Great Western Railway Air Services

The Great Western Railway, also known as the GWR, and then also known as 'God's Wonderful Railway', the 'Great Way Round' or 'Goes When Ready' was one of the 'Big Four' railway companies in the UK between 1923 and 1948, when they were nationalised to form British Railways. The GWR never missed a trick, and had superb publicity to take advantage of the achievements and new developments the railway was doing. One area where the GWR lead the way was in developing its own Airline.



The Great Western Railway Air Services commenced operations in April 1933, operating between Birmingham and Plymouth, with Cardiff, Teignmouth and Torquay en-route. The service consisted of one aircraft, a three-engined Westland Wessex, owned by Imperial Airways, and painted in brown and cream, the traditional colour for GWR passenger carrying vehicles, such as the railway carriages, streamlined diesel railcars, and motor busses.



Timetable dated May 22 1933, from the collections of Björn Larsson http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/gwr.htm