GWR 4575 Class No. 5521/L.150

No. 5521 is a GWR 4575 Class or 'Small Prairie' 2-6-2T steam locomotive built for the Great Western Railway (GWR). They were designed as small mixed traffic branch tank engine locomotives, mainly used on branch lines all over the Great Western Railway system.
==Operational history==
No 5521 was built at Swindon Works in 1927 and spent most of its working life on branch lines in the West Country, going originally to Newton Abbot. Later it was employed at other depots including Taunton and Plymouth Laira from where it was withdrawn from service in 1962 and sent to the Woodham Brothers scrapyard.
==Preservation==
It was saved from scrap by the West Somerset Railway Association and was then purchased by Richard and William Parker in 1980. After several years of moving from site to site, it was eventually fully restored to operating condition at the Flour Mill, Forest of Dean between 2004 to 2007.
In 2007, No. 5521 went to Poland and was featured in the Wolsztyn Parade. It then travelled to Budapest, Hungary where it worked intermittently with MAV Nosztalgia, including piloting the Orient Express. It returned to Poland in 2008, operating suburban services from Wroclaw to Jelcz Laskowice. After a third appearance at the 2009 Wolsztyn Parade, it was returned to England and was displayed for a few months at the National Railway Museum in York alongside other much traveled engines.
No. 5521 operated on the North Norfolk Railway, the Dean Forest Railway, and briefly at the Avon Valley Railway before being withdrawn in Christmas of 2009 for examination after it suffered from two collisions. One on the North Norfolk Railway and one on the Dean Forest Railway.
In 2010 No. 5521 attended events at the Bodmin & Wenford Railway, Didcot Railway Centre, the Dean Forest Railway, Severn Valley Railway, and Wye Railway. In the winter 2010-11 the front end of the locomotive was dismantled to repair the damage to the front extension frames from the incidents in 2009.
In May 2013, at the request of the London Underground, the locomotive was painted in red London Transport livery and renumbered to L.150, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Metropolitan line. 
The locomotive was on loan to the Bluebell Railway until the summer 2014 when it returned once again to the London Underground for the 150th Anniversary of the Hammersmith & City Lines.
In 2016 No. 5521 was taken out of service when its boiler certificate expired and it returned to traffic in 2021 following an overhaul.
== Trivia ==
* No. 5521 is one of eleven surviving members of the GWR 4575 Class in preservation.
== Gallery ==
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Category:Mixed-traffic locomotives
Category:Standard gauge locomotives
Category:Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain
Category:2-6-2 locomotives
Category:Locomotives
Category:2-6-2T locomotives
Category:Great Western Railway locomotives
Category:2-6-2 steam locomotives
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:2-6-2T steam locomotives
Category:Tank locomotives
Category:Red Livery Engines
Category:Swindon Works locomotives
Category:Built in 1927
Category:Preserved locomotives
Category:Bluebell Railway
Category:Severn Valley Railway
Category:Restored locomotives
Category:Locomotives saved from the Woodham Brothers scrapyard
Category:Preserved steam locomotives
Category:Epping Ongar Railway