Engine Shed Great Western Railway Heritage Centre

Railway engine shed, built in 1931 for the Great Western Railway. Constructed of brown brick, asbestos sheet, and steel, it forms part of the Great Western Railway Heritage Centre. The shed has a rectangular plan, designed with four roads to accommodate approximately sixteen locomotives, measuring 64.0 meters by 20.4 meters. The structure features a steel frame with brown brick lower walls, and corrugated asbestos sheet cladding to the upper eastern wall. A corrugated iron roof, a later addition, covers timber boarding. There are two gabled entrances on the north and south sides, each with three and four pairs of hinged timber doors respectively. Two roads are provided within each gable, with inspection pits outside the south entrance and an iron water crane positioned approximately 30 meters outside each pair of roads. The gables are clad in sheeting. The eastern lower wall is plain brick, while the upper wall is clad, with twenty-one steel-framed windows. The western wall is plain brick and adjoins a range of lean-to offices and workshops, accessed individually and featuring seventeen steel-framed and three timber sash windows with reinforced concrete heads and cills, all under a timber boarded and slated roof. One road connects to an adjoining repair/lifting shop built in 1931. The roof is partially glazed with walkways and tall exhaust vents. Internally, the shed has an open light steel truss roof with smoke catchers over the roads, and inspection pits run along the length of each road. An original range of oil tanks remains in the oil store. Built as one of the government-funded improvements to the Great Western Railway in the 1930s under the Development (Loans, Guarantees and Grants Act (1929), which aimed to generate employment during the Depression, the shed was closed by British Rail in June 1965 but continues in use by the Great Western Society for its original purpose as a stabling, servicing, and mechanical repair depot for steam locomotives. It is now the only medium-sized steam running shed in England still in active use.