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Golden Age of the Great Western Railway by Tim Bryan w/ dust jacket
The Golden Age of the Great Western Railway by Tim Bryan
Hard cover With Dust Jacket
256 pages
Copyright 1991
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements9
Preface11
Introduction13
Part One: Paddington, Gateway to the Empire25
The Station at Work27
The Goods Department39
The Royal Gateway45
Headquarters of the Empire52
Part Two: Swindon, Heart of the Empire61
Inside Swindon Works63
Developments in the Golden Age79
The Churchward Revolution86
Swindon: Town and Factory95
Part Three: The Cornish Riviera101
Advertising and Publicity103
The Route to the West112
Plymouth and the Ocean Mail Traffic122
The `Cornish Riviera Limited'129
Part Four: The South Wales Main Line141
The Bristol & South Wales Direct Railway144
Development in South Wales: `King Coal'153
The Labour Problem165
Fishguard175
Part Five: Suburbia and Beyond - the Birmingham Route191
The New Birmingham Route193
Suburbia: Rail and Road Motors203
Birmingham Snow Hill and Beyond219
Conclusion233
References243
Sources and General Bibliography251
Index254
By the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Great Western Railway, far from occupying the exalted position in the popular imagination that it does today, was in imminent danger of being left behind by its competitors in terms of train services and facilities. Indeed, its meandering routes had earned it the tag of the 'Great Way Round'.
Then the aura of conservatism and torpor that beset the company began to disperse in what one contemporary writer described as a 'Great Awakening'. The 'old order' in the shape of Brunel's Broad Gauge was finally abolished in 1892, and by the turn of the century the Great Western had embarked on a tremendous era of modernization and growth. Train services and speeds were improved by the building of new, more direct lines, in particular the celebrated 'cutoffs' on the main lines to the West and to South Wales, and the establishment of the new 'Two-Hour' route to Birmingham. Existing lines were also upgraded, and improved. New locomotives and rolling-stock were constructed under the presiding genius of G.J. Churchward at Swindon, while a new and more progressive management at Paddington helped to guide the GWR using imaginative publicity and advertising.
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