5 inch gauge GWR No.7822 "Foxcote Manor"

One of the finest Great Western Manors we've ever had, we bought this locomotive from its builder in 2001. Completed in 1987 - and at that time already 14 years old - it was still in ex-works condition, a tribute to both quality of build and fastidious maintenance.

The engine sold at that time to a man who went on to build a large collection of fine 5 inch gauge locomotives, most of which came to us from his family last year. At the time they held on to the Manor until, having decided that it was unlikely to see use again in their ownership, it arrived back with us a couple of weeks ago.

The engine remains, cosmetically, in much the same condition now as when we sold it 23 years ago - a quick look at the listing from that time in the archive shows how little it's changed (and, conversely, just how much digital photography has changed).

To say that there was a degree of excitement in the workshop when time came to steam the engine for the first time in many years is an understatement - tested on air prior to lighting a fire, the chassis had run beautifully with dead square, well-defined exhaust beats.

In steam it ran just as well, the boiler proving free-steaming (a little too free-steaming for the Swindon pattern safety valves which accumulate madly), the engine running quietly on the rolling road and keeping itself in steam and water for an hour without need of the blower.

Which should then merely have required a tick in the "fit to ship" box on the job card, an ash-out, drain down and wipe over before putting it back into its custom-built storage boxes and onto a shelf in the warehouse.

Which is when, with the engine cooling down, somebody noticed a hitherto unobserved drip coming from under the back of the boiler...

Sod's Law being what it is, a pinhole has opened up - either during steaming or at some time in the past - which grew progressively "drippier" as we watched, until it produced a fine, fierce little jet of water from the middle of the foundation ring to backhead joint.

Offered as a "running restoration", the boiler structurally sound and watertight, notwithstanding the one pinhole at the back. A project worthy of the time and effort required in the workshop to put this super engine back into first class condition.