The age of steam is past, the heyday of Swindon Works is long gone – but the legend lives on. What made the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works iconic? Was it its worldwide reputation; perhaps its profound impact in shaping the new town of Swindon; or that it melded those who worked there into one big family? In a new and exciting format, this book, by popular railway historian Rosa Matheson, helps explain why the never-ending love story endures. With big facts and fascinating stories, it is a must read not only for ex-Works employees and their families, nor just for GWR fans and railway enthusiasts, but also for any newcomer seeking to find a good way into railway history.

An in-depth history of women’s activism and achievements in one English town, with photos included. As the industrial revolution and the coming of the railways transformed the Wiltshire countryside, Swindon women were on the front line of change, shaping the new industrial town and transforming the old market one. Newcomers arrived from the great railway centers across the country to create a welcoming, tolerant and creative community with women’s contribution at its heart. Following the incorporation of Old and New Swindon in 1900, innovative women stepped up to the plate: women like Swindon-born suffragette Edith New, who challenged political conventions, and Emma Noble, Swindon’s first female councilor, who campaigned to improve living conditions in the town. During two world wars, Swindon women worked in the railway factory in jobs once considered beyond their strength and endurance. Women supported the war effort on the home front, volunteering in what little spare time they had. Struggle and Suffrage in Swindon tells the stories of women like Mary Slade and Kate Handley, two teachers who during WWI headed the Prisoners of War Committee, which sent food parcels to soldiers held in German POW camps. The story of Swindon women includes artists and actresses, political activists and social reformers—and the ordinary women who worked in the factories, raised their children, and made a difference.

In 1977, the iconic Swindon Works was building locomotives. By 1986, it was shut down. In The End of the Line, Ron Bateman recounts the fight to save Swindon Works, its 3,500 jobs and the livelihood of the entire community it represented. Initially joining through the Works Training School in 1977, Ron witnessed this tragic struggle and the crushing blow dealt to the industry that had defined Swindon for generations. Combining personal recollections with information and interviews from many other insiders and railmen, this book provides the only comprehensive chronicle on the final decade of 147 years of railway engineering and a fateful milestone in the history of Swindon.

A safe mode of transport today, the railways were far from vehicles of sleepy commute when they first came into service; indeed, accidents were commonplace and sometimes were a result of something far more sinister. In this fresh approach to railway history, Rosa Matheson explores the grim and grisly railway past. These horrible happenings include memorable disasters and accidents, the lack of burial grounds for London's dead, leading to the 'Necropolis Railway', the gruesome necessity of digging up the dead to accommodate the railways and how the discovery of dynamite gave rise to the 'Dynamite Wars' on the London Underground in the 1880s and 1890s. Join Rosa as she treads carefully through the fascinating gruesome history of Britain's railways.

The exciting early days of the railways were tempered with danger, as the Victorian concept of health and safety was rather different to ours. Going 'into the dark' was a frightening experience and tunneling under the ground and under water was a death-defying activity in nineteenth-century Britain – many workers and travellers paid the ultimate price. Flooding, collapses and explosions, as well as malodorous air and illness, were just some of the challenges workers faced in order to make tunnels passable. Even once the tunnels had been completed, accidents were still frequent, whether collisions, derailments or fires. In this fascinating history, Rosa Matheson explores the grim past of Britain's well-known and lesser-known railway tunnel disasters, and how their 'terror' led to a safer future.

The age of steam is past, the heyday of Swindon Works is long gone – but the legend lives on. What made the Great Western Railway’s Swindon Works iconic? Was it its worldwide reputation; perhaps its profound impact in shaping the new town of Swindon; or that it melded those who worked there into one big family? In a new and exciting format, this book, by popular railway historian Rosa Matheson, helps explain why the never-ending love story endures. With big facts and fascinating stories, it is a must read not only for ex-Works employees and their families, nor just for GWR fans and railway enthusiasts, but also for any newcomer seeking to find a good way into railway history.