NINETEEN SIXTY TWO – PART 89
The Life and Times of Prairie 4540
Michael L. Roach
The attached scan of 4540 soon after being completed at Swindon was taken from a photograph published in the bound volume of the GWR Magazine for 1915. It was given prime position as page 1 and recorded as being a “supplement.” It was printed by specialist printers rather than the printers of the rest of the volume, making it special. The printers were Andrew Reid & Co. Ltd of 50 Grey Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne who were specialist lithographers, printers and publishers for more than one hundred years. The firm occupied a beautiful building in a prime position, and the building is still there in Grey Street, although the firm is no more.
One of the best-known of the batch of 15 engines was 4549 because it spent the first 22 years at sheds in Devon and Cornwall; then 23 years on the Cambrian system (mostly on the Cambrian Coast); finally returning to its roots in February 1960 just in time to work the last brake van railtour to Yealmpton on 27 February 1960. It was also one of the few of the class to retain inside steam pipes right up until withdrawal.
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