{"id":4655,"date":"2012-03-21T14:11:41","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T14:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/?page_id=4655"},"modified":"2017-02-15T23:39:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T23:39:12","slug":"king-amanullah-at-swindon-railway-works","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/railways\/king-amanullah-at-swindon-railway-works\/","title":{"rendered":"King Amanullah at Swindon railway works"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Previous page: <a href=\"\/afghanistan\/king-amanullah-at-croydon-airport\/\">King Amanullah at Croydon Airport<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding:0;margin:0;text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/90763644\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow:hidden;position:relative;height:0;padding:73.905724% 0 0 0;width:100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/90763644?et=iT5SaXP1TfZDo26wHPc52Q&#038;viewMoreLink=on&#038;sig=OQVMuNV4qzOjxyPVNoL33hcM8U05fgdEGda36PF_KP8=&#038;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"439\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"display:inline-block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin:0;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>King Amanullah toured the Great Western Railway&#8217;s Swindon works on the afternoon of 21 March 1928. <\/p>\n<p><cite>Railway Gazette<\/cite> reported how the &#8220;astute and active potentate&#8221;, &#8220;fresh from an <a href=\"\/afghanistan\/king-amanullah-at-croydon-airport\/\">aerial flight over London<\/a>&#8220;, went to London Paddington station. Here he was received by the &#8220;Mayor of Paddington and some of his official brethren, all bravely attired&#8221;. However &#8220;To the great disappointment of many, the King&#8217;s beautiful consort was not of the party: it was understood that the Royal lady was too fatigued to bear the journey.&#8221;<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-4655-1' id='fnref-4655-1' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(4655)'>1<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"\/images\/rail\/railway_magazine_may_1928.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/rail\/railway_magazine_may_1928.jpg\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"width:250px;\" title=\"GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY TIMETABLE for The Journey of Their Majesties the King and Queen of Afghanistan From Paddington to Swindon On Wednesday, March 21st, 1928. (The Railway Magazine, May 1928, p410)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY<br \/>\nTIMETABLE<br \/>\nfor<br \/>\nThe Journey of Their Majesties the<br \/>\nKing and Queen of Afghanistan<br \/>\nFrom Paddington to Swindon<br \/>\nOn Wednesday, March 21st, 1928.<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-4655-2' id='fnref-4655-2' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(4655)'>2<\/a><\/sup>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The King left Paddington at 13.30, hauled by GWR locomotive No. 6000 <em>King George V<\/em>. Luncheon was served during the journey, and the King arrived at Swindon carriage works at 14:55. His Majesty &#8220;spent a crowded hour of his glorious sight-seeing life in the workshops&#8221;. He departed from the locomotive works at 16:15, arriving back at London at 17:45. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/swindonlocal\/3723767244\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/images\/rail\/af-swindon-booklet-small.jpg\" class=\"alignright\" width=\"500\" height=\"362\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To mark the occasion the GWR produced a Persian language commemorative booklet, containing an illustrated history of Swindon works and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/swindonlocal\/3723767248\/\">portraits<\/a> of the company&#8217;s Chairman, Deputy Chairman, General Manager and Chief Mechanical Engineer.<\/p>\n<p>King Amanullah, &#8220;with his customary keenness and untiring energy, manifested the liveliest interest in everything he saw&#8221;, and Chief Mechanical Engineer CB Collett was kept busy answering questions through an interpreter.<\/p>\n<p>The King inspected the footplate of newly-built locomotive 6005 <em>King Charles II<\/em>. At the close of the tour, a &#8220;large number of workpeople&#8221; gave &#8220;the distinguished visitor three hearty cheers, which seemed to please him&#8221;. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishpathe.com\/embed.php?archive=79752\" name=\"pathe_flash_embed\" width=\"352\" height=\"264\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><br \/>\nRoyalty. Amir of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan visits England. The Amir and his entourage visit a railroad engine factory. Dark but interesting footage. The group watches a worker using a gun to spray paint or some sealant on a railroad freight car; the man wears a mask to protect himself from chemicals. The men walk by a locomotive rotating on a turntable outside factory. Interior: they walk through large space w\/ many sets of train wheels lined up. Heavy machinery moving another set of wheels overhead. Next; they gather around a finished locomotive. Exterior again;the group walking along beside train. Entering train coach. This visit is probably from 1921 [sic &#8211; this should almost certainly be 1928 as listed by the <a href=\"http:\/\/ftvdb.bfi.org.uk\/sift\/title\/70594\">British Film Institute<\/a>]; when A.K. signed a treaty w\/ Great Britain.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><cite>Railway Gazette<\/cite> commented &#8220;there are no railways at present in Afghanistan, and it is said that there will not be until Afghanistan herself can build them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Next page: <a href=\"\/afghanistan\/railways\/ambitious-proposals\/\">Ambitious proposals<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h3>References<\/h3>\n<div class='footnotes' id='footnotes-4655'>\n<div class='footnotedivider'><\/div>\n<ol>\n<li id='fn-4655-1'> Afghan King&#8217;s visit to Swindon works, Railway Gazette, 1928-03-23, p438. Includes a copy of the timetable, in English and Persian. <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-4655-1'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li id='fn-4655-2'> King of Afghanistan\u2019s visit to Swindon works, G.W.R. on March 21. Time-table of Royal Train in English and Persian, The Railway Magazine, May 1928, p410 <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-4655-2'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Previous page: King Amanullah at Croydon Airport Embed from Getty Images King Amanullah toured the Great Western Railway&#8217;s Swindon works on the afternoon of 21 March 1928. Railway Gazette reported how the &#8220;astute and active potentate&#8221;, &#8220;fresh from an aerial flight over London&#8220;, went to London Paddington station. Here he was received by the &#8220;Mayor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1491,"menu_order":37,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4655","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4655"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6857,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4655\/revisions\/6857"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrantham.co.uk\/afghanistan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}