Postcard by an unidentified publisher - Looking towards Comiston Road and Braid Road, Morningside

Edinburgh Postcard

The View

Here are five popular views of Edinburgh:

- Edinburgh Castle

- Forth Bridge

- Holyrood Palace

- Princes Street, looking west, and the Scott Monument

- St Giles Cathedral

Publisher

I don't know the publisher of this post card. I have only seen the front of the card. Looking at the back of this card might reveal who the publisher was and /or when the card is likely to have been published.

Date?

Most of the views in this card have changed little, apart from the removal of the gardens above the Waverley Market in the photograph of Princes Street and the Scott Monument.

However if anybody recognises the train or locomotive on the card, that might give a clue as to when the card might have been published. Did the publisher, perhaps, also produce similar postcards for other towns and cities, using the same picture of the train?

Reply

David King

Trinity, Edinburgh

Thank you to David King who replied to my question about the train shown on this postcard:

David wrote:

Train and Locomotive

"Just arrived in Edinburgh - on a London & South Western Railway train!. Maybe not! Presumably a ‘stock’ photograph, and the publisher thought nobody would realise that the train was about 400 miles out of place.

I am fairly sure that the locomotive is an LSWR Class T14 designed by Dugald Drummond and introduced in 1911 for main line services between London Waterloo and the south coast, for example Bournemouth and Portsmouth.

These engines were nicknamed ‘Paddleboxes’ possibly by passengers who saw the resemblance with the Isle of Wight ferries, which at the time were mainly paddle steamers. The carriages are typical LSWR profile too.

The usual photographs of these engines are at places like Eastleigh and Surbiton. They had various innovative (and troublesome) features which were almost immediately removed by Robert Urie, Drummond’s successor, after Drummond died in office at the age of 72."

Postcard Date

"I should add, as you are looking for dates, that Drummond died in 1912. These locomotives were rebuilt starting in 1915. If the picture was approved in any way by the LSWR, they would probably not have been too keen for this image to represent the company after Drummond’s demise as the engines were a ‘disappointment’ in a number of ways."

David King, Trinity, Edinburgh: October 27, 2010

Reply

Stephen Griffiths

Carlisle, Cumbria, England

Thank you to Stephen Griffiths who sent me a similar card to the one at the top of this page, but with the message:

'Just arrived at DUNFERMLINE'

Post Card

Stephen wrote:

Stock Card

"I can only echo most of David King's comments about this card, and add that it was most probably a stock card used by a relatively local publisher

Here is one referring to Dunfermline which is virtually Identical, with just a few photos changed to suit the different location."

Stephen Griffiths, Carlisle, Cumbria, England: December 28, 2011