The Steam Workshops of the Great Western Railway E-Book

Ken Gibbs

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

Seitenzahl: 232

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

The nineteenth century was a time of innovation and expansion across the industrial landscape, and nowhere more so than on the railways, as the new age of iron, steel and steam, literally, gathered pace. At the head of the race up was the iconic Great Western Railway. As this mighty corporation grew, it absorbed an astonishing 353 railway companies. Many of them had their own workshops, depots and manufacturing, often assembling locomotives to the designs of other companies. All these, along with the various designs, became the responsibility of the GWR on takeover, and followed its standardisation of components where this was possible. These works became the beating heart of the GWR's vast empire, where majestic engines were built and maintained by some of the most skillful and inventive engineers of the day. Retired GWR railwayman Ken Gibbs presents a comprehensive portrait of the works from Brunel to the final days of steam in the mid-twentieth century, and beyond to the rediscovery and renovation of many of the workshops for their unique heritage.

Leseprobe

To all ‘Craftsmen in Steam’. In grateful memory of those past, in support of those present, and with every good wish for those yet to come (and come they will!)

Contents

Title

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART 1

1 Facilities for Maintenance and Construction

PART 2

1 The Developing Influence of the GWR and its Two Main Workshops at Swindon and Stafford Road, Wolverhampton

2 The Stafford Road Works, Wolverhampton

PART 3

1 Taff Vale Workshops, West Yard Cardiff Docks, 1845–1926

2 The Bristol and Exeter Railway Workshops

3 Monmouthshire Railway & Canal Company

4 Cambrian Railway Works, Oswestry, 1865

5 Caerphilly Works

6 Newton Abbot Works – South Devon Railway, Absorbed by GWR in 1876

7 Carn Brea, Cornwall – West Cornwall Railway

8 Worcester Workshops

9 Some Other Miscellaneous Maintenance Facilities

PART 4

1 Maintenance facilities

2 Steam Locomotive Builders and Repairers Associated with the GWR and its Constituent Companies

Summary

Copyright

Acknowledgements

During my Great Western years, many friendships and contacts were made, and over the years some have fallen away whilst others have been maintained. This compilation of Steam Workshops of the Great Western has seen the reinforcement of old friendships and the renewal of some lost for a long period. New contacts have been made, and from many directions assistance has been afforded from old and new sources, with a notebook from here and a piece of paper from there, all coming together in this presentation of Steam Workshops of the Great Western Railway.

For omissions I can only apologise, but a great deal which has appeared, whether forms, photos or drawings, has sprung from many sources, and from odd items stored as souvenirs for many years by many people. Many now, like the author, are in their eighties! And some are no longer with us. Sincere thanks to all.

Ken Gibbs

LCGI (Mech. Eng.)

2014

Introduction

In my book The Great Western Railway – How it Grew, I introduced the reader to the constituent companies absorbed, developed, altered or put out of business by the expanding Great Western Railway (GWR). Included were details of the locomotive stocks affected by the takeover and the modifications using, where appropriate, standard Great Western fittings.

This book explains those notes with details of the locomotive maintenance and building facilities which came with, or were developed from or for the maintenance, building or rebuilding of those locomotives. The main GWR workshops at Swindon have been covered many times (but are included briefly here for continuity), whilst other facilities are rarely, if ever, mentioned in detail. It is intended that this book will fill a blank space in the current railway literature range, which already covers goods’ sheds and goods’ yards, along with running sheds, railway station architecture and civil engineering bridges, viaducts, etc.

Many of the buildings have now, taking Swindon as an example, been developed into shopping malls and commercial areas, or have disappeared in a cloud of demolition dust, as has Swindon’s mighty 11.5-acre ‘A’ Shop steam locomotive repair and maintenance complex. One remaining original workshop (the old ‘R’ machine and fitting shop) now houses STEAM, the Museum of the Great Western Railway.

At other sites on the system, a number of the lesser workshops have survived, and have become part of the preserved/heritage railway scene, now in use for really far more than they were originally designed in the formative years, staffed usually by unpaid volunteers and railway enthusiasts.

These shops are often now accompanied by new or refurbished buildings housing the maintenance and rebuilding of the heritage carriage and wagon rolling stock, completing the total railway aspect.

At Swindon, this portion of the works was abandoned in 1964 and the maintenance of C & W stock combined and transferred to the locomotive workshops, now greatly reduced from the original layout, the whole ending in 1987 when the works closed. The remains are now a shopping mall and museum.

This book thus outlines the story and history of the founding, development, growth and eventual fate of the workshops associated with the development and demise of the GWR in its steam years.

Ken Gibbs

Facilities for Maintenance and Construction

Thumbnail Sketches of Main Works and Facilities

From the early days, the proliferation of railways indicated very rapidly a missing ingredient in their make-up. Lines were laid to approved routes, locomotives and running stock obtained, finances (sometimes!) well organised, schedules for passenger and goods traffic arranged. And then arose ‘maintenance’!

Having got the stock, the day-to-day running could be covered (the driver could always nip around with his long-spouted oil can!), but for deeper maintenance other facilities would be required. For the very heavy repairs there was always the manufacturer, but for general routine maintenance it seems the general philosophy was that if it was ignored, a problem would go away. Nothing really changes. Even today ‘maintenance’ is one of the least acceptable expenses.

In the early days, the problems were certainly worse, in that few could do the craft work, and often there was nowhere to actually work anyway. It was with some companies often with great reluctance that even the engine shed was built, let alone workshops, and there are on record several instances of locos being ‘shedded’ under bridges and station canopies. ‘Maintenance’ was pushed under the nearest stone in the hope that it would disappear, but of course it couldn’t and wouldn’t. It was an essential part of the railway system.

There is, of course, the now famous legend of both Brunel and Gooch working in the running shed at the London end of the Great Western line, in the attempt to improve the efficiency and reliability of the first locomotives. This introduces an additional requirement, coming under the heading of ‘design’ rather than repairs and maintenance, and particularly in the early years complicating the routine essentials. A component had to be made to work effectively, being altered if required, before its regular ‘maintenance’ could begin.

Even with the Great Western, taking the famous North Star as an example, the loco was delivered at Maidenhead in kit form several months before the ‘running shed’ was built, probably around it, in 1838. The loco had been temporarily stored, and we can visualise it sheeted down against the weather on a short length of track, as the connection from delivery barge to main line was not possible at that time. The main line had not reached the area.

At the London Paddington end, a two-part shed consisted of a ‘stabling’ end and a workshop end, in which heavier repairs and maintenance could be done, branching in two directions from a central octagonal ‘roundhouse’ with a turntable. Once again, the locos were available before the covered facilities, so that the first attempts at maintenance were done in the open air. An adjacent workshop facility was later built to enable the roundhouse building to be utilised wholly as a shed.

As the line progressed, so sheds, some temporary, were constructed to house the locomotive stock. In some instances, where there would not be the future requirement for a permanent running shed, a length of siding was constructed. One such siding (within a mile of where this book is currently being written), was at Hay Lane, just outside Swindon, the terminus of the Great Western line for about six months in 1840.

Hay Lane, just a spot on a country road between Swindon and Royal Wootton Bassett, actually had a canal wharf on the Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal en route through the valley below Swindon. This was probably the attraction as a ready-made supply point at the line’s temporary end. Although still known as ‘Hay Lane Wharf’, it now takes an old Swindonian to point out the course of the long-gone canal, which is now part of a restoration programme.

There is no record of any form of running shed at Hay Lane, at this or any other period, but just back up the line the Great Western Workshops would be set out, with their own running shed, at roughly the topographical halfway point of the envisaged London–Bristol Railway. Brunel and Gooch were off the mark very quickly with regard to the building and maintenance potential for future Great Western steam. At Swindon, as at Paddington, it is more than likely that the shed and facilities were in use really before they finished construction, the finishing touches progressing around and above the locomotives.

The official opening date was 1 January 1843 for the Swindon Shed and Works, but the first shed of the system had been erected at Drayton in 1837. This was the first headquarters of Daniel Gooch when he commenced his quite awesome task with such confidence. About three months after his appointment he received the first two locomotives, albeit in ‘kit’ form, and erection under his supervision began. The locos were Premier and Vulcan, and both had been delivered by the opposition, the canal system, early in November from the makers, Messrs Tayleur of the Vulcan Factory, Lancashire. Vulcan was in steam before the year’s end, although it was another four years before the dream of the London–Bristol line was actually fulfilled, and the line between the two cities opened.

The line actually joined Bristol to Bath as well; a connection opened in 1840 with its loco shed at the Bristol end. When the Bristol & Exeter Railway was finally amalgamated into the Great Western in 1876, the latter took over the B & E shed at Temple Meads and the locos were transferred there. The Great Western facilities in the early years around 1840 were known either as ‘engine sheds’, where a structure was actually built and was intended to be permanent, or as ‘engine stations’, where facilities for running and maintenance were to be available. In the latter case the facilities could be on a siding only with no cover, or with temporary cover until the line moved on toward completion.

As lines were added, and companies absorbed, so engine sheds and stabling points were allocated and constructed. The running shed became not only the stabling and routine servicing base, where coal and water stocks were maintained, but the obvious place where routine maintenance could be done – somewhere under cover where tools could be kept and maintenance staff based; where the locomotives could be worked on.

For major repairs recourse could be made to the manufacturers, but this was a far more difficult step than it appears on the surface. For small companies it must have been somewhat of a nightmare! Even for the Great Western it was, or would have been, difficult. The major problem of those formative years around 1840 would have been how to get the loco back at all. There was no direct connection to the manufacturer. The loco couldn’t just be routed back over a railway network because there wasn’t one. It would have to be returned the way it came, in kit form(!) and by water, with the canals playing a major part. Thus the development of a maintenance structure was really one of great importance, and one which led to the realisation that ‘do it yourself’ was the only practical way.

As construction of the railway progressed, and routine running commenced, a further requirement became obvious. Between major destinations, intermediate bases would need to be set up where not only could locomotives and stock be routinely serviced but where standby and replacement stock would need to be kept to cover breakdowns. Later, but sooner than was envisaged at the time, would come the further problem of dual track, and stock related to both broad- and standard-gauge rails, as the impact of the solely broad-gauge system faced. This was a problem confined really to the original Great Western Railway (GWR) and to broad-gauge constituents.

Thus arose the complication of broad- and narrow-gauge sheds at sites where the two met, as meet they would over the coming years, and the further problems of locomotives made by many and various manufacturers, all requiring spares and maintenance.

Mention has been made elsewhere of the vast difference between maintaining locomotives, and actually constructing locomotives. The notes that follow include thumbnail sketches of some of the facilities available to the railways, which were eventually absorbed by the Great Western, and which were big enough to support their own workshops where ‘construction’ was carried out as well as routine maintenance.

Whilst a number of such companies built some of their own locomotives, that does not signify that they actually made their own locomotives, in the way that ‘making’ at Swindon Works meant what it said. Foundry, rolling mill, heavy steam hammer and drop hammer facilities were not available at most sites to actually make the components that were used, particularly some of the larger items. For example, a cylinder block can be machined without being necessarily cast at the factory in question. So although some companies built their own locomotives, contractors had supplied some of the larger components in rough or ‘finished’ form.

There were of course those small companies that relied on other companies as manufacturers to supply stock on lease, often with a ‘maintenance contract’ as part of the deal. In this case, maintenance facilities in terms of buildings were virtually non-existent, as the small companies running very few engines over very short mileages could not afford such luxuries anyway. The reluctance to build even a running shed has been mentioned, so a works of any sort was out of the question. There are thus many companies absorbed by the GWR that had no facilities at all for repairing locomotives, except possibly a running shed of sorts with minimal hand tools and equipment.

Early shops had rope blocks and screw jacks for lifting, with no provision for overhead lifting. Often a portable ‘shear legs’ was available. These tripod structures are useful on occasions, and require considerable skill in use! Very large versions were in use generally in the early years of the railways; not confined to them of course – they were found in all sorts of civil and military applications, in the latter for mounting big guns or unloading transports. The three massive poles were lashed at the top and supported a naval-type block and tackle, which used ordinary hemp ropes and wooden pulley blocks.

Their use and requirement increased, and some very large examples finished as ‘permanent’ structures, erected and lashed in position adjacent to loco workshops. Eventually, the structures took a more standard form of large, bolted timber framings. Later, these gave way to iron, but in several instances a large wooden structure had been in use for years outside an early loco ‘lifting’ shop, or adjacent to the shed road, usually outside the shed allocated to ‘casualties’.

With various ‘lifting shops’ dotted around on sites of absorbed companies, the need to standardise facilities was felt, and the Churchward era heralded the design and construction of a ‘standard’ lifting shop, either as new on a new site or as a replacement. Content included the usual hoist, ranging from 35- to 50-ton capacity, a smithing forge and equipment, and later on welding gear and related machine tools.

Lifting, always a problem with locomotive repairs, had to be dealt with safely. The open exposed nature of the ordinary shear legs developed into a wooden covered structure, e.g. the one erected at Bordesley shed about 1852. A later example from about 1908 (and 35 tons capacity as against 18 tons of the 1852 version) is actually inside a lifting shop (Oxley Sidings, Wolverhampton). Bordesley was replaced by the Tyseley Shops and Shed around 1908.

The following is an outline of some of the works of other companies which were big enough to have not only maintenance but also building facilities to construct, even from parts supplied by contractors, at least some of their own locomotive stock. The closure or retention of such facilities occurred when the company concerned fell within the Great Western’s expansion net!

Preamble

Swindon Works, which dominated the Great Western for the first half of the twentieth century, was really only one facet (true, a major facet) of the Great Western diamond. Before Swindon Works existed, experienced contractors were making locomotives for the developing world systems, as well as for the embryonic Great Western Railway (GWR).

At the end of Great Western steam there were on the system a number of major works, divisional works and the smaller ‘lifting shops’ where steam repairs were undertaken, sites which had been acquired or had become a necessity brought about by the inexorable expansion of the Great Western from its small broad-gauge beginnings (see my book The Great Western Railway – How it Grew).

Swindon Works suffered a double blow with the end of steam. At about the same time came the end of the Carriage and Wagon Works, virtually half of the works site, which shut down completely. This was followed by the progressive diminution of work at the locomotive half remaining. Carriage and wagon work, such as it was, was crammed into the remaining ex-steam locomotive shops.

Little new was made, and less and less was repaired, in the now much reduced works as the years passed. Twenty years after the end of steam, the works itself had closed and demolition begun. The works had struggled against the odds, some of its own making, during this last period. A shopping and industrial complex now spans much of the old site, a sad end to one of the world’s best-known locomotive and carriage works.

With the end of steam the same fate had overtaken the divisional repair shops and the smaller lifting shops spread over the system, each of the latter attached to a better-known running shed, the haunts, both officially and unofficially of keen schoolboy (and other) number takers. Most of the shops which formerly undertook those steam repairs that did not require a major job at a main works departed from use and some from very existence during the 1960s. (Some were converted for diesel use, which amounts to the same thing!)

The works owned and operated by the Great Western were not the only ones to suffer the demise of steam. The manufacturers of contract orders also suffered. Those which had not diversified before the virtually predictable premature end of the steam locomotive faced severe problems. Well-known names had merged and amalgamated years before in the attempt to stay in business, but a number could not compete in the new diesel and electric field and, as with the railway companies’ steam workshops, were forced to close.

However, during the preceding twenty years Great Western design had petered out to be superseded by a new era of steam construction. The new ‘standard’ steam locomotives, looking nothing like their Great Western forbears, were really hybrids spawned by nationalisation of the railway system and were themselves to be short-lived. They were to be the ultimate in steam locomotive design – designs still really being developed – but steam was cut off in mid flow and virtually new engines were consigned to the scrap merchants’ oxytorch. Live steam had disappeared!

Some of these locomotives, very few and themselves often partially demolished, after rusting quietly away for several years, suddenly became very desirable items for cannibalising and rebuilding by dedicated enthusiasts at a number of small, privately owned railway projects. Some of the accompanying buildings at the various sites had also survived or were rebuilt from dereliction. The humble lifting shop had returned, in a number of instances, not to its original use but to far more than that, in some cases augmented or expanded by further structures.

The facilities of major works used for steam repairs, have generally long since vanished, and the locomotives themselves are being returned to service from a condition of disrepair completely unheard of when they were running in their steaming days. Some small lifting shops and ex-running sheds, often partially rebuilt, far from being ‘maintenance’ bases, have now become the main works, limited equipment notwithstanding. With enthusiasm and ingenuity playing a major role in loco repair, both amateur and professional (often retired) craftsmen are now involved in steam repairs and rebuilding.

The purpose of this book is thus to give a general outline of the usually obscured or hidden facets of the development and growth of the GWR workshops with some emphasis on the hows and whys of the maintenance and manufacture of its steam locomotive stock. (The effect the railway had on its opposition, the canals and other railway companies, is discussed in my book The Great Western Railway – How it Grew.) This book details the where, how, why and by whom the locomotives were designed, made and maintained.

Great Western steam still exists. It is hoped permanently.

Construction, Repair and Maintenance Facilities: Great Western Railway

MAJOR WORKS

SWINDON

1846–1987

WOLVERHAMPTON (Stafford Road)

1860 expanded 1932

closed 1964

CAERPHILLY

Expanded 1925

closed 1966

NEWTON ABBOT

1893

closed 1962

WORCESTER

1852–1889

closed 1965

OSWESTRY

1860

closed 1965

BARRY

1893

closed 1964

SHREWSBURY

1856

closed 1967

DIVISIONAL WORKS

Division

Built

Repair Depot

BRISTOL

1935

BRISTOL BATH ROAD

CARDIFF VALLEYS (Taff Vale Railway) Repair Shop

1884–1929

BARRY & CATHAYS 5-ROADS

LONDON

1838–1854

PADDINGTON

LONDON

1906

OLD OAK COMMON

NEATH

1907

CARMARTHEN & DANYGRAIG

NEWPORT (Maesglas)

1915

NEWPORT EBBW JUNCTION

NEWTON ABBOT

1893

NEWTON ABBOT (workshops of the old South Devon Railway)

OSWESTRY

OSWESTRY (workshops of the old Cambrian Railway)

WOLVERHAMPTON

1908

(like Old Oak) TYSELY (replaced smaller depot at Bordesley)

WORCESTER

1852

WORCESTER (workshops of the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway)

REPAIR & LIFTING SHOPS – CHURCHWARD STANDARD

BUILT

ABARDARE

2 Roads

1909

EBBW JUNCTN (Maesglas)

Traverser

1915 (Division works)

LLANELLY

2 Roads (1 outside)

1925

ST PHILLIPS MARSH BRISTOL

2 Roads

1910 (extended later)

STOURBRIDGE

1 Road

1926

TYSELY

Traverser

1908 (Division works)

OLD OAK COMMON

Traverser

1906 (Division works)

OXLEY

2 Roads

1907 (35-ton hoist)

CHELTENHAM

2 Roads

1907

PENZANCE

1 Road

1914

WESTBURY

1 Road

1915

BRISTOL BATH ROAD

2 Roads

1935

CARDIFF EAST DOCK

1 Road

1931

DIDCOT

1 Road

1932

LANDORE

1 Road

1932

STAFFORD ROAD LIFTING SHOP

1 Road

1860 (?) (rebuilt 1931)

BANBURY

1 Road

1944

SOUTHWALL

1 Road

1883 (rebuilt 1954)

READING

1 Road

1932

OXFORD

1 Road

c. 1900 (extended 1931 with heavier hoist)

YEOVIL

1 Road

1857

WEYMOUTH

1 Road

1885 (in 1930 35-ton replaced 20-ton crane)

TAUNTON

1 Road

1932

EXETER

1 Road

1894

TRURO

1 Road

1900

CROES NEWYDD

1 Road from table

1902

GLOUCESTER

1 Road wheel drop

1872

LYDNEY

1 Road

1868

HEREFORD

4 Roads

1853

CARDIFF CANTON

1 Road

1882 (1925 new Shop + Hot Wash Plant

SEVERN TUNNEL JUNCTION

1 Road

1908 (Repair Shop c. 1938)

DUFFRYN YARD

1 Road

1896 (Repair Shop extended 1931)

DANYGRAIG

1 Road

1896

CARDIFF (EAST DOCK)

1 Road

1931

WESTBOURNE PARK LS

1 Road

1898 (closed 1906, 91 × 23ft 6in)

WESTBOURNE PARK REPAIR SHOP

4 Roads

1855 (extended 1882, closed 1906)

ABERYSTWYTH

At end of 2-Road shed

Enlarged 1936

TONDU

2 extended Roads

1889 (used for repairs)

LAIRA (PLYMOUTH)

1 Road smithy only

1901

All the above shops closed to steam during the 1960s and some were converted or adapted for diesel traction support.

Facilities in lifting shops included 35-ton hoists and, in divisional and two-road shops 30- or 35-ton overhead cranes. Those constructed after 1930 had 50-ton hoists.

Divisional shops had twelve pits, each 52ft long.

Two-road shops had pits 95ft long.

One-road shops had pits 68ft long.

SOME EARLY WORKS OF COMPANIES ABSORBED OR REPAIR SHOPS OF GWR ‘NON STANDARD’

BIRKENHEAD

Repair Shop. 2 Roads. Birkenhead Railway Works. Opened 1840. Closed 1878. To GWR & LNWR 1860.

BORDESLEY JUNCTION

Smithy only. Opened1855. Closed 1908.

BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS

Old Bristol & Exeter Works. Opened 1850. Closed 1934.

CARDIFF (EAST MOORS)

Shed closed in 1926 then used as workshop.

CARDIFF DOCKS (Ex Rhymney Railway)

Loco shop 165 × 50ft. Carriage shops 180 × 50ft. Running repairs only from 1901. Heavy repairs to Caerphilly.

CARNE BRAE (Hayle Railway)

Opened 1838. Main depot and workshops. Repair shop for the west until Truro was rebuilt in 1900. Taken over by Cornwall Railways 1846, GWR 1876. Altered 1879. Small smithy built 1896. Closed 1917.

CIRENCESTER

Workshops of the Midland South Western Junction Railway. opened 1895. Closed 1924.

DANYGRAIG (Rhonda & Swansea Bay)

Workshops loco and carriage.

FALMOUTH (Cornwall Railway)

Opened 1863. Fitting shop, about 18ft × 16ft. Removed 1897.

LLANELLY DOCK

Fitting shop. Opened 1840. Closed 1925.

MERTHYR

Fitting shop. Opened 1841. Closed 1846.

NEATH (Neath & Brecon Railway)

Fitters shop. Opened 1864. Closed 1946.

NEWPORT (Bolt Street)

Erecting shop. Monmouthshire Railway. Opened 1854. Closed 1918 and demolished. Two 7-bay roads with centre deep pit traverser.

OXFORD

Fitting shop. Opened 1850. Closed 1876. (Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway)

PADDINGTON (GW)

Repair bays to east side of roundhouse. Opened 1838. Closed 1858.

PENARTH DOCK

Shed with machine shop and smithy. Opened 1887. Closed 1929. (Taff Vale Railway)

PENZANCE

Small fitting shop. West Cornwall Railway. Opened 1852. Closed 1876. Rebuilt 1876. Closed 1914.

PLYMOUTH (MILLBAY)

South Devon Railway. Opened 1849. Closed 1924. (Temporarily opened until 1931) Carpenters’ shop and smithy. Lifting shop added in 1884.

PORTHMADOG

The Boston Lodge Workshops of the Ffestiniog Railway. 2ft gauge. Opened 1836 and still open after closing in 1937. Second World War stripped for salvage reuse. Resurrected 1996 and expanded into Welsh Highland Railway. Surrounded by but not part of GWR. The line itself is a tourist attraction with mostly volunteer staff.

READING

On main Paddington–Bristol line. Engine shed. Opened 1840. Closed 1880. Rebuilt 1880 Bristol side of station with roundhouse shed and 90ft × 30ft single-road lifting shop incorporated. Completely redesigned and rebuilt in 1930–32 with a straight road shed and a separate 84ft × 42ft lifting shop.

STOURBRIDGE JUNCTION

Fitting shop. Opened 1870. Closed 1926. Reopened 1944. Closed c. 1965 at end of steam.

SWANSEA DOCKS

Westlake (contractors) engine shed and works. Opened 1894. Closed 1898.

ST BLAZEY

Repair shops and HQ of the Cornwall Mineral Railway.

TALLYLYN JUNCTION

Brecon & Merthyr. Originally a running shed. Opened 1863. Converted 1869 to engine and wagon shops. By 1903 a carriage shed.

MACHAN

Brecon & Merthyr Workshops; could also have been the workshops of the earlier Rumney Railway.

TAUNTON

Bristol & Exeter Railway. Open 1842. Smithy closed 1860.

TAVISTOCK

South Devon & Tavistock Railway. Opened 1859. Closed 1865. GW taken over in 1876. Very small fitting shop.

TENBY

2-Road fitting shop opened 1863. Closed 1932. 105ft × 28ft and 64ft × 15ft. 1907 loco repairs transferred to Carmarthen.

TONDU HP

Llynvi & Ogmore Railway. Workshops with loco shed.

TROWBRIDGE

Smithy and a separate fitting shop. 15ft × 15ft at the end of the shed (3-line).

WESTBOURNE PARK

About 1872 workshops and repair shop (single line). Repair shop enlarged late 1880s and a lifting shop built 1898. Depot closed and replaced by Old Oak Common 1906 (opened 1855).

FACILITIES FOR MAINTENANCE AND CONSTRUCTION

Railway workshops used for locomotive construction and subsequently absorbed by the Great Western:

Swindon Works

Wolverhampton Works

The Taff Vale Workshops, West Yard, Cardiff Docks

The Bristol & Exeter Workshops, Bristol

Monmouthshire Railway & Canal Co., Newport, Bolt Street Works

Cambrian Railway Works, Oswestry

Caerphilly Works, Rhymney Railway

Newton Abbot Works, South Devon Railway

Worcester Works, Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway

Carn Brea, West Cornwall Railway

LOCOMOTIVE BUILDERS & REPAIRERS ASSOCIATED WITH THE GWR AND ITS CONSTITUENT COMPANIES

Bury – early obsession with 0-4-0 locos. First locos for London & Birmingham Railway 1846

Foster & Rastrick – Stourbridge – Agenoria Science Museum. Shutt End Railway Kingswinford to Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal

Hazeldines Foundry near Bridgenorth – build loco for Trevethick in 1808

Beyer, Peacock & Co. – for GWR 1855 & MSWJ Railway 1898

Sharp, Steward – Tank loco. Brecon & Merthyr Railway 1865

Slothert & Slaughter – 1821–1888–1935 Monmouthshire Railway

E.B. Wilson – for Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway 1854

Messrs Kitson Co. – built Ely 1851 for Taff Vale to Taff Vale designs

Rothwell & Co. – Goods locos 1841 and for Bristol & Exeter 1853 (Pearson’s design)

E B Wilson & Co. – built the Jenny Bird Class for OW&W Railway

William Fairbairn & Son – built and for West Midland Railway 1860s

Beyers – Manchester

Robert Stephenson & Co.

Vulcan Foundry

Low Moor Ironworks

Sharp Stewart & Co. – 1890

Manning Wardle

George England

Hosgood – Barry Railway

Gruning Company

Stewarts

Hunslet Engine Co.

Chapman & Furneauz

Jones

Davies & Metcalfe

Dübs

Tyrell

Kitson Naismith

Yorkshire Engine Co.

Peckett & Co.

Timothy Hackworth – Shildon

Johnson & Kinder – Wolverhampton Repairers

Horsely Ironworks for the St Helen’s Railway

Parfitt & Jenkins – 1872–75 (Alexandra Docks)

Bagnall – (Narrow 1ft 11¼in gauge – Vale of Rheidol)