WSR Minehead, Loco 3850 on the turntable.

Saw this and immediatley thought of my big brother and his son Callum.

A history of the loco from Dinmore Manor Locomotive Limited.

3850 was built at the Great Western Railway works in Swindon, one of the last batch of the 2884 class of  2-8-0 heavy freight locomotives, introduced in 1938, which were an later version of the 2800 class originally introduced in 1902 to the design of George Churchward.
The locomotive emerged from Swindon on 16 June 1942, in wartime black livery and was allocated to St. Philip's Marsh, Bristol. From there it went to Westbury in March 1947 and onto Severn Tunnel Junction twelve months later. In 1958 3850 was put into store, but returned to service with a move to Aberdare in February 1959 from where it worked until 1963. The locomotive then went to Banbury before being transferred to Oswestry in October 1964 and then to Croes Newydd in January 1965.

Throughout this time 3850 earned its keep hauling coal and mineral trains with just the occasional, more exciting outing.  In December 1952 it worked a parcels and mail train from Fishguard to Paddington while in August 1957 it headed the down "Devonian" into Exeter.

3850 was officially taken out of service in August 1965, but was recorded working an iron ore train at Brymbo steelworks the following month.

It arrived at Dai Woodham's scrapyard in Barry in October 1965.  There it stayed until March 1984, when it became the 151st locomotive to be removed for restoration.  The 38xx Preservation Society had been launched the previous year and brought the locomotive to Minehead, where the long process of restoration began.

In 2003 3850 was moved to Tyseley, Birmingham for the completion of the restoration. After two and a half years work by Tyseley's professionals and Dinmore Manor Locomotive volunteers the locomotive was returned to the West Somerset Railway on 2nd February 2006.