Description: Looking East, Black Bank to the right.
The waggons' coupled to the 'Manners' waggon on the left have the initials 'GC' and 'N(?)E' painted on their side. The Great Central and North Eastern railways ceased to exist in 1923. The engine appears to be a 2-8-0 heavy-freight engine of a type designed by the Great Central Railway. Therefore, allowing for waggon repaints to show the new owner post-1922, a date of 1900 -1940 will encompass this scene.
There appear to be four 'running tracks' (i.e. those beyond and lower than the one the trains' are standing on). This suggests the line is a busy one, possibly a main line? The sidings in the foreground hint at a depot or factory destination immediately behind the camera.
The engine shown is 'buffering-up' to the train in front (the vehicle in front of the engine is a brake van). A brake van was positioned on the back of a goods train and would be removed before shunting started. Also the engine is hauling its own train, as the waggons behind it show. The nearest train includes private-owner waggons operated by Manners Colliery, with one of the railway owned waggons apparently loaded with pipes. The train behind the engine was formed of a variety of waggon types. Therefore these will both be mixed-goods trains.