GWR 7812 Erlestoke Manor at Kidderminster

 

GWR 78xx Class 7812 Erlestoke Manor is a steam locomotive o the Great Western Railway. It was built at Swindon in January 1939. First shed allocation Bristol, Bath Road. August 1950 shed allocation Newton Abbot. March 1959 shed allocation Plymouth Laira. Transferred to Oswestry May 1960 and finally to her last shed allocation, Shrewsbury, in February 1963. Withdrawn from British Railways service in November 1965, it was sent to Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales, along with fellow manor class, Bradley Manor.

 

 

Erlestoke Manor along with eight of its fellow Manor class were saved from scrap and are preserved to this day. Erlestoke Manor completed its major overhaul at the Severn Valley Railway and ran for the first time on 12 February 2008. It was confirmed fit for traffic just in time for the Severn Valley Railway's reopening train. The locomotive is now in daily service on the Severn Valley Railway.

 

 

 

She has in recent years visited a wide selection of heritage railways across the uk including the Llangollen Railway, West Somerset Railway and recently the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. She is at present a regular in operation on the SVR and her boiler ticket is due to expire in 2018.
7812 Erlestoke Manor is one of three Manors at the Severn Valley Railway, the other two being 7802 Bradley Manor and GWR 7819 Hinton Manor.

My thanks to Wikipedia for the above notes and of course http://www.svr.co.uk/