Station Gallery

Evacuees waiting outside the departure platform at Paddington in 1939

One of the very first war time roles that the GWR was engaged in was the evacuation of children from cities to the relative safety of the countryside. Even before war was declared, plans were drawn up for evacuation so the GWR and the other major railway companies were prepared and on standby to put these plans into action. On August 31st 1939, the day before Germany invaded Poland, the order to begin the evacuation was given. The very next day the mass movement of children began and continued until September 4th. The GWR was responsible for the majority of the children moved from North and East London and while most of the evacuation trains departed from Ealing Broadway, this image shows groups of children being off-loaded from a double decker bus outside the Departure Platform at Paddington Station during the four days of evacuation in September 1939.

Platform 1 at Paddington Station, 1904

This view of passengers boarding a train on Platform 1 was taken on the August Bank Holiday 1904.
Teeming with people, passengers and porters bustle about the platform by the clock at the First Class end of the train before it departs.

© Steam Museum of the GWR

1900s, 1904, August, Bank Holiday, Boarding, Edwardian, Paddington, Passengers, People, Platform, Platform 1, Station

Black Dog Halt, near Calne, c.1960

This halt was on the Chippenham to Calne branch line. It was used by Lord Lansdowne of Bowood House as his personal station. The halt closed in 1965.

Black Dog Halt, Bowood, Calne, Halt, Station, Wiltshire