Swindon Works
Swindon Works

Author: Rosa Matheson

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2016-05-02

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 0750968869

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The age of steam is past, the heyday of Swindon Works is long gone – but the legend lives on. What made the Great Western Railway’s Swindon Works iconic? Was it its worldwide reputation; perhaps its profound impact in shaping the new town of Swindon; or that it melded those who worked there into one big family? In a new and exciting format, this book, by popular railway historian Rosa Matheson, helps explain why the never-ending love story endures. With big facts and fascinating stories, it is a must read not only for ex-Works employees and their families, nor just for GWR fans and railway enthusiasts, but also for any newcomer seeking to find a good way into railway history.

Four-Coupled Tank Locomotive Classes Built by the Great Western Railway
Four-Coupled Tank Locomotive Classes Built by the Great Western Railway

Author: David Maidment

Publisher: Pen and Sword Transport

Published: 2023-06-01

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1399022571

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This book is a comprehensive history of all twenty-six classes of four coupled tank engines commissioned by the Great Western Railway or built at their Wolverhampton and Swindon Works, from the Broad Gauge 2-4-0 and 4-4-0 tanks of the 1840s and 1850s to the well known Collett 0-4-2 branch line engines of classes 48XX (later renumbered 14XX) and 58XX of the 1930s. As well as the Broad Gauge engines, the strange looking ‘Covertibles’ of William Dean, a number of experimental ‘one-off’ designs, the numerous Wolverhampton 0-4-2Ts of the ‘517’ class and the Swindon built ‘2-4-0 ‘Metro Tanks’ are described with – where known – their allocation and operation. The book includes twenty weight diagrams and nearly 300 photographs, over 50 in color. The four-coupled tank engines absorbed by the Great Western from other companies at or before 1923 will be featured in a separate volume to follow.

Railway Towns
Railway Towns

Author: David Brandon

Publisher: Pen and Sword Transport

Published: 2024-05-02

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 1399051091

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The railways changed the world. They initiated a revolution in communications which continues to this day, ever more profoundly influencing our lives. They had an enormous economic and social impact in Britain, not least with its demography. Before 1914 places on the railway system felt they were connected to the wider world. Those left off the system often feared for their future. It was never actually as simple as that. Some places well served by railways prospered, other did not. Some with minimal or no railway connections managed to sustain themselves successfully. Others became complex railway hubs, perhaps with railway-based engineering works, extensive shunting yards and warehouses and a large requirement for labour. Some companies built large numbers of dwellings for their workers and their families. Sometimes they even built churches and parks, for example. Places of this character have often been described as 'railway towns' but what is actually meant by this term? In a pioneering attempt in book form to move towards an understanding of what constitutes a railway town, the author considers a wide range of cities, towns, villages and other settlements and asks to what extent they owed their nineteenth and early twentieth century development to the railways. This book should appeal to students of railway history, British topography and the economic, social and cultural impact of railways.

GWR Collett Castle Class
GWR Collett Castle Class

Author: Keith Langston

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2015-03-30

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1473823560

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The 'Castle' class 4-6-0 locomotives designed by Charles Collett and built at Swindon Works were the principal passenger locomotives of the Great Western Railway. The 4-cylinder locomotives were built in batches between 1923 and 1950, the later examples being constructed after nationalisation by British Railways. ??In total 171 engines of the class were built and they were originally to be seen at work all over the Great Western Railway network, and later working on the Western Region of British Railways. ?The highly successful class could be described as a GWR work in progress, because further development took place over almost all of the locomotives working lives. In addition to inspiring other locomotive designers the 'Castle' class engines were proved to be capable of outstanding performances, and when introduced were rightly described as being 'Britain's most powerful passenger locomotives'. Some of the 'Castles' survived in service for over 40 years, and individually clocked up just a little short of 2 million miles in traffic. ??In this book, Keith Langston provides a definitive chronological history of the iconic class together with archive photographic records of each GWR 'Castle' locomotive. Many of the 300 plus images are published for the first time. In addition background information on the origin of the names the engines carried, including details of the many name changes which took place, are also included. The extra anecdotal information adds a fascinating glimpse of social history. ??Collett CASTLE Class is a lavishly illustrated factual reference book which will delight steam railway enthusiasts in general and in particular those with a love of all things Great Western!