![D1015 Western Champion in Swindon Works](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/D1015_Western_Champion_in_Swindon_Works.jpg)
Swindon railway works was opened by the
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
in 1843 in
Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
, Wiltshire, England. It served as the principal west England maintenance centre until closed in 1986.
History
In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of the
Great Western Main Line
The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the or ...
between
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
by the
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
(GWR). Its Chief Engineer was
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...
.
From 1836, Brunel had been buying locomotives from various makers for the new railway. Brunel's general specifications gave the locomotive makers a free hand in design, although subject to certain constraints such as piston speed and axle load, resulting in a diverse range of locomotives of mixed quality. In 1837, Brunel recruited
Daniel Gooch
Sir Daniel Gooch, 1st Baronet (24 August 1816 – 15 October 1889) was an English railway locomotive and transatlantic cable engineer. He was the first Superintendent of Locomotive Engines on the Great Western Railway from 1837 to 1864 and ...
and gave him the job of rectifying the heavy repair burden of the GWR's mixed bag of purchased locomotives.
It became clear that the GWR needed a central repair works so, in 1840 Gooch identified a site at Swindon because it was at the junction of the
Golden Valley line and also a "convenient division of the Great Western line for engine working". With Brunel's support, Gooch made his proposal to the GWR directors, who, on 25 February 1841, authorised the establishment of the works at Swindon. Construction started immediately and they became operational on 2 January 1843.
Location
There are several stories relating to how the railway came to pass through Swindon. A well-circulated myth that Brunel and Gooch were surveying a
vale
A vale is a type of valley.
Vale may also refer to:
Places Georgia
* Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region
Norway
* Våle, a historic municipality
Portugal
* Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municipali ...
north of Swindon Hill and Brunel either threw a stone or dropped a sandwich and declared that spot to be the centre of the works. However Swindon's midway point between GWR terminals and the topography of land near the town were more likely factors.
The GWR mainline was originally planned to cut through
Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately .
Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake. It is privately owned by the Earl of Ca ...
near
Marlborough
Marlborough may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
** Marlborough College, public school
* Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England
* The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England
Austral ...
, but the
Marquess of Ailesbury
Marquess of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury), in the County of Buckingham, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 17 July 1821 for Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury.
On 18 March 1664, Robert Bruce, 2 ...
, who owned the land, objected. The Marquess had previously objected to part of the
Kennet & Avon Canal
The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the cent ...
running through his estate (see
Bruce Tunnel
The Bruce Tunnel is on the summit pound of the Kennet and Avon Canal between Wootton Top Lock and Crofton Locks in Wiltshire, England.
The tunnel is long. It is named after Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury (1729–1814), the loca ...
). With the railway needing to run near to a canal at this point, and as it was cheaper to transport coal for trains along canals at this time, Swindon was the next logical choice for the works, north of the original route.
The line was laid in 1840, but the location of the works was still undecided. Tracks were laid at
Didcot
Didcot ( ) is a railway town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire and the historic county of Berkshire. Didcot is south of Oxford, east of Wantage and north west of Reading. The town is noted for its railway heritage, Di ...
in 1839 (chosen as
Lord Wantage
Brigadier General Robert James Loyd-Lindsay, 1st Baron Wantage, (17 April 1832 – 10 June 1901) was a British soldier, politician, philanthropist, benefactor to Wantage, and first chairman and co-founder of the British National Society for Aid t ...
did not want the railway passing close to
Abingdon) and for some time this seemed a more likely site.
Gooch noted that the nearby
Wilts & Berks Canal
The Wilts & Berks Canal is a canal in the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, linking the Kennet and Avon Canal at Semington near Melksham, to the River Thames at Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Abingdon. ...
gave Swindon a direct connection with the
Somerset coalfield. He also realised that engines needed to be changed at Swindon or close by as the gradients from Swindon to
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
were much more arduous than the relatively easy
gradients
In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the grad ...
between London and Swindon. Drawing water for the engines from the canals was also considered, and an agreement to this effect was completed in 1843. Gooch recorded at the time:
Once the plan was set for the railway to come to Swindon, it was at first intended to bring it closely along the foot of Swindon Hill, so as to be as close as possible to the town without entailing the excessive engineering works of building on the hill. However, the Goddard family (
Lords of the Manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seigno ...
of Swindon), following the example the Marquess of Ailesbury (and many other landowners of the day), objected to having it near their property, so it was laid a couple of miles further north.
Early years
![Watercolour of New Swindon in 1849, by Edward Snell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Watercolour_of_New_Swindon_in_1849%2C_by_Edward_Snell.jpg)
With many of the early structures built and adorned by stone extracted from the construction of
Box Tunnel
Box Tunnel passes through Box Hill on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) between Bath and Chippenham. The tunnel was the world's longest railway tunnel when it was completed in 1841.
Built between December 1838 and June 1841 for the Great W ...
, the first building the locomotive repair shed, was completed in 1841 using contract labour, with the necessary machinery installed within it by 1842. Initially only employing 200 men, repairs began in 1843, with the first new locomotive, the "Premier", built in 1846 in under two weeks and renamed "Great Western". This was followed by six more, with the
Iron Dukes, including ''The Lord of the Isles'', considered the fastest broad-gauge engine of its day. By 1851 the works were employing over 2,000 men and were producing about one locomotive a week, with the first standard-gauge engine built in 1855. A rolling mill for manufacturing rails was installed in 1861, attracting workers from South
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
. Although some rolling stock was built at
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...
(producing 800 standard-gauge locomotives up to 1908),
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
and
Saltney
Saltney is a cross-border town, split between Flintshire, Wales and Cheshire, England. The town is intersected by the England–Wales border, with its larger part being a community of Wales in the historic county of Clwyd. The town forms par ...
near
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
, most of the work was concentrated at Swindon.
Like most early railways, the GWR was built with gentle gradients and the minimum of curves, which meant that it was able to operate fast, lightweight 'single-wheelers',
2-2-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-2-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and two trailing wheels on one axle. The wheel arrangement both ...
and
4-2-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-2-2 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and two trailing wheels on one axle.
Other equivalent class ...
. However, from 1849 Gooch also built
4-4-0
4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four po ...
saddle tanks for the hillier routes in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
.
Railway village
![Railway village houses](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Railway_village_houses.jpg)
The Works transformed Swindon from a small 2,500 population
market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...
into a bustling
railway town
A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site.
North America
During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporar ...
. Built to the north of the main town centre, the works had need to build locally accessible housing and services for the workers. The development of the railway village was on the lines of similar
Victorian-era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardi ...
socially-encompassing lifestyle concepts, such as that at
Bournville
Bournville () is a model village on the southwest side of Birmingham, England, founded by the Quaker Cadbury family for employees at its Cadbury's factory, and designed to be a "garden" (or "model") village where the sale of alcohol was forbidd ...
, but architect/builder Rigby's were given license to create a commercially viable development by the GWR.
[ The completed village provided to the town medical and educational facilities that had been sorely lacking, plus St Mark's Church and the Bakers Arms ]public house
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
, all completed before 1850.[
The terraced two-storey cottages were built on two blocks of four parallel streets, not dissimilar in appearance to passing trains. Each road was named after the destinations of trains that passed nearby: Bristol, Bath, Taunton, London, Oxford and Reading among them. Built in the nearby open area, named Emlyn Square after GWR director ]Viscount Emlyn
A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a Title#Aristocratic titles, title used in certain European countries for a nobility, noble of varying status.
In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-he ...
(later known as John Campbell, 1st Earl Cawdor
John Frederick Campbell, 1st Earl Cawdor (8 November 1790 – 7 November 1860) was a British peer and MP.
He was born the son of John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor and Lady Caroline Howard and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, gradua ...
), was the Mechanics Institute, paid for via subscription by the workers. Designed and constructed by Edward Roberts, it was completed in 1855, containing the UK's first lending library and provided health services to workers.[ Enlarged in 1892–93, ]Nye Bevan
Aneurin "Nye" Bevan PC (; 15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party politician, noted for tenure as Minister of Health in Clement Attlee's government in which he spearheaded the creation of the British National Health ...
, mastermind of the National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
later said:
In the 1960s, Swindon Borough Council
Swindon Borough Council is the local authority of the Borough of Swindon in Wiltshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. As such, it is administratively separate fro ...
applied to demolish much of the village, but poet and railway enthusiast John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...
led a successful campaign to preserve it. Today much of the village is a conservation area, and many structures within it are listed buildings. One of the last houses to be built, 34 Faringdon Road, originally 1 Faringdon Street, has been restored to the condition it was in around 1900 as a living museum.
Expansion
Gooch followed a policy of taking in-house any railway engineering discipline that could be enabled to scale. Hence in addition to locomotive building, from 1850 standardised goods wagons were produced, and in 1867 Swindon was made the central workshop
Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...
for the construction of carriages and wagons.
In 1864, when Joseph Armstrong took over, he took on the responsibility of improving the passenger stock, resulting in 1878 of a separate carriage and wagon works being built on land north of the station. The first Royal Saloon was built in 1874 and converted to standard gauge in 1899. 1875 saw the opening of the boiler and tender making shops, eventually used to also produce parts for locomotives, and marine engines for the GWR's fleet of ships and barges. The first GWR through corridor train was built in 1891, with electric lighting introduced in 1900.
In 1892 the GWR completed the process of converting their lines to standard gauge. of new broad gauge sidings were laid to accommodate the influx of rolling stock, so that by 21/22 May 1892 195 locomotives, 748 carriages and 3,400 wagons and vans were stored for conversion to the new gauge. Those that could not be converted were scrapped on site. By the turn of the century, the works were employing an estimated three-quarters of Swindon's entire workforce.
George Churchward's tenure, first as Assistant Chief Superintendent in 1897, then Locomotive Superintendent in 1902, produced heavier locomotives, firstly the 4-4-0
4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four po ...
City class, then the County class. Later in 1906, "North Star", originally 4-4-2, was rebuilt as the first four-cylinder 4-6-0
A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...
. Later four-cylindered engines were 4-6-0
A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...
built and, in 1908 the first "Pacific" 4-6-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomotiv ...
, the only one of its type in the country for many years. It was later rebuilt as a 4-6-0
A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...
. From 1914 the works turned to aiding the war effort, producing twelve howitzer
A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...
s by the end of the year.
Heyday
Charles Collett
Charles Benjamin Collett (10 September 1871 – 5 April 1952) was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1922 to 1941. He designed (amongst others) the GWR's Castle and King Class express passenger locomotives.
Education ...
, Chief Mechanical Engineer from 1921 to 1941, greatly improved the works' boiler making and its facilities for working heavy gauge sheet metal. In 1927 the GWR's most powerful and largest locomotive, the King class, was introduced to become the "flagship" of the GWR fleet. The ''Kings'' had been developed from the Castle Class which, along with the ''Halls'', were the foundation of the GWR's reputation and image.
This was the heyday of Swindon Works, when 14,000 people were employed and the main locomotive fabrication workshop, the ''A Shop'' was, at , one of the largest covered areas in the world.
During World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Swindon was once again involved with military hardware, producing various types of gun mountings. Loco wheel-turning lathes were also ideally suited for making turret rings for tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
s. The works also built landing craft and parts for midget submarines.
Nationalisation
At the start of the formation of the nationalised British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
(BR) in 1947, the works were still producing 60 new locomotives in the year, falling to 42 in 1954. From 1948 to 1956 the works made 452 steam engines to GWR designs, partly in parallel with producing 200 BR standard classes
The BR Standard steam locomotives were an effort to standardize locomotives from the motley collection of older pre-grouping locos. Construction started in 1951. Due to the controversial British Railways' modernisation plan of 1955, where steam tr ...
from 1951 until 1960.
The decision in 1960 to move BR's main motive power from steam to diesel bought the works both new lines of employment and an end to an old one. The works became the southern UK's regional hub for the storage and scrapping of steam locomotives and rolling stock, a role which later expanded to all scrap railwayana in light of the Beeching axe
The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...
. However, it also brought about an end to steam locomotive production, with the works producing BR's last steam locomotive 92220 ''Evening Star'', by which time the works only employed 5,000.
Much of the original design and specification for the first Mark 2
Mark 2 is the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. In this chapter, the first arguments between Jesus and other Jewish religious teachers appear. Jesus heals a paralyzed man and forgives his sins, m ...
carriages and bogies was carried out by the Engineering drawing office at Swindon in the early 1960s. The B4 bogie used on this carriage provided more reliable high speed running than that under the previous generation Mark 1
Mark 1 is the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.
Text
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 45 verses.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts conta ...
carriage and heralded the higher running speeds brought in with the start of InterCity
InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...
services and the West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
electrification.
Decline and closure
The future of the works had been defined by the GWR's post-WW2 choice to develop its new diesel-powered experimental locomotives using diesel-hydraulic transmission systems rather than diesel-electric. As a result, from 1957 the works produced 38 ''"Warship"'' class D800s and 30 ''Western'' class D1000s. However, early diesel production followed previous steam locomotive construction strategy, resulting in numerous classes with short production runs and a resultant high maintenance cost in traffic. With the Beeching Axe
The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...
strategy of reshaping BR towards inter-city traffic, the need for many of these diesel-powered classes was removed. A decision was also made to specify all new classes of locomotive with diesel-electric transmission, making the works' specialist diesel-hydraulic knowledge redundant.
As a result, with scrapping rolling stock keeping employment levels at the works high, a decision was made to cease building new locomotives at Swindon, and to reassign the works to become a heavy repair facility. Building of locomotives finished in 1965 with construction of the Class 14 diesel-hydraulic locomotives. Locomotive repairs and carriage and wagon work continued, though the original carriage and wagon workshop was sold.
After the works became part of BR's integrated British Rail Engineering Ltd (BREL), it won less and less maintenance business against the internal competition of Crewe
Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...
and Derby Works
The Derby Works comprised a number of British manufacturing facilities designing and building locomotives and rolling stock in Derby, England. The first of these was a group of three maintenance sheds opened around 1840 behind Derby station. Th ...
. With the town of Swindon expanding and needing land close to its centre for development, the decision was made to close the works. The final day of operation was 26 March 1986.
Between 2000 and 2006, the rolling chassis of GWR no.7200 was restored in the former iron foundry (J Shop), making it the final Great Western steam locomotive to receive attention at the works.
Present
The redevelopment of the works took account of the listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
status of the original core infrastructure. One building currently houses the Swindon Steam Railway Museum
STEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway, also known as Swindon Steam Railway Museum, is housed in part of the former railway works in Swindon, England – Wiltshire's 'railway town'. The museum opened in 2000.
The site
The museum is ...
, dedicated to the works and the GWR. The engineers' office is now the headquarters of English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
, with most of the remaining buildings redeveloped as part of the Designer Outlet Village. The rest of the site's extensive railway yard was redeveloped on a mixed-use basis, some for housing and some for commercial buildings including purpose-built storage for the English Heritage Archive
The Historic England Archive is the public archive of Historic England, located in The Engine House on Fire Fly Avenue in Swindon, formerly part of the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway.
It is a public archive of architectural and arch ...
and the National Trust's central office building known as Heelis
Heelis is the central office of the National Trust, in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. Heelis was the married name of Beatrix Potter, one of the key figures in the early history of the National Trust.
It was built in 2005 by Feilden Clegg Bradley St ...
.
Superintendents and Chief Engineers
* Sir Daniel Gooch, Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent 1837–1864
* Joseph Armstrong, Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent 1864–1877
* Major William Dean, Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent 1877–1902
* G. J. Churchward, Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent 1902–1916, and Chief Mechanical Engineer 1916–1921
* C. B. Collett, Chief Mechanical Engineer 1921–1941
* F. W. Hawksworth, Chief Mechanical Engineer 1941–1949
Organisation
A great many different activities were carried out within the works and most of the components used to make locomotives, carriages and wagons were made on site. The works were organised into a number of shops:-
See also
* Locomotives of the Great Western Railway
The first Locomotives of the Great Western Railway (GWR) were specified by Isambard Kingdom Brunel but Daniel Gooch was soon appointed as the railway's Locomotive Superintendent. He designed several different broad gauge types for the growing r ...
* St Mark's Church, Swindon, built for the works' employees
References
*
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
{{Commons category, Swindon Works
List of preserved steam locomotives built by Swindon Works
STEAM museum
''Jobs on the Line''
– BBC TV documentary about Swindon Works and the redundancy threats in 1982
''Requiem for a Railway''
– Three-part BBC TV documentary from the mid-80s about Swindon Works and the closure
Rail transport in Wiltshire
Great Western Railway
Locomotive manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Works
Works may refer to:
People
* Caddy Works (1896–1982), American college sports coach
* Samuel Works (c. 1781–1868), New York politician
Albums
* '' ''Works'' (Pink Floyd album)'', a Pink Floyd album from 1983
* ''Works'', a Gary Burton album ...
Railway workshops in Great Britain
Manufacturing plants in England
Isambard Kingdom Brunel buildings and structures
1843 establishments in England
1986 disestablishments in England