STEAM - Museum of the Great Western Railway

“If you like Trains then it’s already obvious that you have to come here. But for everybody else, there’s a surprising amount also. There’s a lot of great stories about the different types of people that were required to build a site and build all of these locomotives. There’s quite a lot of work that went into picking out the route and building the railroad itself before even they got around to building the steam engines and the cars. I didn’t realize that there was a large effort on marketing to drive tourism using the rails, but there’s a good explanation of all that as well. It’s all well laid out and there’s very friendly people to explain stuff. It’s a good visit.”

“Excellent museum with lots to see and learn about. My son loves Great Western engines and he throughly enjoyed looking at the engines on display. The volunteers were all friendly and informative giving us background to the engines. We especially liked that the museum is in a building where people worked building the steam engines. We really enjoyed our day out here and I would recommend to anyone with an interest in steam engines. Well worth the visit from Sussex.”

“A fantastic musuem with a great collection. The story telling and education is certainly well thought through, delivered in multiple ways for a wide audience. But what's better still is a visit during one of the many great events held here. Our favourite is the Great Westen Brick Show, put on by Brickish (a LEGO User Group). This fills the entire museum with incredible LEGO models that sit alongside the already impresive artefacts. Well worth a visit.”

“Hidden gem of Swindon. Our son absolutely loves this museum. He was a train driver of a Steam Engine. Museum is much bigger than it’s look like on photos. History exposition great too, from metal works to trains in 20 century.”