CHARLES Benjamin Collett was a "safe pair of hands". He became chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway after Churchward.

Collett was a thoughtful predictable man, with an eye for detail and quality, which was probably what the Great Western needed at the time.

He had a completely different attitude from his predecessor and was not as domineering.

Churchward's designs had satisfied the company's requirements therefore Collett concentrated more on the quality and speed of manufacture.

Though more relaxed than Churchward, it is said that Collett was aloof and respected by those around him.

Not making or seeking many friends, Collett was the son of a journalist. He was born in 1871 and his family lived within a stone's throw of Paddington station.

He attended London University before he left to become a marine engineer. He came to Swindon as a junior draughtsman and within five years was appointed assistant to the chief draughtsman.

Never one for taking much interest in the town, he did however become a magistrate.

It was known that he did not like grandstanding and when members of the board wanted to have a series of locomotives named after them, he acquiesced to this whim, and combined two classes of loco together, the Duke Class and the Bulldog Class, known as Dukedogs.

They looked dated, clearly resembling late 19th Century designs. Having their names emblazoned on this "mongrel" class soon embarrassed the board and they asked that they be removed. Collett had made his point.

He updated the Star Class and created the Castle Class - the Caerphilly Castle in Swindon's STEAM museum was one of the first - and in 1924 it was displayed alongside the Flying Scotsman at the British Empire exhibition, pleasing the Board members.

He went on to design the Kings and now is your chance to see King George V at STEAM as it will only be there for a few more weeks before it goes to the National Rail Museum in York.

Collett had a novel idea on how to test the bogies' carriages - he called it the whitewash train.

A train of seven coaches, each with a coach having a different bogie design from the others, was run along various sections of track.

It was known as the whitewash train. The flush for the lavatory in each coach was filled with whitewash of a different colour from the rest.

A worker in each lavatory was instructed to flush the lavatory whenever a bad lurch was felt. From this it was possible, from the colours on the ballast, to see which bogies rode over defects on the track.

If all the colours were on one spot, the track itself was rectified.

Collett, a spiritualist and vegetarian, retired to Wimbledon in 1941, aged 70, and died in 1952.