British Railways Swindon Carriage & Wagon Works
While Derby Carriage & Wagon Works built a massive amount of 'ordinary' DMUs, British Railways Swindon Works was assigned the task of building the more unusual and higher end types - the Inter-Cities, Cross-Countries and Trans-Pennines. They amounted to 417 vehicles of the following types:
- Inter-City 79xxx series (64)
- Class 120 (194)
- Class 123 (40)
- Class 124 (51)
- Class 126 (66)
All of the types had sets built with buffet cars.
Deliveries commenced in 1956 of the 79xxx Inter-City sets, considered by many as very plain and austere (the same cab shape would also be used for the 120s and 126s), and finished with the Class 123 Inter-City sets in 1963, which along with the Trans-Pennines had had design consultants involved and were considered as the most ashthetically pleasing of all the first generation DMUs.
The next images shows the evolution of the cab design from 79xxx Inter-City to Trans-Pennine.
The final image shows construction in progress of the 79xxx series Inter-City vehicles in 1956. An article Building a DMU looks at the construction of these vehicles at Swindon in detail.
Online company histories:
Wikipedia
Grace's Guide to British Industrial History
The Carriage Works survive as business units in the care of Swindon Borough Council.