Illustration of an English Train from Decon to Wales Barrels along the track with its wheel showing motion and its green color is new design. The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838. It was absorbed into other rail companies in 1947.