Built between 1934 and 1951 the Stanier designed Class 5 4-6-0 locomotives were no-nonsense multi-traffic locomotives, pulling both passengers and freight. Eight hundred and forty two of these locomotives were built, eighteen survive in preservation today. One such made it’s way to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on 11th May 2021 to join the railway for it’s summer season. It passed me, or rather stopped to await a passenger train heading back to Middlesbrough, at Glaisdale.
Glaisdale is one of the stations on the Esk Valley line where a token exchange takes place. The Esk Valley Railway operates under a system called “No Signalman Token Remote” put simply where the driver operates token machinery to enable effective and safe operation of single line sections, the only token physically handed to and from a signaller is the one exchanged at Nunthorpe, the rest are released at cabinets at Battersby, Glaisdale and Whitby whilst the driver is in contact with the signaller at Nunthorpe by telephone.

This member of the class was built in 1945 at the London Midland Scottish railway’s Crewe works. 44871, originally 4871, was one of the locomotives used in 1968 on British Railway’s “Fifteen Guinea Special” a charter service which was the last passenger train to be hauled by steam locomotive on mainline rail.

For those interested in such things 44871 was working 5Z22 (16:38) York National Railway Museum – Grosmont NYMR