The

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 ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

no. 7822 ''Foxcote Manor'' is a

4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...

Manor Class locomotive, built in 1950 at Swindon Works. It is part of a post-war batch of 10 locomotives, which follows on from 20 earlier locomotives built in 1938.

Working life

Designed with a lighter axle loading than the red-rating of the other GWR mixed-traffic

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...

and

Grange Grange may refer to: Buildings * Grange House, Scotland, built in 1564, and demolished in 1906 * Grange Estate, Pennsylvania, built in 1682 * Monastic grange, a farming estate belonging to a monastery Geography Australia * Grange, South Austral ...

classes, the Manor class were ideally suited to the lightweight cross country and coastal routes of the former

Cambrian Railways The Cambrian Railways owned of track over a large area of mid Wales. The system was an amalgamation of a number of railways that were incorporated in 1864, 1865 and 1904. The Cambrian connected with two larger railways with connections to the ...

. Based over its entire working life on the former Cambrian Railways, its first shed allocation was to

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

depot and its last to Shrewsbury, with working allocations also to

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

and Machynlleth. It was used to haul both passenger and freight services over former CR lines including the

Cambrian Line The Cambrian Line ( cy, Llinell y Cambrian), also known as the Cambrian Main Line ( cy, Prif Linell y Cambrian) and Cambrian Coast Line ( cy, Llinell Arfordir y Cambrian), is a railway line that runs from Shrewsbury, England, westwards to Aber ...

and the now-closed Ruabon Barmouth Line. It regularly hauled the "Cambrian Coast Express" from

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth () is a university and seaside town as well as a community in Ceredigion, Wales. Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, means "the mouth of the Ystwyth". Aberystwyth University has been a major educational location in ...

, and in 1965 the

British Royal Train The British Royal Train is used to convey senior members of the British royal family and associated staff of the Royal Household around the railway network of Great Britain. It is owned, maintained and operated by DB Cargo UK. The Royal Trai ...

Preservation

Withdrawn in 1965 from Shrewsbury, it was towed to

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

scrapyard in Barry, South Wales. It languished there until 1975, when it was initially moved to Oswestry, the headquarters of the Cambrian Railways Society where much of the fundraising and restoration took place. In 1985 it was moved to the Llangollen Railway, a restored part of the Ruabon Barmouth Line, where it returned to steam in December 1987. It then worked until its second withdrawal in 1997, when after a heavy overhaul it returned to service in 1999. Since its return to work in preservation, the locomotive has since been on loan to: Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway,

Great Central Railway (Nottingham) The Nottingham Heritage Railway (formerly known as Great Central Railway (Nottingham) and Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre) is a heritage railway and transport museum on the south side of the village of Ruddington in Nottinghamshire. The ...

Keighley and Worth Valley Railway The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway is a heritage railway line in the Worth Valley, West Yorkshire, England, which runs from Keighley to Oxenhope. It connects to the National Rail network at Keighley railway station. History Inception and ...

, North Yorkshire Moors Railway, South Devon Railway and the West Somerset Railway. Following a third 10 year overhaul in preservation, 7822 returned to service in early 2016, and throughout 2017 was on hire, firstly to the

Kent & East Sussex Railway The Kent and East Sussex Railway (K&ESR) refers to both a historical private railway company in Kent and East Sussex in England, as well as a heritage railway currently running on part of the route of the historical company. Historical compa ...

, and then to the WSR in 2018.

Allocations

References

External links

Owning society home page
{{GWR Manor Class 7822 Railway locomotives introduced in 1950 Llangollen Railway 7822 Locomotives saved from Woodham Brothers scrapyard Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain individual locomotives of Great Britain 4-6-0 locomotives