Time Capsules - Old Photographs from the past

The locomotive is Reid 4-4-2 'Abbotsford', built in 1906 for the North British Railway and withdrawn by the LNER in November 1936, so this photograph must pre-date the Second World War.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

An outline history of the station comes with Walter Baxter's 2006 view, on the Geograph site: www.geograph.org.uk/photo/255709

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 They were withdrawn in the 1930s partly because they didn't fit with the LNER's standardisation policies.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

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

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