Mike Bentley says this is Radcliffe on Trent - he has other pictures at the same location - but he also has a print of this picture which has on the back: LGRP 16912 no. 661 on Leicester - Nuneaton passenger train.

The plot thickens!

This is not Radcliffe-on-Trent which did not have staggered platforms, and I do not think the Nottingham trams went out so far east. LGRP records give it as a Leicester-Nuneaton train near Leicester, one of H.L. Salmon's photos. I think this is the station at Welford Road which closed in 1918 (picture around 1922). There was certainly a skew bridge at the north end, with Knighton Tunnel behind the photographer. It would tie in with the first thought of Midland signals, and would certainly have been on a Leicester tram route.

I am reasonably sure that this is on the Midland main line at Leicester, heading south a little way from the Midland station.

Mike Bentley gives the LGRP number as 16912 and an LGRP list shows this as featuring no. 661 on a Leicester to Nuneaton train (made up of 4-wheel stock) at Leicester. The LNWR Society doesn't have a copy of the LGRP print but it does have the next two in sequence and both are at Leicester, although a little further along the line.

The full answer to the mystery comes from Brian Radford's book Midland Line Memories. On page 103 there is a picture of a Midland train at exactly the same spot. The train will soon enter Knighton Tunnel.

The platform in the left foreground is a puzzle in that it doesn't look like the end of the Midland station at Leicester. However, a few pages later, the book explains about that too. It seems that the LNWR built its own ticket platform at Welford Road, where LNWR trains bound for Leicester used to stop briefly to allow staff to collect passengers' tickets. In later years, passengers were allowed to alight there (presumably when the LNWR no longer collected the tickets during the journey). Brian Radford says that trains only called on Wednesdays and Saturdays and, since no platform had been built for trains leaving Leicester, passengers from Leicester to Nuneaton could never board there. According to the book, the platform was closed completely on February 6th 1918.

I have looked in the LNWR 1906 WTT and there is a line in the 'South Leicestershire Branch' timetable which shows 'Welford Road' along with a note about Nuneaton to Leicester trains stopping there on Wednesdays and Saturdays for passengers attending Leicester cattle market. There it is - an LNWR station which I never knew existed. So the photograph is at Leicester Welford Road!

The signals are interesting, too, for someone who knows less than he should about the Midland. At first glance I noticed the back of the Home signal which the train had just passed and saw the usual black vertical stripe whereas I had though that the Midland used a black roundel - that reinforced the opinion that the train was on the GNR. Further reading showed my ignorance - the Midland ceased to paint roundels on its signals in 1906 and by 1911 nearly all had a vertical stripe.

Well done indeed to Norman.

I agree with Ted that this doesn't look like a normal local train. The main train looks like a close-coupled set, but although they are foreshortened by the camera they somehow don't look LNWR. The third vehicle (first of the set) looks to be six-wheeled (or even four-wheeled) and LNWR stock of that type would have had ogees which this doesn't. It also has a waist panel which the LNWR only introduced much later with Toplight stock. By the time the first elliptical roof van was in service I doubt whether any LNWR sets still retained continuous lower steps, which also suggests that they are "foreign". What could they be? GNR would presumably have been teak all over, Midland dark red all over. They look GWR-ish, but not at Leicester surely?

The second vehicle is a lovely LNWR Motor Car Van, carrying very large lettering to that effect.

I wonder if the stock is ex-North London. I have a different Salmon view of a Leicester-Nuneaton which is mainly made up of NLR stock with the double continuous footboards. A further view has a lengthy train of mixed stock including a slip coach, so long trains were perhaps not unusual on this service.

I do not think this could be the cattle dock as the platform we are looking at is on the west of the line while the Midland Railway System Maps show the dock on the east side. I am sure Welford Road is correct.

This is a Leicester - Nuneaton train and the platform is the one which served Leicester Cattle Market, between Aylestone Road and Welford Road.

The bridge in the background is the one carrying Welford Road across the Midland main line. The tram is identifiable as a Leicester open balcony one from the slightly domed roof. It is very similar to no.76 which is on display at the National Tramway Museum in Crich.