Great Western Railway thread

[tikay]

NO


I work on the Railway all week, ..so..so..sooo.. I am taking my bat and ball home now..

You work on the railway? What? Really?

The Nun, my hero.

What do you do Maureen, & where?

[tikay]

Take it ..not to bother then..

Well, could I have just the GWR stuff, please? I'm a bit of a snob about Railways.

GWR (God's Wonderful Railway or Great Western Railway) is the only one that matters.

I was in York Railway Museum Bookshop one day about 3 years ago, & imagine my surprise when I saw a pictiue of my Father on the front cover of a book!

It was taken at Swindon Railway Works (where the magnificent GWR Loco's were built), and showed my Dad as the Fireman on the last ever Steam Loco ever to be built in Great Britain, as it left Swindon. His "driver" was Princess Elizabeth (as she was then), later to become H M The Queen. he had to say to her, in railway fireman tradition, "right away Mate", meaning, all clear to proceed. Not too many peeps get to call Her Majesty "mate"....!

Wow! now that must have been an amazing moment.

Did you know that Swindon was the first station to have a 'Refreshments room'?

Yes, an awesome moment. I purchased every copy!

No, I never knew that about Swindon Railway Station.

I'd like to write a book about Railway Stations. It has to be said, the more Northern - particularly Yorkshire - stations on the GNER are cathedral like, quite magnificent.

Paddington, of course, is awesome, much better than any other London Termini, though St Pancras is easily the mot beautiful Railway Termini in the world, though not much of a Station, as such. The Ironwork for St Pancras was forged in Butterley, in Derby, by the way. Victoria & Waterloo do nothing for me. Oddly, you may think, some of the Tube Stations in London are very special indeed, Baker Street, Farringdon, Whitechapel, West Acton all have their charms.

Birmingham New Street is bottom of the list, it's awful, Leeds is interesting -  lots of platforms - & Newcastle is pretty good, as is Edinburgh Waverley, & York.

Crewe is not what it's cracked up to be, nothing like, Preston is junk, Mancherster Piccadilly no great shakes. Derby is awesome, as you can see the carriage sidings, they have some awesome rolling stock there, & many restored Diesel Locos, too, all parked such that you can see them from the platforms.

I better stop now otherwise I could go on & on all day.

[RED-DOG]

Swindon went into history by installing the first ever railway refreshment rooms for the public. A stop of ten minutes was given, although before long the GWR would curse this facility as it prevented the speeding up of trains, until in May 1845, the company announced new express services to Exeter without this interruption. However the GWR was taken to court by the buffet leasee, with the company losing their case and in the process learning a valuable lesson.

[Robert HM]

Please use this thread for all your interesting facts and comments about the GWR

I blame RED

[Tonji]

heres your hero, taken in 1857 by Robert Howlett. The chains are from the Great Eastern steamship



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[The_nun]

But what about the Local Lines... where Semaphore Signals and Tokens are still used...surely they deserve a mention..

[Royal Flush]

ashamed to say i am finding this intresting

[dik9]

My Grandad and my Dad were both Firemen/enginemen (Flying Scotsman included), and my uncles were both engineers for BR. Are we related  ?

[Hawkeye1976]

When I was 10 I won a "Design the Train of the Future" competition for Blue Peter. I won a first class train trip to York and VIP entry / tour of the national railway museum to see my design on show.

Worst thing was going on blue peter LIVE and having to explain how my train would work?

Didn't have the guts to tell them I copied it out of a "trains of the future" book!!!! BUT I did add exhaust pipes to it.....

Glad to say thats my only train story....

Steve

[tikay]

But what about the Local Lines... where Semaphore Signals and Tokens are still used...surely they deserve a mention..

Don't worry Maureen - EVERYTHING will be explained on this thread in the fullness of time....

Exciting, 'innit?

[tikay]

heres your hero, taken in 1857 by Robert Howlett. The chains are from the Great Eastern steamship

Thanks Tonji. Amazingly, despite building the GWR, he also conceived the idea of, & designed, the SS Great Eastern, & SS Great Western. And the Clifton Suspension bridge. And...and...and.....

A quite extraordinary man.

[tikay]

For those of you holding your breath, don't worry, there will plenty more fascinasting factoids to come from me on here, but I'm involved in a comp right now, so it may take a while.

Just in case you were worrying.....

[Wardonkey]

I haven't been to York railway museum for years, but when i was a kid I used to love it.

Trains have a romance about them that is not captured by other forms of transport.

[TightEnd]

My father was the Honorary Secretary of the Rialway and Canal Historical Society in the mid 1970s. My childhood was spent in places like Didcot railway centre and on the Grand Union


and I never knew tikay's dad was a railwayman!

Some more essential GWR facts from the corners of my brain...


The Great Western Railway was the first to install electric telegraph alongside its line.

Impressive Brunel achievements on the route included the viaducts at Hanwell and Chippenham, the Maidenhead Bridge, the Box Tunnel and the Bristol Temple Meads Station.  Brunel used the broad gauge (2.2 m) instead of the standard gauge (1.55m) on the line.

Daniel Gooch, who had worked with Robert Stephenson in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was put in charge of locomotive production. Gooch was told by the company to produce a "colossal locomotive that should easily surpass anything that had gone before". The result of this directive was The Great Western that could travel at an average speed of 67 mph. It has been said that "while Brunel built the Great Western, Gooch made it work".

One of the consequences of using the broad gauge was that Great Western locomotives could not use Euston Station and Brunel had to build its own station at Paddington. This was not completed until 1854.

 

[Sark79]

When I used to live in Dunfermline as a kid. We visited the park there often. In it was an old steam train that was very run down, and was used by children to climb on.  This thread has brought those memories back . Looking back on it now, it seems a shame for a nice old train to be used this way. 

Here is a pic. I don't know a great deal about trains.  Can you tell me what kind of steam train it is?

http://2dunfermline.co.uk/index.php?ID=2418