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Picture Number1096
Courtesy OfMarcel Gommers
Year1950
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Melrose Railway Station c1950

Photo of Melrose Railway Station, c1950. Presumably this is in the Scottish Borders. Didn't the 'wise men' close this in the 60s?

Passing through is a passenger train headed by steam locomotive 9879 (4-4-2?).


Photo © The Step Back Through Time Collection
Picture Added on 27 December 2009.

Comments

The locomotive is Reid 4-4-2 'Abbotsford', built in 1906 for the North British Railway and withdrawn by the LNER in November 1936, so this photograph must pre-date the Second World War. See www.lner.info/locos/C/c10c11.shtml for details of the Reid Atlantics.
Melrose was on the Waverley route between Edinburgh and Carlisle, now closed
Added by Martin Bodman on 28 January 2010.
An outline history of the station comes with Walter Baxter's 2006 view, on the Geograph site: www.geograph.org.uk/photo/255709
Added by Martin Bodman on 28 January 2010.
More on 9879 'Abbotsford'. The locomotive was allocated to Carlisle circa 1930 and was transferred to Aberdeen in February 1934, so this image very probably pre-dates 1934. The class were not without controversy - when introduced in 1906 the Caledonian Railway turntable at Aberdeen was too short for them and that railway was unwilling to provide coaling facilities for the Atlantics; the turntables at Dundee and Carlisle had to be extended to accommodate the engines. Enginemen considered them rough riders, but they were powerful and suited to the Waverley line with its demanding gradients and interminable curves. They were withdrawn in the 1930s partly because they didn't fit with the LNER's standardisation policies. John Thomas wrote an entire book devoted to the class: 'The North British Atlantics', David & Charles, 1972
Added by Martin Bodman on 28 January 2010.
The locomotive's tender frames survive! The tender was last used as a sludge carrier at Cambridge diesel depot but its remains have now been safeguarded by the Railway Heritage Committee [to what end?]. Source: Steam Railway 372, 5-2-10 to 4-3-10, p 25
Added by Martin Bodman on 08 February 2010.

If you found this interesting, have a look at the following groups of pictures.
Step back through Time, trains and stations

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