On
25 February 1841,
GWR▸ directors authorised the establishment of the railway works in Swindon.
This followed Locomotive Superintendent, Daniel Gooch's recommendation of Swindon as the ideal place for GWR’s central repair works. Construction started immediately and a new Swindon was born.
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In 1846, the works produced its first locomotive
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Swindon Works were entering a new era with the appointment of George Jackson Churchward as Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent in 1902.
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In 1920 the huge 'A' Shop was completed, covering 11.25 acres and heralding probably the heyday of the works, which now employed over 14,000 people.
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Sadly, Swindon Works' greatest days were already behind it when Britain's railways were nationalised on January 1, 1948, bringing to an end the GWR's 113-year story. In 1959 the works were still covered by 85 acres of roofing, but the decline of the works was as rapid as its expansion over a century earlier.
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By 1960, when Swindon produced British Railways' last steam locomotive (Evening Star, number 92220), it employed only 5,000 men. The payroll was down to 2,200 in 1973 and though it recovered briefly to 3,800 in 1980, the writing was already on the wall as the works failed to win outside orders and received a diminishing share of now limited British Rail Engineering Ltd (
BREL▸ ) work.
It was now only a matter of time before the works closed and when the fateful day arrived on 27th March, 1986, it was still a bitter pill to swallow for a town which had been shaped by the expansion of the railway works.
