CKPR

Yeah but enormous spiders...

My family background is Scottish on my Nordic-identifying mum's side, and Anglo-Dutch on my dad's side, the latter via a diversion into the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy. On top of which, we're Northern and there's nowt we can do about that. Given all of this, I therefore regard myself as British and that's the end of the matter. Then again, there was the time when I worked at a northern university and my colleague and I, who both regarded ourselves as just British, were so fed up of the micro-identities the university was determined to map us on to that she put her ethnic origin as 'Cymric-Niger' and I put 'Brigantian'. You guessed it, we actually showed up in the published dataset and I was asked to sit on the ethnic minority staff consultation & advisory group as I was the first Brigantian who had ever worked there... I politely declined, saying that I was sure that there must be others.

Indeed and there are various other isolated small structures marked on the offical plan and visible in the distance in photographs that might fit the bill for an explosives store. I certainly wasn't thinking that the small goods shed, as marked on the plans, was for the storage of explosives. I grew up in Keswick in the 1970s when it was still a mining and quarrying town and remember hearing the warning siren and subsequent explosions from the Coledale mine near Braithwaite.

Why were there two goods sheds at Mealsgate ? This is a long shot but I'm thinking that the one on the goods wharf, which is smaller and cruder than the goods shed proper adjacent to the carriage siding on the 'right side' of the tracks, was summat to do with mining. Not coal mining, as there was a short branch to the nearby colliery, but the mineral mining high up on the nearby Caldbeck fells. The M&CR apparently considered building a branchline to Caldbeck but sensibly thought better of it given the ups and downs of the various markets in the mid 19th century. They had obviously identified Caldbeck as a potential source of traffic and without a direct line, this would have left Mealsgate as the nearest railhead. I'm therefore speculating that this shed was for the transhipment of valuable minerals (particularly barytes and copper) rather than general goods. I'm now wondering whether one of the other seemingly random sheds at Mealsgate might have been for the storage of mining stores, including explosives ? Given the various downturns in the fortunes of the Caldbeck mines, a couple of sheds at Mealsgate would probably have been sufficient to deal with the fluctuating and declining traffic.

There were two good sheds at Mealsgate, the smaller of which was on the goods wharf. I can only find one photograph of this shed, which was taken from the over bridge as might be expected and hence rather lacking in detail [its the same photograph that shows the platelayers hut]. Here's my interpretation based on guesstimated dimensions and proportions and made from materials in stock, mostly leftover Evergreen sheets and including another Grandt Line window that looks right even though it probably isn't. I need to finish off the doors, rainwater goods, etc and also the representation of the interior framing.

Remember that the LNWR never identified their locomotives (OK, only the later big tank engines) as you already knew that you were travelling on The Premier Line so there was no need to tell you...only lesser lines had to advertise themselves !

Rw.LNWR trouser colours, if you look on Facebook at a site called "On Historical Lines", you'll find a lot of really useful info about pre-grouping railway uniforms, much of it in this post: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/KNFMFyGn2vkGQjZk/

Looks like it is a Scottish Borders and Northumberland placename meaning a farmstead or enclosure by a stream (the maiden name of my friends, who is Welsh on her dad's side, was Bunton, which is probably the same derivation ?)

Probably still the best book on the railways of Carlisle is 'Carlisle - Rail Centres No.6' by Peter W Robinson published in 1986 (There's a more recent and excellent book, "Rails across Carlisle" by Steven & Jeff Davidson, focussing on the yards, depots and goods lines of Carlisle but it's pretty rare and I've only ever seen the copy I bought from C&M Models).

Tattie pot, Cumberland sausage and sticky toffee pudding ?!

The M&CR goods & coal depot adjacent to Carlisle Citadel was officially called Crown St. Goods, but was also known as Bog Goods ! This area of Carlisle was once known as Bogfield and there's a Bog Junction on the goods lines just to the south of Citadel.

It took me some time to work out from the maps and photographs that the area immediately to the left of the goods wharf was actually part of the goods yard and not just rough ground - when I realised this, the roadways marked on the map all made sense. I scraped and sanded back the basic scenery and went to work with DAS, paint [Delux Vintage "Jenny Wren"] and pastel chalks. One result of all of this reworking is that the trackwork and groundwork is slowly acquiring that elusive mucky patina from all the dust [the point motors and switches are safely below the surface]. Noo en marra, eer's Robbo Langley an Bill Gibson, an awl 'Slater' ter hos, at wurk int new yard, unlarding deliverees frum "Campbell's Model Manufactory"

As Phil @SteamAle might recall, No.30 runs like a smooth sewing machine on extra strength smooth oil thanks to a heavy white metal body and a Comet double reduction gearbox with a rigid chassis but a 'free-bogie' tender.

There was a rumour that one of the 'Yorkshiremen', in this case No.30, had been seen working to Mealsgate and now photographic evidence has come to light...of course, the date of the supposed sighting was 1st April 1922 !

Unless this is West Virginia and that is the infamous Mothman, in which case it is very realistic...