Steam Great Western Railway Museum, Swindon

Well this was one of the highlights for me 🙂

I had originally wanted to go to Didcot, where the Great Western Society are, but they are not open until summer. So this was second choice – but turned into a great visit. We have both been impressed by the interactive nature of the exhibitions we have been to, and this was no exception. The Steam Museum at Swindon is at the old home of the GWR, where for many years they built steam locomotives, coaches and wagons / trucks. Every aspect of a steam locomotive was cast, built, assembled here – to the extent that a mainline steam locomotive cost them the equivalent of only about $200,000 (Australian) to build.

There are some classic GWR locomotives here –  Caerphilly Castle, City of Truro… They have even got Caerphilly Castle over an inspection pit, so you can walk underneath.

The museum has quite a few waxwork figures in set scenes – the factory, offices, stores, etc. All very well done.

I’ve added some photos, they can be seen here:

After we had finished at the museum there was an outlet mall next door, so we went souvenir shopping… by now we have realised that we would be sending stuff home not bringing it all home in suitcases, so we ended up with a few great gifts and souvenirs.

From Swindon it was on to Milton Keynes, via Buckingham. I’ve added a couple of photos of houses where we used to live at the end of the gallery above.