AS the centenary of the First World War's armistice approaches, more than 2,500 railway workers who died during the conflict have been immortalised on a new train.

Every single name of the 2,545 men who worked at Great Western Railway and died in battle have been carefully painted onto nine carriages of an intercity express train as a tribute to their heroic sacrifice.

Each employee has their place of employment, their rank, their regiment, their age, the place where they died, and where they are buried or remembered next to their name.

Their relatives attended a momentous ceremony in London yesterday and were moved to tears when they saw the train approach for the first time.

Jean Moulton, the great-niece of Edgar Norton, who was a wagon painter at GWR's Locomotive and Carriage Dept in Swindon, laid a wreath on behalf of all the families of the fallen.

The day before the ceremony, Jean went to the GWR depot to see the names being placed on the carriage.

Paul Gentleman from GWR helped lead the armistice train project.

He said: "Jean was thrilled, it was a very emotional day.

"The day before the ceremony, we invited her down to London to see the design being applied to the train in its depot.

"I designed the livery. I wanted to make something more than a normal list of names to pay tribute to them, I wanted to create thousands of one-line stories and I think we've achieved that.

"We picked out 100 of our former employees and gave more detailed descriptions and added photos next to their names.

"As well as Edgar, there was also Ernest and William Leggett from Swindon, who died within three months of each other.

"William, the eldest, got seriously hurt so Ernest ran over and cradled him while his brother died in his arms."

Edgar and the Leggett brothers will be included in a new Roll of Honour which is now on permanent display at the station.

The list of the dead has been updated after GWR researchers discovered more engineers, labourers, solicitors, carriage cleaners and apprentices from across the railway company's network who fought and died in the war 100 years ago.

The Wessex Male Voice Choir sang songs of remembrance as the train arrived at Paddington Station.

Guy Edwards from the choir said; "Quite a few of our members are serving or used to serve in the military so occasions like this really resonate with us.

"This was a very special event and we were honoured to be invited to sing at it."