History of the Big Four - Great Western Railway

Hello, and welcome to Part 1 of my 4 part series looking at the Four Great Railways of Britain that existed between 1923 and 1948, the LMS, the LNER, the Great Western and the Southern, companies that were formed, and dissolved, through acts of Parliament to try and rationalise the 120 individual railway firms into something more manageable, but even though these operators only lasted a mere 25 years, during that time they left an indelible mark on the face of not only British railway history, but the art-deco culture of the period that continues to resonate globally even to this day.

Part 1 focuses on the Great Western Railway, the main operator of services out of London Paddington to the southwest, Wales and the West Midlands, this company being a continuation of the original and iconic Great Western as formed in the 1830s, that ran along the classic mainline from London to Bristol that had been plotted by the legendary Isambard Kingdom Brunel, but even in the era of the Big Four, the Great Western, while presenting a slew of practical and purposeful looking machines that didn't adopt the same art-deco styling as its rivals, still stood out from the rest by way of its chocolate and cream coaches and Brunswick Green engines, that defined a generation of train travel across the western United Kingdom.

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References:
Railway Wonders of the World (and their respective sources)
The Great Western Archive (and their respective sources)
Wikipedia (and its respective references)