Swindon Works: The Legend

Swindon Works: The Legend PDF Author: Rosa Matheson
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750968869
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
The age of steam is past, the heyday of Swindon Works is long gone – but the legend lives on. What made the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works iconic? Was it its worldwide reputation; perhaps its profound impact in shaping the new town of Swindon; or that it melded those who worked there into one big family? In a new and exciting format, this book, by popular railway historian Rosa Matheson, helps explain why the never-ending love story endures. With big facts and fascinating stories, it is a must read not only for ex-Works employees and their families, nor just for GWR fans and railway enthusiasts, but also for any newcomer seeking to find a good way into railway history.

Swindon Works: The Legend

Swindon Works: The Legend PDF Author: Rosa Matheson
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750968869
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Get Book Here

Book Description
The age of steam is past, the heyday of Swindon Works is long gone – but the legend lives on. What made the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works iconic? Was it its worldwide reputation; perhaps its profound impact in shaping the new town of Swindon; or that it melded those who worked there into one big family? In a new and exciting format, this book, by popular railway historian Rosa Matheson, helps explain why the never-ending love story endures. With big facts and fascinating stories, it is a must read not only for ex-Works employees and their families, nor just for GWR fans and railway enthusiasts, but also for any newcomer seeking to find a good way into railway history.

Struggle and Suffrage in Swindon

Struggle and Suffrage in Swindon PDF Author: Frances Bevan
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1526718235
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
An in-depth history of women’s activism and achievements in one English town, with photos included. As the industrial revolution and the coming of the railways transformed the Wiltshire countryside, Swindon women were on the front line of change, shaping the new industrial town and transforming the old market one. Newcomers arrived from the great railway centers across the country to create a welcoming, tolerant and creative community with women’s contribution at its heart. Following the incorporation of Old and New Swindon in 1900, innovative women stepped up to the plate: women like Swindon-born suffragette Edith New, who challenged political conventions, and Emma Noble, Swindon’s first female councilor, who campaigned to improve living conditions in the town. During two world wars, Swindon women worked in the railway factory in jobs once considered beyond their strength and endurance. Women supported the war effort on the home front, volunteering in what little spare time they had. Struggle and Suffrage in Swindon tells the stories of women like Mary Slade and Kate Handley, two teachers who during WWI headed the Prisoners of War Committee, which sent food parcels to soldiers held in German POW camps. The story of Swindon women includes artists and actresses, political activists and social reformers—and the ordinary women who worked in the factories, raised their children, and made a difference.

The End of the Line

The End of the Line PDF Author: Ron Bateman
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750995289
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
In 1977, the iconic Swindon Works was building locomotives. By 1986, it was shut down. In The End of the Line, Ron Bateman recounts the fight to save Swindon Works, its 3,500 jobs and the livelihood of the entire community it represented. Initially joining through the Works Training School in 1977, Ron witnessed this tragic struggle and the crushing blow dealt to the industry that had defined Swindon for generations. Combining personal recollections with information and interviews from many other insiders and railmen, this book provides the only comprehensive chronicle on the final decade of 147 years of railway engineering and a fateful milestone in the history of Swindon.

The Great Western at Swindon Works

The Great Western at Swindon Works PDF Author: Alan S. Peck
Publisher: Oxford Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description


Death, Dynamite and Disaster

Death, Dynamite and Disaster PDF Author: Rosa Matheson
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750957018
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
A safe mode of transport today, the railways were far from vehicles of sleepy commute when they first came into service; indeed, accidents were commonplace and sometimes were a result of something far more sinister. In this fresh approach to railway history, Rosa Matheson explores the grim and grisly railway past. These horrible happenings include memorable disasters and accidents, the lack of burial grounds for London's dead, leading to the 'Necropolis Railway', the gruesome necessity of digging up the dead to accommodate the railways and how the discovery of dynamite gave rise to the 'Dynamite Wars' on the London Underground in the 1880s and 1890s. Join Rosa as she treads carefully through the fascinating gruesome history of Britain's railways.

Terror in the Tunnels

Terror in the Tunnels PDF Author: Rosa Matheson
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750983094
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
The exciting early days of the railways were tempered with danger, as the Victorian concept of health and safety was rather different to ours. Going 'into the dark' was a frightening experience and tunneling under the ground and under water was a death-defying activity in nineteenth-century Britain – many workers and travellers paid the ultimate price. Flooding, collapses and explosions, as well as malodorous air and illness, were just some of the challenges workers faced in order to make tunnels passable. Even once the tunnels had been completed, accidents were still frequent, whether collisions, derailments or fires. In this fascinating history, Rosa Matheson explores the grim past of Britain's well-known and lesser-known railway tunnel disasters, and how their 'terror' led to a safer future.

Swindon Works

Swindon Works PDF Author: Rosa Matheson
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750968869
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
The age of steam is past, the heyday of Swindon Works is long gone – but the legend lives on. What made the Great Western Railway’s Swindon Works iconic? Was it its worldwide reputation; perhaps its profound impact in shaping the new town of Swindon; or that it melded those who worked there into one big family? In a new and exciting format, this book, by popular railway historian Rosa Matheson, helps explain why the never-ending love story endures. With big facts and fascinating stories, it is a must read not only for ex-Works employees and their families, nor just for GWR fans and railway enthusiasts, but also for any newcomer seeking to find a good way into railway history.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel PDF Author: Robin Jones
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783461039
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
A biography of the nineteenth-century Englishman who was “one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history” (Nature). Civil and mechanical engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s accomplishments were extraordinary—involving the Great Western Railway, the SS Great Britain, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, prefabricated hospital buildings for use during the Crimean War, and more. Born in Portsmouth in 1806, he followed in his French father’s professional footsteps—and went on to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution. Brunel the great engineer would habitually throw out the rule book of tradition and established practice and start again with a blank sheet of paper, taking the technology of the day to its limits and then going another mile. But there was also Brunel the visionary, who knew that transport technology had the power to change the world, and that he had the ability to deliver those changes. Finally, there was Brunel the artist, who rarely saw technology as just functional, and strove to entwine the fruits of the Industrial Revolution with the elegance and grace of the neoclassical painter. His bridges, tunnels and railway infrastructure have entered a third century of regular use, and the beauty of their design and structure has rarely been equaled. The three decades from the 1830s to the 1850s saw an explosion of technical excellence, and it was Brunel who in so many cases lit the blue touch paper. He did not always get it right the first time, and it was left to others to reap the fruits of his many labors. Nevertheless, his actions fast-forwarded the march of progress by several decades. This biography tells his impressive story. Includes color photographs

Ancestral Chains (DNA Part V of VIII) Fortune Bloodline

Ancestral Chains (DNA Part V of VIII) Fortune Bloodline PDF Author: Mark D Bishop
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0244917469
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Like the phases of the moon, fortunes wax & wane. From humble beginnings in Lacock; from hard-working agricultural labourer stock in Avon, to mining and engineering, the Fortune family flourished as it spread throughout the globe. From gold digging in NZ, to administration in Hong Kong, the Fortunes worked far & wide. The inevitability of war sorted the men from the boys & the Fortunes were there; but sometimes at a terrible price. Not only did great-grandfather, John Alfred Fortune, lose cousins though; his own mother was to disappear in very mysterious circumstances. Was it murder? Did she run off with Sailor Sam to the antipodes, or was she just not able to deal with family life? But what she left behind was an urge to travel in John Alfred Fortune, an urge to help others and a benevolent attitude to those who worked for him. In his short life he served the aorta of England, the River Thames as Conservancy Engineer, but did the River serve him? However one views it, his legacy, his monument, is that River.

GWR Collett Castle Class

GWR Collett Castle Class PDF Author: Keith Langston
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473823560
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
The 'Castle' class 4-6-0 locomotives designed by Charles Collett and built at Swindon Works were the principal passenger locomotives of the Great Western Railway. The 4-cylinder locomotives were built in batches between 1923 and 1950, the later examples being constructed after nationalisation by British Railways. ??In total 171 engines of the class were built and they were originally to be seen at work all over the Great Western Railway network, and later working on the Western Region of British Railways. ?The highly successful class could be described as a GWR work in progress, because further development took place over almost all of the locomotives working lives. In addition to inspiring other locomotive designers the 'Castle' class engines were proved to be capable of outstanding performances, and when introduced were rightly described as being 'Britain's most powerful passenger locomotives'. Some of the 'Castles' survived in service for over 40 years, and individually clocked up just a little short of 2 million miles in traffic. ??In this book, Keith Langston provides a definitive chronological history of the iconic class together with archive photographic records of each GWR 'Castle' locomotive. Many of the 300 plus images are published for the first time. In addition background information on the origin of the names the engines carried, including details of the many name changes which took place, are also included. The extra anecdotal information adds a fascinating glimpse of social history. ??Collett CASTLE Class is a lavishly illustrated factual reference book which will delight steam railway enthusiasts in general and in particular those with a love of all things Great Western!