The Foxcote Manor Society (FMS) has launched a new appeal to raise funds to manufacture and fit a new firebox to the locomotive.

Two years ago, the Society revealed that No. 7822 Foxcote Manor had to undergo a full overhaul after the ex-BR welds in the copper firebox failed.

Although its boiler ticket was set to run until 2026, the failure meant that the ticket had to be stopped.

The Great Western Railway 7800 ‘Manor’ Class locomotive was only two years into a five-year spell at the West Somerset Railway.

Up until that point, Foxcote Manor had seven years of running, including at the Llangollen Railway, the Battlefield Line, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Kent and East Sussex Railway, the Mid Hants Railway and the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, as well as the West Somerset.

​​​The Society is in talks to move the loco’s chassis from Foxcote Manor’s current location at Tyseley, near Birmingham, to Williton at the West Somerset Railway (WSR).

A team of volunteers at Williton will carry out some cosmetic work on the chassis. It will also do a few mechanical jobs with the support of the WSR engineering team.

Meanwhile, the team of volunteers at Tyseley are removing the old firebox in preparation for its replacement with a new box that is under construction.

The Society is gathering the necessary components for the work. It has already taken delivery of a new 3/4 flanged steel doorplate from the South Devon Railway. It has also ordered the flanging of the copper tubeplate and doorplate from the same firm.

Completing the work will, however, cost more money, so the Society is asking for donations to its Foxcote 50 appeal. More information is available here.

Its plan is to complete the overhaul of Foxcote Manor, with a new firebox and painted in green. This will be the fifth boiler overhaul since the loco was rescued from Barry scrapyard and entered preservation in 1975.

Any donations of £25 or over will entitle the donor to annual membership of the Society, which comes with voting rights at its Annual General Meeting and newsletters detailing progress.