0-6-0 30566 Eastleigh Works perhaps c1958

My Dad's album notes don't show the location or date, but are on the same page as the T9 at Eastleigh in 1958.
The shunter is probably going to climb down to switch the points, using the white lever beside the tracks. Whilst today's freight trains are largely blocks of wagons, usually carrying one commodity, in those days wagons often carried individual loads for local stations and the trains were made up in goods yards at junctions and other interchange points, like docks and factories. When working on and off the running lines, on which trains ran between stations, points and signals were controlled from a signal box nearby. Where there was a self-contained area, off the main lines, as in a goods yard, shunters would be able to switch the points by hand. Their other duties included coupling and uncoupling the wagons or carriages, as needed. In this case the shunter is travelling on the locomotive, but they sometimes had their own truck which carried tools like their shunters' poles, used to lift the heavy couplings on and off their hooks. They travelled on the running board of their trucks, so that they could hop on and off easily.