Great Western Railways

Great Western Railway

Coat-of-arms of the Great Western Railway, incorporating the shields, crests and mottoes of the cities of London (left) and Bristol (right)
History
1835	Act of Incorporation
1838	First train ran
1869–92	7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) changed to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
1903	Start of road motor services
1904	City of Truro sets speed record
1948	Nationalised
Constituent companies See full list of constituents of the GWR
1854	Shrewsbury and Birmingham Ry Shrewsbury and Chester Railway
1862	South Wales Railway
1863	West Midland Railway
1876	Bristol and Exeter Railway South Devon Railway
1889	Cornwall Railway
1922	Rhymney Railway Taff Vale Railway Cambrian Railways
1923	Midland & S W Junction Railway
Successor organisation
1948	Western Region of British Railways
Key locations
Headquarters	Paddington station, London
Workshops	Swindon Wolverhampton
Major stations	Birmingham Snow Hill Bristol Temple Meads Cardiff General London Paddington Reading General
Route mileage Mileage shown as at end of year stated.
1841	171 miles (275 km)
1863	1,106 miles (1,780 km)
1876	2,023 miles (3,256 km)
1899	2,504 miles (4,030 km)
1921	2,900 miles (4,700 km)
1924	3,797 miles (6,111 km)

The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England, the Midlands, and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who chose a broad gauge of 7 ft (2,134 mm)—later slightly widened to 7 ft ¹⁄₄ in (2,140 mm)—but, from 1854, a series of amalgamations saw it also operate 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard-gauge trains; the last broad-gauge services were operated in 1892. The GWR was the only company to keep its identity through the Railways Act 1921, which amalgamated it with the remaining independent railways within its territory, and it was finally merged at the end of 1947 when it was nationalised and became the Western Region of British Railways.

The GWR was called by some "God's Wonderful Railway" and by others the "Great Way Round" but it was famed as the "Holiday Line", taking many people to English and Bristol Channel resorts in the West Country as well as the far south-west of England such as Torquay in Devon, Minehead in Somerset, and Newquay and St Ives in Cornwall. The company's locomotives, many of which were built in the company's workshops at Swindon, were painted a Brunswick green colour while, for most of its existence, it used a two-tone "chocolate and cream" livery for its passenger coaches. Goods wagons were painted red but this was later changed to mid-grey.