The Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway (WMCQR) was incorporated on 7 August 1862 to build a line from Wrexham to Buckley. The WMCQR line - 12.5 miles in length - opened as a single line with short branches from Buckley to a point near the Great Western Railway station at Wrexham. By an Act of 1885 the Wirral Railway obtained powers to build a line from Bidston to join the MSLR at Hawarden Bridge; in the event the construction was taken over by a joint committee. The line - 14.25 miles - was opened on 18 May 1896, the following year the WMCQR went into receivership, and the line was bought by the Great Central Railway, as the MSLR had now become: the joint committee was dissolved in 1904.