AN ORIGINAL memento of Liverpool’s famous Overhead Railway which was lost for years could soon be on display again in its home city.

The sign for the Pier Head station formerly belonged to a clergyman and academic who bought it at an auction while he lived in Liverpool and then took it with him when he moved to Ireland.

Since his death the wooden sign has been returned to the city and could soon go on display at the Museum of Liverpool – just yards from where the sign once stood at the overhead railway’s Pier Head station.

Rev Dr Robert Charles Sinclair – who first bought the sign and was known as Robin – graduated in law from Liverpool University and was a Royal Navy chaplain and Church of Ireland minister.

He bought the sign at an auction of Liverpool Overhead Railway memorabilia in the early 1960s soon after it was dismantled.

Behind the donation of the sign is Eamon Mullan, whose late father, Captain Peter Mullan, was a master mariner and friend of Rev Sinclair.

Eamon said: “Robin bought the sign as a souvenir of his time in Liverpool. After he moved to Dublin he became friends with my late father while doing research for a book he was writing on the history of shipping from Belfast to Liverpool.

“After Robin’s death in 2008 there were no relatives to leave the sign to in his will and his late wife felt it should be returned to Liverpool.”