7903 Foremarke Hall
7903 Foremarke Hall - Modified Hall class owned and restored by The Foremarke Hall Group. The engine's restoration was completed at the
Swindon & Cricklade Railway in 2004 and it will remain on the GWR for some time to come.
- 4-6-0
- Great Western Railway - although the final 79xx series was completed by British Railways at Swindon in 1949. The Hall class was introduced by C B Collett in 1928. The Modified Hall, designed by the last CME of the Great Western Railway, F W Hawksworth, was introduced in 1944. The final members of the class, built in 1949, had noticeable differences in the front-end appearance and a different bogie amongst other modifications.
- 1944
- 122 tons
- 4,000 gallons
- A powerful mixed-traffic locomotive, as at home on express passenger trains as on freight work. 330 Hall & Modified Hall locomotives were built and could be found all over the Great Western system. The final 79xx series had a reputation for fast running and in 1951, Foremarke Hall became the first locomotive to cover the journey from London to Plymouth in less than four hours. It was allocated to Old Oak Common for most of its life but its final allocation was Cardiff East Dock, from where it was withdrawn in 1964 and moved to the nearby Barry Scrapyard. The FHTG purchased it in 1981.