Overview

1977 was a good year for the former GWR Works in Swindon. Against all expectation it won an order to build new locomotives for the first time since 1965. Within ten years of winning that order, Swindon Works had closed, resulting in 3,500 job losses. Ronald Bateman first entered the Works Training School in August 1977, before continuing his apprenticeship'inside' Swindon Works a year later. As a skilled coach-painter, Ronald witnessed the fight to save the works and the crushing blow of closure from the inside. He has collated both his own memories and the recollections of many other insiders to present for the first time the full story of the time when hope tuned to despair as the curtain came down on 147 years of railway engineering in Swindon. AUTHOR: Ron Bateman embarked on an apprenticeship with British Rail Engineering Ltd, Swindon, in 1977, where he continued to work as a skilled coach-painter until the works closed. Thereafter, he worked in engineering for an orthopaedic manufacturing company, before retiring in 2016. In 2011 he became a co-founder of the Orwell Society, before taking over the editorship of the Society Journal. He lives in Umbria and Swindon. 32 colour and 55 b/w illustrations

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RON BATEMAN embarked on an apprenticeship with British Rail Engineering Ltd, Swindon, in 1977, where he continued to work as a skilled coach-painter until the works closed. Thereafter, he worked in engineering for an orthopaedic manufacturing company, before retiring in 2016. He was one of the founding members of the Orwell Society and was editor of the Society Journal. He splits his time between Umbria, Italy, and South Cerney, Gloucestershire.

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