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  • Steam World

    ONE LAST VISIT TO THE WORKS

    May 21, 2021 5 minutes
    Photography by the author

    Back in the 1950s, the number one aim of the average locospotter on the Western Region was to see inside Swindon works, and fair play to that region, free visits were allowed on Wednesday afternoons.

    However, for me, with my age in single figures and an only child, the chances of actually going were always going to be nil. True, once every two months, father would visit his customers in Swindon and if it were holiday time, I would go with him and get a bit of time on the station collecting numbers - but it was always on a Monday and Tuesday. The Works open afternoon was always on a Wednesday and by then father had moved on to Wootton Bassett and Chippenham.

    By the time I was 12, as long as I was with a friend, I was allowed to travel by train up to Swindon and

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