Great Western Adventure
Right from the turn of the century when Churchward put Great Western motive power
far ahead of fleets on other lines and City of Truro achieved its often disputed 100mph- plus run in 1904, the GWR caught the public eye more than any other railway. It was the only company to remain largely unaffected by the 1923 Grouping, and after nationalisation Great Western influence still seemed to guide the new management at Paddington. Even today, more than 30 years after the company ceased to exist, there is interest in the GWR through literature and above all through unabated preservation of Great Western equipment.
This book tells the remarkable story of how the magic of the GWR spurred on the efforts by individuals and groups to preserve something of the old company. If the esteem in which a railway company or administration is held can be measured by the amount of its material which is lovingly cared for when no longer needed for commercial purposes, then the GWR has no rival among the railways of the world.
In prime position is the Great Western Society, an organisation totally dedicated to the preservation of GWR artifacts; it has a collection of 22 locomotives, 32 carriages and much else besides in the depot-museum at Didcot, Oxfordshire. There are also six major tourist railways based on preserved ex-GWR lines, including the 13-mile Severn Valley Railway whose supporting society numbers over 10,000, and the two lines of the Dart Valley Railway. In all, the book records over 60 sites where something substantial in the way of GWR preservation can be found, although one would have to cross half the world to see something of them all.
Hardback, 14x22cm, 174 pages, black & white photographs
Condition: Good/Very Good, Colour faded spine.
ISBN: 9780715381083
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