The remnants of the Great Western Railway
“It is only hindsight that gives travel any meaning” Paul Theroux
Similar to Paris several main railway stations in London serve different parts of the county. The reason was competition and private enterprise. Competing railway companies were formed at the begin of the railway age which all built their own particular lines gravitating into the center of London. Most of those lines got their own individual terminus in the capital.
Arrival of the Eurostar in London St. Pancras Station
The Great Western Railway was founded as early as 1833. Eventually it became the main link between London and the South-West, West, West Midlands and England.
Historic line map of GWR at its zenith
“Great” in its name was not unfounded. The company was extremely ambitious to run fast trains to Bristol and beyond, and to the many seaside resorts such as Torquay in Devon, Minehead in Somerset, and Newquay and St Ives in Cornwall. "God's Wonderful Railway". "Great Way Round" or the "Holiday Line" became some of the nicknames. It was painted by William Turner, became the subject of a BBC series and made it into a poem by Sir John Betjema:
The old Great Western Railway shakes,
The old Great Western Railway spins –
The old Great Western Railway makes
Me very sorry for my sins.
GWR's pride: the castle class locomotives, 5051 Drysllwyn castle built in Swindon 1936
Named trains like the Flying Dutchman, the Cornish Riviera Express or the Cheltenham Flyer required adequate engines. Most of the material used by the GWR was built in their own central workshop in Swindon, found in 1843. At its prime it employed 10.000 workers. It was closed in 1986, also because the honorable town of Swindon needed space for further development. I thought it would be interesting to go there and see what is left and how Swindon redeveloped the huge site originally occupied by the GWR.
King class locomotive 6023 "king Edward II" built in Swindon June 1930
GWR engine 6106 built in Swindon 1931 for suburban service
The legacy of a free market and competition in the 19th century for the traveler today is that he has to survive the transfer from one station to another across London since the brave administration of this world metropolis never found it necessary to link their individual stations by some kind of integrated means of transport. Maybe they expect that somebody who has managed to arrive in London will not desire to leave instantaneously on a connecting train.
Various GWR engines in British rail outfit in Didcot
A first terminus for the Great Western Railway in London was built in 1838. Soon this station proved too small for the increasing traffic and in 1854 the grand Paddington Station, which is still used today, was built just across the road. It was designed by the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, whose constructions decisively shaped the development of the GWR.
Brunel and replica of a broad gauge engine in STEAM museum
Brunel, born on April 9th 1806, is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engineering giants", and "one of the greatest figures of the Industrial Revolution, [who] changed the face of the English landscape with his groundbreaking designs and ingenious constructions". He started his career by assisting his father in the construction of a first tunnel under the Thames. He built dockyards, the Great Western Railway (GWR), bridges, steamships and revolutionized public transport and modern engineering.
Entrance of St. Pancras Station
Of course there is an underground line linking other main stations and in particular St. Pancras international, the terminus of the Eurostar, with Paddington. The Interrail Railplanner suggests a train from St. Pancras to Farringdon and then from there another to Paddington via Bond street. But first you have to find the right station. After leaving St. Pancras international you end up in a subterranean shopping paradise, where you can search for indications to any connecting means of transport between much more prominent advertisements of coffee companies, fast food vendors, beauty enhancement establishments of all sorts, a toy store and, to their credit, a book store. For the modern traveler, they are the equivalent of the medieval highwayman. With the addition that the contemporary real bandits find a perfect camouflage in the crowd of shoppers.
Map of major London Railway stations
Eventually I find an entrance to what might be another underground station, guarded by those lovely gates which probably cost more in maintenance than the loss in fares by the odd joy riders. When I apply the QR code of the mobile interrail pass on my phone to the reader it changes color like an ironic impression of an amused face and stays closed. But they didn't skimp on costs here because there is a friendly, incomprehensible man who seems to be literate enough to read the QR code and opens the gate by hand. On a display I find trains to Hammersmith, Aldgate, Brixton, Mordon, Edgware, Barking, High Barnett, Mordon, Chesham, Uxbridge, Watford and Heavan, but there is nothing about Paddington. As told by the route planner on my phone, I take a train to Farringdon, the next station in the direction away from Paddington.
Farringdon station underground
Farringdon station seems to have separate parts. Again no indication of Paddington. I ask somebody, but he doesn’t know. People do not seem to travel far afield hereabouts. A young chap tells me that I can use any train on the other platform. The other platform is separated from the one I am on by a long fence. After I have actually found a passage to go there an underground train which says something via Paddington pulls in. I take it. The next station is St. Pancras international…..
Farringdon station entrance
But the underground eventually passes through Paddington station. Again there are gates, and again there is a chap who can read my QR code and applies this knowledge in an ingenious way to open the gates for me.
Paddington station hall
Paddington is a huge station but only part of the platforms are sealed off by gates. There I discover a delayed GWR express to Swansea about to leave. It will stop in Swindon.
Paddington station hall
On January 1st 1948 all private railway companies were nationalized and GWR became the western region of British Rail. More than 100 years of tradition ended. But, after only 40 years, advisors and politicians who probably never sat on a train, found it wise to privatize the rail network again. First group, a company based in Scotland, got in charge of operation of the former GWR network. After they first called the company “Great Western Trains” and “First Great Western”, they eventually changed the name back to the original “Great Western Railway” in order to 'reinstate the ideals of our founder', whoever that is.
High speed Diesel and Electric train built by Hitachi for GWR
Modern GWR’s high speed trains are not very fast, but they are smart. There are clear indications on the platform where every carriage will stop. A screen shows which carriage has which class and where you can put a bicycle. Later, for an LNER train, they even showed the degree of occupancy of each carriage. In intermediate stations an announcement shows where the train is at the moment. Once on board, a green light above every seat shows immediately when a seat is not reserved, when it is reserved it turns to red and when it is reserved on part of the trajectory, red is underlain with green. There are USB ports and sockets and functioning Wifi. A trolley sells snacks, drinks and spirits. The ride is quiet and smooth.
Inside the GWR express
The GWR line west is high-speed only as far as Swindon, where the catenary ends. From there the train switches to Diesel power. There was not much investment in rails and infrastructure even so in particular this line would have lent itself for real high speed. In contrast to the rest of the island and most of Europe Isambard Kingdom Brunel choose broad gauge of 7 ft (2,134 mm) - later even widened to 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm), for the new railway, so the talud had to be planned with little curves, wide bridges and tunnels. The broad gauge service was abandoned between 1854 and 1892 since the narrower track was much cheaper to built but its minimised gradients and curve are ideal for the requirements of today’s high speed trains.
Swindon (junction) station
The arrival of the GWR put Swindon on the map. From a sleepy countryside village it turned into the town housing one of the biggest railway workshops ever. At the height of operations in the first part of the twentieth century Swindon works spread over an area of 132 hectares and occupied 14.000 workers. It could built 2 engines a week and repair 1000 engines, 5000 carriages and 8000 wagons a year. After 143 years of operation it was closed by British rail in 1986.
Mural on a fence hiding wasteland in Swindon depicting Brunel and his railway
In the beginning there was no station in Swindon. The bookings had to be done in the Goddard arms, a pub in the old town which still exists. With the extension of the railway network the station in Swindon became increasingly important. It is the intersection between the Great Western Main line from London Paddington to Cornwall via Bristol temple Meads, to Southern Wales via Bristol Parkway and to Cardiff directly via Gloucester. A Midland and South Western railway line from Cheltenham linked Swindon Old town station to Southampton. Until this line was closed down, the main station was called Swindon Junction. Until 1895, every train stopped here for at least 10 minutes to change locomotives. Even today some of the express trains change drivers. When I arrive, the departing driver attributes human traits to the modern high speed engine by welcoming his replacement with the words “Oh well, she is doing fine today”.
Goddard arms, the pub where the first tickets for the GWR were sold in 1833
Today, former Swindon Junction is reduced to three through platforms and a couple of additional tracks. The original building was demolished in 1972. A modern station and office block of coeval ugliness was erected on the site. At present it looks abandoned and everybody can hope that it is torn down as soon as possible. However, there is a remainder of the original building between platforms 1 and 3. It looks decrepit as well. It is recorded that Swindon junction station had the first railway refreshment rooms ever, divided according to class. At the time, the locals were eminently proud that even the King and Queen had had refreshments here. Today you can have your refreshment at the Queens tap, a pub just outside the station. Next door is the Great Western Hotel, built in 1869, and still serving customers.
The Great Western Hotel
Most of the station area has been converted into parking lots. The massive area of the railway workshops now houses desperate little enterprises or outlet stores of brands nobody has ever heard of. However, a couple of the preserved original buildings have been turned into Steam, the museum of the Great Western Railway. The museum tells the story of the works as well as of the railway.
"Modern" Swindon station
"The national poverty was now visible in public buildings, some of them almost unbelievable eyesores." Paul Theroux 1983
What they do not have in the neglected remains of the station is a facility to store your luggage. So I carry my big backpack to the museum. There is no luggage storage area in the museum either. It is typical that there always is plenty of space to accommodate the biggest enemy of the railway, the car. But there is little effort to support the remaining few arriving by train. The staff is understanding. They overlook that my backpack disappears in a corner of the entrance area.
STEAM
The museum reminds visitors that Swindon workshops not only produced and repaired locomotives and carriages. There was a pattern shop and foundry which also produced lampposts or the ornaments of the girders which make British stations so fascinating. They not only produced the carriages, but also all the wooden interior, the upholstery of the seats or the enamel signs. Supplies and spare parts had to be kept in stores and there were offices for the administration. In a display a man is warned by his superior that he might loose his job if he will continue to arrive late.
Personal department and stores display of Swindon works
Jobs were coveted here and most stayed in the family being transferred from father to sun. A machine shop exhibit shows how dangerous this work was. During the wars the men disappearing to the front were replaced by women, who stood their men in the boiler shop as well as in administration.
Women working in the boiler shop
The famous castle locomotive, the pride of GWR steam, is presented as one of the products of the museum. However, in this museum steam engines are presented like culprits in a high security prison. Railings make it difficult to get even an oil stain on your clothing. High, wheelchair-accessible catwalks make it impossible to admire the running gear of the steam locomotives.
Different freight transported by the GWR
Recapture of a platform in the 1930ies
This museum is more instructive in view of the building of the railway, its operation and its use for freight and passenger service starting from the construction of the broad gauge railway by Brunel to the use for high speed trains to the west for vacationers at the Cornish riviera. Little artifacts typical for the railways of the time like the tea trolley on the station platform, the platform ticket machine or different kind of freight including live sheep are lovingly presented.
Shunter's trucks were unique for the GWR
An example are the shunters‘ trucks, also built by Swindon Works in 1914, which were unique on the GWR. The dangerous task of a shunter was to get wagons in the right order before trains left the goods yard. There was a risk of being knocked over by wagons or crushed between buffers. Shunters’ trucks enabled shunters to ride safely around larger goods yards. The wheels are covered so that clothing and equipment wouldn’t get caught in the wheels. A large locker at the top of the truck is for storage of tools and spare shunting pole.
The tunnel linking Swindon town and the Works
The employees accessed their place of work by a long tunnel underneath the carriage works and the tracks of the station. The long façade of the carriage works has been preserved and some of the buildings behind house businesses and schools. Most of the façade hides parking lots.
The long façade of the carriage works with the entrance to the tunnel
After the works had been inaugurated they started to attract workers from faraway. Under Brunel’s influence the town of Swindon turned into one of the fastest-growing towns in Europe of the 19th century. A self-contained community village with terraced streets of around 300 cottages was planned. The village included a range of public buildings, such as a Church, three pubs, a lodging house known as the Platform, a hospital, a water tower, a park and the so called Mechanics’ Institution which housed a theater, lecture hall, library and an octagonal market. Until the latter building was opened in 1855, women had to trek up a muddy hill to the market town to get food for their families! The building of the mechanic institution is undergoes restoration. The streets were named after the destinations of the trains that passed nearby like Bristol, Bath, Taunton, London, Oxford or Reading.
Around 1960 the Swindon City Council intended to demolish big parts of the railway village. Fortunately a campaign by poet and railway enthusiast John Betjeman successful prevented that this part of Swindon looks like the rest of the town. Most of it still stands today as an excellent early example of a “model village” developed for an industrial work-force.
Street and yard view of the workers terraced cottages
From 1849, once a year, the Great Western Railway began giving a free train journey to all their employees and their families. This soon became one week of (unpaid) holiday. The works and the railway village would become a ghost town since special trains would bring the workers to various destinations along the coast.
The mechanics institution
From the train station and GWR area I need to get to my hotel. It should only be a short walk. However, the entire area south of the station has been torn up and turned into hectares of wasteland. The new desert is surrounded by high fences. The previous, only thoroughfare is a dust bowl strewn with chunks of concrete and old girders. Even for pedestrians every passage is hermetically sealed. To get to the hotel, I have to cross several run-down business districts, where my footsteps echo in the empty courtyards, cross the entrances to even more parking structures and an empty bus station.
Swindon business district
Making space for even more parking lots
Swindon old town is on a hillock behind the hotel. In search of a restaurant I drag myself along the road up the hill. Seedy terraced houses bear signs of solicitors with the reputation of Saul Goodman, little hotels, which seem not to have seen a guest in many years. Windows are broken, paint is cracked, front gardens untended. This is not even proper enough for Five Guys, McDonalds or Chicken Cottage. For once they have given way to chinese indian takaways and Polish home made food.
"The English do small things well and big things badly" Paul Theroux
Pedestrian zone, Swindon
Even more parking lots give access to an area where every living soul seems to be drunk before returning home in his car. Screaming, next to nude girls dressed to get laid with invisible skirts, knee long boots and uplifted tits queue at the entrance of noisy establishments and try to get past tattooed bouncers. Cigarette and marihuana smoke blends with the smell of exhaust gasses to a cocktail which leaves a sour taste on the tongue. The traffic renders crossing the street a life threatening experience. Old town Swindon is governed by seedy decrepitude and alcoholism. But I finally find a restaurant at the other end of town which is pleasant even though the food has to be consumed under a variety of soccer games broadcast from big television screens.
Saul Goodman would feel at home here
Old town Swindon
“Steam” is not the only place dedicated to the history of the Great Western Railway. The next station towards London, Didcot parkway, houses the Didcot Railway Centre. It is based in one of the few remaining original British rail steam sheds. There are hardly any facilities left in the world that come closer to a real steam locomotive depot than those in Didcot. A mixture of oil, coal dust and grease covers the surface. A visitor can still get dirty. Under no circumstances should you take steps backwards. There is always the danger of falling into one of the inspection pits between the tracks.
Little tank engine in front of the Didcot shed
Next to the 1932 engine shed is a coaling stage, turntable and various water cranes. The shed contains four tracks each providing space for three tender engines or around six tank engines. The smoke hoods running above the tracks and designed to carry all the smoke from the locomotives out through the wooden chimneys on the roof were restored when the Great Western Society took over the shed from British Rail.
GWR engines inside Didcot shed
Outside the shed is the original coaling stage supporting an overhead water tank of a capacity of almost 300 m3. Coal is brought into the building by rail wagons pushed up via a long ramp. The coal can then easily be unloaded into wheeled tubs which can then be tipped directly into the bunker of a locomotive.
Castle locomotive, inspection pit, water crane and coaling stage
Major locomotive restoration is carried out in the Workshop and Lifting Shop. They also were rebuilt in 1988 but look like they the original from 1932.
A carriage shed serves for the storage and restoration of historic coaches dating from Victorian times to the 1940s. It includes a traveling Post Office which collects post sacks on the run with nets spun outside the carriage. There is a family saloon carriage, which could be hired for a vacation by rail and added to scheduled trains or a slip coach, detached from the running train to bring passengers to a station without stopping the main part of the train. Outside a collection of freight wagons for freight as diverse as milk, bananas or gunpowder demonstrates that transport is not impossible in a world without trucks. All of these exhibits were or are in the process of restoration. One was saved from an existence as garden shed.
A traverser platform serves as access to the wagon shed. The turntable for turning tender locomotives must be operated by hand.
Along the site there are two demonstration railway lines where the locomotives currently in operation drive with some wagons. One train demonstrates the push-pull operation that was also common on many British branch lines in the steam locomotive era. There is the reconstruction of a signal box and various stages of development of security systems.
"It was the railway buffs who were helping to dismantle British railways. Their nostalgia was dangerous, since they hunkered for the past and were never happier than when they were able to turn an old train in a toy. The commuter who spent two hours a day on a suburban train going to and from his place of work was very seldom a railway buff." Paul Theroux
Push pull train at the demonstration line
A special exhibit recognizes Brunel's merits as an engineer. Two broad gauge engines of the beginning of the GWR and several coaches have been rebuilt and can be operated. A goods shed demonstrates how freight was transferred between wagons running on different gauge. The idea of a using broad gauge for the railway was not Brunel’s only failed project. He made experiments with alternative traction which resulted in the construction of an atmospheric railway where the wagon was propelled by pressure. The Didcot railway center displays such a pipe. However, at the time it was not possible to maintain constant pressure without leakage.
The difference between standard and Brunel's broad gauge and replicas of broad gauge engines
On June 12th 1935, the Great Western Railway ran special Boat trains from Plymouth to London. On her maiden voyage the ‘Normandie’, the fastest ship afloat, had just won the Blue Ribbon for her Atlantic crossing in 4 days, 3 hours and 25 minutes. Among the 358 passengers arriving on the ‘Normandie’ for destinations in Britain who left the ship at Plymouth was also film magnate Walt Disney and his wife.
Castle engine "Caerphilly castle" in STEAM museum
The GWR was ambitious enough to bring the arriving passengers and nearly 1,000 bags of mails to London as quickly as possible. The GWR special boat trains waited ready on the dockside. The first train was hauled by castle class engine No 4094 ’Dynevor Castle’ driven by Driver Bickley of Plymouth Laira shed and took 3 hours 38 minutes for the 226¾ miles non-stop from Plymouth Docks to London Paddington station. The Exeter to London section was done at an average speed of 69 mph. Today the high speed train of modern GWR does not start at any dock at Plymouth any more and covers the trip to London in three hours 18 minutes.
The gear of the two interior cylinders of a castle engine
To avoid water refilling stops the castle engine tender with equipped with a scoop to pick up water while running
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a heavy smoker. On September 5th 1859 he suffered a stroke and died ten days later at the age of 53. Many of his projects were not finished. Many of Brunel's bridges and the mile long box tunnel on the GWR main line are still in use, the Thames Tunnel is now part of the London Overground network. Brunel’s Engine House at Rotherhithe, which once housed the steam engines that powered the tunnel pumps, was turned into the Brunel Museum. His ship SS Great Britain can be seen in Bristol. Several locomotives were named after him. One was GWR Castle Class steam locomotive no. 5069, and one is the new InterCity Electric Train 800004. He is commemorated at Westminster Abbey in a window on the south side of the nave.
Progess.... Freight train operated by German railways Deutsche Bahn in Swindon. In exchange British companies operate trains in Germany
Sources
Paul Theroux The kingdom by the sea
Bill Bryson Notes from a small island
Raynor Winn The salt path
George Orwell The
road to Wigan pier
Philip Hensher The
Northern Clemency
"And yet it is every traveler's conceit that no one will see what he has seen; his trip displaces the landscape, and his version of events is all that matters" Paul Theroux
