CAN readers of Remember When name the author of an anonymous poem celebrating the Railway Works and its hooter?

We hope so, because although plenty of people have tried to solve the mystery, the identity of the bard is as elusive as ever.

Called Do You Remember?, the poem has 10 verses of six lines apiece, and has been known to certain ex-railway workers in and around Swindon for many years.

It seems to have been written to mark the closure of the Works in 1986, then photocopied and passed from hand to hand.

Sections were read out on local radio last year during a campaign to sound a nostalgic blast on the hooter.

In spite of this, the poet has never been identified, and now veteran railwayman Roger Hayes has come to the Adver in a bid to solve the conundrum.

“I found a copy of the poem among my old papers when I was clearing out a desk at home,” said Mr Hayes, 75, who was involved with the campaign to revive the hooter.

He provided the copy from which sections were read out on air.

The retired engineer is one of about 90 former railway workers who meet weekly at the community centre in Faringdon Road.

“I’ve run lots of copies of the poem off for people,” he said. “Some tell me ‘Oh, I knew him’, but every time we’ve tried to find out the name we come up against the buffers.

“To me, it’s an excellent poem all about Swindon and its working life. It says about people hurrying home from work. It’s all about what I knew as a young boy. Swindon worked all around the hooter. It let people know their mealtimes and people used to set their clocks by it.”