A FORMER GWR coach painter who lived through the dying days of Swindon’s railway works says what he went through in happening again with Honda's closure.

Ron Bateman has spent his retirement reminiscing on the years he spent at the old works.

Now he's written a book about the fear and anger of the workers who were about to be made redundant.

The 58-year-old from Park North said: “The Honda announcement was more of a bolt from the blue but the railway works were a slow and gradual death over several stressful years where we always felt like the axe was hanging over us and sooner or later it was going to fall.

“Who says lightning doesn’t strike twice?

“When I first joined as an apprentice in 1977, it was seen as a job for life but as our own ‘Black Wednesday’ approached in 1986 there was an increasing negativity about the works. During this time, I’d got married, had children and bought a house so I was very worried about losing my job.

“We marched and lobbied but it made little difference. There were tears on the last day and many workers had never known anything else because they’d been there all their lives.

“After that, I went for an interview at Honda but didn’t get the job – then when I started researching this book, they announced the plant closure.”

Honda's plant will shut in 2021 and put 3,500 jobs at risk.

Ron reunited with old friends and colleagues to record their thoughts and he wants to hear from others who were among the 1,800 employees there.

He hopes to have the End of the Line book published next March to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Evening Star being built.

It was the last locomotive made before the closure.

He added: “The idea of the book is to give people a feeling of what it was like to be haunted by the threat of redundancy. We felt special because we were carrying on a tradition but it was rapidly coming to an end.

“This is a part of the works’ history that has rarely been written about. Years after they closed, I decided to write down my own memories and forgot all about them until I moved from Swindon to retire in Italy and uncovered my old notes.”

Email rnbateman1@gmail.com if you would like to contribute.