Whitby West Cliff Station – very quiet – only two carriages on the train. An ex-LMS Fairburn 4MT 2-6-4T, not obviously in steam from this photograph, but crewed up ready for the next leg of the trip. Alan Featonby tells us: ”I think you will find this train is a Whitby Town to Whitby West Cliff shuttle. The train will pull forward to take water prior to the engine running round and going back to Town. The Middlesbrough to Scarborough train or Scarborough to Middlesbrough train; will arrive and depart on the left hand track as it is straight through running. It and the return working did not go into Whitby Town, thus saving time and another reversal. The engine is Whitby allocated 42085. The summer timetable is in effect, likely 1957.”
Thanks to Mark Thompson for the information about the guards van and locomotive; and thanks to Alan Featonby for clarifying the situation.
42085 is still with us, it normally resides at the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway in Cumbria.