GWR 7800 Class 7821 Ditcheat Manor

7821 was built by British Railways in November 1950 at Swindon.

It was first allocated to Oswestry in November 1950, where it operated Mid-Wales services to Aberystwyth. It then moved to Shrewsbury in November 1953 and Tyseley in December that year, where it worked freight trains and local Thames Valley services from Paddington.

In July 1959, it moved to Newton Abbot, where it worked over the South Devon banks along with other Manors who were based there, before moving to Croes Newydd in October 1961. In 1963, it was allocated to Machynlleth, Oxley in 1964 and Shrewsbury in October 1965, before being withdrawn in November 1965. It arrived at the scrapyard in Barry in May 1966.

In 1980, it was purchased by Ken Ryder and left the Barry scrapyard in June 1981.

Initially it went to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, before moving to the Llangollen Railway and then Swindon, where its restoration was completed in 1998.

It was then run in on the West Somerset Railway and later operated on the Great Central Railway and then the Churnet Valley Railway in 2005, where it remained in traffic until 2007.

In 2007, the West Somerset Railway Association bought 7821 from its private owner, in part funded by reselling GWR 0-6-0PT No. 6412 to its original owner, the South Devon Railway. A mechanical examination showed that the locomotive needed extensive and expensive chassis and boiler work.

Whilst funding is raised for its overhaul, the WSRA agreed a static display contract with the Museum of the Great Western Railway, Swindon for a minimum contract period of five years. The locomotive was subsequently relocated to the museum by road in November 2010. In August 2018, the locomotive was relocated to the nearby Swindon Designer Outlet in place of classmate No. 7819 Hinton Manor.

Locomotive Status: Non-Operational

Awaiting Overhaul - currently on static display at Swindon Designer Outlet