[3] The engine shed was located on what was previously waterfront land where Thomas Fishburn and company made ships.

[8] On 16 September 1940, Whitby was subjected to an air raid by the Luftwaffe, with the goods shed and the approach to the station being damaged.

[10][11] The shed provided locomotives to work the lines radiating from Whitby north-westwards towards Loftus, westwards towards Stockton and Middlesbrough, and southwards towards Malton.

[13] Diesel Multiple Units that worked to and from Whitby after the closures of all lines except that from Middlesbrough via Glaisdale, were based at Darlington in the 1960s and 1970s.

[18] Since 1991, the building has been listed as a grade II structure,[19] and is one of four G T Andrews designed sheds still extant in North Yorkshire.

These engines were built specifically to deal with the tight curves in Newton Dale, and the gradients on the line between Grosmont and Pickering.