31417 is beyond. 31s were relatively rare at Edinburgh, but the locomotive was likely to have worked a slow from Newcastle, often a class 46 turn. The locomotive was allocated to York at the time and the 55 was reallocated to there on the 13th of May that year.
Having said that 31s were relatively rare, they were not unkown in this period. My records show a pattern where I believe the locomotive returned south on 1E29 17:xx Edinburgh - Newcastle, which appears to have stopped with 17th March 1979 Penmanshiel Tunnel collapse.
31192 FP 14/12/78
31217 FP 08/01/79
31403 FP 05/02/79
31173 FP 06/02/79
31404 FP 07/02/79
31201 FP 08/02/79
31417 YK 07/03/79 - in photo
31190 FP 12/03/79
55006 made its last passenger working on 4th February 1981 on 1S77 23:55 Kings Cross - Edinburgh, returning to York on the 6th with ECS from Newcastle, and was withdrawn on the 8th, due for a classified repair. It was cut-up at Doncaster in July that year (30 years ago as I type this)
31417 was withdrawn in July 1996 and was cut up at Ron Hull, Rotherham in January 2006
From my notes the 47 is likely to be 47470.
