Didcot Railway Centre^s replica
GWR▸ locomotive Fire Fly stands on broad gauge track at the transfer shed
One of the last great feats of the age of the Victorian navvies will be recreated at Didcot Railway Centre this weekend.
While creations of the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel like the Clifton suspension bridge, the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash and London^s Paddington station are still in daily use, one of his other ideas, broad gauge railway track, disappeared from England 120 years ago.
In just two days, on May 21 and 22 1892, the Great Western Railway converted its last 7ft 0^in-gauge tracks to the standard 4ft 8^in used by Britain^s other railways.
More than 4,700 men, gathered from all over the GWR network, were at work on the tracks in Devon and Cornwall that weekend, moving broad gauge rails to create standard gauge lines.
The last broad gauge train from London to Cornwall ran through Didcot on Friday, May 20, 1892.
That night the GWR^s broad gauge rolling stock was worked to Swindon for storage on 15 miles of specially-laid sidings, for conversion to standard gauge or scrapping.
To commmemorate the feat of the navvies ^ short for navigators, a name coined for the men who built canals in the 18th century ^ Rail centre volunteers will this weekend lay a temporary standard gauge rail on a broad gauge siding adjacent to the centre^s preserved transfer shed.
Centre operations manager Roger Orchard said: ^When Brunel designed the Great Western Railway he decided that a seven-foot gauge would be better. He thought it would be much more stable and that trains could get to a higher speed. And the seven foot gauge was better. Trains were going at higher speeds and were a lot more spacious, but there is no way we can go back now.^
The GWR had begun the change to standard gauge as far back as the 1860s. The last broad gauge trains north of Oxford had run in 1869.
Mr Orchard added: ^The GWR was the only line which had broad gauge track, so if you wanted to travel from Yorkshire you had to get out of one train and get on to another in special transfer sheds.^
Tomorrow a 10-strong gang of track workers, dressed in late Victorian clothing, will carry out the work of laying track just as it would have been done in the 1890s, using hand tools and muscle power.
Great Western Society member Richard Antliff, who is planning the project, said: ^All members of the gang will be issued with ^oatmeal drink, just as the Great Western Railway did in 1892. No alcohol was allowed during the entire track gauge change operation.^
Different types of broad gauge track are in use today in other countries, including Ireland, Australia, India, Spain and the former Soviet Union, though none is as wide as Brunel^s version.
The centre is open from 10.30am to 3.30pm tomorrow and on Sunday.
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