Our locomotives
GWR 5521
5521 is a GWR 2-6-2 tank engine built at Swindon in 1927 for use on branch lines, and spent most of its life in the West Country. It has recently returned from a two-year excursion to Europe, where amongst other things:
- it appeared at the Wolsztyn, Poland spring steam festival in May 2007, 2008 and 2009.
- it steamed through Poland and Slovakia to Hungary in 2007, and back again in 2008.
- it appeared at the Steam Engine Grand Prix in Zvolen, Slovakia and in Budapest, Hungary, in September, 2007.
- on 11 Sept 2007 it piloted the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express on its way back from Istanbul to Venice from Budapest’s Nyugati station to Kelenfold.
- during 2008 it was regularly rostered to operate three daily round-trip suburban passenger trains (36 stops and starts to electric multiple-unit timings) from Wroclaw to Jelcz Laskowice in Poland, under the auspices of the Wolsztyn Experience.
- the locomotive had no failures during its time in Europe and more than once when double-heading had to haul the whole train due to failure of the other (larger) locomotives.
5521 returned from Poland to England by sea in May 2009. It was displayed at the National Railway Museum in York until mid-July, next to King George V and Duchess of Hamilton, both of which travelled to America, and the locomotive that returned from China.
It operated on the North Norfolk Railway, the Dean Forest Railway and briefly at the Avon Valley Railway before being withdrawn at Christmas for examination after two collisions, one on the NNR and one on the DFR.
In 2010 5521 will attend the Bodmin & Wenford gala from 16 - 18 April, and then move to the Didcot Railway Centre for their GWR 175 event from 1 - 9 May and their Spring Bank Holiday event from 28 - 31 May. It will then return to the Dean Forest Railway for their festival commemorating 200 years of the Severn and Wye Railway, from 19 June to 4 July.
There are no current plans for the loco after July, other than that in winter 2010 - 2011 the front end of the locomotive will be dismantled to permit repair of the damage to the front extension frames from the 2009 incidents.
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Flour Mill crew at Budapest Steam Loco Grand Prix
16 Sep 2007 |
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Waiting to depart piloting the Orient Express
11 Sep 2007 |
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5521 at Jelcz Laskowice
25 Oct 2008 |
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