Great Western Railway

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Great Western Railway
Coat-of-arms of the Great Western Railway, incorporating the shields of the cities of London (left) and Bristol (right)
History
1835	Act of Incorporation
1838	First train ran
1892	Broad gauge abandoned
1903	Start of road motor services
1904	City of Truro sets speed record
1948	Nationalised
Constituent companies
1854	Shrewsbury and Birmingham Ry Shrewsbury and Chester Railway
1862	South Wales Railway
1863	West Midlands Railway
1876	Bristol and Exeter Railway South Devon Railway
1889	Cornwall Railway
1922	Rhymney Railway Taff Vale Railway Cambrian Railway
1923	Midland & S W Junction Rwy
See full list of constituents of the Great Western Railway
Successor organisation
1948	Western Region of British Railways
Key locations
Headquarters	Paddington station, London
Workshops	Swindon
	Wolverhampton
Major stations	Bristol Temple Meads Cardiff General London Paddington Reading General
Route mileage
1841	171 miles (275 km)
1863	1,106 miles (1,780 km)
1876	2,023 miles (3,256 km)
1899	2,504 miles (4,030 km)
1921	2,900 miles (4,667 km)
1947
Mileage shown as at end of year stated. Source[1][2]

The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company and a notable example of civil engineering, linking London with the West Country, South West England and South Wales. It was founded in 1833, kept its identity through the 1923 grouping, and became the Western Region of British Railways at nationalisation in 1948.

Known admiringly to some as "God's Wonderful Railway"^[3], jocularly to others as the "Great Way Round" (some of its earliest routes were not the most direct).^[4] It gained great fame as the "Holiday Line", taking huge numbers of people to resorts in the southwest.

The company's best-known livery was quite distinctive: locomotives were middle chrome green (similar to Brunswick green), above Indian red (later, plain black) frames; the carriages were two-tone "chocolate and cream".

In 1999, in recognition of the railway's historical importance, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport added parts of the GWR to UNESCO's tentative World Heritage Sites list.^[5] The nomination is being supported by English Heritage.^[6]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early history 1.2 The "gauge war" 1.3 Into the twentieth century 1.4 1923 Grouping 1.5 After Nationalisation 1.6 World heritage site? 2 Geography 2.1 Key locations 2.2 Engineering 3 Operations 3.1 Ancillary operations 4 Traction and rolling stock 4.1 Locomotives 4.2 Carriages 4.3 Wagons 5 Public relations 5.1 Tourism 5.2 Cultural references 6 Notable people 7 References 8 Further reading 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

The Great Western Railway originated from the desire of Bristol merchants to maintain the position of their port as the second port in the country and the chief one for American trade. The increase in the size of ships and the gradual silting of the River Avon made Liverpool an increasingly attractive port, and with its rail connection with London developing in the 1830s it threatened Bristol's status. The answer for Bristol was, with the co-operation of London interests, to build a line of their own, a railway built to unprecedented standards of excellence to outperform the other lines being constructed to the north-west.

The company was founded at a public meeting in Bristol in 1833,^[1] and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was appointed as engineer at the age of 27, and made two controversial decisions: to use a broad gauge of seven feet (actually 7 ft 0¼ in or 2,140 mm) for the track, to allow large wheels, providing smoother running at high speeds; and to take a route which passed north of the Marlborough Downs, an area with no significant towns, though it did offer potential connections to Oxford and Gloucester and then to follow the Thames Valley into London. He surveyed the entire length of the route between London and Bristol himself.

G. T. Clark played an important role as an engineer on the project, reputedly taking the management of two divisions of the route including bridges over the River Thames at Upper Basildon and Moulsford, and Paddington Station.^[7] Involvement in major earth-moving works seems to have fed Clark's interest in geology and archaeology and he, anonymously, authored two guidebooks on the railway, one illustrated with lithographs by John Cooke Bourne,^[8] in addition to a critique of Brunel's methods and the broad gauge.^[9]

The initial group of locomotives ordered by Brunel to his own specifications proved unsatisfactory, apart from the North Star locomotive, and 20-year-old Daniel Gooch (later Sir) was appointed as Superintendent of Locomotives. Brunel and Gooch chose to locate their locomotive works at the village of Swindon, at the point where the gradual ascent from London turned into the steeper descent to the Avon valley at Bath.

The first stretch of line, from London Paddington to Taplow near Maidenhead, opened in 1838. The full line to Bristol Temple Meads opened on completion of Box Tunnel in 1841.

From then onwards, by amalgamations and new construction, the railway took shape.

The GWR commissioned the world's first commercial telegraph line. This ran for 13 miles (21 km) from Paddington station to West Drayton and came into operation on 9 April 1839.

In 1846 the Great Western Railway took over the running of the Kennet and Avon Canal.

[edit] The "gauge war"

The Bristol and Exeter Railway reached Exeter by 1844, and the Bristol and Gloucester Railway brought the broad gauge to Gloucester in the same year. Gloucester was already served by the standard-gauge Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (opened throughout in 1841), resulting in a break of gauge, and the need for all passengers and goods travelling through Gloucester to change trains.

This was the beginning of the "gauge war", and resulted in the appointment by Parliament of a Gauge Commission, which duly reported in favour of standard gauge.

The undaunted GWR pressed ahead into the West Midlands, in hard-fought competition with the London and North Western Railway. Birmingham was reached in 1852, at Snow Hill (although the GWR had initially considered building to Rugby instead of Birmingham), Wolverhampton Low Level (the furthest-north broad-gauge station) and Birkenhead (on standard-gauge track) in 1854. The Bristol and Gloucester had been bought by the Midland Railway in 1846 and converted to standard gauge in 1854, bringing mixed gauge track (with three rails, so that both broad and standard gauge trains could run on it) to Bristol. By the 1860s the gauge war was lost; with the merger of the standard-gauge West Midlands Railway into the GWR in 1861 mixed gauge came to Paddington, and by 1869 there was no broad-gauge track north of Oxford.

Meanwhile, further developments were made in the GWR's heartland: the South Devon Railway (which for a time experimented with the “atmospheric” system of propulsion) was opened in 1849, extending the broad gauge to Plymouth, and the Cornwall Railway took it over the Royal Albert Bridge and into Cornwall, reaching Penzance by 1867. The South Wales Railway, terminating at Neyland, opened in 1850 and was connected to the GWR via Brunel's ungainly Wye bridge in 1852. The route from Wales to London via Gloucester was a roundabout one, so work on the Severn Tunnel began in 1873, but unexpected underwater springs slowed the work down and prevented its opening until 1886.

Through this period the conversion to standard gauge continued, with mixed-gauge track reaching Exeter in 1876. By this time most conversions were bypassing mixed gauge and going directly from broad to standard. The final stretch of broad gauge was converted to standard in a single weekend in May 1892.^[10]

[edit] Into the twentieth century

Freed from what was by then the burden of the broad gauge, the 1890s also saw improvements in service of the generally conservative GWR – restaurant cars, much improved conditions for third class passengers, steam heating of trains, and accelerated express services. This was largely at the initiative of T. I. Allen, the Superintendent of the Line, and one of a group of talented senior managers who led the railway into the Edwardian era: Viscount Emlyn (Earl Cawdor), Chairman from 1895 to 1905; Sir Joseph Wilkinson, general manager from 1896 to 1903, and his successor, the former chief engineer Sir James Inglis; and George Jackson Churchward, William Dean's successor as Chief mechanical engineer from 1902 to 1922.^[2]

With its shares in demand from the later 1890s it was possible for the company to raise substantial sums from new issues to support the building of new lines and upgrading of old ones to shorten its previously circuitous routes.^[11] The principal lines were

• South Wales & Bristol Direct Railway, from Wootton Bassett to the Severn Tunnel approaches on the outskirts of Bristol 1903
• Extension of Berks and Hants line completing a cut-off route to the West of England between Reading, Berkshire and Taunton 1906
• Birmingham Direct Line, from London to Aynho, chiefly joint with Great Central Railway 1906–1910
• Cheltenham and Honeybourne Railway 1906 and North Warwickshire line 1909, together giving a new route from Birmingham via Stratford-upon-Avon to Cheltenham and Bristol
• Swansea District Lines, avoiding Swansea in South Wales 1913

Related works included those at Fishguard Harbour in South Wales in an attempt to attract transatlantic liner traffic and the substantial rebuilding of Birmingham Snow Hill station.

[edit] 1923 Grouping

See also: List of constituents of the Great Western Railway

At the outbreak of World War I the GWR, along with the other major railways, was taken into government control. After the war the government considered permanent nationalisation, but preferred a compulsory amalgamation of the railways into four large groups. The GWR alone preserved its identity through the grouping, which took effect on 1 January 1923.

The new Great Western Railway comprised the following constituent companies:

• Great Western Railway, route length 3,005 miles (4,836 km)
• Barry Railway 68 miles (109 km)
• Cambrian Railways 295.25 miles (475 km)
• Cardiff Railway 11.75 miles (19 km)
• Rhymney Railway 51 miles (82 km)
• Taff Vale Railway 124.5 miles (200 km)
• Alexandra (Newport and South Wales) Docks and Railway 10.5 miles (17 km)

Total route length of the GWR was 3,800 miles (6,100 km)

The company now owned:^{[citation needed]}

• Locomotives: tender 1,550, tank 2,500; coaching vehicles 10,100; freight vehicles 90,000; electric vehicles 60; rail motor cars 70
• 213 miles (343 km) of canals
• 16 turbine and twin-screw steamers, plus several smaller vessels
• docks, harbours etc at Barry, Cardiff, Fishguard, Newport, Penarth, Plymouth, Port Talbot and other places
• ten hotels

Much of the inherited infrastructure had come into being for handling the South Wales coal traffic. Though this appeared to be a great coup for the GWR, the coal traffic declined significantly as the use of coal as a naval fuel declined, and within a decade the GWR was itself the largest single user of Welsh coal.

In 1930 one more company was absorbed, narrow gauge Corris Railway.

The 1930s brought hard times but the company remained in relatively good financial health despite the Depression.

[edit] After Nationalisation

World War II brought a further period of direct government control, and by its end a Labour government was in power and planning to nationalise the railways. The war-damaged GWR became part of British Railways on 1 January 1948. One of the last Directors of the GWR, Harold Macmillan, was instrumental in the defeat of the Labour Government by the Conservatives, led then by Winston Churchill, in the 1951 General Election and later himself became Prime Minister in 1957.

The traditions of the GWR are kept alive by many heritage railways including at Didcot Railway Centre, the South Devon Railway, the Severn Valley Railway, the Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway, the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway, the Dean Forest Railway, Telford Steam Railway, West Somerset Railway and at Tyseley Locomotive Works. The STEAM museum, Swindon, is dedicated to the history and life of the GWR.

Further information: List of British heritage and private railways

On privatisation of the railways in the early 1990s, the "Great Western" name was revived for the train operating company providing passenger services to the West. Services are now run under the franchise name First Great Western.

[edit] World heritage site?

UNESCO are considering a proposal to list the Great Western Main line as a World Heritage Site. The proposal comprises seven individual sites:^[5]

• Bristol Temple Meads railway station including Brunel's Company Offices, Boardroom, train shed, and the Bristol and Exeter Railway Offices along with the route over the River Avon
• Bath Spa railway station along with the line from Twerton Tunnel to the Sydney Gardens; Middlehill and Box Tunnels
• the Swindon area including Swindon railway works and village;
• Maidenhead Railway Bridge
• Wharncliffe Viaduct
• Paddington railway station

[edit] Geography

The original Great Western Main Line linked London Paddington station with Temple Meads station in Bristol by way of Reading, Didcot, Swindon, Chippenham and Bath. This line was extended westwards through Exeter and Plymouth to reach Penzance, the most westerly railway station in England.

A line from Swindon ran through Gloucester to Cardiff, Swansea to west Wales. This route was later shortened by the opening of the Severn Tunnel. Another route ran northwards from Didcot to Oxford from where two different routes continued to Wolverhampton, one through Birmingham and the other through Worcester. Beyond Wolverhampton the line continued via Shrewsbury to Crewe, Chester and Birkenhead. Operating agreements with other companies also saw GWR trains run to Manchester.

South of the main line were routes from Didcot to Southampton via Newbury, and from Chippenham to Weymouth via Westbury.

There was a network of cross-country routes linking these lines and there were also many smaller branches to places such as Windsor, Basingstoke, Hereford and Salisbury. The Railways Act 1921 added many smaller companies within this area, notably the Cambrian Railways network in mid Wales and several railways in the Cardiff area.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel envisaged the GWR extending from London to New York and built the SS Great Western to carry the railway's passengers across the Atlantic ocean. Traffic soon switched to Liverpool but Great Western ships linked the United Kingdom with Ireland, the Channel Islands and France. The company owned a number of docks such as Fowey, Plymouth Millbay, Weymouth, and Cardiff.

[edit] Key locations

The railway's headquarters were established at Paddington station. Its locomotives and rolling stock were built and maintained at Swindon railway works but a number of other workshops were acquired as it amalgamated with other railways, notably Stafford Road works at Wolverhampton, but also others at locations such as Newton Abbot and Caerphilly. Workshops for signalling equipment were located adjacent to Reading railway station and. In later years, a concrete works was established at Taunton where items ranging from track components to bridges were cast.

[edit] Engineering

The Great Western Main Line was designed to be much more straight and level than was usual at the time, and so a number of important structures feature along its length. Working westwards from Paddington, the line crosses the valley of the River Brent on Wharncliffe Viaduct and the River Thames on Maidenhead Railway Bridge. It then runs through Sonning Cutting before reaching Reading. It also crosses the Thames two more times, on Gatehampton and Moulsford bridges. Between Chippenham and Bath it then passes through Box Tunnel, the longest railway tunnel driven by that time. Several years later the railway opened the even longer Severn Tunnel to carry a new line between England and Wales beneath the River Severn.

[edit] Operations

In the early years the GWR was managed by two committees, one in Bristol and one in London. They combined as a single Board of Directors which met in offices at Paddington.^[1]

The Board was led by a chairman and supported by a secretary and other "officers". The first Goods Managers were appointed in 1850. From 1867 this position was filled by James Grierson until 1863 when he became the first General Manager. The first Locomotive Superintendent was Daniel Gooch, although from 1915 the title was changed to Chief Mechanical Engineer. In 1864 the post of Superintendent of the Line was created to oversee the running of the trains.^[12]

[edit] Ancillary operations

Powers were granted by Parliament for the GWR to operate ships in 1871. ^[13] The following year the company took over the ships of Ford & Jackson on the route between Neyland in Wales and Waterford in Ireland. The Welsh terminal was relocated to Fishguard Harbour when the line to Fishguard was opened in 1906. Services were also operated between Weymouth Quay and the Channel Islands from 1889, taking over the routes of the Weymouth & Channel Islands Steam Packet Company. Smaller vessels were also used as tenders at Plymouth Great Western Docks and, until the Severn Tunnel opened, on the River Severn crossing of the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway. ^[14]

The railway owned the docks at Plymouth, which was used by Trans-Atlantic passenger ships, and also at Fowey in Cornwall where the main export was china clay. Following the Railways Act 1921 most of the large coal-exporting docks in South Wales came into the GWR's ownership, such as those at Cardiff, Barry, and Swansea. This made the company the largest docks operator in the world.^[13] A number of canals became the property of the railway when they were purchased to remove competition or objectors to proposed new lines. Most of these continued to be operated; in 1929 they took £16,278 of receipts (freight trains earned over £17 million).^[15]

The GWR initially leased out the refreshment rooms and hotels that were built at many stations, however the Bristol and Exeter Railway was operating its own when it amalgamated in 1876 and the GWR extended this practice. It opened the Tregenna Castle, its first "country house" hotel at St Ives, Cornwall in 1877^[2] and added to this the Fishguard Bay Hotel in 1910 and the Manor House at Moretonhampstead, Devon to which it added a golf course in 1930.^[13]

The first railway-operated bus services were started by the GWR between Helston railway station and The Lizard on 17 August 1903. Known by the company as road motors, these chocolate-and-cream buses operated throughout the company's territory on railway feeder services and excursions until they were transferred to local bus companies (in most of which the GWR held a share) in the 1930s.^[16]

In association with Imperial Airways the GWR inaugurated the first railway air service between Cardiff, Torquay and Plymouth. This grew to be part of the Railway Air Services.^[13]

[edit] Traction and rolling stock

[edit] Locomotives

Main article: Locomotives of the Great Western Railway

The first locomotives were specified by Isambard Kingdom Brunel but did not prove too successful. More conventional locomotives were soon ordered by Daniel Gooch when he was appointed as the railway's Locomotive Superintendent.^[17] Following on from the original Star Class he designed a series of locomotive types starting with the Firefly Class and culminating with the Iron Duke Class. Swindon Works was established to build and maintain these locomotives. Gooch was succeeded by Joseph Armstrong who consolidated these designs and merged his standard gauge experience with the broad gauge locomotives. The next engineer was William Dean who produced 'convertible' locomotives that could work on either gauge and developed some elegant express locomotives such as the 3031 Class singles.

After 1902 G. J. Churchward^[18] developed nine standard locomotive types, with flat-topped Belpaire fireboxes, tapered boilers, long smokeboxes, boiler top feeds, long-lap, long-travel valve gear and many parts standardized across locomotive types. Most of the types were developed from five experimental locomotives, Nos 40, 97, 98, 99 and 115. From these were developed the famous (Churchward) Star class locomotives, the Saint class locomotives and the 2800 class locomotives. Such was the success of these locomotives that they influenced locomotive design in the United Kingdom until the demise of steam traction. Two notable locomotives were 111 The Great Bear, the first 4-6-2 locomotive in the United Kingdom and 3440 City of Truro, the first locomotive to be recorded at a speed of 100 mph (160 km/h) in 1904 (although this speed has never been formally confirmed).

Churchward also remodelled Swindon Works, building the one-and-a-half-acre (6,000 m²) boiler-erecting shops and the first static locomotive-testing plant in the United Kingdom.

The 1920s saw the introduction of the GWR's most famous locomotives – the Castle and King classes developed by Churchward's successor, C. B. Collett.

v • d • e Great Western Railway locomotives Broad gauge Brunel: Haigh Foundry · Mather, Dixon · Sharp, Roberts · Charles Tayleur · Hurricane · Thunderer Gooch: Ariadne · Banking · Bogie · Caesar · Firefly · Hercules · Iron Duke · Leo · Metropolitan · Premier · Prince · Pyracmon · Star · Sun · Victoria · Waverley J. Armstrong: Hawthorn · Rover · Sir Watkin · Standard Goods · Swindon · 1076 Class Dean: 3001 Class · 3501 Class · 3541 Class · Experimental locomotives Standard gauge Dean: 1901 · 2021 · Dean Goods · Aberdare · 2721 · Dean Single · Duke · Bulldog · 3600 · Badminton Churchward: The Great Bear · 1361 · County Tank · 2800 · Saint · 3100 · City · County · Star · 4200 · 4300 · 4400 · 4500 · 4700 · Rail motors Collett: 1366 · 1400 · 2251 · 2884 · ex-ROD 2-8-0 · Earl · Castle · 4575 · Hall · 5101 · 5205 · 5400 · 5600 · 5700 · 5800 · King · 6100 · 6400 · Grange · 7200 · 7400 · Manor Hawksworth: County · 1500 · 1600 · Modified Hall · 9400 British Railways steam locomotives · GWR locomotives · LMS locomotives · LNER locomotives · Southern Railway locomotives

[edit] Carriages

Early GWR carriages, in common with other railways at the time, were based on stagecoach practice and built on rigid six-wheel (or sometimes four-wheel) underframes, although the broad gauge allowed wider bodies with more people seated in each compartment. Three classes were provided, although third class carriages were not conveyed in every train and, for the first few years, were little more than open trucks with rudimentary seats. Some rigid eight-wheeled carriages were produced but vacuum brakes and bogies made an appearance before the end of the broad gauge in 1892.^[1]

The first train in the United Kingdom with corridor connections between all carriages entered service on 7 March 1890 on the Padidngton to Birkenhead route, and further corridor trains were introduced on all the main routes over the next few years. In 1900 a new Milford Boat Train set introduced electric lights and the communication cord was moved inside the train; until now a passenger needing to stop the train in an emergency had to lean out of the window and pull a chord above the door. At this time carriages generally had a clerestory roof but elliptical roofs were fitted to the GWR steam rail motors in 1903 and became standard for all carriages. The first were the "Dreadnought" stock built from 1904 in lengths of up to 70 feet (21 m). The "Concertina" stock appeared in 1906, so named as the doors were recessed into the body side rather than flush with the outer panels. The following year saw the introduction of shorter "Toplight" stock of around 57 feet (17 m), the toplights being small "lights" or windows above the main windows. Coaches panelled in steel rather than wood first appeared in 1912.^[19]

The next significant change came in 1922 when bow-ended stock was introduced in both 57 ft and 70 ft lengths. Hitherto coaches had featured flat ends but bow ends were easier to fit with Buckeye couplings that were then finding favour with passenger trains in the United Kingdom. These coaches were generally more plain than earlier vehicles as they had flush sides without beaded panels. Some articulated sets were built in 1925. From 1929 coaches had windows flush with the body panels, the first such sets being for the Cornish Riviera Express but general coaches followed the following year, including the infamous "B Sets", two-coach trains mainly used on branch lines.^[19]

In 1931 some "Super Saloons" were built, also known as "Ocean Saloons" as they were used on the Plymouth to London Ocean Mail trains. These were fitted out to very high specification for the Trans-Atlantic passengers. 1935 saw the introduction of excursion stock with open saloons instead of compartments, and the "Centenary" stock for the Cornish Riviera Limited service. During World War 2 some "Special Saloons" were built for the use of VIPs and for the Royal Train. A distinctive new profile appeared in 1944, when Hawksworth introduced coaches with domed roof-ends, although non-corridor coaches and auto trailers retained a more conventional roof. Fluorescent lights were tried in new coaches built in 1946.^[19]

A few sleeping cars were operated on the broad gauge and these became familiar on overnight trains. Restaurant cars became practical following the introduction of corridor trains; the first cars in 1896 were for first class passengers but a second class buffet car appeared on the Milford Boat Train in 1900. Slip coaches were operated on many routes that could be uncoupled from the rear of a moving train and serve intermediate stations that the train did not call at.^[19]

The livery of early carriages was a dark chocolate brown but from 1864 the upper panels were painted white which became a pale cream after being varnished and exposed to the weather. This colour eventually became a richer cream. From 1908 carriages were painted chocolate brown all over but this changed to a red lake colour in 1912. A two-colour livery reappeared in 1922, now with a richer cream on the upper panels and chocolate brown below.^[20]

[edit] Wagons

In the early years of the GWR, its wagons were painted brown, ^[21] but this changed to red before the end of the broad gauge. The familiar dark grey livery was only introduced about 1904.^[22]

Most early wagons were four-wheeled, although a few six-wheeled vehicles were provided for special loads. The first bogie wagons appeared in 1873, again for heavy loads, but bogie coal wagons were built in 1904. The first large coal wagons had appeared in 1898. Rated at 20 tons they were twice the size of typical wagons of the period, but it was not until 1923 that the company invested heavily in coal wagons of this size and the infrastructure necessary for their unloading at their docks; these were known as "Felix Pole" wagons after the GWR's General Manager who promoted their use. Container wagons appeared in 1931 and special motor car vans in 1933. Indeed, special wagons were produced for many different traffics such as gunpowder, china clay, aeroplanes, milk, fruit and fish.^[23]

All wagons for public traffic had a code name that was used in telegraphic messages. As this was usually painted onto the wagon it is common to see them refered to by these names, such as "mink" (a van), "mica" (refrigerated van), "crocodile" (boiler truck), and "toad" (brake van).^[20]

[edit] Public relations

[edit] Tourism

The GWR had operated hotels at major stations and junctions since the early days, but in 1877 it opened its first "country house hotel", the Tregenna Castle in St Ives, Cornwall. It promoted itself at home and abroad as a holiday line through a series of posters, postcards, jigsaws, and books such as SPB Mais's Cornish Riviera. GWR road motor services carried tourists to popular destinations, and its ships offered cruises from places such as Plymouth. Redundant carriages were converted to camp coaches then placed at country or seaside stations and hired to holiday makers who arrived by train.

[edit] Cultural references

The GWR attracted the attention of the media from an early date. John Cooke Bourne's History and Description of the Great Western Railway was published in 1846 and contained a series of detailed lithographs of the railway that give us a glimpse of what the line looked like in the days before photography.^[8] J. M. W. Turner painted his Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway after looking out of the window of his train on Maidenhead Railway Bridge.^[24] In 1862 William Powell Frith painted "The Railway Station", a large crowd scene on the platform at Paddington. The station itself was painted for Powell by W Scott Morton, an architect and a train was specially provided for the painting, in front of which a variety of travellers and railway staff form an animated focal point.^[25]

When writing the Railway Series of children's books, the Rev. W. Awdry was inspired by memories of listening to heavy freight trains on the GWR Main Line near his childhood home of Box, Wiltshire. "It was not hard to imagine train engine and banker talking to each other, and for me, steam engines developed personality." Two characters were directly inspired by GWR locomotives: Duck and Oliver. Duck's character, in particular, frequently revealed his pride in his GWR ancestry. In further acknowledgement of their GWR heritage, both Duck and Oliver were portrayed in full GWR livery, unlike the fictitious colours worn by other locomotive characters. The two engines were even given their own branch line to run, with pairs of autocoaches, which was nick-named The Little Western.

The GWR has featured in many televison programmes, such as the BBC children's drama series "God's Wonderful Railway" in 1980.

Manic Street Preachers lead vocalist James Dean Bradfield's first solo album was named The Great Western, most likely being a reference to the trips he took to London from his home in South Wales.^{[citation needed]}

The GWR was immortalised in Bob Godfrey's animated film "Great", which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film of 1975. It tells the story of Brunel's engineering accomplishments. The film features poignant shots of disused and neglected GWR engines to the background of a specially written song entitled 'GWR':

GWR, we've never been that far, Brunel has had his first success. When he drew up the plans, the company said yes, that's how they opened up the west, it's too spectacular, it's GWR!

[edit] Notable people

Joseph Armstrong – he was appointed Locomotive Superintendent to the the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway and the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railways at Wolverhampton in 1853.^[26] When they amalgamated with the GWR the following year he was given the title of Northern Division Locomotive Superintendent (1854-1864), he then moved to Swindon as the chief Locomotive Superintendent (1864-1877).

Isambard Kingdom Brunel – Chief Engineer to the GWR (1835-1859) and many of the broad gauge lines that it amalgamated with, also the standard gauge Taff Vale Railway. He was responsible for chosing the route of the railway and designing many of today's iconic structures including Box Tunnel, Maidenhead Railway Bridge, and Paddington and Temple Meads stations. ^[27]

George Jackson Churchward – Locomotive Superintendent (1902-1915) and Chief Mechanical Engineer (1915-1921).^[28]

Charles Collett – Chief Mechanical Engineer (1922-1941).^[28]

William Dean – Locomotive Superintendent (1877-1902).^[28]

Daniel Gooch – the GWR's first Locomotive Superintendent (1837-1864) and its Chairman (1865-1889), he was responsible for the railway's early locomotive successes, such as the Iron Duke Class, and for establishing Swindon railway works.^[1]

James Grierson – Goods Manager (1857-1863), he then became the General Manager (1863-1887) from which position he saw the railway through a period of expansion and the early gauge conversions.^[12]

Frederick Hawksworth – Chief Mechanical Engineer (1941-1947).^[28]

Henry Lambert – the General Manager (1887-1887) responsible for managing the final gauge conversion in 1892.^[12]

James Milne – General Manager (1929-1947) who saw the GWR through World War 2.^[12]

Felix Pole – as General Manager (1921-1929) he oversaw the Grouping of the South Wales railways into the GWR following the Railways Act 1921, and promoted the use of 20 ton wagons to bring efficiencies to the railway's coal trade.^[12]

CE Spagnoletti – the GWR's Telegraph Superintendent (1855-1892) patented the Disc Block Telegraph Instrument which was used to safely control the dispatch of trains. First used on the Metropolitan Railway in 1863 and the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway in 1864, it was later used on many other lines operated by the company.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Bryan, T. (2004) All in a Day's Work: Life on the GWR, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-2964-4
• Great Western Railway (1904) Rules and Regulations - For the Guidance of the Officers and Men, Reprinted 1993, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-2259-3
• Nock, O.S. (1962) The Great Western Railway in the nineteenth century, Ian Allan
• Nock, O.S. (1964) The Great Western Railway in the twentieth century, Ian Allan
• Nock, O.S. (1967) History of the Great Western Railway. Volume Three: 1923-1947, Reprinted 1982, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-0304-1
• Tourret, R. (2003) GWR Engineering Work, 1928-1938, Tourret Publishing, ISBN 0-905878-08-6
• Vaughan, Adrian (1990), Signalman's Reflections, Silver Link Publishing, ISBN 0-947971-54-8

[edit] See also

• GWR steam railmotors
• GWR Autotrain
• GWR railcars
• List of broad gauge (7 feet) railway locomotive names
• List of Chief Mechanical Engineers of the Great Western Railway
• List of constituents of the Great Western Railway
• Named passenger trains, such as the Cheltenham Flyer, the Bristolian, and the Cornish Riviera Express.

[edit] External links

• Description of the work required for the conversion from broad to narrow gauge
• GWR Modelling
• Great Western heritage rolling stock
• The West Somerset Steam Railway Trust, An organisation preserving the history of the GWR and the Minehead Branch
• Description of the 1975 animated film "Great" by Bob Godfrey
• Guardian newspaper article about Bob Godfrey, describing how he came to win an Oscar for the animated film "Great"

The "Big Four" pre-nationalisation British railway companies v • d • e
█ Great Western • █ London Midland & Scottish • █ London & North Eastern • █ Southern
GWR constituents: Great Western Railway • Cambrian Railways • Taff Vale Railway Barry Railway • Rhymney Railway • (Full list) LNER constituents: Great Central • Great Eastern • Great Northern • Great North of Scotland Hull & Barnsley • North British • North Eastern • (Full list) LMS constituents: Caledonian • Furness • Glasgow & South Western • Highland Lancashire & Yorkshire • London and North Western • Midland • North Staffordshire • (Full list) SR constituents: London and South Western Railway • London, Brighton and South Coast Railway South Eastern Railway • London, Chatham and Dover Railway • (Full list)
See also: History of rail transport in Great Britain 1923 - 1947 • List of companies involved in the grouping

v • d • e Works of Isambard Kingdom Brunel Great Western Railway · Wharncliffe Viaduct · Maidenhead Bridge · Windsor Bridge · Chepstow Bridge · Royal Albert Bridge · Box Tunnel Thames Tunnel · Atmospheric railway · South Devon Railway sea wall · Hungerford Bridge · Clifton Suspension Bridge SS Great Western · SS Great Britain · SS Great Eastern · Other works of Brunel