21st March 2023: West from Paddington – A Broad Gauge Journey, by Brian Arman
Replica Great Western Railway broad guage 4-2-2 Iron Duke working on the demonstration line in front of the Albert Memorial in Spring 1985. Image Credit: Jeremy Harrison
In March we had two meetings. For the second, on March 21st, we had our RCTS President, Rev. Canon Brian Arman, taking us on a Broad Gauge Journey West from Paddington. This was an afternoon meeting, with a sizeable audience of 29.Brian explained that he came from a family of blacksmiths who had moved to Swindon to work for the railway. Our President has a large collection about the Broad gauge, this gauge giving much stability to the trains. A temporary terminus in London, in 1858 Paddington had a change around with a better layout. In 1863 the Metropolitan line opened and worked by GWR. Then in October 1864 there was a change to the coach livery from all over brown to cream at the top with a brown bottom.
The Broad gauge actually reached Victoria by a link to the GWR. Moving on our journey we reach Addison Road [now Kensington Olympia] but going back to 1861, because the first standard gauge train reached Paddington in that year. So on we went mentioning the many stations along the line, including Slough, Taplow, Maidenhead, Reading, Didcot and Swindon just to mention a few. We finished our tour at Swindon as time was against us, a good place to stop as in 1842, the world’s first railway refreshment rooms opened here.
Thank you for making the journey to Redhill, Brian and for your knowledge of the GWR. (Rob Burridge)