In
March 1833, the 27 year old Isambard Brunel
was appointed chief engineer of the Great Western
Railway. The strategy was to build a railway that would link London
and Bristol. The first section of the
track that went from London to Taplow (Maidenhead)
was opened in 1838. The line was completed to Bristol
in 1841. The Great Western Railway was the first to install electric
telegraph alongside its line.
The building of the London to Bristol
line helped to establish Isambard Brunel
as one of the world's leading engineers. Impressive achievements on
the route included the viaducts at Hanwell and Chippenham, the Maidenhead
Bridge, the Box Tunnel and the Bristol
Temple Meads Station. Controversially, Brunel used the broad
gauge (2.2 m) instead of the standard gauge
(1.55m) on the line.
Swindon was about halfway between London
and Bristol and was chosen as the junction
for the line to Gloucester. Swindon
was also the site of the Great Western Locomotive Works. Daniel
Gooch, who had worked with Robert
Stephenson in Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
was put in charge of locomotive production. Gooch was told by the
company to produce a "colossal locomotive that should easily
surpass anything that had gone before". The result of this directive
was The Great Western that could
travel at an average speed of 67 mph. It has been said that "while
Brunel built the Great Western, Gooch made it work".
By 1844 the Great Western Railway had opened a new line from Bristol
to Exeter and from Bristol
to Gloucester where it met the standard
gauge of the Birmingham & Gloucester line. This created problems
as passengers and goods had to be transferred from one train to another.
One of the consequences of using the broad gauge was that Great Western
locomotives could not use Euston Station
and Brunel had to build its own station at Paddington.
This was not completed until 1854.
The Great Western
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