GWR 5542 is a preserved

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 ...

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 ...

of the

GWR 4575 Class The Great Western Railway (GWR) 4575 Class is a class of 2-6-2T British steam locomotives. History They were designed as small mixed traffic branch locomotives, mainly used on branch lines. They were a development of Churchward's 4500 Class w ...

. It is currently based at South Devon Railway.

History

Number 5542 was built in 1928 for £3602. It was first allocated to entering traffic on 2 August 1928, then later at Bristol Bath Road, and and finally from where it was withdrawn on 8 December 1961 after having run 987,429 miles. It was sold to for scrap to the

Woodham Brothers Woodham Brothers Ltd is a trading business, based mainly around activities and premises located within Barry Docks, in Barry, Wales, Barry, South Wales. It is noted globally for its 1960s activity as a scrapyard (hence its colloquial name of Bar ...

in February 1962. 5542 appears in the TV series "Land Girls" in the episode "Destinies", originally aired on 11 September 2009.

Preservation

Norton Fitzwarren Platform GWR A28 autotrailer 178 and 4575 class 5542

After many years in the scrapyard at

Barry Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...

it was sold to the West Somerset Railway Association (WSRA) in 1976. In 1979 it was sold again to some members of the WSRA and entered service on the West Somerset Railway in 2002. The 5542 Fund then continued as a support and fund raising body, which over the years has raised an average of £500 per month from a variety of fund raising initiatives. The website is currently hosting images of the boiler overhaul.

References

External links

{{Commons category
5542 website

Photo of 5542
5542 2-6-2T locomotives Locomotives saved from Woodham Brothers scrapyard Railway locomotives introduced in 1928 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain individual locomotives of Great Britain