Swindon Works Part Five 1960`s until closure by The Reverend Canon Brian Arman.

Rev Canon Brian Arman, Society President, returned to the heart of Gt. Eastern territory to present the concluding part of his talks on the Gt. Western Railway’s (GWR) Swindon Works, “The Golden Years….to the Closure of the Works” on March 11th 2024, covering from 1971 through to 1986/87. Without any “pulpit notes”, using photographic slides, our President’s talk differed from previous ones as we didn’t know what was around the next corner, but one saw the variation and dedication that was Swindon. Rev Canon Brian, is Swindon born and bred. The family affiliation to GWR engineering metal bashing dates back 1846, and he grew up just 300 yards down the road from the last GWR CME F. W. Hawksworth, but was the only one - due to a mix of family influences- to follow a different vocation. However his mother said at his wedding he was still “tattooed” GWR. Swindon work streams ended and changed and parts of works were adapted or repurposed more than once from the 1960’s onwards. The last steam loco coming in for repair was in 1964, and the carriage works closed in 1960. Work overhauling and repairing Diesel Hydraulic Locos – some built at Swindon - continued until BR decided to get rid of the small class of these non-standard, but very useful efficient machines, the last being withdrawn in 1977. The Wagon Works were running down. However, Harry Roberts the new Works Manager from 1970, (EX BREL YORK, and a WW2 Arnhem Red Devil ), did much to find new work for Swindon, so that once again Swindon showed it could do anything. Swindon was building boats, repairing Bristol Buses,building Rail Traversers, refurbishing Vintage Cars (body shop skills), converting Bedford trucks into mobile airport plane steps, undertaking rail crash damage repairs that others could not do, servicing and repairing hydraulic shunters, building the ubiquitous BR“BRUT”s and later also the APT Coaches. Swindon also restored  heritage trains and locos and enabled Plasser and Theurer to build a large specialised rail machine. A dedicated engineering training academy was set up. Contractions and the politics within BR  in late 1970s, ultimately led to decision to close Swindon down officially in 1986, but some activities continued into 1987.