It was first allocated to Gloucester entering traffic on 2 August 1928, then later at Bristol Bath Road, Taunton and Newton Abbot and finally Westbury from where it was withdrawn on 8 December 1961 after having run 987,429 miles.

It was sold to for scrap to the Woodham Brothers in February 1962.

[1] 5542 appears in the TV series "Land Girls" in the episode "Destinies", originally aired on 11 September 2009.

After many years in the scrapyard at Barry it was sold to the West Somerset Railway Association (WSRA) in 1976.

In 1979 it was sold again to some members of the WSRA and entered service on the West Somerset Railway in 2002.