The weekend started early, with a trip on the Coastliner bus to Pickering, a market town on the southern edge of the North York Moors, and the southern terminus of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
Friday was the second day of this year's steam gala, where the railway's fleet of locomotives is supplemented by visiting locomotives from other preserved railways. The first of these that I took photos of was 'Eddystone', visiting from the Swanage Railway in Dorset.
'Eddystone' was built in 1946 for the Southern Railway, but its appearance was rather different then, since it was fitted with an air smoothed casing, allowing it to be cleaned by passing through a carriage washing plant. There were a number of other novel features, some of which proved troublesome, so 'Eddystone' was rebuilt in 1958 to a more convential design.
Withdrawn from service in 1964 it was sent to a scrapyard at Barry in South Wales, where it spent 22 years before being bought for preservation. It was in very poor condition and didn't have a tender. Restoration took until early 2004.
By 2014 a further overhaul was necessary and was successfully completed, so 'Eddystone' is back in regular service on the Swanage Railway.
It was a popular subject for photographers at Pickering. In this shot it had brought a train from the north and then spent some time stood in this platform before taking out a later service.
Know Pickering and its station well! Enjoyed this shot.