The GWR Story

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND INTRODUCTION

Whilst my collaborators on this work have been few, their efforts and contributions have been immense. Thanks to Adrian Vaughan, Revd Canon Brian Arman and David Hyde for generously giving expert scrutiny, technical advice and information, and to David, Phil Kelley, Eddie Lyons and Jack Hayward for their research. A huge vote of thanks for publicity, to the Great Western Trust, Brian Arman, Bob Townsend, and Jack Hayward.

The story of the Great Western is the stuff of myths and legends. Iconic names linked with it are also linked with ‘masterpieces’ or magnificence that still ‘live’ in the memory or have lasted through the years.

From its first inception and through the whole of its life, the GWR had to fight for its very existence. Financial crises, overdevelopment, costly experiments, strikes, wars and government interference led it often to the brink of disaster, but it overcame these threats time and again until, in the end, matters were taken out of its own hands and transferred to those of the nation.

Bold and radical in enterprise, yet ultra-conservative in philosophy, the GWR was very much an ‘institution’ of its own making. Always greater than the sum of its parts and evoking many strong emotions, it demanded respect and loyalty, and won admiration and affection in return. Even now, in this 175th Inauguration Celebratory Year, many still claim the GWR to be, ‘God’s Wonderful Railway’.

THE COMPANY

It is often said that it was Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the iconic nineteenth-century engineer, who may have given the company its name – the Great Western Railway – but its nascent vision belonged to four businessmen of Bristol: George Jones, John Harford, Thomas Richard Guppy and William Tohill. These four gentlemen resolved to revive the interest in establishing a railway line between Bristol and London – first mooted in 1824 – and by the end of 1832 a committee of fifteen men, representing the various commercial and corporation interests of Bristol, was established. At their first public meeting in January 1833, it was agreed to provide funds for a preliminary survey and an estimation of the cost of such an undertaking. It was then that Brunel was taken on to carry out this work. Later that year the title of ‘The Great Western Railway’ was formally adopted in place of the previous ‘Bristol and London Railroad’ and a legend was born.

The route Brunel finally submitted to the Board would take the railroad from Bristol via Bath, Chippenham and to the north of what is now Swindon before going on to Reading, Maidenhead and finally on to London. Under the management of two committees, the Bristol and the London Committees, the first Great Western Bill was submitted to Parliament in 1834. It was carried by the Commons but defeated by the Lords on the grounds that ‘the scheme offered insufficient security for the completion of the line’. Happily the second bill made better progress, and received the Royal Assent on 31 August 1835.

The GWR opened the first 22 miles of its new railway line from Paddington to Maidenhead to public traffic on 4 June 1838, and to Reading in March 1840. Work also started from the Bristol end and eventually the two ends joined between Chippenham and Box.

Once this mainline was completed the GWR set out to ‘capture’ the West, making it ‘Broad Gauge Country’. However, just a few short years down the line in 1845, they were literally stopped in their tracks. The ‘Break of Gauge’, where