Editing Great Western Railway (section)

===World War II and after===
With the outbreak of [[World War II]] in 1939, the GWR returned to direct government control,<!--scope for inserting wartime operations here--> and by the end of the war a Labour government was in power and again planning to nationalise the railways. After a couple of years trying to recover from the ravages of war, the GWR became the [[Western Region of British Railways]] on 1 January 1948. The Great Western Railway Company continued to exist as a legal entity for nearly two more years, being formally [[winding-up|wound up]] on 23 December 1949.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=February 1950 |title=Main-Line Companies Dissolved |magazine=[[The Railway Magazine]] |volume=96 |issue=586 |page=73 |publisher=Transport (1910) Ltd |location=London }}</ref> GWR designs of locomotives and rolling stock continued to be built for a while and the region maintained its own distinctive character, even painting for a while its stations and express trains in a form of chocolate and cream.<ref>{{cite book |last=Allen |first=G. Freeman |title=The Western Since 1948 |year=1979 |publisher=Ian Allan |location=Shepperton |isbn=0-7110-0883-3 | pages=11–15 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Haresnape |first=Brian |title=British Rail 1948–78: A Journey by Design |year=1979 |publisher=Ian Allan |location=Shepperton |isbn=0-7110-0982-1 | page=86 }}</ref>

About 40 years after nationalisation [[British Rail]] was [[Privatization|privatised]] and the old name was revived by [[First Great Western|Great Western Trains]], the [[train operating company]] providing passenger services on the old GWR routes to South Wales and the South West. This subsequently became First Great Western, as part of the [[FirstGroup]], but in September 2015 changed its name to [[Great Western Railway (train operating company)|Great Western Railway]] in order to 'reinstate the ideals of our founder'.<ref>{{cite web|title=Changing from First Great Western to GWR|url=https://www.gwr.com/about-us/our-business/our-vision|website=GWR|publisher=Great Western Railway|access-date=2016-01-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160121054102/https://www.gwr.com/about-us/our-business/our-vision|archive-date=21 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> The operating infrastructure, however, was transferred to [[Railtrack]] and has since passed to [[Network Rail]]. These companies have continued to preserve appropriate parts of its stations and bridges so historic GWR structures can still be recognised around the network.<ref>{{cite web |title=Remnants of the Broad Gauge |url=http://www.broadgauge.org.uk/heritage/bg_remnants.html |website=Broad Gauge Society |access-date=2025-04-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Iconic infrastructure |url=https://www.networkrail.co.uk/who-we-are/our-history/iconic-infrastructure/ |website=Network Rail |access-date=2025-04-09}}</ref>