'Lion' leads the short special train that left Eccles station

heading for Manchester Liverpool Road, the original terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Getting away from the actual provenance of Lion, the stock is all reproduction but looks absolutely superb. As well as a brass band playing in the front open coach the rest of the space was filled with various dignitaries and invited guests including the then Home Secretary William Whitelaw (1918-1999) and the leader of the House, Lord Christopher Soames (1920-1987). The special train left Liverpool Lime Street earlier in the day hauled by 46229 'Duchess of Hamilton' banked by 47194. After a brief stop at the Huskisson memorial, the train stopped at Eccles for the special guest to transfer to this train. The other passengers were taken in a fleet of coaches to Liverpool Road to witness its arrival. The empty coaching stock followed along later to Victoria station ready to take everybody back to Liverpool again. The people standing on the wall in the background would now be peering down on to the twin carriageways of the M602 motorway. Finally, this train journey could not be physically undertaken today as Network Rail has severed the link from the national network to the world-famous Liverpool Road station being the world's oldest surviving terminal railway station by their crass and reckless construction of the Ordsall curve.