The 'grouping' of Britain's many independent railways in 1923 heralded the end of glorious sights like this. It is 1922 and a 1912-built Caledonian Railway '139' class 4-4-0 in the Caledonian's wonderful light blue livery makes a spirited northbound departure out of Carlisle Citadel. The 'bow tie' device in front of the chimney indicated the route to be taken by the train. In this era, Carlisle must have been a joy to visit by anyone with an appreciation of railway history and liveries. The Caledonian, North British, Midland, London & North Western, North Eastern and Maryport & Carlisle railways (and others periodically) all ran trains to and through the city and it would have been very colourful place at times. 122 was to give over 40 years service, being withdrawn in 1953 as BR No. 54449. The image is scanned from a glass plate negative and the photographer was probably the late Henry Salmon. My thanks go to RP contributor Brian Stephenson for the location and photographer IDs.
