Portrait of the Cheshire lines Committee

The Cheshire Lines Committee, with its network of lines serving Liverpool, Manchester and Chester, was one of the most important of all the joint railway companies of the pre-Grouping era. Owned by the Great Central, Great Northern and Midland railways, the railway passed to the LMS and LNER in 1923 and only lost its separate identity in 1948 when the 'Big Four' companies were merged into the nationalised British Railways.

Whilst it never owned locomotives - relying on the classic designs of its parent railways to provide the line's motive power - the CLC did own its own rolling stock and it served some of the most impressive stations in the country, such as Manchester Central.