In 1835, the Great Western Railway (GWR) was founded, and quickly became known by the travelling public as “God’s wonderful railway”.

But it wasn’t until 1838 that the first trains started to run from London Paddington station, but they stopped at Twyford, the station at Reading was not built until March 1840. To reach Reading, the legendary engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, (still in his twenties) created the Sonning cutting, which involved massive earthmoving works to extend the line into the middle of town.

Before the line was opened, the stagecoach from central London would take over four hours to arrive in Reading, whilst the average time for the journey on GWR took one hour and five minutes.

Another giant figure in the history of rail travel, Robert Louis Stephenson, supplied locomotives to pull these trains, one of which was called ‘Firefly’.

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By 1860 the ‘Reading General’ terminus- as it was then known- was a Brunel designed single sided station made from Bath stone with an impressive Tower clock.

Strangely the access to station approach was not direct from Friar Street and only improved with the creation of Queen Victoria Street in 1903.

The early history of GWR was not without its accidents, the first involved a freak wind, which put paid to a workman called Henry West, in 1840. The ‘tornado’, as it was called at the time, threw him (and the section of roof he was working on) some 200 feet, crushing him.

Another tragic event in 1855 saw an engine sent down the wrong line and it was involved in an horrific head-on collision with an oncoming passenger train with-four passengers being killed.

The original 1840’s timetable (pictured) details a grand total of sixteen trains running to and from London and Reading and this tiny amount was further reduced to six for the Sunday services.

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Before the advent of steam trains, a trip to Reading on a horse drawn coach would take over four hours, the journey time from Paddington reduced this to one hour and five minutes.

The original platform arrangements allowed for separate up and down platforms, which Brunel favoured, known as a single-sided intermediate design.

The GWR line reached Bristol one year later in 1841 and by 1844 the Great Western Hotel was opened opposite the concourse and is believed to be the oldest surviving railway hotel in the world.

If you are a season ticket holder today it may be best to look away now- the price of a 1st class ticket was 8 shillings- a 2nd class was 5/6.

Reading station was officially opened by the Queen in July 2014, after a major refurbishment which cost £897m.