The picture shows a North Eastern Railway locomotive built about a year before the poem was written.

During the depression 750 London van guards like him were offered jobs 'down the line', Ward recalled that 'For me and them it was a process of transfers from job to job to get back to one's home station,' he recalls. 'I had five transfers back to Bishopsgate.' " The practice of moving workers from place to place was well established. See for example bar005 ~ All Change for Llafairfechan. 

Bishopsgate goods yard; June 1925. The yard was destroyed by fire in 1964. See Bishopsgate Depot Fire (bar658) by the same author