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About the SWRS
The Slough & Windsor Railway Society is essentially a social group for anyone interested in rail transport of any kind, especially railways in the local area. A model railway section also meets on Wednesday evenings.
New members are always welcome (and you don't have to live in Slough or Windsor!).
The Society meets for illustrated talks on Friday nights in a former Great Western Railway building adjacent to Slough railway station, known to us as The Manor.
Non-members are most welcome.
"Friday Nights at The Manor"
11 Sept 2026
A History of the AEC Works in Southall
Dave Luck
7:15pm, at 'The Manor', Slough Station (directions)
The Associated Equipment Company, to give it its full name, has its roots in the buses built by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) from 1909. Lorry construction followed, with over 10,000 built for the army during World War 1. Construction moved from Walthamstow to a new plant at Southall in 1927, and this became the origin of countless iconic vehicles such as the Regent (RT) and Routemaster buses, the Matador military tractor, and the GWR Railcars!
Dave Luck was apprenticed at the AEC Works in Southall in 1969, and worked there until 1976. (The Works closed in 1979.) Over the years, four generations of his family worked at AEC, including his Great Uncle, his father, and his brother
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Photo: "Close-up of the iconic triangular AEC badge on the front of a Routemaster bus.
– 13 July 2014 – Flickr User: km30192002 – [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons"
Please see the Programme page for more about Friday meetings.
NOTE: The start time is now 7:15pm, with the talk beginning promptly at 7:30pm.
If you would like more information or to join the Society, please see the Membership page.
"Slough Estates No. 3"
In addition to holding weekly meetings and other events, the Society is the support group for Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST "Slough Estates Ltd No.3", a 1924-built steam locomotive which operated for 50 years on the Slough Trading Estate Railway.
After a prolonged restoration (read more here), No.3 was finally returned to steam in 2000, and spent a number of years hauling passenger services at the Swindon & Cricklade Railway in Wiltshire.
In 2011, No.3 was relocated to the Middleton Railway in Leeds on long-term loan. This line is close to the site of the Railway Foundry where she was built in 1924. No.3 also closely resembles the last steam loco to work over the railway in NCB days in 1958. It is thus appropriate that she should have 'returned home' to Leeds.
No.3's steam boiler certificate expired again in April 2021, so she was taken out of traffic until completion of a ten-yearly inspection, which required complete dismantling of the locomotive. The overhaul was undertaken by volunteers at the Middleton Railway, and she returned to traffic in June 2026. Further details may be found on the No.3 News page.
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