The

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

(GWR) 4575 Class is a class of

2-6-2T T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...

British

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

History

They were designed as small mixed traffic branch locomotives, mainly used on branch lines. They were a development of Churchward's 4500 Class with larger side tanks and increased water capacity. 100 were built numbered 4575–4599 and 5500–5574. 15 (Nos. 4578/81/89, 5511/24/29/34/35/45/55/59/60/68/72/74) were fitted with auto apparatus in 1953 to enable them to run push-pull trains on South Wales lines with auto trailers. They often are referred to as ''Small Prairie Class'' tank locomotives.

Preservation

11 members of the class have been preserved: Two members of the class have also briefly been out on the mainline: 5521 and 5572. 5521 was shipped to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

to take part in the Wolsztyn Parade, as well as briefly piloting the ''Orient Express''. 5572 made an appearance at an open day in Reading as part of the GWR150 celebrations in 1985, arriving under its own power. When returning to

Didcot Didcot ( ) is a railway town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire and the historic county of Berkshire. Didcot is south of Oxford, east of Wantage and north west of Reading. The town is noted for its railway heritage, Di ...

again under its own power the engine also hauled the replica

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

locomotive "Iron Duke" alongside the preserved GWR Railcar W22W.

In fiction

4566 with a GWR Shirtbutton logo was featured in the train chase sequence from the 1978 Disney film

Candleshoe ''Candleshoe'' is a 1977 American-British family adventure–comedy film, directed by Norman Tokar in a screenplay by David Swift and Rosemary Anne Sisson, produced by Walt Disney Productions, and distributed by Buena Vista. Based on the Michae ...

Models and toys

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

made a model of the 4575 class, number 4589, in GWR green, also a British Railways black-liveried version, running number 5574.

Bachmann Branchline Bachmann Branchline is a British OO gauge model railway brand manufactured by Bachmann Europe PLC a subsidiary of Bachmann Industries, and is used for British outline OO scale model railways. Bachmann, a US company founded in 1835, was purchased ...

have for many years made various versions of the 4575 Class.

References

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External links