Gloucester C&W museum begins the move to Carmarthenshire

THE Gloucester Carriage and Wagon Museum has moved to Cynheidre on the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway (LMMR) as an added free attraction for visitors.

The museum was founded in March 2016 by Aaron Matthews, Leo Tomos-Matthews and Paul Matthews to preserve the history of the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (GRCWC).

Its collection includes Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0DM D1012 of 1955 Cadbury No. 14 – which worked at the chocolate maker’s Moreton plan until 1952 when it went to the Llangollen Railway, and was later displayed at Cadbury World in Bournville, a four-wheel goods van, and a large collection of small artefacts such as a large scale Gloucester Patent Bogie, a long service medal, model dioramas, and Gloucester wagon plates.

The GRCWC was formed in Gloucester in 1860. During the 1880s and 1890s it had more than 600 depots and outposts in the UK and overseas.

From the early 1900s to the 1930s, the company built buses and trolleybuses and trams, along with the very first London electric cab, horse-drawn carts, hand carts and ambulances for the First World War effort. During the Second World War, GRCWC manufactured 764 Churchill tanks for the army and torpedo wagons for the Royal Navy Propellant Factory and other various items.

The last carriage rolled out of the works on Bristol Road in 1963/4, followed by the last wagon in 1968, and later the company was taken over by Wingets of Rochester and subsequently by Powell Duffryn of South Wales. The GRCWC closed down in 1986.

The LMMR’s under-restoration Class 122 ‘Bubblecar’ No. 55019 was built by GRCWC.

A museum group spokesman said: “We’ve raised the funds to transfer our goods van to the railway and will shortly commence fundraising for the transfer of our Cadbury No.14.”