An increasingly popular feature of railway galas is to include a demonstration freight train, and this shot shows a locomotive and goods wagons that might well have appeared at Pickering station up until the mid 1960s.
A small freight locomotive pulls a mixed load of vans, tank wagons, open coal wagons and others. It would stop at each station along a route, sometimes dropping off wagons, sometimes picking up others. Eventually the train would take it's mixed selection of wagons to a marshalling yard where the wagons would be sorted according to their eventual destination. They might have to be sorted again on their way, before finding themselves in another local goods train to get to their final destination.
All very inefficient, and most of this local traffic ended up on the roads, with the railways concentrating on bulk goods like coal, oil and aggregates. But it was interesting to see this example of a typical local goods train - except that it is all rather too clean and well looked after compared with what I remember from the 1960s!
Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
I should have added to my commentary that the arch over the top of the shot is part of the very ornate footbridge linking the two platforms at Pickering station.
IIan
September 25th, 2022
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Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
I should have added to my commentary that the arch over the top of the shot is part of the very ornate footbridge linking the two platforms at Pickering station.
IIan