Book description
God's Wonderful Railway”, it was called if you were a fan; the
great Way Round” if you took a rather more jaundiced view of some of
its circuitous branch lines. But 175 years after its foundation, the
Great Western Railway company is remembered with the most nostalgia,
even love, of all Britain's pre-nationalisation railway companies. It
built, and ran, the great main line from London to the West Country
and Cornwall (today's First Great Western franchise). It was
engineered by the greatest of them all, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who
built such wonders as the Box Tunnel and the Saltash bridge. Its steam
locomotives were designed by great men like Churchward and
Hawkesworth. But also it had wonderful stations like the soaring
Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads, as well as innumerable idyllic
country halts with little more than a pagoda shelter and a couple of
milk churns awaiting collection. Its engines were painted a deep
green, its carriages chocolate and cream. Its Cornish Riviera Express
train, and the line alongside the beach at Dawlish sprayed by the
waves, became the stuff of legend. Now Andy Roden has written the
first comprehensive history of the GWR for 20 years, to tie in with
its 175th anniversary. It will appeal to everyone who bought his
Flying Scotsman or Christian Wolmar's railway histories.
