5552 was built in 1928 at GWR's Swindon works, the original cost of the loco was £3578. In her lifetime she has been allocated to 5 depots, her first allocation was at GWR’s Tyseley traction maintenance depot. After British Rail privatisation in 1948 she was moved to Newton Abbot motive power depot, after seven years she was reallocated to Penzance which was only short lived as she only stayed there two months then got transferred to Laira traction maintenance depot Plymouth for three months before finally ending up in Truro in June 1955. 5552 was withdrawn from Truro in October 1960 and was sent to Barry scrap yard. It was estimated that 5552 had covered over 900,000 miles in her working life.
5552 was saved from Barry scrap yard in 1986 and headed to Bodmin under new ownership of the Bodmin & Wenford Trust. After an extensive restoration she entered service on the Bodmin & Wenford for the first time in 2003. After nine years’ service after being the backbone of the railway, in late 2012 was withdrawn for a 10-year overhaul. unfortunately, other projects were given priority and with other locos available for service, and also due to the limited space at Bodmin the project has slipped further behind. Work was starting to progress nicely in 2018 but then with Covid 19 this has halted the project.
In 2020 it was decided to hand the project over to Leaky Finders LTD and the frames were subsequently transported to their workshop. This decision was made to ensure the overhaul is completed comprehensively. The boiler overhaul will continue at Bodmin General workshops.
With such a large project this is where we need your help, if we want the loco back in 2022 we will have to raise a mammoth amount of money. Please be part of the the journey of getting 5552 back on the rails and to make her once again the Flagship loco of the Bodmin & Wenford railway.