IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
James Watt Close, SWINDON, SN2 1EL

View northward, on a fine June Sunday, during a memorable RCTS Visit to the Works etc. A variety of ex-GWR locomotive classes are seen, also an ex-WD 2-8-0 on the right. Facing are 'Saint' 4-6-0 No. 2934 'Butleigh Court' and 61XX 2-6-2T No. 6123, both gleaming after a Works visit.

Clearly waiting to go into service following overhaul at the works. The Grange class was the GWR's medium-light 4-6-0.

View NW in the Yard towards the roundhouses, on a Sunday. Apart from providing shunting pilots for all the ex-Great Western Yards in and around Swindon and handling new and repaired locomotives from the great Locomotive Works, the Depot had many passenger and freight workings on the main lines. Under BR it was coded 82C, in the Bristol District. In 1950 the allocation was 118 locomotives, comprising:- 31 4-6-0s, 3 4-4-0s, 3 (ex-WD) 2-8-0s, 14 2-6-0s, 3 0-6-0s, 14 2-6-2Ts, 41 0-6-0Ts and 9 0-4-2Ts; in addition, about 20 engines were normally 'In Store' in the Stock Shed. The Depot was closed in 10/64. Prominent in this photograph are 'Saint' 4-6-0 No. 2934 'Butleigh Court' and 2-6-2T No. 6123.(See same view at Image).

Postbox No. SN2 616 and Business Box No. SN2 615.

No. W4W, one of the original railcars built in 1934 by Park Royal, was withdrawn in 7/58. It is restored here in 1964, ready for preservation at Swindon Railway Museum.

This road gives access to the Hawksworth Industrial Estate. In the distance, it makes a T junction with Newcombe Way, which is the main road in the estate. Just in front of the camera position, the road passes over the route of the former North Wiltshire Canal. This branched off the Wilts & Berks Canal, in the town centre, and headed for Cricklade, after which it made a junction with the Thames & Severn Canal. The section of the North Wiltshire Canal around here, has for very many years been a pedestrian footpath and a cycleway. It provides a useful link from the town centre, passing under the railway line, to the Ferndale Road area, and elsewhere in the northern part of Swindon. Image Image Image Image

No. 2934 'Butleigh Court' was one of the later batch of 'Saints', introduced in 1911; it was withdrawn in 6/52, so this was probably its last visit to the Works - after a life of over 40 years, much of it on heavy passenger work. (See Image] for a general scene that day).

This is '6100' class 2-6-2T No. 6123 (of Slough, built 10/31 and withdrawn from Oxford in 4/62), being one of the scores of locomotives that dominated the Paddington suburban services for thirty years from 1930. (See also the general scene that day at Image]).