Standing outside the main shed at Toddington, Gloucester and Warwickshire Railway on the 19th March 2019 is Great Western Railway Manor Class 4-6-0 7820 Dinmore Manor.
Locomotive History
The first twenty engines of the “Manor” class were built in 1938/39 with 7812 entered traffic in January 1939. These twenty locomotives used parts from withdrawn Great Western Railway 4300 Class moguls (the driving wheels and motion components along with the tenders). More engines were planned but the outbreak of war forced the Great Western Railway to cancel the order for a further twenty. After nationalization, the newly created Western Region of British Railways was authorized to build ten more of the class and 7820-29 were outshopped from Swindon Works in November and December 1950 and were totally new engines.
7820 entered traffic in November 1950 allocated to Oswestry MPD. It would spend the next four years allocated to mid/north Wales MPD’s before heading to the West Country in January 1955 with a transfer to Laira. After five years allocated to various West country MPD’s it was off to South Wales with a transfer to Cardiff Canton in October 1960. Back to mid/North Wales in May 1963 with a transfer to Shrewsbury from where it was withdrawn in November 1965 after a career of almost fifteen years. Following withdrawal it moved to Woodham Brothers yard in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. Purchased for preservation it left Barry in in 1979 for the Gwill Railway and was moved to Bronwydd Arms for restoration. A lack of facilities and funds resulted in very little restoration work being carried out, with the locomotive being sold in 1983. The engine was eventually restored at the Birmingham Railway Museum, with the West Somerset Railway Company providing a financial assistance to the owning Dinmore Manor Fund in 1995. 7820 entered traffic on the West Somerset Railway in the summer of 1995, and ran there for nearly nine years. Returning to the Tyseley Locomotive Works for overhaul in 2004 this was completed in April 2014, 7820 subsequently entered service at its new base at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.
