DAPOL ‘LARGE PRAIRIE’

racing its lineage back to Churchward’s Edwardian designs, the ‘large prairie’ as we know it with 5ft 8in driving wheels formed, with variations, the 5101 and 6100 Classes with Swindon Standard 2 boilers. The 5101 Class was produced from 1929 to 1949 and the 6100 Class, with higher boiler pressures and improved tractive effort, built from 1931-35, and intended for use on suburban passenger services, with the 61xx class mainly used from Paddington. Suitably powered, and with large driving wheels, the class could give a speedy turn on lengthy trains and thus lasted through to the end of steam on British Railways Western Region in 1965. Largely supplanted by DMUs, the locomotives saw use on more mundane goods workings. Surprisingly, only one 61xx survives in preservation, while 10 of the 5101 Class remain.