PACING THE ‘PRAIRIES’
On first thoughts, the 2-6-2 wheel arrangement does not seem ideal for a passenger tank engine. In either direction, weight on starting is temporarily transferred from the coupled wheels towards the pony truck at the rear, which, of course, becomes the front when the loco is travelling backwards, and adhesion is momentarily reduced. More significant is the ability of the loco to effect quick turn rounds at journey’s end without having to use a turntable and, in theory, to perform equally well in either direction.
Why the name ‘Prairies’? Apparently, it stems from the erstwhile Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad which served the western North American Prairie region, and favoured the 2-6-2 wheel arrangement, although most of its locos would have been of the tender type.
Back at home, the first Great Western Railway ‘Prairie’ was No. 99, a prototype built in 1903 from which many other versions of 2-6-2T evolved using standard parts. It was renumbered no fewer than three times, appearing as 3100, then 5100 and, after a reduction in coupled wheel size from 5ft 8in to 5ft 6in, as 8100. This was part of a major 1938 scheme to aid the acceleration of stopping trains but only 10 ‘81XXs’, incorporating parts of existing locos, were produced before the Second World War put an end to such extravagance.
Meanwhile, under C B Collett, who succeeded Churchward as chief mechanical engineer, a further modified version was introduced in 1929: the ‘5101’ class, numbered 5101-10, 5150-5199 and 4100-79, with No. 4179 entering service under BR as late as December 1949.
Filling the gap
The ‘5101s’ became a regular sight at Birmingham (Snow Hill) as were the later and nominally more powerful ‘61XXs’ at Paddington (RM Nov 2018). My own experiences with the ‘5101s’ were unexciting; however, in the 1930s the daily Newcastle to Bournemouth train was regularly hauled by one from Banbury to Oxford, filling the gap between LNER haulage on the former Great Central and Southern power from Oxford onwards. In The Railway Magazine for July 1939, Cecil J Allen described a lively run on the intervening section.
A 285-ton load would have been substantial for a relatively slim-boilered 2-6-2T, yet No. 4108 urged its train to 60mph by Aynho Junction and a full 75mph at Fritwell, after just eight miles. By
