The Steam Workshops of the Great Western Railway by Ken Gibbs

Author:Ken Gibbs
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750962391
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-08-03T16:00:00+00:00

Workshops of the Rhymney Railway prior to the development at Caerphilly with the floor looking well worn!

Two very contrasting engines appeared in the late 1950s: City of Truro which had been refurbished quite recently from York Museum but had argued with a coal stage, damaging its cab, and later a ‘decapped’ (2-10-0) Class 9, a product of nationalisation and looking nothing like its Great Western associates. The flow continued and whilst very welcome with Castles, Austerities, a London Midland Tank 2-6-4, Halls, Counties and 0-6-0s coming in, there was an air of something ominous about it all. Were they coming to Caerphilly because something was occurring where they were normally dealt with?

Conversion of shops for diesel repairs was commenced and, although the flow of steam locos continued, the carriage shops closed in 1962. Steam loco repairs soon changed to locos being sent in for scrapping! The year 1963 started with a shop full of steam locos under repair or for cutting up. As the shop emptied, so it remained empty. A ‘Hall’ came in for weighing only, amid a diminishing number of staff engaged on machinery removal from the dying works. Soon only one loco remained.

In April 1963, No. 5203, a 2-6-2 tank, was taken on the traversing table out of the erecting shop. Last one out switch off the light and close the door!

The Caerphilly site is now an industrial estate.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.