5051 Was built at Swindon Works in May 1936 and was named after Drysllwyn Castle, it carried this name for the first 18 months of its working life before being renamed to Earl Bathurst in August 1937, this name it would carry for the rest of its GWR & BR working career. Its original name would later be applied to classmate no 7018. It was first allocated to Landore depot in Swansea and was to remain there for its GWR working career as well as most of its BR days until Jun 1961 when it was transferred to Neath. Its final shed allocation was to Llanelly in Feb 1963 and was to remain there for the remainder of its working career until May 1963 when it was withdrawn from service after completing 1,300,000 miles. It was later sold to Woodham Brothers in Oct of the same year.
Preservation
The locomotive was bought by John Mynors from the scrap yard and was sold following his death. The locomotive was sold to the Great Western Society at Didcot Railway Centre and left by rail as the 4th departure from Barry in March 1969. Following its arrival at Barry Scrapyard it was to remain at Barry Island for 5 years until 1969 when it was purchased by the GWS and moved to Didcot by rail for restoration. It was restored to steam in 1979 and was reunited with its original Drysllwyn Castle nameplates. It was a regular performer in 1985 during the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Great Western Railway. Its previous working stint saw its return to steam in 1998 following an overhaul at Didcot and it was later returned to mainline service, on one occasion in the summer of 2003 it stood in for 7802 Bradley Manor working the Torbay Express, promoted by Past-Time Rail.. Compared to the Manor which could only run at 60 mph it was able to operate at 75 mph so managed to keep to the timetable without problem. 7802 returned for the 31 August and 7 September trips. It ran for most of its ticket in lined GWR green with the letters GW on its tender, prior to withdrawal it was later repainted to BR lined green with the early emblem on its tender. Its boiler ticket later expired in 2008. At present it is unlikely 5051 will be overhauled for a while due to the current ongoing overhaul of GWR Castle Class 4079 Pendennis Castle which will provide Didcot with an operational Castle, and with GWR King Class 6023 King Edward II currently operational that will provide the centre with two GWR express locomotives in traffic. Alongside this a number of fellow preserved Castles are undergoing overhauls. In preservation it has run with both Collett and Hawksworth tenders, it was paired with a Collett tender following its restoration from scrapyard condition in the 1970s and alongside a brief stint with a Churchward tender following its overhaul in 1998 it was later paired with a Hawksworth tender which it used for its previous boiler ticket. It has now once again been paired with a Collett tender while on display in the Great Western Society's engine shed at Didcot.
