Thetownend.com

For the train enthusiasts

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7876162.stm

Lets hope theres no leaves on the line.,hard to imagine Swindon was knocking engines out like that regularly...nice to see Gazza.

 Nice one Gazza...I was aware that said loco had been built, but didn't know what was being done with it.  Shame it wont be steaming through Swindon, as you can't beat a bit of steam whistle reverbing around the streets of OT and Rodbourne.

We do still get the odd visitor, on some steam hauled special, but catching them seems more luck than judgement.

Last time I went on a mainline (as opposed to preservation line) steam trip, was way back in 85, when Evening Star did a run up to Gloster and back, to commemorate 150 years of Swindon Works....it was shut within 6 months.

This beast, now removes Evening Star's record as the last mainline steam loco to be built in Britain.

As a side note Reg found out recently that Ferndale was named because of the welsh navvies who first lived there came from Ferndale in the welsh valleys...i know alot of street names like Gooch and Churchward were named after railway people...know we have the Brunel centre but ime suprised there isnt a Brunel road or avenue etc?

 Similarly...the Welsh who worked the steamhammers, lived by Faringdon Road Park, hence Cambria Bridge etc....Cambria being an old name for Wales.  There is still a nice little chapel down there.

Brill...didnt know that,should name it Little Italy now.

Closer to the County Ground, there is Gambia Street and Bathurst Road (Bathurst being the old colonial name for Banjul, the capital of Gambia).  These streets were named as a result of the large community of Gambians living in the area in the late 19th century.  True story.

Hmm not so sure about that...does that mean there were Burkina Fasans in Volta Road and Nigerians in Lagos Street?

How can you name a street after/for the people living there ?

If they live in a street then it must already have name?

This could catch on, cavvy square could be  renamed smackhead square.

I live in nosey bastard quay.

I live on Whores avenue.

OK.  I made up the bit about the Gambians.

I've not been in Swindon for years and, to be honest, my knowledge of the town is not what it used to be.  But the areas I can remember with historical street name connections were Freshbrook (Roundway Down, Liskeard Way, Gainsborough Way, Edgehill, Cromwell, Langdale Drive, Winwick Road, Worsley Road, Leven, Nantwich, Symonds etc etc - all English Civil War references) and Gorse Hill (Kitchener Street, Omdurman Street - Battle of Omdurman references).

The streets in Gorse Hill were probably being built around the time that the battle was taking place, I would have thought.

Fair enough, the TEF is a place for bollocks.  Areas of new build tend to have themes in their, but sadly in most cases the themes have fuck all to do with the places.

Victorian builders often just used to call streets after themselves, then their wives and kids and stuff.

I once lived in a Bangkok apartment on a Street named Soi Pootang. Which I thought was a bit dead ace.

All the streets around my house are named after herbs

my family have alot of links with the railway.my great grandfather was a train driver, my mum has photos of him on some engines,the most famous the king george v which was in the steam museum last time i was there.my grandad was in the railways for 40 years and was a guard at the station for many of them.

Alpert grove, Elliott Street, Flowers Avenue ?

Is it true that toot hill is called that because of the tooting of the trains when they go by?

 :nod:

Ee street. Full of Volkswagens

Do keep up Ben.

chive, mint, bryony, angelica

This train drove past my office this afternoon, and a beautiful sight it was too.

Bring 'em back I say.

Its like everyones turning into Reg.

It went past the bottom of my garden.  Twice.

[nerd alert]

http://www.uksteam.info/tours/trs09.htm

[/nerd alert]

1st of March appears to be the next time you'll see one through Swindon.

 :wotjump: