5542
Filmed during a special photo charter on 30th May 2017, GWR 55xx 2-6-2T Prairie 5542 is seen with GWR auto trailers No. 233 & W228 at locations including Kilbury, Woodville and Ashburton Junction, so perfectly recreating a Great Western branch line during the late 1940s and early 1950s during the early years of Nationalisation during the GWR / BR (WR) transition when GWR & BR Maroon auto trailers with GWR branded Prairies would have been quite common.
In this film we take a ride in a traditional GWR Auto Train hauled by GWR 55xx 2-6-2T Prairie 5542 as we travel along the former Ashburton Branch on the South Devon Railway from Buckfastleigh to Bishops Bridge Loop on 30th May 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e8IANZF1Ko
Among the beautiful autumnal colours, GWR 55xx 2-6-2T Prairie 5542 is seen hard at work on the South Devon Railway on 20th October 2018. It is incredible to think that the basic design of the Churchward Prairie tank is now 113 years old, with the original prototype Prairie, No. 115, which would later become 4400, being built at Swindon in 1905.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWrwK41bnW0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWrwK41bnW0