Her story
From Swindon to the scrapyard, and back again.
7821 has already been saved once. She worked for fifteen years, waited sixteen more in a Welsh scrapyard, and steamed again on the West Somerset Railway in 1998.
- Class: GWR 7800 “Manor”
- Wheel arrangement: 4-6-0
- Built: Swindon, 1950
- Entered service: 27 November 1950
- Class size: 30 locomotives
- Owner: West Somerset Railway Association
1950
Built at Swindon
Thirty Manors were built: Nos. 7800–7819 at Swindon in 1938–39, and, after the Second World War halted production, a final ten, Nos. 7820–7829, completed at Swindon in late 1950. No. 7821 entered service on 27 November 1950, built by British Railways to the Great Western design.
Her name comes from Ditcheat Manor, four miles north of Castle Cary in Somerset. Its owner wrote to the Great Western Railway in July 1936 asking for the house to be honoured with one of the new Manor class. The wish came true fourteen years later.
1950–1965
A working life on the Cambrian and the West
She was first shedded at Oswestry, then Shrewsbury and Tyseley in Birmingham. In 1959 she moved to Newton Abbot, passing through Taunton on her travels, before returning to the Welsh border and Cambrian lines at Croes Newydd and Machynlleth, and finally Oxley in Wolverhampton.
1965
Withdrawn and sent to Barry
She was withdrawn on 6 November 1965 and sold to Woodham Brothers of Barry, South Wales, where she arrived on 1 May 1966. Barry was where hundreds of steam locomotives waited to be cut up. Many, like 7821, survived long enough to be rescued.
1982
Rescued
After sixteen years in the scrapyard, she left Barry on 1 June 1982 for the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, then moved to the Llangollen Railway and to Swindon for restoration.
1998
Back in steam
Restoration complete, she ran on the West Somerset Railway in 1998, then on the Great Central Railway at Loughborough, and finally on the Churnet Valley Railway, where her boiler certificate ran out in 2005.
2007–2010
Bought by the WSRA
The West Somerset Railway Association bought 7821 from her private owner. An examination showed she needed extensive boiler and chassis work, so in November 2010 she went on display at STEAM, the Museum of the Great Western Railway in Swindon.
2018
A new home in the old works
On 21 August 2018 she moved less than a mile, into the designer outlet built in the old Swindon works. The floor was lifted and the glass frontage removed to bring her in. Today she is the centrepiece of the food court, kept polished by volunteers and seen by millions of shoppers every year.
Next
Return to the West Somerset Railway
The plan is to restore her to working order and bring her home to the West Somerset Railway, where she belongs.
The technical record
For enthusiasts: her shed allocations, boilers and tenders in British Railways service.
Shed allocations
- Oswestry, from new (1950)
- Shrewsbury, 28 November 1953
- Tyseley, 26 December 1953
- Newton Abbot, 18 June 1959
- Shrewsbury, 1 September 1959
- Croes Newydd, 7 October 1961
- Machynlleth, 23 March 1963
- Oxley, 28 November 1964
- Shrewsbury, 18 October 1965
- Withdrawn, 6 November 1965
Boilers and recorded mileage
- No. 6423, from new
- No. 6423, 26 March 1953: 97,466 miles
- No. 6405, 8 August 1955: 173,827 miles
- No. 6405, 17 December 1957: 247,378 miles
- No. 6403, 7 January 1960: 306,545 miles
- No. 6401, 8 January 1963: 403,483 miles
- No. 6401, 28 December 1963: 434,726 miles
Book stock of the London Midland Region from 30 December 1962 until withdrawal.
Tenders
- No. 1784, from new
- No. 2383, 21 August 1954
- No. 1749, 17 December 1957
- No. 1981, 7 January 1960
- No. 2056, January 1963
Do you have memories or photos of 7821?
We are building an archive of her working life, from the Cambrian lines to Blue Anchor. Share your photos and stories and we will credit you.