Easingwold Railway Company 0-6-0 Saddletank No. 2. Built by Hudswell Clarke & Co. of Leeds in May 1903 and withdrawn in 1948.

The Easingwold Railway Company was an unusual rural oddity. It only ran for two miles and connected with the ECML at Alne Staion, 18 miles north of York. The ERC was privately owned from its opening in 1891 until 1958, but made small profits for most of that time. Road competition eroded it's viability in the late 1940s and it closed to passengers on 29 November 1948, freight services continuing until the line's total closure on 30 December 1957. This June 1933 scene shows the third of their four locos, confusingly numbered 2! Periodically, the ERC hired in ex-NER 'J71s' and 'J72s' from the LNER and BR, particularly in its last years of operation.

© Stephen Barrett Archive-SA Collection