Having served in the Army I can imagine the pride and camaraderie and humour was much the same . These people produced some of the best quality heavy engineering seen in Britain . They and Swindon works deserve all the accolades they get . The Great Western Railway was unique in many ways and all Western Countrymen are proud they served the this wonderful company

Thank you Swindon Cable and the makers of this wonderful documentary. Inspiring for what was achieved and built there for so long; but now sad in equal measure. Thank you for posting this

@paullangcaster7909

5 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it. It is sad we have lost such an important engineering asset.

I was a kid when the works closed . Swindon was THE place to go if you liked railways. Our school had a trip planned for the GWR 100 years celebrations. But they closed the works down and cancelled everything. So many jobs lost.

I did moved to Swindon for a better comutte to work a few years ago and remember I was excited to check out what is left of Swindon Works, but it's a real shame, watching this documentary, seeing how it once was now reduced to essentially the main shed and side shed where the museam is standing, very little of the herritate was kept it seemed despite without the works Swindon would of been one of many small towns that would get ignored. It's a real shame they didn't preserve move of what Swindon's history.

Good watch. I was born shildon which also lost its major employer, British rail wagon works, town never recovered.

Remembering hopping the fence when Swindon was breaking peaks. Such a shame that British Engineering has gone, locos from the UK were once shipped worldwide. Now we have boring Class 66s imported and our industry has gone.

@markp6982

Жыл бұрын

It was a deliberate policy due the signing of UNIDROIT Treaty in 1948. Took a while to wreck things here.

As sad as this is/was the same happened all over the country , Donny, Crewe, Derby etc' etc'

@markp6982

Жыл бұрын

All deliberate policy to deindustrialise us in favour of EU and Far East.

Thanks .Fantastic coverage,

It was also the year Thatcher got rid of all the bus works in every major city along with the miners and the rest of our industry.

@markp6982

Жыл бұрын

Yes. She destroyed so much including mines. All part of the UNIDROIT Treaty signed in 1948. I believe.

Excellent video. Thank you for showing this

@paullangcaster7909

2 жыл бұрын

Many thanks, glad you enjoyed it.

The mighty workshops like Swindon and Crewe are now just a memory, the great western is run by Hitachi junk with ironing boards for seats and half the people who live on the site of the works have no idea it even existed while scrolling along their chinese slave built iphones. What a world it became, so utterly depressing and vapid.

@4376ED

Жыл бұрын

For your info Hitachi build bullet trains in Japan. The trains they build in the UK are built to UK specs. One thing that Thatcher did was to destroy british manufacturing, of course she was helped by the unions.

@markp6982

Жыл бұрын

Yup. Peeps mainly don't give a toss it seems.

Soon Newton Aycliffe will go down the same path as Swindon Works. It’s just tragic for such a new site like Newton Aycliffe…

I got a apprenticeship there then found out it was the year thatcher was stopping apprenticeships!! I ended on a year yop there instead which was not worth anything and on over half the pay reduced then it shut!!!

Nikki Mideo - cameraman - passed on the Kegworth air crash Jan 1989. RIP mate.

@paullangcaster7909

Жыл бұрын

Hi Peter, Did you know Nikki? Cheers, Paul

@petepnut

Жыл бұрын

@@paullangcaster7909 Yes Paul. I was an EMI Systems Engineer on the commissioning team for Swindon Viewpoint, and was subsequently posted as Viewpoint's Engineer for three years. I left Viewpoint in '76, but visited Victoria Road at least once a month, and so was friendly with all the staff, volunteers and users of the facilities there. It was ironic that I travelled up the M1 on 8th Jan 1989, and passed East Midlands airport at 20:15 - five minutes before the aircraft crash there. I learnt that Nikki was onboard the follwing weekend. Your name rings a bell with me - probably through Swindon Cable in the 80's ? Regards, Peter

@paullangcaster7909

Жыл бұрын

@@petepnut Peter, I thought I knew your name. I was a volunteer at Viewpoint from about 1978. I later worked for Swindon Cable from about 83, all the way until It closed in 2000. Fond memories of all those pioneering days and Nikki!

Thought the union reps came across very well. Well worth watching. Thanks.

Now it's 2022 and the working man/woman has even less rights and probably less pay.

@regcrozier9677

Жыл бұрын

true

I’ve seen a similar documentary about Swindon works Sad to see it all gone The art of “coiling a wire” lost 😡

Good on you old Geysers, go for it.

@graemeforssberg3986

Жыл бұрын

Geezers

Now a shopping centre selling cheap imported tat.

@angrygromit93

Жыл бұрын

Have you even been to the outlest village? I think not.

@jimbobobable

Жыл бұрын

@@angrygromit93 I have, It's shite.

@angrygromit93

Жыл бұрын

@@jimbobobable Perhaps, but over 3M people a year disagree and visit. What would you rather had been done wiht the site? A massive poundland perhaps?

@TheRubberDuck

Жыл бұрын

It's mostly London branded shops, far from "Cheap" these days...

@angrygromit93

Жыл бұрын

@@TheRubberDuck clue is in the name: 'Designer Outlet''

Old people trust their government, that's where the problem started.

@xr6lad

Жыл бұрын

And many didn’t know when there’s a time to strike and when there was a time not to. And thought the government would always pay. And the general public got sick of it. Which is why you got Thatcher.

So IT made railway engineering obsolete? Of course not. Its done in France and other places as ever. Thatcher & Co had no authority to shut down Swindon or the mines for that matter. We are the authority. Not them. In law. They did not own what they destroyed. The people did.