Railway Workers Gallery

Women workers in the Permanent Way Dept at Reading, 1943

Three ladies from the Permanent Way Department are pictured here at Reading in April 1943 off-loading wooden blocks from a wagon. This photograph is an official Company image, with GWR Chief Engineers Office, Aldermaston. Photographic Department stamped on the reverse. The photo may have been taken to show the work of women during the war, but equally it might have been taken to show joint working between the GWR and LMS whose wagon features in the image. Inter-railway working between the railway companies was actively encouraged by the Government during the war as a means of maintaining an efficient and economic rail service, so staff and rolling stock worked across the different networks in a way that had not been seen previously

GWR Weedkilling Train tender W82, 1938

To operate smooth running services the GWR needed to keep their tracks and tracksides free of unwanted weeds and foliage. The GWR's weedkilling trains usually consisted of an engine and three tenders. The tenders held water which was mixed with the weedkilling solution held in a separate tank. It was then sprayed out the back onto the tracks with jets

© STEAM Museum of the GWR

Highbridge Station, Somerset, 1928

A view of Highbridge station in Somerset, taken in 1928.
Milk churns sit on platform barrows having just been dropped off by the dairies. They await an incoming train to pick them up.
Highbridge station opened in June 1841 and is now known as Highbridge and Burnham

© STEAM Museum of the GWR

Churn, Dairy, Goods, Gw Goods, High Bridge, Highbridge, Highbridge And Burnham, Milk, Somerset, Staff, Station