Wild Swan Books
The Malmesbury Branch
Mike Fenton
Hardback - 258 pages - £28.95
Contents- Setting the Scene
- Losing Out to Railway Politics
- The Malmesbury Railway Company
- The Old Line
- Dauntsey to Malmesbury 1887-1933
- Work at Dauntsey Station in the 1920s
- A Journey Along the Line
- Little Somerford Station
- Decline
- Malmesbury to Little Somerford 1933-1951
- Around Malmesbury Station in Later Years
- Locomotive Department
- Life at Kingsmead Crossing
- Uniformed Staff
- Signalling
- The Last Years
- Goods Only 1952-1962
The author's interest in the Malmesbury branch line was kindled by the sight of the GWR engine shed still standing in the old station yard in 1971. Twenty years earlier Mike had been a three-year-old living in Barton Road, Swindon, within earshot of the Malmesbury-Swindon passenger service when it ran for the last time on 8th September, 1951.
This book is the culmination of many years of painstaking research to chronicle the history of the branch, a line unique in that it switched junctions from one main line to another of equal status during its working life of 85 years.
The quest for photographs, references, maps and plans, tickets and working details of the Malmesbury branch took Mike into many public archives, newspaper offices, museums and, most importantly, into the homes of many railwaymen and their families. Combining a wealth of written records with the knowledge gleaned from countless hours of staff interviews, he has assembled a full account of the working life of the Malmesbury line.
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