‘Wiltshire Wisdom – the genius of Swindon in the steam age’ is a new book from The Transport Treasury and published under the ‘Flagship’ imprint.

‘Flagship’ is also the only way to describe this work, for we can confidently say nothing like it has ever been published before either on Swindon or the locomotives of the GWR.

This book has been years in the making and is written by Bob Meanley, a mechanical engineer by profession who for many years was in charge at Tyseley responsible for the restoration, maintenance and operation of the former GWR engines now based there. As such he is uniquely qualified to write on the subject and does so in a way that is without equal.

Be assured this is no ordinary history. Instead it is a history of how the locomotive works at Swindon developed, were expanded and enlarged to become one of the largest covered workshops in Europe and so able to produce the finest engines to emerge from a British railway workshop.

Rather than simply repeat the work of previous writers, this book also describes the input of the staff within the Drawing Office and who were responsible for turning the ideas of Churchward, Collett and Hawksworth into practical machines, for the first time also we have detail and images of many of these men.

There have been many books on locomotives and equally many books on the GWR but certainly nothing like ‘Wiltshire Wisdom’.

‘Wiltshire Wisdom – the genius of Swindon in the steam age’ will be published on 15 November 2025. Large format 280mm x 280mm casebound, indexed and with a ribbon.

400 pages on heavyweight art paper, profusely illustrated including several superb colourisations by Adrian Knowles plus locomotive drawings and technical detail.

Steam Era

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Wiltshire Wisdom – The Genius of Swindon in the Steam Age by Bob Meanley