Editing Great Western Railway (section)

===Carriages===
{{Main|Coaches of the Great Western Railway}}
[[File:GWR coach E164 BCK 7377.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A long coach with domed roof ends. The roof is pale grey and ends black. The body has brown lower parts but cream above around the windows.|A coach in the chocolate and cream livery used from 1922]]
GWR passenger coaches were many and varied, ranging from four- and six-wheeled vehicles on the original [[broad-gauge]] line of 1838, through to [[bogie]] coaches up to {{convert|70|ft|m}} long which were in service through to 1947 and beyond. Vacuum brakes, bogies and [[Corridor connection|through-corridors]] all came into use during the nineteenth century, and in 1900 the first electrically lit coaches were put into service. The 1920s saw some vehicles fitted with automatic [[Railway coupling|couplings]] and steel bodies.{{sfn|MacDermot|1931|at=Chapter 16}}{{sfn|Harris|1985|pages=21–37}}

Early vehicles were built by a number of independent companies, but in 1844 the railway started to build carriages at [[Swindon railway works]], which eventually provided most of the railway's [[rolling stock]]. Special vehicles included [[sleeping car]]s, [[restaurant car]]s and [[slip coach]]es.{{sfn|MacDermot|1931|at=Chapter 16}} Passengers were also carried in [[GWR steam rail motors|railmotors]],<ref name=SRM>{{cite book | last =Lewis | first =John | title =Great Western Steam Railmotors: and their services | publisher =Wild Swan Publications Ltd | year =2004 | isbn = 1-874103-96-8}}</ref> [[GWR Autotrain|autotrains]],<ref name=Auto/> and [[GWR railcars|diesel railcars]].<ref name=Railcars>{{cite book |last= Judge |first= Colin |title= The history of Great Western A.E.C. diesel railcars |orig-year= Oxford Publishing Company, 1986 |year= 2008 |publisher= Noodle Books |location= Southampton |isbn= 978-1-906419-11-0 }}</ref> Passenger-rated vans carried parcels, horses, and milk at express speeds.{{sfn|Lewis|2009|pages=100–113}} Representative examples of these carriages survive in service today on various [[Heritage railway]]s up and down the country.

Most coaches were generally painted in variations of a chocolate-brown and cream livery, however they were plain brown or red until 1864 and from 1908 to 1922.{{sfn|Lewis|2009|pages=63–99}} Parcels vans and similar vehicles were seldom painted in the two-colour livery, being plain brown or red instead, which caused them to be known as "brown vehicles".{{sfn|Lewis|2009|pages=100–113}}