Chemins de fer du Nord

[5] Baron James de Rothschild served as the company's president from its inception until his death in 1868.

A royal ordnance, dated 10 September 1845, granted the CF du Nord a concession to build a railway from Paris to Valenciennes and Lille, with branch lines to Dunkirk and Calais, and lines from Creil to Saint-Quentin and Fampoux to Hazebrouck.

[5] In 1937, the CF du Nord was nationalised, as were the other main railway companies, to become part of the Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF).

In 1926, in conjunction with the British Southern Railway, the CF du Nord began running a regular luxury passenger train, Golden Arrow/Fleche d'Or, from London to Paris.

The photographs were used to create an album for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, as a souvenir of their visit to France that year.