Monthly Archives: May 2015

Colin & Sybil Baldwin Photo Collection Uploaded

In the lead up to last month’s gathering of past, present and future Swindon Panel staff, signalmen and supporters, you may remember we featured on BBC Points West.

We were delighted to be contacted by former Swindon signalman Colin Baldwin and his wife Sybil, who had seen us on the television.

Colin and Sybil joined us at the gathering, after which we were delighted to be allowed to borrow their collection of photographs from Colin’s time in Swindon Panel.

The photos are available online here.

Colin retired from Swindon Panel in 1995 after several decades service in Swindon Panel and in the mechanical boxes that preceded it.

There are a number of photos of Swindon Panel, but also a large number of photos of staff gatherings and outings, retirement parties, etc that depict the very important social history of our panel.

Thank you very much to Colin and Sybil for getting in touch and loaning us the photos. We hope you enjoy browsing them!

Swindon Panel Clothing Now Available

We are delighted to launch the Swindon Panel clothing range!

In our summer collection this year we have a range of Society-liveried polo shirts!

These are high quality Fruit-of-the-Loom polo shirts with an excellent embroidered Swindon Panel Society logo on the left chest. (The embroidery is carried out in a local Didcot family business!)

Sizes

Available in sizes:

Small
(35-37″)
Medium
(38-40″)
Large
(41-43″)
XL
(44-46″)
XXL
(47-49″)

(A limited number of larger sizes are available on request.)

Also in ladies’-fit (shorter in length and sleeve):

size 8 size 10 size 12 size 14 size 16 size 18

Colours

Available in colours: red, blue or green.

Prices

All polo shirts in all shapes and sizes are £14 (adults) and £9 (children).

Delivery / Collection

Polo shirts can be collected from Didcot Railway Centre at a Swindon Panel Day or can be posted to your home at a cost of £2.50.

Ordering

These polo shirts can be purchased by contacting us by email and stating your chosen COLOUR, SIZE, QUANTITY and whether you would like to collect or have your shirt delivered. We will reply with a link for payment.

* * *

NOTE – Working members of the Society – those who regularly help out with the work at DRC or on the exhibition stand etc – may have their first name embroidered beneath the Swindon Panel logo at no extra cost. This is in replacement for the name-badges we currently wear.

* * *

65% polyester, 35% cotton. Machine washable at 60deg. Can be ironed with a cool iron.

Raffle Drawn after Bank Holiday Weekend at DRC

Thank you to everyone who came to visit us over the bank holiday weekend at Didcot, and thank you very much to everyone who helped in manning the stand.

We met a lot of people over the weekend, especially on Saturday and Sunday, and on Monday we drew our Spring Raffle.

Over 400 tickets were sold for the raffle, which is an excellent result for the Society, thank you to everyone who bought one or more over the last few months.

We invited different people at the Centre to help us with the draw, ranging from members, to staff, to visitors and children!

The winning numbers were:

1. 0106 (FGW Tickets)
2. 0741 (DRC Family Ticket)
3. 0814 (GWSR Family Ticket)
4. 0415 (Adrian Vaughan Book)
5. 0869 (Swindon Panel Tie)
6. 0742 (Swindon Panel Tie)
7. 0378 (Swindon Panel Mug)
8. 0879 (Swindon Panel Mug)
9. 0468 (Depot Vinyl Stickers)

Thank you very much indeed to all our friends for their most generous donations of prizes:

First Great Western Didcot Railway Centre The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway Crowood Press

AGM 2015

The Swindon Panel Society AGM will be held at 12 noon on Saturday 27 June at Didcot Railway Centre followed by a tour round the building site and then a BBQ in the grounds of the Centre.

This will be an ideal opportunity to have a good look round the site and see all the good work done, as well as catch up with friends and have a good chat about the progress and future of the group.

There will be a formal AGM, then an informal discussion / question session with the trustees.

We will then have a tour around the building site, followed by a BBQ in the later afternoon.

Formal notice will be sent to members separately.

Panel Visit

44 society members visits Swindon Panel on Saturday 9 May and were shown around the operating room by Danny and the relay room by Tony Cotterell.

Thank you to everyone who came, we hope everyone who attended enjoyed themselves and learned a bit more about the panel.

Some photos of the day have been uploaded to our photo site: http://photos.swindonpanel.org.uk/index.php?/category/117

If you have photos of the day then please do send them on to us and we would love to add them to the site!