Description: Apart from a handful of engines, this class of 400+ were built after WW2. Also, the front of the engine carries a 5-digit number on a number-plate fixed to the smokebox-door. This shows the engine is operated by British Railways and therefore the photograph must have been taken post-1947.
Shown here is an 'engine and brake'. This is a railway term meaning that the engine is not hauling a train, and is only attached to a brake van. The engine was one of the 'B1' class, a modern, mixed-traffic type. The arrangement of the two semaphore 'stop' signals, standing behind and above the brake, indicate that there is a junction not far beyond the signal box. Note the new ballast underneath the centre tracks. On the extreme left of the photograph are two sidings (the 'buffer-stops' for these are visible beyond the end of the brake-van).