The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company and a notable example of civil engineering, linking London with the West Country, South West England and South Wales. It was founded in 1833, kept its identity through the 1923 grouping, and became the Western Region of British Railways at nationalisation in 1948.
Known admiringly to some as "God's Wonderful Railway", jocularly to others as the "Great Way Round" (some of its earliest routes were not the most direct). It gained great fame as the "Holiday Line", taking huge numbers of people to resorts in the southwest.
The company's best-known livery was quite distinctive: locomotives were middle chrome green (similar to Brunswick green), above Indian red (later, plain black) frames; the carriages were two-tone "chocolate and cream".
In 1999, in recognition of the railway's historical importance, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport added parts of the GWR to UNESCO's tentative World Heritage Sites list. The nomination is being supported by English Heritage.
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