76077 was built at Horwich in December 1956 and allocated to Sutton Oak depot at St Helens where most of the duties related to hauling freight trains.
It is interesting to note that it was overhauled at Eastleigh in 1964. This was its first and last overhaul although it did go to Swindon works a few months after being at Eastleigh. During the overhaul it acquired the boiler from 76007 whilst the one originally fitted to 76077 was later used by 76079.
In June 1967, along with 76079, it moved to Wigan Springs Branch for the final few months of its operating life under BR before being withdrawn from service in December 1967.
After withdrawal it was sold for scrap to Woodham Brothers and it arrived in their scrapyard in Barry in September 1968 (along with 76079 and 76084). It was one of five Standard class 4 locomotives sold to Woodham Brothers and the last to leave. It was more fortunate than 76080 which was the only locomotive cut up at Barry in 1972 and one of only four so treated after 1965. Some parts of 76080 (including at least one of its driving axles & wheels may be which were first purchased by Stoke council) have been acquired by the group building the new Standard class 3 tank engine 82045.
As 76077 was the last member of the class to leave Barry it had been cannibalised for spares for use by other members of the class. This included using the tender from 76077 for 76017.
In December 1969 the Standard 4 Locomotive Preservation Society was formed to preserve an ex-British Railways Standard steam locomotive from Barry scrapyard in South Wales. The original plan was to purchase 76077 but because there were doubts about the condition of the engine the group decided to purchase 75078 instead.
76077 eventually left Barry in May 1987 and was taken to Toddington on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.
According to Steam Railway Magazine, 76077 was originally preserved with the intention of recreating a BR 3MT 2-6-0, which shares the same bottom end as the 4MT, though different wheel types (albeit same size), the boiler would have come from a GWR 5105 Prairie tank locomotive, which was also earmarked, but in the end, both were preserved as built, as the funding was not available for the purchase of both by one group.
The locomotive was stored at Toddington on wagons for 30 years.
By January 2018 work on restoring the locomotive had started at Toddington on the GWR. The work has been started in a tent erected in the car park. The frames, cylinders and wheels were sent to Loughborough for restoration in March 2018. The plan is for Loughborough Maintenance Services to complete the work in eighteen months.
In January 2019 it was announced that the Toddington Standard Locomotive Ltd had been set up to undertake the restoration of the locomotive. The cost of restoring it has been estimated to be around £0.5m and it is expected to take between five and seven years to complete the task.
It is planned that the frames will be completed and re-wheeled in 2020.
Work on the producing a rolling chassis is being undertaken at Loughborough by Locomotive Maintenance Services along with the work associated with the smokebox and cab. The boiler remains at Toddington.
In early 2020 it was predicted that the locomotive would be in steam again within seven years but this could only be achieved if a tender could be hired to attach to it. It is planned to build a new tender but this will not be ready on the same timescale.
In June 2020 it was reported that the cost of restoring the locomotive (excluding the tender) will cost around half a million pounds.
The work on the pony truck was reported as being complete in July 2020. As part of this some work was required to rectify damage which was suspected to have been caused by a derailment.
The owners reported in October 2020 that it was they were on target to have the frames re-wheeled before the end of 2020.
At the end of 2020 it was estimated that the locomotive would be back in steam in five years time.
In June 2021 the frames were successfully lowered onto the wheels at the Locomotive Services in Loughborough.
It was reported in September 2022 that the main body of the cab was delivered to Locomotive Services in Loughborough where it was fitted to the frames.
| Home Base | Current Status | Owner |
| Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway |
Under restoration
| Toddington Standard Locomotive Ltd |
Preserved British Steam Locomotives 