Page 86 - BBC History The Story of Science & Technology - 2017 UK

People & Personalities / Brunel

Building the Great Western Railway

The 118-mile railway line from London to Bristol
was the longest ever undertaken, and to conquer
its difficult terrain required many bridges, viaducts
and tunnels, as well as stations – and Brunel was
personally responsible for most of the design work
Wootton Bassett,
December 1840
The railway opened to this small
market town and stopped, as
from here to Bath was the most
difficult terrain of the whole route:
of 13 miles of line, less than one
mile is within 10 feet of the
natural ground level – the rest
had to be sunk in cuttings, raised
on embankments, or tunnelled.
Bristol Temple Meads, June 1841
With the Box Tunnel complete, the whole
line opened to traffic from London to
Bristol. Indeed, trains could already run
further over the allied Bristol & Exeter
Railway, as far as Bridgwater in
Somerset. Bristol Temple Meads
Station, with its 72-foot span timber
roof, was still not quite complete.

Swindon, 1841–3
Brunel and Gooch picked
the small market town of
Swindon as the site for
their “principal locomotive
establishment”, as it was
the highest point on the
line. In 1841 work began
on the workshops and in
Box Tunnel, March 1841 1842 Brunel designed
New Swindon, a settle-
Taking the line beneath Box Hill was the
most difficult part of the line, and work ment of cottages for GWR
began on access shafts in 1836. The employees. The works
work proved slower and more traumatic closed in the 1960s, but
than anyone had expected, involving the the ‘railway village’ and
loss of over a hundred lives. In 1841, some workshop buildings
Brunel urged the contractor to raise the still stand.
workforce to 4,000 men and 1,000 horses
to allow the whole line to open in June.

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