'Swindon and Its Railway Connections' by Reg Palk

IMechE Dorchester Area Lecture Review ‘Swindon and its Railway Connections’ by Reg Palk 18th June 2009, Weymouth College ‘Swindon and its Railway Connections’ presented by Reg Palk, a Swindon railway museum volunteer, held at Weymouth College on the 18th June 2009 was an informative and light hearted lecture for all those interested in Swindon and its railway heritage. The lecture commenced at 7pm and was well attended by an audience of approximate 30. With the aid of slides, Reg described the history of Swindon Railway Works which opened in January 1843 as a repair and maintenance facility for the new Great Western Railway (GWR). By 1900 the works had expanded dramatically and employed over 12,000 people and at its peak in the 1930s, the works covered over 300 acres and capable of producing three locomotives a week. The ‘STEAM - Museum of the Great Western Railway’, tells the story of the men and women who built, operated and travelled on the GWR, a network that through the pioneering vision of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) and others such as Sir Daniel Gooch (1816-1889) was regarded as the most advanced in the world. In 1840, Daniel Gooch, locomotive superintendent of the GWR, wrote to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the railway's chief engineer. The letter he wrote proved decisive in Swindon's history changing it from the small market town of ‘Swindon on the hill’ with its associated canal junction into a town at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. The letter from Gooch put forward his proposal for the building of the Great Western's much-needed engine works at Swindon. Not only was Gooch responsible for the building of the GWR railway works at Swindon, but he also appealed to the directors of the GWR in the mid 1840s for the appointment of a doctor with free lodgings, leading to the formation of the Swindon Medical Fund, which later became the model for the National Health Service in 1948. In 1865 he was appointed Chairman of the GWR, a position he retained until his death in 1889. In the same year he became MP for the Cricklade constituency which included Swindon and represented the area for 20 years. As an aside, Gooch In 1865-66, using Brunel's steamship, the Great Eastern, also successfully laid the first transatlantic cable. Gooch’s association with railways began when he worked for Robert Stephenson (1803-1859) and had designed Russian railways before meeting Brunel. Gooch shared with Brunel a passion for broad gauge railways with a gauge of 7’ ¼”. Unfortunately, Brunel and Gooch eventually lost "The Battle of the Gauges" and in 1892 Standard Gauge (4’ 8½”) was adopted by the GWR. Reg went on to describe how the railway dominated the fortunes of Swindon until the end of the Second World War, when new industries moved to the area. The last steam locomotive for British Railways ‘Evening Star’ was built at Swindon in 1960 and marked a watershed in the history of the works, which finally closed in 1986. The museum of the GWR was established in 1962 and is now housed in a beautifully restored Grade II railway building in the heart of the former Swindon railway works. It consists of a number of former works buildings the earliest structure being the 1846 machine and fitting shop. The works ‘Scraggery’ is now the entrance hall to the museum, retaining its queen-post roof and some of the original windows. To the south is the much modified blacksmith's shop, also dating from 1846. The main body of the museum was a machine and turning shop created when the GWR roofed over a courtyard between the original Brunel Engine House of 1843 and the 1846 machine and fitting shop. Audience participation during the lecture initiated reminiscing and stimulating conversations relating to Swindon, the Railway Works and the GWR in general. Although Reg had many more interesting facts and stories of his own experiences he could have presented, the lecture drew to a close at approximately 8:15pm. .

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