In my previous article I mentioned that a pageant took place in 1925 to celebrate 100 years of the railway. The GWR had to mock up the North Star to show off its history. However, after the pageant there was much talk about saving some locos for future generations to enjoy.

But this did not happen immediately and another pageant in 1930 to celebrate 100 years of the Liverpool Manchester Railway galvanised the railway world into doing something.

In 1931, after a long career, the most famous of all locos was being withdrawn – the City Of Truro, a GWR 4-4-0 City Class, which was the first mechanical thing on the planet to break the 100mph barrier.

George Jackson Churchward designed the city class for speed and in 1903 with great things planned for it City Of Truro was turned out of Swindon works.

In 1904 it is claimed City Of Truro attained 102.3 mph while hauling the Oceans Mail.

The London and North Eastern Railway was desperate to acquire the COT as a centrepiece for its proposed museum at York.

Eventually, and fortunately for us all today, they were able to buy COT and place it in their museum.

My thanks for this go to Sir Nigel Gresley, the chief mechanical engineer of the LNER, who attended Marlborough College and some believe he may well have had a fondness for the GWR from this period.

In 1936 he was knighted and was determined to push locomotives speeds to the peak.

He designed both the Flying Scotsman and Mallard.

The GWR had missed an opportunity to have a museum in Swindon to preserve its history, though, incidentally, much of it, such as nameplates, were lying around the works. Sometimes I am surprised when people occasionally view the history of the GWR through rose- tinted spectacles and yet defend the GWR Company for not opening a museum to preserve its own heritage.

However, I am extremely grateful to all those individuals past and present who squirreled away bits of it here and there.

Examples of this “squirreling” on view in Steam , are the 8ft diameter flangeless driving wheels, from Lord Of The Isles, having 26 spokes; each welded from three separate iron sections.

On their own this unique part of Swindon’s history cannot recapture the grandeur of the locomotive built around them, but they do capture something of the long gone wheel smiths of the “hot shop” who did not stop work until a wheel was completed.

They welded the metal strips by heating and hammering them together.

After the other workers had gone home the wheel gang continued working in the dark around their fires and the hot glow from the wheel, their hammers rang out like the peal of bells in the empty forge.

Next week I will be looking at the development of the Railway Museum and its exhibits