Former Royal Train Shed

This is a railway works building, constructed in 1889 and designed by C.A. Park. It is built of red brick with a Welsh slate and glazed roof. The building comprises a long, narrow, gabled three-road shed of thirty-three bays, parallel to the tracks, and a shorter, narrower gabled shed attached to the northwest side. The south gable features triple doors, with a tripartite arched opening above. The north gable has three sunk panels, also with a tripartite opening in the gable above. The north gable of the attached building has two sunk panels and a tripartite opening. The long walls have thirty-three sunk panels separated by pilasters. Each bay is fitted with a large iron-framed window containing 5 x 6 panes. Continuous rooflights run along the ridge and each slope. The west wall is level with the tracks, while the east wall stands on an earlier revetted stone and brick embankment articulated by plain pilasters acting as buttresses. The interior, which was not inspected, features wrought iron or steel trusses spanning the building, leaving the floor space clear. These were required to support the tracks for travelling cranes, as the building was originally designed as a lifting shop. This building was constructed as part of improvements to the Wolverton works and was a state-of-the-art railway works building for its time. It sits on a rock-faced sandstone and red brick revetted embankment dating from the 1830s, which originally supported Wolverton station (in use 1838-40). It represents an important component of what was one of the most significant large-scale manufacturing sites in the world in the 1890s. The building initially served as a lifting shop, later becoming an underframe shop by 1926 and a heavy machine shop in 1934. Following reorganization after the Beeching cuts in 1963, it was used as a storehouse for the Royal train, remaining so until 1991, and has been unused since.