GWR 7800 Class 7822 Fox-cote Manor history behind the guess on the Kent and East Sussex Railway

The Great Western Railway steam locomotive no. 7822 Foxcote Manor is a 4-6-0 Manor Class locomotive, built in 1950 at Swindon Works. It is part of a post-war batch of 10 locomotives, which follows on from 20 earlier locomotives built in 1938.

FOXCOTE MANOR ARRIVING ON THE KESR

The locomotive was originally allocated to Oswestry depot, where it was used to haul both passenger and freight services over lines such as the Cambrian Line and the now-closed Ruabon Barmouth Line. It regularly hauled the "Cambrian Coast Express" from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth. It was also allocated to Chester shed during its lifespan.

It was withdrawn in 1965 from Shrewsbury and was towed to Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales.It languished there until 1974 when it was rescued for preservation. It was initially taken to Oswestry for restoration work, but is now based on the Llangollen Railway, a restored part of the Ruabon Barmouth Line, and it has seen regular services on the Llangollen Railway and has been on loan to the West Somerset Railway, Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway, South Devon Railway, Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, Great Central Railway (Nottingham) and even The North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

7822 returned to service in early 2016 following heavy boiler repairs and can be seen regularly operating at Llangollen.