7825 Lechlade Manor BR Lined Black (early crest)
Named after a Victorian country house in Gloucestershire near the Oxfordshire border, No. 7825 Lechlade Manor carries its delivery scheme, the infamous lined black ‘Riddles revenge’ scheme. This was an appropriate nickname for a Great Western-designed machine wearing a livery inspired by the locomotives of the London & North Western Railway, but the image suited the elegantly proportioned 78XX locomotives well and in some quarters it is held in higher esteem than the lined green that was later applied to the class. Note also that while our first run No. 7820 Dinmore Manor was released with the rather garish red-backed name and number plates, No. 7825 wears the more common black-backed versions. Completed by Swindon in December 1950 its first shed was Croes Newydd, Wrexham, and it was the last of the type to remain in lined black, being repainted in April 1956 after a heavy general overhaul while allocated to Carmarthen. After two years at Neyland in southwest Wales from 1961-3 it spent its last five months in traffic based at Reading, being retired in May 1964 after just 13 and a half years and around 450,000 miles of service. Dispatched to Birds at Risca, near Newport, for disposal there would be no Barry-style resurrection for No. 7825 and it was scrapped just three months later in August 1964.