945 only one train at a time was permitted onto the branch.

At nationalisation in January 1948 it transferred to the British Railways London Midland Region. The Ditton Marsh Branch closed on 28 August 1960 but was not deleted from the sectional appendix until 1 June 1963. By October 1964 a section of its embankment immediately south-east of Moor Lane was demolished in preparation for the construction of a new road. The Widnes Branch, onto which the Marsh Branch connected, closed completely on 6 December 1964, and the site of Moor Lane Junction was lost under the Speke Road.

Sections of the line within the dock estate survived until about 2008.

In this view looking east at Widnes West Deviation Junction on 20 June 1990 a section of the Ditton Marsh Branch can be seen in the distance behind the locomotive. The dark brickwork to the left was part of a bridge that carried the line over the former LNWR lines seen in the picture. Running to the right is the embankment that carried the line towards Ditton Brook.
Photo by John Wilson

Looking east along the former LNWR Garston and Warrington line (the Low Level) on 9 January 2005. To the right of the line can be seen a bridge abutment. It had until 1964 carried the GC and MR Ditton Marsh Branch over the former LNWR line.
Photo by Terry Callaghan