At the Swindon and Cricklade Railway GWR 175 gala, which is also running this weekend, one would be forgiven for believing the show stealer is City of Truro.

As much as this mechanical marvel, with its musical sounding beats and hisses, is admired and loved it is not the be all and end all of the gala event.

Visitors last week were at first glance memorised by the shimmer of the City as it basked in the sunshine and limelight.

But they soon forgot the City as they clambered aboard the Autocoach and travelled along the new extension south.

I saw that the locomotive that many people were taken with was not City of Truro but a GWR 4300 class 2-6-0 no. 5322.

It was built at Swindon to a GJ Churchward design of 1911. It was constructed in 1917 and was immediately dispatched to France during the First World War.

This veteran of the Great War served in the Railway Operating Division of the British Army.

Some 20 of these Moguls, named after their wheel arrangement with two leading wheels and six driving wheels, were sent to France and had a reputation, for ruggedness, reliability and heavy braking power, important in war time.

Number 53442 is painted in wartime colours and its number and ROD is emblazoned on its side.

The GWR 175 gala is an opportunity not be missed to ride behind a Great War Veteran and see it in fine fettle as it runs up and down the line with ease.

The 5322 was demobbed from military service in 1919 at Chester and went on to provide illustrious service until the early 1960s when it was withdrawn and sent to Barry scrap yard.

Fortunately, it was saved from there and spends its time at Didcot. This is one locomotive that I think should be named “Warrior” in light of its history.

For those interested, there is a short account of it during its service in France, penned by CER Sherrington OBE MC, who served in the First World War and after the war was a lecturer and researcher of railways.

In the Second World War he was back with military railways as the technical railway expert for the Supreme Allied HQ France and was honoured by the French Railway resistance in 1945.

During the day the highlight for me was to be driven south for the first time on the new extension as the Swindon and Cricklade Railway moves south to Moulden Hill.

The Mayor, Rex Barnett was there and the director of the National Railway Museum, Steve Davies, also attended, along with with councillors Rod Bluh, David Renard and Nick Martin.

MP Robert Buckland also attended the event and the highlight for me was seeing the VIPs clamber up a ladder into a waiting carriage.

The Mayor climbed the ladder with ease. He said he was no stranger to this way of boarding a train as, when he was younger, he had been a railway apprentice and it was the only way in or out of carriages in the yard at Swindon Works.