GWR 45xx & 55xx Prairie 2-6-2Ts
5526
A footplate ride on GWR 55xx 2-6-2T Prairie 5526 from Buckfastleigh to Staverton on the South Devon Railway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oerSzQe_MWE
In Part II, we continue our footplate ride on GWR 55xx 2-6-2T Prairie 5526 from Staverton to Totnes on the South Devon Railway on 6th April 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KajwYpTWZCU
A wonderful photo charter arranged by Martin Creese / 30742 Charters which saw GWR 55xx 2-6-2T Prairie 5526 with a typical early 1950s mixed train on the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway, once part of the former GWR Watlington branch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peQVKjH_T1A
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
5552
GWR 55xx 2-6-2T Prairie 5552 is seen in action on the 3 mile Boscarne Junction branch on the Bodmin & Wenford Railway in Cornwall. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86DhhzPWqLM
With the much awaited return of GWR 2-6-2T Prairie No. 5552 at the Bodmin & Wenford Railway after a lengthy overhaul, this film depicts her hard at work on the tortuous gradients of the Bodmin line between 2005 & 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya7jyhWRrM8