The Carriage and Wagon Works of the GWR at Swindon

Book excerpt: The GWR at Swindon is well known, as are its trained craftsmen, all over the world. It has been written about, filmed and lectured upon countless times, and many of its old steam locomotives saved from the scrap yards and lovingly rebuilt to run again on heritage lines. But across all of this activity a full half of the Works has been fleetingly "mentioned in passing" and even in the illustrations only occasionally represented. There is little written about the "other half" of the successful operation of a railway works system: the design, construction, and repair of the rolling stock, the carriages and wagons. Retired GWR railwayman Ken Gibbs seeks to redress the balance and reveal for the first time exactly "how they did it"--showcasing the history and work of the Carriage & Wagon Works at Swindon's GWR.