July 2025: Preparations for STEAM Museum by Frank Quinton

Julys’ Object of the month features one of the wonderful paintings that are currently on display in our new exhibition Artistic Lines – Railways Inspiring Art.  Preparations for STEAM Museum, by Frank Quinton, shows the conversion of what was originally R Machine Shop, latterly 20 Shop, into STEAM Museum in 2000.

This is one of a series of paintings by Frank Quinton that represent the end of Swindon as a railway town, as changes are being made to buildings that were formerly the workshops of Swindon’s railway works.  The scale of the building and its industrial architecture is still evident, despite the modernisation process.

Swindon Works closed in 1986 and over the following decades the workshops were either demolished or redeveloped for alternative uses.  Such was the vast size of the site that the redevelopment of some of the former workshops is still taking place today.

Frank Quinton was born in 1922 and moved to Swindon in 1961.  He spent many years painting the scenes around him that capture the character and changing landscape of the town.

Our new exhibition, Artistic Lines, is parts of the national Railway 200 celebration, marking 200 years of the modern railway.  This painting is one of many in the exhibition that showcase a wealth of different subjects and styles, all of which were inspired by and depict, the GWR’s rich history.

Artistic Lines is now on at STEAM Museum, until Summer 2026.