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

Women war workers making ammunition shells in 24F Shop, 1943

Women war workers making ammunition shells in 24F Shop, 1943.
These women have been tasked with the pressing on of copper bands and insertion of base plates for 25-pounder quick firing, high explosive, streamline shells. They are using a specialist Aldous- Campbell Ltd high pressure machine which fits both copper band and base plate securely in position. The lady to the right of the machine is holding a shell in position and a notice board (just out of shot) states that two presses, one of eight seconds and another of five seconds, are required in the machine to seal the shell

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