Collection: Didcot Railway Centre

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Railway History

  The collection includes locomotives, carriages, nameplates, posters, cast iron signs, company records, books and printed ephemera based on the King Bird collection Great western publicity material. Bequests include printed ephemera, books, tin ware, photographs and a large collection of tickets, fully catalogued. The photographic collection images in both black and white and colour of the Great Western and other British railway companies dating from about 1930. The collection is housed in a purpose built museum opened in 1982; a new library and resource centre are planned. In total there are 500 science and industry items, 1,000 social history and 50,000 transport items. Loco’s in preparation include: – No.4079 ‘Pendennis Castle’ was the seventh of 171 of the 4-6-0 ‘Castles’ built and was completed at Swindon in February 1924. Presented to the Great Western Society by Hamersley Iron and Rio Tinto in 2000. The ‘King’ Class, introduced in 1927, No 6023 was built in 1930. The GWS subsequently acquired 6023 at the beginning of 1990. Steam Railmotor No. 93 is the sole survivor of the 99 GWR Railmotors, built in 1908, and converted to a plain auto trailer in 1934… 9112 Queen Mary and 9118 Princess Elizabeth and 9113 Prince of Wales are 3 of the 8 Super Saloons introduced by the Great Western Railway to carry passengers from Plymouth to London. The conversion of GWR Locomotive No 4942 ‘Maindy Hall’ into Saint Class Locomotive (No 2999) 29XX or Saint Class introduced in 1900-1910 by George Jackson Churchward. A total of 76 were built.

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC