The Yorkshire Pullman at King's Cross, January 1948

The departure of the Yorkshire Pullman service from King's Cross station, 22nd January 1948. The train is hauled by the A3 class steam locomotive No 46 'Diamond Jubilee', which had been built by the London & North Eastern Railway in 1924.  By 1948 the engine was owned by the newly nationalised British Railways, which had been in existence for only three weeks when this photograph was taken. The Yorkshire Pullman ran between London and towns in Yorkshire.  From the Cyril Herbert Photographic Collection. The Herbert Collection consists of 35mm film negatives, and 3½ x 2½ ins film negatives showing the LNER, mostly at work around London, but also in East Anglia and Scotland. They are taken almost day by day, and paint a finely detailed portrait in miniature of the company's activities, including the scenes of devastation caused by German bomb and rocket attacks on London during the Second World War. However, it is difficult to gain access to all the photographs as Herbert did not provide individual captions or identification numbers for much of his work. Herbert also took some photographs of the GWR and the Southern. A small proportion have been printed, and grouped by subject, but are un-numbered, and thus difficult to reconcile with the negatives. The NRM also possesses a quantity of prints with accompanying criticism sheets taken by Herbert for submission to the Railway Photographic Society and the Leica Postal Portfolios.