It is so sad to think that all this is now gone. A way of life wiped out, 156 years of rail history ended. Now we import everything, including coal. Bring back the old days. A good little film about an absolute railway legend, thanx for uploading.
Sadly it's not just Britain, it's Australia too. We have seen so much industry shutdown and sold off, now we import so much. Unemployment is "officially" around 5% but this does not take into account the many people on pensions and other government payments that DON'T want to work! Railways are a vital part of transport, and so are the workshops to make and maintain them.
Whats a shame is we decided to exploit third world country's cheap labour rather than pay a brit a fair buck, steam was way of the horse same as coal but oil and gas industry helped topple nuclear into stagnation and so the country now can not power an industry even if it wanted one without the grid Giga watt hour output begin massively increased.
The final blast: the Works hooter sounds for the last time on 26th March 1986 It was now only a matter of time before the works closed and when the fateful day arrived on 27th March, 1986, it was still a bitter pill to swallow for a town which had been shaped by the expansion of the railway works.
I fear the real reason for Swindon decline was more due to the fact that the majority of the men in power were ex LMS with old scores to settle it was nothing more than vindictive spite which was to re-bound back on them in the course of time
Just like 20 years previously with the Great Central Railway. Although it had been LNER since 1923, in the end it became the control domain of the former LMS, who obviously had men with a score to settle over their former rival...
I was at the Apprentice Training School when it opened in 1963 when we had the very cold winter, we were all sent home because the heating oil could not get to the school because of the cold and snow.
It has been suggested that the Swindon Works had been closed because the town was more able to face the future without railways than other railway towns and it is true that Swindon had already developed an infrastructure in which reliance on any one industry had long since disappeared.
By 1960, when Swindon produced British Railways' last steam locomotive (Evening Star, number 92220), it employed only 5,000 men. The payroll was down to 2,200 in 1973 and though it recovered briefly to 3,800 in 1980, the writing was already on the wall as the works failed to win outside orders and received a diminishing share of now limited British Rail Engineering Ltd (BREL) work.
I sympathise...I'd been apprentices at St Rollox in Glasgow. A workshop of 4,000 with a history of locomotive pride for over a hundred years and by 1984 it was all gone...(BREL)
The first time this happened was when the steam locomotive had to give way to diesel. This is the second blow. And on both occasions, it was modernisation that was the cause
swindon works.....a cathedral to engineering majesty. for those of a musical bent listen to Red Brick Dream by XTC...a swindon band no less and a homage to swindon
I've taken the train from London to Swindon and a bus to Malmesbury - likewise, Swindon to Bristol, etc. I never knew of this railroad connection...there is a video which shows Rock Island lihes locos being cut up for scrap in Silvis, Illinois...now railroads mainly move freight.
All of our industry now gone, we are buying mostly swiss trains now, but how did we let all of this slip away ? It's a absolute tragedy. Surely with Brexit, we should be once again thinking about manufacturing ? We need a car, aircraft, ship, train, and steel, industry to be reborn.
Vested intrests wanted it gone so they could provide corrupted alternatives under the guise of ideals..similar attacks happened in Australia on the waterfronts during PM Howards regime of the late 90s. The waterfront was never more productive than during that periods
I do wish people would do their research about this. Thatcher was not the reason the works closed. If you know your history about the GWR you will know that the works were in decline from the 1960's. thatcher may have been PM but even if Labour had been in the works would have still closed:
In fact the Conservatives stopped their own MPs for wanting more train services cut in the 80s instead asking for more reopening and modern trains but it came at a high price to the loyal workforce within BREL and later BRML.
I have to take issue with a couple of points. The old boy at the end said that a motorway takes up 40 acres per mile as opposed to 1 acre per mile for the railway. I have measured the width of a six lane motorway from boundary fence to boundary fence and a railway with two tracks is only half as wide (also from boundary fence to boundary fence) so this statement is wildly off the mark. When you take into consideration that lots of railway routes are four track systems, there's hardly anything in it. Just because the GWR is known as God's Wonderful Railway, there's no need to ask the opinions of two clergymen, is there? And lastly, was the GWR male voice choir really that awful, or was this filmed on one of their bad days?
Oldsaltshippers - not quite true, British railways were struggling way before Thatcher, early sixties etc, hence Dr Beeching. Regardless of Thatcher the Railways were doomed anyway. And they're not getting better. More people earning more money and buying cars and mororways didn't help.
It is so sad to think that all this is now gone. A way of life wiped out, 156 years of rail history ended. Now we import everything, including coal. Bring back the old days. A good little film about an absolute railway legend, thanx for uploading.
littlehenham. Watched a programme the other day called "the last miners", one of the final nails in the coffin that collierie closing down
Sadly it's not just Britain, it's Australia too. We have seen so much industry shutdown and sold off, now we import so much. Unemployment is "officially" around 5% but this does not take into account the many people on pensions and other government payments that DON'T want to work! Railways are a vital part of transport, and so are the workshops to make and maintain them.
Whats a shame is we decided to exploit third world country's cheap labour rather than pay a brit a fair buck, steam was way of the horse same as coal but oil and gas industry helped topple nuclear into stagnation and so the country now can not power an industry even if it wanted one without the grid Giga watt hour output begin massively increased.
The final blast: the Works hooter sounds for the last time on 26th March 1986 It was now only a matter of time before the works closed and when the fateful day arrived on 27th March, 1986, it was still a bitter pill to swallow for a town which had been shaped by the expansion of the railway works.
A great place to work. We were all brothers!
nice video with interesting information. like and watch from Hindustan (India)
i went round there in 2008 a very small museum for a very great man IKB ,and whats left is now a shopping mall
Great documentary this one Mark, have see something similar, sad we have lost all these great skills.
Yes - very old this one.I have a lot of old Swindon cable footage. I have more on Vimeo as well.
swindon was the finest railway engineering works in the entire world such a terrible shame
I fear the real reason for Swindon decline was more due to the fact that the majority of the men in power were ex LMS with old scores to settle it was nothing more than vindictive spite which was to re-bound back on them in the course of time
spot on
Fiery death for 40157
The LMS whipped gwr
Just like 20 years previously with the Great Central Railway. Although it had been LNER since 1923, in the end it became the control domain of the former LMS, who obviously had men with a score to settle over their former rival...
@@tobys_transport_videos Twisted view
I was at the Apprentice Training School when it opened in 1963 when we had the very cold winter, we were all sent home because the heating oil could not get to the school because of the cold and snow.
It has been suggested that the Swindon Works had been closed because the town was more able to face the future without railways than other railway towns and it is true that Swindon had already developed an infrastructure in which reliance on any one industry had long since disappeared.
my dad was a footman on the steam train he now has a wax dummy in the railway museum
By 1960, when Swindon produced British Railways' last steam locomotive (Evening Star, number 92220), it employed only 5,000 men. The payroll was down to 2,200 in 1973 and though it recovered briefly to 3,800 in 1980, the writing was already on the wall as the works failed to win outside orders and received a diminishing share of now limited British Rail Engineering Ltd (BREL) work.
Some blamed the NUR for sitting on the fence against the 1983 CAP which doomed Horwich as well.
Later on that year in November 86 Aldenham bus works closed as well.... Sad year for transport in 1986.
This is great and an example of how heavy industry has been destroyed in Britain.
I sympathise...I'd been apprentices at St Rollox in Glasgow. A workshop of 4,000 with a history of locomotive pride for over a hundred years and by 1984 it was all gone...(BREL)
The first time this happened was when the steam locomotive had to give way to diesel. This is the second blow. And on both occasions, it was modernisation that was the cause
swindon works.....a cathedral to engineering majesty. for those of a musical bent listen to Red Brick Dream by XTC...a swindon band no less and a homage to swindon
Making Plans for Nigel
The dude with a cigarette in his mouth while he pours molten aluminium has never heard of asthma
That organ music at the start was doing my head in but great docu none the less!
I've taken the train from London to Swindon and a bus to Malmesbury - likewise, Swindon to Bristol, etc. I never knew of this railroad connection...there is a video which shows Rock Island lihes locos being cut up for scrap in Silvis, Illinois...now railroads mainly move freight.
i went round swindon works in the 1980,s peaks parked every wear
Fine men!
All of our industry now gone, we are buying mostly swiss trains now, but how did we let all of this slip away ? It's a absolute tragedy. Surely with Brexit, we should be once again thinking about manufacturing ? We need a car, aircraft, ship, train, and steel, industry to be reborn.
@ Oh absolutely ! And the trades unions played right into their hands with their greedy demands, they are also to blame im afraid.
would have been working there i reckon if still open.
grandparents/parents worked there so it would have been inevitable
I'd of love to done this as a job
The great Swindon work's shod no have closed , all that history gone forever , and now they have built house's on the site of A shop such a pity .
It’s a pity the works wasn’t saved.
Dracula on the organ sounds like Treehouse of Horror😀
Think the government should invest and bring this back to Swindon using the soon to be disused Honda site
The Tory MP we had at the time didn't give a hoot either. Did nothing to help
A Thatcher Tebbit crony💩💩
Goes wrong regular.....now there's another one.
3:25 now there's a man in denial
Vested intrests wanted it gone so they could provide corrupted alternatives under the guise of ideals..similar attacks happened in Australia on the waterfronts during PM Howards regime of the late 90s. The waterfront was never more productive than during that periods
The very same, sad thing here in the United States.
In the days people actually made useful stuff
They could make anything in the works. but at 14.34, maybe they should have tried to make a decent wig! ha!
Too true... maybe that's why the ominous organ music in the beginning.
There was a hubis to discard solid underpinnings..bashing beautiful pianos to bits was entertainment
I do wish people would do their research about this. Thatcher was not the reason the works closed. If you know your history about the GWR you will know that the works were in decline from the 1960's. thatcher may have been PM but even if Labour had been in the works would have still closed:
Some people tend to attach emotions rather than facts to their opinions. Thatcher was the best leader the UK had
In fact the Conservatives stopped their own MPs for wanting more train services cut in the 80s instead asking for more reopening and modern trains but it came at a high price to the loyal workforce within BREL and later BRML.
I have to take issue with a couple of points.
The old boy at the end said that a motorway takes up 40 acres per mile as opposed to 1 acre per mile for the railway.
I have measured the width of a six lane motorway from boundary fence to boundary fence and a railway with two tracks is only half as wide (also from boundary fence to boundary fence) so this statement is wildly off the mark.
When you take into consideration that lots of railway routes are four track systems, there's hardly anything in it.
Just because the GWR is known as God's Wonderful Railway, there's no need to ask the opinions of two clergymen, is there?
And lastly, was the GWR male voice choir really that awful, or was this filmed on one of their bad days?
Oldsaltshippers - not quite true, British railways were struggling way before Thatcher, early sixties etc, hence Dr Beeching. Regardless of Thatcher the Railways were doomed anyway. And they're not getting better. More people earning more money and buying cars and mororways didn't help.
Had BR been losing so much money since 1948 in the rush from steam to diesel when oil was so expensive?
What's with the demonic music ?
See 14:34. That thing on his head.