Women Gallery

Railway Queen Mabel Kitson on King George V at Swindon, 1928

Railway Queen Mabel Kitson, photographed on the running board of GWR locomotive King George V, at Swindon Works in 1928. Mabel became Railway Queen in 1927, aged 15. She was an ambassador for British railway companies. He father was a GWR signalman

© STEAM Museum of the GWR

1920s, 1928, King Class, King George V, Locomotive, Mabel Kitson, Railway Queen, Swindon Works

Female stewardess, 1917

A Dining Car Waitress in her crisp white apron stands in the doorway of dining car No. 9546 on Platform 2, Paddington Station in 1917. Rail travel during the war was not just restricted to essential journeys. Travel for pleasure continued according to Mr Guy Calthrop, General Manager of the London and North Western Railway, who was asked to represent all of the railway companies before the Man Power Distribution Board. In his report of October 1916 Mr Calthrop stated that ?there is an enormous amount of ?joy-riding? on railways at the present time'; and facilities such as on-board dining for long journeys were as integral to the service the GWR offered its customers as before the war began

© STEAM Museum of the GWR

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