GWR – Great Western Railway
GWR – Great Western Railway
Famous for its wonderful advertising, its pioneer spirit for making parts of the United Kingdom easier to reach and dark green rolling stock, the GWR is one of the country’s most loved lines. Operating between London, South West Wales and South West England, the railway began in 1833, with its first journeys occurring five years later.
The great Isambard Kingdom Brunel engineered the line, choosing a gauge of 7ft (2,134mm), which ran until 1892; by this time all lines of the service had been converted to standard gauge at 1,435mm. His far-reaching ideas culminated in the SS Great Western steam ship, which was designed to connect GWR rail passengers to the ‘New World’ in New York City. It was a successful venture to begin with, but expansion and a move to Liverpool diverted passengers onto other operator’s railway lines and ultimately failed.
As one of the ‘Big Four’ the railway was taken into government control at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, surviving amalgamation and keeping its own name by incorporating smaller operations into its own. It continued under this name until it was wound up in 1949, only to return in September 2015 when First Group chose to rebrand their First Great Western service to pay homage to the line’s founding name and iconography. With stunning new Class 800 high speed trains - which run through daily just a few hundred yards from London Fine HQ - GWR is a 21st Century railway operator with nearly 200 years of heritage to call upon.
© London Fine Ltd, 2016
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