Talk:Great Western Railway

The Infobox used in this article can be found at {{Infobox GWR}}.

Early locos

Quote "After 1902 G. J. Churchward developed a distinctive style of locomotive in 4-4-0 ...".

Should that be 4-4-2?

Songwriter 09:46 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I had the 4-4-0 "City" class in mind, which (as I understand it) were designed while Dean was still nominally in charge, and built in about 1903. I believe Churchward tried out 4-4-2, bringing over three French "Atlantics", converting Albion to a 4-4-2 as a comparison, and building North Star as a 4-4-2 (though it ended up as a 4-6-0). There may have been other 4-4-2 designs. --rbrwr

Ah! I was forgetting about the City class. I was thinking of North Star in its initial form. Thank you.

Songwriter 13:24 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Additional notes

I have incorporated into this article some notes written for the article History of rail transport in Great Britain. They unbalanced the original article, since the major part of the notes on railways was the GWR!. I have noted on that article that this has been done. It may be, however, that what is written in the new parts does not quite fit with what is said here ... I will leave that to others to make changes where necessary, if they so wish Peter Shearan 10:27, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

Can someone differentiate the line (Great Western Main Line) from the company... ??? Pickle 17:01, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

I really struggle to consider the Paignton & Dartmouth Steam Railway a "heritage" railway. What do others think. --7severn7 08:49, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Something's not right here...

...but I don't have the expertise to fix it. This is what I'm referring to:

"On privatisation the "Great Western" name was revived for the train operating company providing passenger services to the West.

Privatization saddened many who had been proud of their railway, however, in a sense, the ghost of the GWR was to return from the grave for a revenge of Shakespearean irony." The inconsistency of spelling (-isation and -ization) needs fixing to begin with, but more to the point surely the second one should be nationalisation given the para then goes on to talk about Harold Macmillan. 86.132.137.180 03:23, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree - and have fixed it! Someone put a daft pointer to First Great Western in the middle of an unmolested paragraph. I have sectioned into three parts now for clarity, and removed you NPOV tag. Rgds, - Trident13 16:24, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Reference Help

On the article about Somerset the GWR is mentioned & referenced with [Clark, G. T.] (1839) Guidebook to the Great Western Railway & [Clark, G. T.] (1846) The History and Description of the Great Western Railway. Its currently on FAC at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Somerset & a reviewer has asked for "publisher and (if available) ISBN" - has anyone got any further info (before ISBNs) or could provide alternative references to support the statements about the GWR??— Rod ^talk 17:24, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

A map would help

I came here to see where the GWR ran, only to have my hopes dashed. It was apparently built somewhere in England. Chris the speller (talk) 15:42, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Discussion on format and push for GA status

Please note that there is an ongoing discussion on this article and articles on the other "Big Four" pre-nationalisation companies here. Contributions to the discussion are welcomed. ColourSarge (talk) 19:07, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Towards GA status

Section to note areas for improvement (perhaps we should have a todo list?)

• Someone needs to chase-up the UNESCO World Heritage status, as this is now out-of-date.

   Done - cannot see a date set for review on the UNESCO site, and the ref used does not state a date either.
  Removed date from text. EdJogg (talk) 17:34, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

• Need an article or a list to gather the various bridges, tunnels, viaducts and cuttings
  -- then we can remove Sonning Cutting from 'See also'!

  EdJogg (talk) 13:52, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

UNESCO Research uncovers v. useful reference

While investigating the UNESCO World Heritage Site proposal, I found a link to the following document.

UNESCO are (have been?) considering what qualities are needed for a railway to be considered a World Heritage Site.

Railways as World Heritage Sites By Anthony Coulls, with contributions from Colin Divall and Robert Lee, 1999

This is a potential goldmine for cites! There is a very good history section at the start. Remember that this is an unusual railway document in that it has global scope and also considers railways from all angles. (At one point it notes that railway interest can be very 'loco-centric', particularly steam locos, and that Britain is an extreme example of the wealth of 'lay' literature (vs scholarly) on all railway subjects, which may skew opinions! Possible cite for 'railfan'?)

Then, after discussing the qualities being examined, it reviews the following as examples of potential World Heritage Sites:

1. The Moscow Underground
2. The Semmering Pass, Austria
3. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, United States of America
4. The Great Zig Zag, Australia
5. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, India
6. The Liverpool & Manchester Railway, United Kingdom
7. The Great Western Railway, United Kingdom
8. The Shinkansen, Japan

Therefore this document should be included in the references somehow!

It would be a good idea to recommend this document to the members of the Trains WikiProject for the same reasons. I list it here first because this is when I found it... (Please don't feel you'll offend me by recommending it on my behalf, I may not have time to do it myself.)

EdJogg (talk) 17:56, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Precursor company

From [1] The Birmingham & Oxford Junction Railway Company was incorporated under the Birmingham & Oxford Junction Railway Act 3rd August of 1846. In 1848, the company was vested in the Great Western Railway Company by virtue of Great Western Railway (Additional Powers) Act of 31st August 1848.

No mention in the article. I'm not clear how this company fits in though some documentation I read discribed the B & O as building the Oxford - Birmingham line and there was some relationship with George Fredrick Muntz. Anyhow, for now I have added a redirect from the B & O J RC. Dogbiscuit (talk) 00:53, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

No Branches

Is there a reason why, although such details as the colours of paint used are lovingly written up, there is neither list of nor pointer to GWR branch lines (except "to such places as...", which would require considerable effort by the reader to determine what common property the places had and whether other places fell in the category)?--SilasW (talk) 12:25, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

I suspect it's just a case of no-one having got round to it yet! An article such as this encompasses a huge number of subtopics, each of which will themselves cover many sub-pages. Often the biggest problem is working out what the required topics are in the first place, and then what structure the resulting article should take. Feel free to start a suitable section! (But thanks for pointing this out.) EdJogg (talk) 22:09, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

This sounds like a topic for a (very long) list, but in the meantime, there is always Category:Great Western Railway that should help. I'm not sure people could even agree on what constitutes a "GWR branch". Is Chippenham to Trowbridge or Chippenham to Weymouth a branch? It is if you are considering the GW main line but not if you consider the express trains that used it as a through route before the Berks & Hants was connected to the line.Geof Sheppard (talk) 13:57, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Narrow Gauge - Standard Gauge?

In the section describing the gauge wars 'standard gauge' is referred to as 'narrow gauge'. While standard gauge is narrower than broad gauge and at the time referred to there was only an emerging 'standard' for gauge I think references to 4' 8 1/2" should be changed to standard gauge to avoid confusion with 'true' narrow gauge.