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Swindon Wide
26

Celebrating 10 years of STEAM
From The Link magazine December
1998, marking the start of work
funded by the lottery and Swindon
Council to turn the old R shop into
Swindon’s railway heritage museum.
Alf Neate, the last works foreman
from the Great Western Railway, with
councillor Maurice Fanning, restarts
the GWR clock at exactly the same
time Swindon’s railway works closed
twelve years earlier.

Winners of The GWR Story by
Rosa Matheson: G. Large, Eyre
Close, Haydon End; Marian Za-
reian, Westminster Road, Toothill
Rosstyles 1840: Swindon recommended as

ideal for new railway works
Railway historian Steve Wakefi eld, right, continues his refl ections on
the 175th year of the Great Western Railway and considers the choice
Excellent value… of rolling stock for the new railway line.
• Wedding cars (S-Class E-Class package) DISCOVER Brunel’s locomotive superintendent at Swindon commensurate with
• Airport transfers (pleasure or business) MERCEDES AND Daniel Gooch entered in his diary: the wants of the company, where
• Special occasions (celebrations day or night) ‘During this year further portions of a change of engines may be ad-
YOUR PERSONAL the Great Western were opened and vantageously made and the trains
For a service you can still afford CHAUFFEUR agreements were made for leas- stopped for the purpose of pas-
ing the Bristol and Exeter and the sengers taking refreshments.’
Rosstyles Chauffeur Services Swindon to Cheltenham railways, The existing station with its re-
T 01793 845791 M 07887 700595 and it became necessary to furnish freshment rooms was added to
www.rosstyleschauffeurs.co.uk a large works for the repair etc. of with a few simple repair shops and
our stock. some accommodation for employ-
Attention to detail (License No: PO/0092) ‘I was called to report upon the ees.
best situation to build these works The workshops for the repair of
and on full consideration locomotives were a prior-
I reported in favour of ity and construction work
Swindon, it being the junc- began with great haste.
tion with the Cheltenham Stone came from tunnels
branch and also a conve- and cuttings along the
nient division of the Great line including Box Tunnel.
Western Line for the en- Glass was also made on
gine works. Mr Brunel and I site and so was some of
went to look at the ground, the machinery.
then only green fi elds, and By January 1843 the
he agreed with me as to its works were in operation
being the best place.’ with over 70 technically and highly
Brunel may have been a techni- skilled engineers and craftsmen.
cal genius but Daniel Gooch was The workforce was some 400
a practical genius; this decision and money was tight. The GWR
proves it. held one of its fi rst economy sub-
Swindon was already the loca- committees which put Brunel onto
tion for the junction with the Chel- a part-time contract, wages were
tenham branch and it had a canal, cut and piece work was replaced
which brought up coal from the with day work.
Designer Event Somerset Coalfi elds. However the Though hit by these measures
reliability and power of the early the workforce was not signifi cantly
4th & 5th June steam locomotives also deter- reduced and the GWR began to
mined the ideal spot for the works. order less components and servic-
10% discount on orders The gradual easy gradients be- es from suppliers and contractors.
placed on either day tween Swindon and London was This gave the GWR control over
Free glass of bubbly and easy on the engines but beyond, its own quality and effi ciency and
goodie bags courtesy of the Wootton Bassett incline re- led to increased output from the
quired a different type of locomo- workforce and workshops, culmi-
Book your appointment today on tive to push the train as it climbed nating in 1846 with the fi rst pas-
up the bank or to slow it down by senger locomotive that was built
01793 613000 acting as a brake on the descent. entirely from components manu-
In February 1841 the GWR factured at Swindon.
Board agreed with Brunel about The broad gauge Great Western
www.harmonybrides.co.uk the desire for a repair facility and was built in twelve weeks and was
its location and quickly gave their the fi rst of many locomotives to
Devizes Road, Old Town, Swindon SN1 4BG approval for Gooch to: be turned out from the workshops
‘Provide an engine establishment over the following 120 years.

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