7828 Odney Manor

7828 was built at Swindon by British Railways in December 1950 at a cost of £10,425.

It was given the name Odney Manor although no such manor house exists. It is believed that people at Swindon thought that Lilleshall Manor near Cookham was called Odney Manor.

After a period of running in the engine was surprisingly put in store at the start of 1951. It was taken out of store in February and entered service again at Neath although it was not officially allocated there until April 1951. From Neath it operated on secondary duties in the Swansea area.

BR motive power depot allocations.

Date Arrived	Depot
April 1951	Neath
October 1952	Shrewsbury
May 1961	Croes Newydd
May 1963	Machynlleth
January 1965	Shrewsbury

In October 1952, it commenced a lengthy period of operating on the former Cambrian Railway working the Cambrian Coast Express between Shrewsbury and Aberystwyth as well as local passenger and goods services in the Shrewsbury area. Whilst at Shrewsbury it received three major repairs – a heavy intermediate at Wolverhampton (Stafford Road) in December 1953, a heavy general overhaul at Swindon in June/July 1956 and another heavy intermediate at Swindon between June and September 1959.

From Croes Newydd 7828 undertook duties in the Wrexham area where the main duty was on workings from Chester and Wrexham to Barmouth and Pwllheli (via Ruabon and Llangollen). It did stray further afield on occasions including being seen at Stratford upon Avon.

A further heavy general repair of the locomotive was undertaken at Swindon between June and September 1962

In 1963 it operated on the line between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen, Shrewsbury and Oswestry

7828 was withdrawn in October 1965 having completed 402,613 miles in service.

It was sold for scrap to Woodham brothers and arrived in the Barry scrapyard in May 1966.

7828 was rescued from Barry privately in June 1981 and moved to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway where restoration was completed by December1987 at a cost of nearly £90,000. It worked under hire on the Gwilli Railway after which it moved to the Llangollen Railway before going to the East Lancashire Railway.

In April 1195 it was moved by road to the West Somerset Railway (WSR) in 1995 which was initially planned to be for only a period of one year.

It was taken to Swindon for repairs and returned to the WSR in May 1998 where it operated until August 2002 when a tube problem caused the locomotive to be withdrawn from service shorty before its ten year boiler certificate was due to expire.

The owner then put 7828 up for sale and it was bought by the WSR in May 2004.

In November 2004 the locomotive was taken into the workshops at Minehead and the boiler was removed and sent to LNWR at Crewe.

On 17 June 2011 it was renamed Norton Manor after 40 Commando’s base alongside the railway at Norton Fitzwarren. Originally, the Great Western Railway had intended to give the name Norton Manor to new locomotive number 7830, but the order for this locomotive was cancelled. It (7828) has been repainted in the British Railways lined green livery that Odney Manor carried in 1957.

It was withdrawn from device in 2016.

The boiler from 7828 is being re-tubed at Riley & Son (E) and also fitted with new stays. At the last overhaul in 2011 it was fitted with a batch of defective copper stays. As part of the boiler overhaul two West Somerset Railway employees are being given boilersmith training with Riley’s at Heywood.

Having accumulated 50,000 miles in its five years in service the locomotive is also undergoing a full bottom end overhaul.

The hope was that 7828 would returns to service in 2018. The boiler was returned from Riley & Son (E) in August 2018.

The locomotive returned to steam in December with a boiler certificate valid for ten years.