7820 Hailes 3 May 2016

Manor Class 4-6-0 7820 Dinmore Manor passes Hailes on 3 May 2016 with the 10:00 Toddington to Cheltenham Racecourse service. The Great Western Railway built 20 78xx Manor Class locos in 1938/9, principally to replace 43xx 2-6-0s, and for use on lines where 'Hall' & 'Grange' 4-6-0s were barred because of their weight. The class proved so useful that another 10 were built by BR in 1950. Dinmore Manor was the first of this batch. It was withdrawn from Shrewsbury shed in 1965. The loco languished in Barry scrapyard until 1979, when it was moved to the Gwili Railway. Full restoration took place at the Birmingham Railway Museum, then after a spell on the West Somerset Railway, the loco moved to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway in 2014.