Working on Wednesday: What's a Horse Shunter?

I've been working on the family tree of an Englishman who lives here in France and the occupation of one of his great great grandfather is listed in several censuses as "horse driver" for what I believe is the Great Eastern Railroad. Here's the 1911 England Census:

[Ancestry.com. 1911 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA), 1911.

Data imaged from the National Archives, London, England.]

It wasn't at all clear to me what that meant. Then I found him in a union membership list (via findmypast) where his job was described as H[or]se Shunter:

[National Union Of Railwaymen; Britain, Trade Union Membership Registers, source: findmypast.com]

Fortunately for me, someone on Google knew what horse shunting was and provided more information. Here's a vintage image of a shunter and his horse:

[Jack Wise, Horse Shunter by kind permission of Mrs Prestidge. Source: Woodford Halse Archive.]

 There's even a video of one in action.

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