
Observations on Work, Employment & Education
The Men of God’s Wonderful Railway
In the archives of Swindon Cable, the first commercial cable TV channel in the UK, amidst Christmas shows, football coverage, and “Winter Wonderland” snow videos, there are two reports on the fate of the Swindon Railway Works, once one of the most significant locomotive construction and service facilities in the world.
Paul Langcaster, a long-time reporter for Swindon Cable, returned to disused halls of the Railway Works for the 25th-anniversary celebration of the Great Western Designer Outlet Village that took its place. The video, uninspiringly and unsurprisingly titled “Outlet at 25 (Master),” shows a sleek shopping mall housed by the ‘listed’ industrial building. Interestingly, this promotional video by the outlet’s operator also tells the story of this remarkable industrial site, which brought Swindon to city status.
Since the 1840s, the Great Western Railway (GWR) has connected London to Bristol. It soon earned its honorary title, “God’s Wonderful Railway” and marketed itself as “The Holiday Line” from the start of mass tourism, making the beaches of Wales and Cornwall accessible to the lower classes. In Swindon, previously an insignificant market town, the technical centre was built because of its central location on the route. At its peak, the Swindon Railway Works employed 14,000 workers who built the best steam locomotives in the world and were exemplary in caring for and investing in their employees. The health centre, financed with a small wage deduction, guaranteed lifelong, free health care and became the model and the inspiration for the National Health Service (NHS).
Another documentary, same place, 30 years earlier:
Keith Wilkinson, in his nearly 30-minute, impressive television report “God’s Wonderful Railway Men,” documents the struggle of the workers of the Swindon Railway to keep their factory alive. Wilkinson captures the rusty aesthetic of a fading industrial culture and its associated workers. While the camerawork and sound design of “God’s Wonderful Railway Men” are not top-notch, the film is compelling for its immediacy and proximity to the action. It is a fantastic historical document.
Prolonged dramatic organ music accompanies a long camera shot, with the cameraman riding on a cart through an enormous hall where locomotives are being repaired and serviced. Two scenes foreshadow the fate of the Works and its workers: the scrapping and torching of the 40159 in the locomotive graveyard and the pan from a diesel locomotive to a passing high-speed train that literally and figuratively “overtakes” the workshop. The sequences from inside the hall showcase a now-lost world of industrial work: physical labour, sweat, manual work, grime, steam, iron, and machines operated by workers who set the pace of work themselves.
Protests by workers in Swindon and London, as well as lobbying in Parliament, did not have the desired effect, even though the workers were ready to adapt and retrain, embracing the new technologies. The worker-priest in civilian clothes argued for the value that the work at the GWR brought to the community and the workers themselves. The loss of irreplaceable skills threatened the wealth, vitality, and creativity of a trade that faced inevitable extinction.
Another priest, wearing his soutane, criticized the railway management, emphasizing the structuring role of the railway works for Swindon – the railway as both father and mother figure of the town.
Bill Reid, a retired boilermaker who spent his entire 51-year working life at the Swindon Railway Works, mourns the lost skills that once thrived in the workshops that built locomotives. The spirited retiree, one of three elderly gentlemen sitting in armchairs in their ‘sunday bests’, he is not just a disappointed railway worker but also a clear-sighted thinker whose foresight puts advocates of blind progress to shame.
“One mile of motorway needs 40 acres of land. One mile of railway track needs 1 acre. Think of all that farmland lost…” tracks instead of roads. “You don’t get the air pollution. They are just now realizing that even the forests [min. 25:25] are dying. Poisoned by the toxic atmosphere. I think they’ll eventually have to return to the railway.”
A demonstrator’s sign reads: “Is this the age of the train?” Well, it certainly is now. Yet, why have we gone 40 years in the wrong direction, on the wrong train?
God's Wonderful Railwaymen - the end of Swindon Railway Works © Swindon Cable
Outlet at 25 © Swindon Cable

Class_52 D1043 Western Duke Swindon Works
© Barry Lewis

D1015 Western Champion in Swindon Works
© Murgatroyd49
The Men of God’s Wonderful Railway
In the archives of Swindon Cable, the first commercial cable TV channel in the UK, amidst Christmas shows, football coverage, and “Winter Wonderland” snow videos, there are two reports on the fate of the Swindon Railway Works, once one of the most significant locomotive construction and service facilities in the world.
Paul Langcaster, a long-time reporter for Swindon Cable, returned to disused halls of the Railway Works for the 25th-anniversary celebration of the Great Western Designer Outlet Village that took its place. The video, uninspiringly and unsurprisingly titled “Outlet at 25 (Master),” shows a sleek shopping mall housed by the ‘listed’ industrial building. Interestingly, this promotional video by the outlet’s operator also tells the story of this remarkable industrial site, which brought Swindon to city status.
Since the 1840s, the Great Western Railway (GWR) has connected London to Bristol. It soon earned its honorary title, “God’s Wonderful Railway” and marketed itself as “The Holiday Line” from the start of mass tourism, making the beaches of Wales and Cornwall accessible to the lower classes. In Swindon, previously an insignificant market town, the technical centre was built because of its central location on the route. At its peak, the Swindon Railway Works employed 14,000 workers who built the best steam locomotives in the world and were exemplary in caring for and investing in their employees. The health centre, financed with a small wage deduction, guaranteed lifelong, free health care and became the model and the inspiration for the National Health Service (NHS).
Another documentary, same place, 30 years earlier:
Keith Wilkinson, in his nearly 30-minute, impressive television report “God’s Wonderful Railway Men,” documents the struggle of the workers of the Swindon Railway to keep their factory alive. Wilkinson captures the rusty aesthetic of a fading industrial culture and its associated workers. While the camerawork and sound design of “God’s Wonderful Railway Men” are not top-notch, the film is compelling for its immediacy and proximity to the action. It is a fantastic historical document.
Prolonged dramatic organ music accompanies a long camera shot, with the cameraman riding on a cart through an enormous hall where locomotives are being repaired and serviced. Two scenes foreshadow the fate of the Works and its workers: the scrapping and torching of the 40159 in the locomotive graveyard and the pan from a diesel locomotive to a passing high-speed train that literally and figuratively “overtakes” the workshop. The sequences from inside the hall showcase a now-lost world of industrial work: physical labour, sweat, manual work, grime, steam, iron, and machines operated by workers who set the pace of work themselves.
Protests by workers in Swindon and London, as well as lobbying in Parliament, did not have the desired effect, even though the workers were ready to adapt and retrain, embracing the new technologies. The worker-priest in civilian clothes argued for the value that the work at the GWR brought to the community and the workers themselves. The loss of irreplaceable skills threatened the wealth, vitality, and creativity of a trade that faced inevitable extinction.
Another priest, wearing his soutane, criticized the railway management, emphasizing the structuring role of the railway works for Swindon – the railway as both father and mother figure of the town.
Bill Reid, a retired boilermaker who spent his entire 51-year working life at the Swindon Railway Works, mourns the lost skills that once thrived in the workshops that built locomotives. The spirited retiree, one of three elderly gentlemen sitting in armchairs in their ‘sunday bests’, he is not just a disappointed railway worker but also a clear-sighted thinker whose foresight puts advocates of blind progress to shame.
“One mile of motorway needs 40 acres of land. One mile of railway track needs 1 acre. Think of all that farmland lost…” tracks instead of roads. “You don’t get the air pollution. They are just now realizing that even the forests [min. 25:25] are dying. Poisoned by the toxic atmosphere. I think they’ll eventually have to return to the railway.”
A demonstrator’s sign reads: “Is this the age of the train?” Well, it certainly is now. Yet, why have we gone 40 years in the wrong direction, on the wrong train?
God's Wonderful Railwaymen - the end of Swindon Railway Works © Swindon Cable
Outlet at 25 © Swindon Cable

Class_52 D1043 Western Duke Swindon Works
© Barry Lewis

D1015 Western Champion in Swindon Works
© Murgatroyd49

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About this blog
By selecting a film or an image, this blog literally illustrates the vast sphere of work, employment & education in an open collection of academic, artistic and also anecdotal findings.
About us
Konrad Wakolbinger makes documentary films about work and life. Jörg Markowitsch does research on education and work. They are both based in Vienna. Information on guest authors can be found in their corresponding articles.
More about
Interested in more? Find recommendations on relevant festivals, film collections and literature here.
About this blog
With picking a film or an image, this blog literally illustrates the vast sphere of work, employment & education in an open collection of academic, artistic and also anecdotal findings.
About us
Konrad Wakolbinger makes documentary films about work and life. Jörg Markowitsch does research on education and work. We both work in Vienna. Information on guest authors can be found in their respective articles.
More about
Interested in more? Find recommendations on relevant festivals, film collections and literature here.