1908-1964 Great Western Railway Photograph Album

Description

Illustrated, Original Binding, Original Source, Very Scarce

An annotation to on image reads 'I served my time in this shop as a fitter & turner Aug. 1946-Aug. 1951'.

Images depict the turning and drilling bays, the frame building bays, the general machining section, carriage fitting benches, and the underframe fitting bay within the Swindon Works, the principal Great Western Railway maintenance centre between 1843 and 1986.

Illustrated with eighty photographs mounted on eighty-eight leaves, and with seven further loosely inserted photographs.

The earliest photographs present include a depiction of the 'royal train at West London for Funeral of King Edward VII 20th May 1910', and a 1908 image of the Royal Train at Badminton.

Trains photographed include the Caerphilly Castle at Swindon works, and there are images of trains at Bulls Bridge, Hayes, and of the auto train for Staines at the Colmbrook Station in 1954.

Images also depict a JCB digging and laying tracks, and the interior of the Swindon Great Western Railway works.

A number of these images are accompanied by captions, while some photographs bear the stamp of the British Railways (Western Region) Chief Engineer's Office Photographing Dept. to the reverse.

Loosely inserted is a 1957 leaflet advertising a 'New Diesel Express Service' running between Birmingham, Cardiff and Swansea.

A truly fascinating collection of photographs depicting the development of the Great Western Railway over the course of the first half of the twentieth century.