STEAM Museum in Swindon will open its final exhibition for 2022 on Saturday the 16th of July.
The museum’s programme of exhibits for 2022 has seen an exploration of the modernisation of the Great Western Railway including ‘High Voltage’ which saw the story behind the electrification of the western network told and ‘The Diesel Decades’ which focused on early diesel experimentation by an array of rail companies.
Saturday the 16th of July will see the ‘Changing Trains’ exhibition open which is the third and final exhibit for 2022. ‘Changing Trains – the Journey from Broad Gauge to Narrow Gauge’ will reveal the series of events which led Brunel’s broad gauge vision to meet its end as the Great Western Railway converted to a Narrow Gauge railway.
Brunel designed the Great Western Railway in 1835 and made a choice to use a wider gauge of track than the rest of the country, his choice ended up creating huge difficulties for some stations as two separate lines met, passengers and goods also had to change trains in order to move onwards with their travel. The difficulties lead to Great Western Railway converting to standard gauge or ‘narrow gauge’ as it was called back then, to match that of other tracks which was completed by 1892.
The ‘Changing Trains’ exhibition follows six different characters who witnessed the ‘Battle of the Gauges’ and were impacted by the ‘Change of Gauge’. The characters include Isambard Kingdom Brunel who fought to defend his broad gauge network, rail travellers of the time who endured the inconveniences of travel on two differing rail systems along with the gangers who undertook the physical work of converting the lines to narrow gauge.
Felicity Jones, Collections and Exhibitions Officer at STEAM, said: “Changing Trains features an array of fascinating images and objects from the STEAM collection. Particular highlights include lithographs published in the Illustrated London News in 1846 that fanned the flames of the gauge war and documents sent to a ganger working on the final 1892 conversion. Many items are on display at STEAM for the very first time.”
Councillor Matty Courtliff, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage, Leisure and Town Centre Experience, said: “The series of exhibitions hosted at STEAM this year cover hugely important moments in the history of the Great Western Railway and the final instalment is jam-packed with interesting facts and stories from those directly affected by those changes.
“These exhibitions are well worth exploring over the summer holidays if you want to find out a bit more about how the modernisation of the GWR took place.”
The Changing Train exhibit can be found on the Museum’s Mezzanine floor, the High Voltage exhibit can be found in the Museum’s Speed to the West area and The Diesel Decades exhibit is in STEAM’s recreated station building.
Admission for all three exhibitions comes with STEAM admission and is free for STEAM season ticket holders.
STEAM Museum is open from Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and Sundays from 11am to 4pm.
Tickets can be booked ahead via the STEAM website: http://www.steam-museum.org.uk
