Great Western Swindon

For almost 150 years, the influence of the Great Western Railway's workshops in Swindon extended well beyond the great walls which surrounded most of the complex, which at its height, covered over 320 acres. Although the works has now closed, its influence on the town it helped to create is as strong as ever.

In this collection of old photographs drawn from the archives of the GWR Museum in Swindon, the reader is taken on a photographic tour of the great workshops, and the huge variety of activities which went on in the factory are well illustrated with many evocative pictures, mainly covering the period between 1900 and 1960. Swindon was justly famous for the quality of the locomotives and rolling stock it produced, but this book also tells the story of the men behind the machines. Rare and unpublished photographs show something of life for the railway worker both inside and outside the works, and it is hoped that this selection will give the reader some idea of what it was like to live in what many see as the archetypal 'Railway Town'.

Tim Bryan spent twenty-one years working as curator at the GWR and STEAM museums in Swindon and is now Head of Collections at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon. He is the author of more than fifteen books, and many articles on railway and heritage topics.