An excellent and unusually coherent group of Great Western Railway passenger information, engineering and modernisation leaflets, overwhelmingly dating from 2016, with one item extending into 2017.

Unlike the timetable groups, these are principally temporary passenger-information publications produced to explain major engineering possessions, altered services and the extensive programme of infrastructure modernisation then taking place across the Great Western network. Taken together, they make a very good contemporary documentary record of one of the most important periods of change on the Great Western route since the end of steam.

The group is very closely associated with the Great Western Route Modernisation programme. It would, however, be slightly too sweeping to describe every item simply as an “electrification leaflet”. Much of the disruption was directly caused by, or formed enabling work for, Great Western electrification – most obviously the Severn Tunnel, Patchway, Didcot/Oxford and associated main-line works – while other material relates to connected capacity, signalling, station and route-modernisation projects. This distinction actually makes the collection more interesting, as it records the wider transformation of the railway rather than electrification alone.

ITEMS / DATES VISIBLE IN THE GROUP

• January 2016 – Great Western Railway Travel Information: “Alternative routes during disruption at Bristol Parkway (BPW)”.

• Saturday 2 – Sunday 10 April 2016 (including weekdays) – “Modernising the railway between Bristol and Bath”. Engineering work affecting Bristol Temple Meads/Bath Spa and surrounding services.

• Saturday 28 to Monday 30 May 2016 (Bank Holiday Weekend) – “Modernising the railway around Bristol”. Major engineering alterations around Bristol Temple Meads, Bristol Parkway, Severn Tunnel Junction and Gloucester.

• Saturday 30 July to Sunday 14 August 2016 (including weekdays) – “Flood prevention work between Didcot and Oxford”. Engineering closure for flood-prevention work in the Hinksey area, with additional signalling work between Oxford and Banbury and bridge work at Hanborough.

• Monday 1 August to Friday 5 August 2016 – Rail Replacement Bus services between Didcot Parkway and Oxford, connected with the above works.

• Monday 12 September to Friday 21 October 2016 – “Upgrading the Severn Tunnel”. One of the standout pieces in the collection, covering the six-week closure and major engineering work in the Severn and Patchway tunnels in preparation for electric trains.

• 12 September to 21 October 2016 – Great Western Railway Severn Tunnel Modernisation timetable C1: London Paddington to Bristol, Cheltenham Spa and South Wales.

• 12 September to 21 October 2016 – Great Western Railway Severn Tunnel Modernisation timetable C3: Cardiff, Bristol and Gloucester to the South Coast.

• 12 September to 21 October 2016 – Great Western Railway Severn Tunnel Modernisation timetable C4: Cardiff and Bristol to Weston-super-Mare, Taunton and Exeter.

• Christmas 2015/16 passenger information – “Travelling this Christmas?” covering major Thames Valley engineering alterations from Sunday 27 December 2015 to Sunday 3 January 2016.

• Christmas 2016/17 passenger information – “Travelling this Christmas?” covering Network Rail engineering work from 24 December 2016 to 2 January 2017, including the London Paddington and Cardiff Central areas.

• Christmas travel guide – “Your guide to travelling this Christmas”, providing passenger information for the Christmas 2016 engineering programme.

• “Intercity Express Trains are arriving this autumn” – passenger publicity announcing the introduction of the new Intercity Express Train fleet, initially between London, Bristol and South Wales, with other routes following.

• Bath Spa station modernisation – 8 to 23 April 2017. Passenger-information leaflet concerning Network Rail’s major Bath Spa station works, including platform widening and associated track alterations.

The photographs should be studied carefully for the exact contents of the lot, as they form an important part of the description.

HISTORICAL / RAILWAY INTEREST

The timing of this material is particularly significant. In 2016 the Great Western route was undergoing a huge and highly visible programme of modernisation. The Severn Tunnel works represented a major milestone in preparing the London–South Wales route for electrification, while extensive works were simultaneously under way or planned around Bristol, Bath, Swindon, Didcot and Oxford.

The collection therefore catches the project while it was actually happening – and, interestingly, at a moment when the eventual shape of Great Western electrification was itself changing. In November 2016 the Government announced the deferral of electrification between Didcot and Oxford, on Filton Bank between Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads, west of Thingley Junction through Bath to Bristol Temple Meads, and on certain Thames Valley branches. This makes contemporary passenger literature relating to those very corridors a fascinating record of the original modernisation era.

The Severn Tunnel material is particularly notable. The tunnel closed from 12 September until 21 October 2016 for the major programme of work required to prepare the route for electrification, and the accompanying special C1, C3 and C4 timetables provide a useful record not merely of the engineering project itself but of how GWR reorganised passenger services around it.

The Intercity Express Train leaflet adds another dimension, documenting the replacement of the long-established HST era by the new generation of Great Western Intercity Express Trains. As a group, therefore, these publications record the infrastructure, rolling-stock and passenger-service sides of the same remarkable period of change.

CONDITION

These appear to have been collected contemporaneously and carefully retained. Overall condition is excellent. They appear to have been picked and well stored. Please study the photographs, which show the actual items offered.

Passenger-information leaflets of this kind were inherently short-lived. They were produced for a particular possession, closure or travel period and normally became obsolete within days or weeks. A surviving group covering so many related Great Western engineering projects in 2016-17 is consequently much more interesting than a miscellaneous bundle of modern publicity.

I am offering this as one complete group rather than splitting it, as its strength lies in the way the individual pieces combine to document the Great Western modernisation programme during 2016 and early 2017.

You’re welcome to view and collect from us, SK13 8EQ. Please contact us beforehand.

Many thanks for looking.