Images Dated

Swindon Works Map, c.1940s

Swindon Works Map, c.1940s, showing the growth of the GWR Works in Swindon between 1846 and the 1940s. The sheer volume of workshops and sidings can be seen in fascinating detail

© STEAM Museum of the GWR

1800s, 1840s, 1846, 1900s, 1940s, Factory, Map, Plan, Railway, Sidings, Swindon Works, Vintage, Wiltshire, Workshops

Guernsey & Jersey via Weymouth poster, about 1891

In 1889 the GWR began operating a steamship
service to the Channel Islands. This poster shows
the GWR's TSS Ibex, leaving harbour on its route
across the Channel. This early poster is very
elaborate compared to the GWR's later designs

© STEAM Picture Library 2018 - All Rights Reserved

Holiday, Travel, Victorian

Evacuees waiting outside the departure platform at Paddington in 1939

One of the very first war time roles that the GWR was engaged in was the evacuation of children from cities to the relative safety of the countryside. Even before war was declared, plans were drawn up for evacuation so the GWR and the other major railway companies were prepared and on standby to put these plans into action. On August 31st 1939, the day before Germany invaded Poland, the order to begin the evacuation was given. The very next day the mass movement of children began and continued until September 4th. The GWR was responsible for the majority of the children moved from North and East London and while most of the evacuation trains departed from Ealing Broadway, this image shows groups of children being off-loaded from a double decker bus outside the Departure Platform at Paddington Station during the four days of evacuation in September 1939