Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

Modified Hall Class, 7903 ''Foremarke Hall'' is a preserved British steam locomotive, built in 1949 at Swindon Works. The loco's first shed allocation Old Oak Common, and it was named after the Derbyshire stately home. In both August 1950 and March 1959, the loco's shed allocations was still Old Oak Common, but by the time of the loco's withdrawal in 1964, her allocation was at Cardiff East Dock. It was withdrawn from service with

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

in 1964 and sold for scrap to Woodhams' Scrapyard in

Barry Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...

. Seventeen years later, in 1981, the loco was saved for preservation, and moved to the Swindon and Cricklade Railway where restoration work began. The loco's restoration was completed 22 years later in September 2003. The locomotive was briefly used on the Swindon and Cricklade Railway during the tail end of 2003 and early months of 2004 before moving to the nearby Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway by May 2004, where it is now based, although the engine did also visit the Llangollen Railway in June 2005, the Severn Valley Railway in September 2005, and Old Oak Common Depot in September 2017, as well as undergoing a full 10-year overhaul at Tyseley Locomotive Works between the end of 2013 and early May 2016. The loco also featured in two episodes of the BBC Crime Drama

Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English author G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuiti ...

that were filmed on the GWSR during the summers of 2012 and 2016, with the episodes being aired during the early months of 2013 and 2017.

External links

7903 Foremarke Hall
7903 7903 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain individual locomotives of Great Britain Locomotives saved from Woodham Brothers scrapyard Railway locomotives introduced in 1949 4-6-0 locomotives {{England-steam-loco-stub