Swindon Works: The Legend E-Book

Rosa Matheson

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 210

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

The age of steam is past, the heyday of Swindon Works is long gone – but the legend lives on. What made the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works iconic? Was it its worldwide reputation; perhaps its profound impact in shaping the new town of Swindon; or that it melded those who worked there into one big family? In a new and exciting format, this book, by popular railway historian Rosa Matheson, helps explain why the never-ending love story endures. With big facts and fascinating stories, it is a must read not only for ex-Works employees and their families, nor just for GWR fans and railway enthusiasts, but also for any newcomer seeking to find a good way into railway history.

Leseprobe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I always love this part of the book, acknowledging the kind and generous help given by friends old and new. It pleases me that my books are a collaboration of shared passion.

So once again warm appreciation goes to Elaine Arthurs, archivist at STEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway; to Daryl Moody, Lead, Local Studies at Town Centre Library; and Sophie Cummings, Curator at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. All couldn’t have been more helpful. Thanks to Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre and to those at St John’s Ambulance HQ.

BIG thanks to good friends and fellow authors who always give encouragement and assistance – Rev. Canon Brian Arman, Ken Gibbs and Andy Binks. Special thanks to John Walters and Bob Townsend, whose knowledge, resources and generosity have helped many books be achieved, mine included; not forgetting the Thursday morning gang in STEAM Museum and those at the Thursday Railwaymen/women’s Club; as always, couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks also to the ‘enthusiasts’ who let me quote from their websites – John Ward, Andrew Grantham and Brian Basterfield. Special thanks to my mate-in-crime, Jack Hayward, always there for me no matter what, and to the ‘Friends’ on Swindon Works Training School Facebook page for their enthusiasm and responsiveness. An acknowledgement of the work of Alfred Williams must also be added.

Appreciation to my commissioning editor, Amy Rigg, for her boldness and willingness to help make this happen and my publishers for their sense of adventure in trying something new. As writers and publishers of history we have, I believe, a duty to bring this history to new and younger audiences, as well as faithful followers, so that the history of their forebears will not be lost so we try something ‘new’.

The last thanks, as always, go to my wonderful family for their continued support and interest in my railway work, particularly grandson Evan, whose passion for railways – ‘diesels, signals and points and signal boxes’ – gives us both a great deal of pleasure.

CONTENTS

Title

Acknowledgements

Swindon Works: The Beginning …

1    W

HAT WAS

S

WINDON

W

ORKS

?

Swindon Works was …

In the Words of …

Many Things

In the Words of Writers and Commentators

Men of Calibre

Iconic Steam Engines

Plans 1900–56

Workshops

Steam and Diesel

1981 Plan

Railwaymen

2    F

ASCINATING

F

ACTS

AND

F

IGURES

Numbers: The Workforce

Names and Trades

Apprenticeships

Visitors

Locomotives: An Enthusiast’s Record

Diesels Made in Swindon

The Offices

Clerks

Clerks: What Did They Do?

3    

M

YTHS

AND

L

EGENDS

The ‘Legend’

Letters or Numbers?

One Big ‘Family’

‘The Hooter’

‘Foreigners’

Women

Nicknames

Insiders’ Code

The Foremen: ‘Tin Gods in Bowler Hats!’

P and R

The Tunnel

4    T

HE

N

OT

-S

O

-G

OOD

B

ITS

Conditions

Fatal Accidents

Industrial Injuries

Closure

In the Words of Those Who Were There

Timeline and Milestones

Bibliography

Copyright

SWINDON WORKS:THE BEGINNING …

The starting point was the fact that the Great Western Railway Company was in need of a factory to repair its bought-in locomotive rolling stock. The Board of Directors gave the task of finding the location for such an establishment to their young engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and he gave the job to Daniel Gooch, his assistant but who was to become the first Locomotive Superintendent at Swindon Works. In the words of Daniel Gooch:

1840. During this year further portions of the Great Western were opened and agreements were made for leasing the Bristol and Exeter and the Swindon and Cheltenham Railways, and it became necessary to furnish large works for the repair, etc., of our stock. I was called upon to report on the best situation to build these works, and on full consideration I reported in favour of Swindon, it being the junction with the Cheltenham branch and also a convenient division of the Great Western line for the engine working. Mr. Brunel and I went to look at the ground, then only green fields, and he agreed with me as to its being the best place.

1841 plan.

Gooch then wrote to Brunel in September 1840 that, having put his mind to the task of the best site for the ‘principal engine establishment’ and having ‘studied the convenience of the Great Western Railway, only’:

an engine establishment at Swindon commensurate with the wants of the Company, where a change of engines may be advantageously made … The establishment there would also comprehend the large repairing shops for the Locomotive Department.

J.C. Bourne’s iconic lithograph of the engine house at Swindon in 1846. A ‘Firefly’ class locomotive stands on the traverser receiving attention from ‘the mechanicals’ or ‘mechanicians’.

His recommendation was endorsed by the directors, who on 25 February 1841 authorised the construction of such a depot at Swindon in the following words:

Decide to provide an engine establishment at Swindon commensurate with the wants of the Company, where a change of engines may be advantageously made and the trains stopped for the purpose of passengers taking refreshment. The establishment there would also comprehend the large repairing shops for the Locomotive Department.

and sometime shortly after, work began.

1

WHATWAS SWINDON WORKS?

Swindon Works was …

INTHE WORDSOF …

In the words of Works employee, Alfred Williams, as stated in the title of his iconic book (1915), it was simply:

The Railway Factory.

In the words of Sir Daniel Gooch, then Locomotive Superintendent, in 1847:

Swindon [Works] has been designed and built to employ 1,800–2,000 men, and all the arrangements of tools and shops have been made to employ that number of men to the best advantage …

For most the Works is always thought of in three sections – Locomotive. Carriage. Wagon. Locomotive came first. Carriage and Wagon came together later, and so are always said in one breath but, in the words of Astill’s Almanac and Trade Guide:New Swindon 1872 – it is something other:

The G.W.R. Railway Works are situated on the north side of the Main Line. The three Establishments constituting what is known as ‘the Works’, viz: The Locomotive Works, The Carriage Manufacturing Department, and The Rail Mills are carried on under one general management and are unique in their arrangements.

In the words of the Company’s General Manager Frank Potter in 1910:

Swindon [Works] throughout the Great Western Railway and in many other quarters beside, is a synonym for all the qualities and characteristics which were associated with the broad-gauge – thoroughness, solidity and substantiality – and the expression of that idea is to be found today, in this, the seventy-fifth year of the GWR, wherever the locomotives, the vehicles, or appliances of any kind, manufactured at Swindon, are in use. It does not matter how small or comparatively trifling the article maybe, if it has been made at Swindon, it needs no legend to be stamped upon it to indicate the place of its origin or manufacture.

In the words of Mrs Violet Joynes, who worked ‘Inside’ during the Second World War, it was:

A town within a town – it had its own buses and bus stops even!

In the words of two who worked there in its dying decades of the 1970s and ’80s:

Nigel George: The centre of a much loved empire.

Mark Buckley: An engineering and manufacturing powerhouse; a school of knowledge; a family. A way of life!

Whilst in the words of Ian Williams (the great-great nephew of the aforesaid Alfred Williams):

The Works was one huge storybook where almost everyone knew everyone someway or other.

MANY THINGS …

Swindon Works was originally a depot for stabling engines which were changed at Swindon before the train continued on to Bristol; its workshops were for their maintenance and repair work.

Swindon Works was Great Western Railway Company (1841), British Railways Western Region (1948), British Railway Workshops (1962), British Railway Engineering Ltd (1970).

Swindon Works was Broad Gauge, Standard Gauge, Steam and Diesel.

Swindon Works was sheds, shops, foundries, mills, stores, laundry, offices, sidings, ‘houses’, ‘works’, yards, turntables, bus routes, tunnels, bridges.

Swindon Works was people: artisans, mechanics, contractors, machinemen, apprentices, tradesmen, engineers, female sewers, firemen, shunters, labourers, boiler-makers, helpers, strikers, under-chargemen, chargemen, under-foremen, foremen, managers, checkies, clockies, shop clerks, office clerks, female clerks, draughtsmen, messenger boys and girls, Chief Clerks, Works’ Managers, Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon Superintendents, CMEs, CM&EE.

Swindon Works was apprenticeships and training – acknowledged worldwide.

Swindon Works was a way to work – ‘there was everyone else’s way and there was Swindon’s way.’

INTHE WORDSOF WRITERSAND COMMENTATORS

1847

We cannot pretend to go through the works in details for ours was but a flying visit. The works are of a vast extent, and when the meal time is announced, and the men turn out to attend the sober duties of the victualing office, you are astonished at their number. An entire regiment of comfortable, well-clad and intelligent men, bear evidence of ‘a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work’. They are one thousand in number. The works is divided into different departments. The machinery is of the most ingenious and powerful description.

Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, 25 February

1852

Swindon, all-important Swindon; who that knows aught of railways, or railway travelling, has not heard of Swindon’s world-wide reputation … for the vastness of its workshops and engine-depot.

George Measom, publisher and philanthropist,Illustrated Guide to the Great Western Railway

1861

It seems the works are beginning to assume the importance which those qualified to judge had for years stated must be the result of the plant, already established, in the immense pile of buildings, which had, however, for years had little activity in them. The time, however, has, it appears, arrived, and the workshops are rapidly filling with men. Further, there have been within the past few months great additions to the works in the shape of ‘rolling mills’ (we believe they are called) for railway metals.

‘The Great Western Railway Works at Swindon’, Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, 2 May

1890

Certainly the largest centre of railway industry in England, and probably in the world. [A proud boast that would be repeated down several decades!]

The Great Western Railway Magazine, November

1933

I had never been to Swindon before and all I knew about it was that the Great Western Railway had its chief works there and that it made the best railway engines in the world.

Writer J.B. Priestley, on visiting the town

1950

The whole works covers 326 acres, a formidable figure for intending visitors. To see the locomotive shops thoroughly involves a walk of some 71/2 miles. … were the Works transferred to the north Thames embankment in London they would stretch from Waterloo Bridge to Vauxhall Bridge. At the same time the gas works would trespass across St James Park to Pall Mall, the foundry would be on the site of Westminster Abbey and the carriage stock shed would lie across the Tate Gallery.

British Machine Tool Engineering, April–June

1983

Swindon Works was one of the largest single assets of the GWR and its fortunes and misfortunes through the years were closely connected with the short-term and overall policy of the Board of directors of the Company at any period.

Alan Peck, The Great Western at Swindon Works

MENOF CALIBRE

Men who put Swindon Works ‘on the map’:

Locomotive Superintendent

Daniel Gooch

1837–1864

Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon Superintendent

Joseph Armstrong

1864–1877

William Dean

1877–1902

George Jackson Churchward

1902–1916

Chief Mechanical Engineer

George Jackson Churchward

1916–1921

Charles Benjamin Collett

1922–1941

Frederick William Hawksworth

1941–1949

Mechanical & Electrical Engineer

K.J. Cook

1950–1951

R.A. Smeddle

1951–1956

Carriage & Wagon Engineer

H. Randle

1950–1951

C.A. Roberts

1951–1956

Chief Mechanical & Electrical Engineer

Robert Alfred Smeddle        1956–1962

Locomotive Works’ Managers

G.J. Churchward

1896–1901

F.C. Wright

1901–1902

H.C. King

1902–1913

C.B. Collett

1913 –1920

W.A. Stanier

1920 –1922

R.G. Hannington

1922–1937

K.J. Cook

1937–1947

H. Randle

1947–1948

C.T. Roberts

1948–1952

J. Finlayson

1952–1956

A.S. Smith

1956–1960

S. Ridgway

1960–1962

Carriage & Wagon Works’ Managers

T.G. Clayton

1868–1873

J. Holden

1873–1885

C.J. Churchward

1885–1895

L.R. Thomas

1895–1901

T.O. Hogarth

1901–1902

F. Marillier

1902–1920

C.C. Champeney

1929–1922

H.G. Hannington

1922–

E.T.J. Evans

1922–1946

H. Randle

1946–1947

C.T. Roberts

1947–1948

H.G. Johnson

1948–1962

Chief Works’ Manager

J.S. Scott

1962–1967

Locomotive Works’ Manager

H.W. Mear

1962–1967

Carriage & Wagon Works’ Manager

E.T. Butcher

1962–1963

Works’ Managers

H.W. Mear

1967–1972

H.R. Roberts

1972–1981

H. Taylor

1981–1986

WHO IS MISSING?

One notable GWR name is missing from the above listings: Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The reason for this is that Brunel played no role in the internal management of the Works and visited it but a few times, and rarely once he stopped designing engines. The significant role he did play in the Works was as an architect.

ICONIC STEAM ENGINES

Great Western 2-2-2

Iconic broad gauge engine

  Designed by [Sir] Daniel Gooch to the GWR’s Board demand ‘to build a colossal locomotive working at full speed’ – by working day and night it took only thirteen weeks from drawing board to final testing.

  First complete build by GWR at Swindon Works. Outshopped April 1846.

  1 June 1846 ran Paddington to Exeter – 194 miles in 208 minutes – returned in 211 minutes.

  Wheel arrangement 2-2-2 – outside slotted sandwich frames – wheelbase 8’0” + 8’0”.

  Massive driving wheels 8ft in diameter.

  Later wheel arrangement altered to 4-2-2.

  Its basic design became basis of the GWR’s Broad Gauge express locomotive stock.

  Worked for twenty-four years.

  Scrapped (unbelievably) December 1870 – after running more than 370,000 miles.

The Lord of the Isles 4-2-2

Daniel Gooch’s most famous and celebrated engine

  Broad Gauge ‘Iron Duke’ Class – for Express Passenger work.

  Twenty-two engines in this class were built at Swindon Works. Lord of the Isles, built March 1851, was the last …

  and the fastest and most powerful Broad Gauge locomotive. ‘It was the Concorde of its day’, to quote Brian Arman, Broad Gauge author and expert.

  Certainly Gooch’s most exhibited engine – at the Great Exhibition, Hyde Park 1851, Edinburgh 1890, Chicago, USA, 1893, and finally Earl’s Court 1897.

  With its symmetry of design and excellent performance it has been called ‘one of the handsomest engines ever constructed’.

  Famous 8ft driving wheels.

  Two pairs of leading wheels and one pair of trailing wheels 4ft 6in in diameter.

  18in x 24in cylinders,

  Working steam pressure of 115lb.

  Tenders with water capacity of 1,760 gallons.

  Ran 789,300 miles with original boiler intact.

  Started work July 1852. Withdrawn from service 1884.

  Broken up 1906 after several rejections for preservation.

City of Truro 4-4-0

World Record Breaker

  A 3400 City Class (later renumbered 3700) designed by G.J. Churchward and built in 1903.

  No. 3440 later became renumbered 3717. Because of its historical significance City of Truro has been preserved.

  9 May 1904 – the first locomotive to reach and pass the magic number 100 miles per hour! From Plymouth to Bristol, pulling five large eight-wheeled vans carrying around 1,300 large bags of ‘ocean mail’ making an estimated load of 148 tons not including engine and tender, between Whiteball Tunnel to Wellington.

  Just west of Taunton, reached its top speed of 102.3mph! (164.6 km/h) as registered by independent timekeeper Charles Rous-Marten, who wrote for the Railway Magazine (this speed was and is challenged).

King George V 4-6-0

A GWR Giant

  Designed and produced by C.B. Collett CBE, Chief Mechanical Engineer.

  The ‘first’ in this exciting new ‘King’ Class Express Passenger Locomotive, No. 6000, named after the reigning King. Others would be named after previous kings in backward chronological order.

  Named by some as ‘weighty-puffers’ as, because of their tonnage, they had to be restricted from some lines.

(David Hyde Collection)

  Made to a deadline to be GWR’s standard bearer at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Centenary, it required three-shift working around the clock on some components but was completed within the six months. Then she had to be partially dismantled again for the boat trip! Chargeman Fred Williams and Fitter George Dando, who had built her, went over to do the re-assemble.

  Maiden trip on the Cornish Riviera Express in July 1927.

  ‘The greatest and most powerful locomotive ever constructed in this country.’ – The North Devon Journal, 7 July 1927.

The Great Bear 4-6-2

A Stand Alone Engine

  1908 ‘Pacific’ No. 111 – the first of this type to be used on British rails and remained the only one for fourteen years. The ‘one-and-only’ produced by GWR.

  Designed by G.J. Churchward, whose aim was ‘to develop a boiler that would be much in advance of the GWR’s traffic department later needs’ (according to O.S. Nock), the enormous boiler had a length of 23ft and a diameter of 5ft 6in.

  The locomotive with a weight of 97+ tons had a nominal tractive effort of 27,800lb.

  A ‘Special Red’ coding restricted it to the Paddington to Bristol run because of its heavy axle loading.

  Desired for prestige by the Board of Directors, loved by railway enthusiasts, disliked by Collet, it had a mighty presence and glamour appeal.

  Withdrawn in 1924 and parts used to build a 4-6-0 in the Castle Class, and given the name Viscount Churchill although it retained its number – No. 111. It was withdrawn in July 1953.

The much loved and historic Evening Star.

DID YOU KNOW?

‘A’ SHOP

1900

New ‘A’ shop – GWR Board allocated a massive £33,000 – housing Erecting, Fitting and Repairs as well as Boiler and Machine shops.

The Engineer on the 1904 visit of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers:

New Erecting Shop (480 feet by 306 feet). This is the latest and most up-to-date building in the works. It is equipped throughout with electric power. There are two electric traversers and four rows of engine pits holding 80 locomotives. The western row of 20 pits is used for new work, and the others for repairing passenger engines. There are four overhead hydraulic electric cranes, each having two 25-ton lifts and two 21-ton quick lifts. The heavy lifts are by hydraulic power, worked by 8-H.P. electric pumps. There are independent motors for traversing movements, 33 H.P. and 2.5 H.P. Compressed air is available at any point in the shop, and is in general use. The shop is lighted by 700 c.p. are-lamps, and by glow-lamps at the benches and pits. Gas is also laid on. Capacity-80 to 90 DOW engines and 500 repaired engines per annum.

1935

Grace’s Guide – British Industrial History: ‘Swindon Works and its Place in Great Western Railway History’:

The principal shop is the ‘A’ Erecting and Machine Shop, the area of which is 502,975 square feet, and undoubtedly this is one of the finest locomotive shops in the world. The main idea underlying its planning was to provide for progressive operations connected with locomotive erecting, fitting, and wheeling.

It really comprises four sections, known respectively as ‘A’ Erecting Shop, ‘A’ Machine and Fitting Shop, ‘A’ Boiler Shop, and ‘A’ Wheel Shop. [A(E), A(M), A(V), A(W)]

PLANS 1900–56

1900 plan.

1956 plan.

WORKSHOPS – STEAM ERA

Nineteenth-century ‘Age of Steam’ Iron Foundry where dirt floors, hot fires, molten metals, toxic fumes, nauseous smells, even explosions, made it a most hazardous place. No wonder the Works’ cats wouldn’t stay there! This early photograph of the south bay, where small castings were made, shows foundrymen preparing moulding boxes ready for the pour. Molten iron was brought along the walkway from the cupola at the far end of the foundry in crucibles on trolleys to make the pour. On the left is the shop office where the clerical staff, workshop inspectors and the foremen were accommodated.

WORKSHOPS – DIESEL ERA

Twentieth-century Iron Foundry (north bay) in the ‘Age of Diesel’, becomes 9 Shop – a transformation – now so clean compared to its previous existence. Even the ‘smells’ would have changed! Here we can see power units and transmission from various locomotives. Items at front right – two automatic gear boxes, two reconditioned AEC 1,500hp diesel horizontal engines and second trailer is of crankshafts of either cleaned or machined DMUs. (David Hyde Collection)

STEAM AND DIESEL

In the mighty A Shop c. 1930s in the Age of Steam Locomotives – Class 6100 2-6-2T side tank engines Nos 6159 and 6157 under construction. The batch 6150–6159 had a small but significant alteration to the original design in the use of 225psi boiler pressure, which increased the tractive effort from 24,300lb to 27,340lb.

The AE (Erecting) Shop, during the 1960s. Dieselisation was to change the railway scene forever, which eventually brought dramatic physical changes to the workshops, particularly in respect of cleanliness. Immediate front is a D7000 series ‘Hymech’. Made in the Works with a Maybach V16-cylinder engine (1,750bhp), it was used mainly for pulling freight. Behind this is the ‘Western’ series, which had two Maybach engines each developing 1,350bhp. D1031 Western Rifleman lines up in front of D1000 Western Advocate. All main line services would be pulled by these new locos.

1981 plan.

RAILWAYMEN

Railwaymen in the ‘Age of Steam’

These men – Boulton, C. Whateley, H. Blake, W. Bullock, J. Cook, J. Lintern, J. Knox, I. Brown, H. Hinder (these names were hand-written in this order on the back of the photograph, presumably by Hooper), staring boldly at the new phenomena of a camera, being photographed by William Hooper, a fellow railwayman, circa early 1900s in Brunel’s B Shed – worked at the cutting edge of technology delivering GWR’s ground-breaking steam engines. (Paul Williams’ Hooper Collection)

Railwaymen in the ‘Age of Diesel’

Diesel engines required a new set of skills. The new Diesel Engine Shop was, ironically, started up in the old B Shed, and became BD Shop – the shop of the ‘new-era’. Roger Hayes, left, measuring a connecting rod bearing and John Smith, right, examining the piston, which have just been removed from the very first Maybach 1,100bhp 12-cylinder engine re-conditioned in the Works 1961.

DID YOU KNOW?

TESTING PLANT – THE FIRSTIN EUROPE

In 1904 the first Locomotive Testing Plant in Europe was built in the Works, designed by G.J. Churchward, then Locomotive Carriage & Wagon Superintendent. The Great Western Railway Magazine wrote.

It consists of a ‘bed’ made of cast iron, bolted on a concrete foundation with timber baulks interspersed for the lessening of the vibrations. … intended not only for the purpose of scientific experiment but also to do away with trial trips of new and repaired engines.

It had five pairs of carrying wheels that were adjusted to suit different locomotives by racks and pinions driven by an electric motor. The axles of these wheels had band-brakes, water-cooled, and worked by small hydraulic cylinders, which were supplied by a motor driven return-flow pump.

It was rebuilt in 1936 and special additions and moderations over the decades facilitated extensive advancements and developments.

2

FASCINATING FACTSAND FIGURES

Numbers: The Workforce

1843

The Works employed 423 men, of which 72 were highly skilled engineers. (Daniel Gooch, diary)

The PRO holds a document that identifies the first railwaymen engaged at the Works in 1843:

Foremen

  6

Clerks (Time Office and Stores)

14

Enginemen

48

Firemen

50

Stationary Enginemen

  3

Cleaners, Coke men, Labourers, etc.

65

Fitters & Erectors

55

Turners

10

Contractors

60

Men at Machines

  7

Carpenters and plumbers

  6

Coppersmiths

  2

Brass Foundrymen

  1

Blacksmiths

14

Springmakers

  2

Strikers

14

Boilermakers & Wheelmakers

  4

Painters

  2

General Labourers

25

Boys

35

1847

By 1847 the number of workmen had increased to 1,800.

1848

The Great Western Railway Company have discharged 250 men from their Works and the whole of the men employed at their factory are now working on short-time, and probably the men will have to remain on short-time the whole of the winter.

Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette