7802 ''Bradley Manor'' is a 7800 'Manor' Class 4-6-0 steam locomotive. Built by the Great Western Railway at its

Swindon Works Swindon railway works was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1843 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It served as the principal west England maintenance centre until closed in 1986. History In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of the ...

in January 1938 it had an operating life of 27 years being withdrawn in November 1965. Designed by

Charles Collett Charles Benjamin Collett (10 September 1871 – 5 April 1952) was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1922 to 1941. He designed (amongst others) the GWR's Castle and King Class express passenger locomotives. Education ...

, it is one of nine of the class to be preserved and is currently based on the

Severn Valley Railway The Severn Valley Railway is a heritage railway in Shropshire and Worcestershire, England. The heritage line runs along the Severn Valley from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster, following the course of the River Severn for much of its route, and c ...

Service

After leaving Swindon it was sent to

Old Oak Common TMD Old Oak Common TMD was a traction maintenance depot located west of London Paddington, in Old Oak Common. The depot was the main facility for the storage and servicing of locomotives and multiple-units from Paddington. The depot codes were OC f ...

being transferred to

Bristol Bath Road TMD Bristol Bath Road depot was a railway traction maintenance depot in central Bristol, England, which was in use from 1852 until 1995. History The Bristol and Exeter Railway opened workshops at Bath Road in January 1852. 35 locomotives were built ...

in 1939. Like most of its class it eventually ended up on the Cambrian section, arriving at

Machynlleth Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a pop ...

in 1946 where it stayed until its final transfer to Shrewsbury in 1964. Withdrawn from service in November 1965 it was sent to

Woodham Brothers Woodham Brothers Ltd is a trading business, based mainly around activities and premises located within Barry Docks, in Barry, South Wales. It is noted globally for its 1960s activity as a scrapyard (hence its colloquial name of Barry Scrapyard), ...

scrapyard A wrecking yard ( Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard ( Irish, British and New Zealand English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are bro ...

in July 1966.

Preservation

It was rescued from Barry in 1979 by the 'Erlestoke Manor Fund' based at the

originally as spare parts for 7812 ''Erlestoke Manor''. However the owners had a change of heart and in 1983 the decision was taken to return 7802 to steam. This was accomplished in 1993 and since then has given excellent service on the

West Somerset Railway The West Somerset Railway (WSR) is a heritage railway line in Somerset, England. The freehold of the line and stations is owned by Somerset County Council; the railway is leased to and operated by West Somerset Railway plc (WSR plc); which i ...

and on various main line excursions. ''Bradley Manor'' was withdrawn for overhaul in August 2000, and to help speed up the process it was given the boiler of preserved classmate ''Erlestoke Manor'' which was already partially restored. The work on ''Bradley Manor'' continued with it first moving under its own steam on 12 March 2002 and entering service for the Severn Valley Railway later in the year. It completed over 9,000 miles during the 2000 season with almost continuous daily service. In 2005, 7802 was featured in the Disney movie '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe'', in the scenes passing through the countryside. The summer of 2003 saw ''Bradley Manor'' haul a number of trains in August under the name '' Torbay Express''. Promoted by Past-Time Rail, the itinerary was Bristol Temple Meads to

Kingswear Kingswear is a village and civil parish in the South Hams area of the English county of Devon. The village is located on the east bank of the tidal River Dart, close to the river's mouth and opposite the small town of Dartmouth. It lies within ...

and return. The originally planned four trains were so popular a fifth was added in September. Bradley Manor developed a hot axle box on the first run on 10 August and so was unable to haul the next two outings which saw 5051 ''Earl Bathurst'' step in. However ''Bradley Manor'' returned for the 31 August and 7 September trips. On commenting about the success of the ''Torbay Express,'' Past-Time Rail director Andy Staite said that "''Bradley Manor'' was the 'right' motive power for the line - Newton Abbot shed had 'Manors' in steam days and they were a familiar sight on the South Devon Coast route." In April 2007 new

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

standards were introduced requiring all preserved steam locomotives to be fitted with

On-train monitoring recorder A train event recorder – also called On-Train Monitoring Recorder (OTMR), On-Train Data Recorder (OTDR), Event Recorder System (ERS), Event Recorder Unit (ERU), or simply Event Recorder (ER) – is a device that records data about the operatio ...

s (OTMR) before they could run on the main line. So halfway through its latest main line certificate the owners decided the cost of returning 7812 ''Erlestoke Manor'' to steam and fitting OTMR to 7802 was just too much. ''Bradley Manor'' did receive a stay of execution and could run on the main line until the end of 2007, after which, it was restricted to heritage railway use only, running up to February 2011, when issues with the boiler saw it withdrawn for overhaul early, though work on a further overhaul started almost immediately. In November 2015, 7802 re-entered traffic after an overhaul shared between Bridgnorth works and Tyseley locomotive works. A new 3500 gallon Churchward tender is being built at Tyseley which will eventually replace the 4000 gallon Collett tender used by 7802 in preservation. In March 2018 7802 was paired with 3500 gallon Churchward tender T2334 from 7812 Erlestoke Manor following the latter's withdrawal for overhaul. Agreement was reached in May 2019 to send 7802 to the

until early October 2019, with 6960 Raveningham Hall coming to the SVR for at least a similar period. The swap was necessitated by an axle-weight restricted by the West Somerset Railway on its locomotives with the GWR 6959_Class Raveningham Hall being too heavy. 7802 suffered a broken piston rod in July 2019 and was moved to

Tyseley Locomotive Works Tyseley Locomotive Works, formerly the Birmingham Railway Museum, is the engineering arm of steam railtour promoter Vintage Trains based in Birmingham, England. It occupies part of the former Great Western Railway's Tyseley depot, built in 19 ...

on 30 July 2019 for assessment.

Allocations

The location of 7802 ''Bradley Manor'' on particular dates.

References

External links

The Erlestoke Manor Fund
More information on the loco and its history.
Severn Valley Railway Official Site
{{GWR Manor Class 7802 7802 Locomotives saved from Woodham Brothers scrapyard Railway locomotives introduced in 1938 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain