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Saturday 27 August 2011

Swindon Steam Museum

This may not be everyone's idea of a good day out, but being of a "certain age" it brought back memories for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Isambard Kingdom Brunel is one of my historic heroes, he decided what it was he wanted and just got on with it, despite opposition from all sides, go Issie!



It just goes to show that no matter how silly your name, if you do great stuff they will name something after you in the end.



This engine is the one that holds the record for being the fastest steam engine ever . . .



. . . and here's how it looks from underneath.



One of Queen Victoria's carriages is on show, this is the clerestory roof



A buffet car (I dont think QV would have needed to use this!)



I can actually remember when you used to have to pay one penny (that is when there were 12 of them to a shilling) to buy a platform ticket if you wanted to see someone off or meet someone from a train.



This is one of the windows to the aforementioned QV's carriage



A shot of the front of the old Swindon Railway works, now sadly no longer and up for sale for redevelopment



The steam museum is situated at one end of the vast complex that used to comprise the Swindon Railway and Engine works, which was the main employer in Swindon for many years. Most of the surrounding houses were built by the GWR to house the factory workers, there are rows and rows of back-to-back houses one of which is home to the Swindon Railway Village Museum, sadly we didn't have time to visit - another day, maybe.

3 comments:

Sugarplum Kawaii said...

His name and mind were magnificent, and the
platform ticket dispenser is a wonderful object!

Chrissy C said...

Very interesting Joy. We've done the museums connected to the famous Iron Bridge Gorge complex

Deb from WhatsInMyAttic said...

Now this is my kind of outing! LT and I love to stop at these kinds of places, and often vacation in a certain spot just to be able to see a museum we have heard of. Loved this post!