All Manor of trips in steam milestone
A steam locomotive sent to the scrapyard by British Rail almost 45 years ago, has just clocked up a remarkable 100,000 miles of running since its restoration at the Severn Valley Railway.
The engine which came back from the dead was supposed to have gone to the melting pot way back in 1966 but will now form the focus of the Severn Valley in Bloom event.
The Great Western Railway Manor class 4-6-0 No.7802 Bradley Manor was built at the Swindon Works in 1939 and featured in the latest film of the children's classic The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe after it was given a new lease of life.
It was still waiting to be dismantled when it was bought, initially as a source of spare parts for another SVR engine, in 1979.Following a change of heart by its owners in 1983, the locomotive was restored to full working order and steamed again for the first time ten years later.
Since then Bradley Manor has been one of the most popular and extensively-used engines in the Severn Valley Railway fleet, and earlier this month achieved the 100,000-mile landmark.
Most of these have been clocked up on the 16-mile heritage line between Kidderminster and Bridgnorth.
Now the much-loved engine is to be specially turned out for a traditional ceremony at Kidderminster Town station this Saturday when a cake marking the locomotive's 100,000 mile achievement will be shared by the footplate crew. A slice of cake will also be given to the engine and shovelled into the firebox.
At the front of the locomotive, a headboard will proclaim "100,000 miles and still going strong".
Former BR locomotive fireman Gareth Jones, from Shrewsbury, who fired Bradley Manor on numerous occasions when he was a young man at Machynlleth locomotive depot in Mid-Wales in the early 1950s, will also be present.
He has fond memories of Bradley Manor working the prestigious Cambrian Coast Express, which ran between Shrewsbury, Machynlleth and Pwllheli.
