Great Railway Journeys

Well, I suppose it all began when I was a kid, really.

I can remember my dad coming home and telling us stories of things he'd seen...

and then he'd take me to places where I could see these things as well.

Embankments, cuttings, entrances to tunnels.

And there'd be the usual books and photos passed around at school.

Like kids do.

Then a couple of friends said would I like to try the real thing?

I said, "Yes." From then on...

Well, I admit it. I was hooked.

I must say, I do like railways — perhaps not quite as much as I did 25 years ago.

Then my idea of happiness was to stand on Sheffield Midland station

on a rain-soaked platform

with a notebook, a pencil, a soggy pork pie and a bottle of Tizer.

Will the journey I'm setting out on mean as much now as it would have done then?

When to travel the length of Britain by rail was an inaccessible dream.

Well, we'll see.

- Bye! Goodbye. - Bye!

Bye!

I'm going to Kyle of Lochalsh in north-west Scotland

and I've decided to go all the way by train — just because it's still possible —

and to find out if there is anything of the trainspotter left in me.

I've got my old spotters' book. "Ian Allan, ABC" of 7955.

Every engine I saw was neatly underlined.

lady Godiva, Seychelles, Howard of Effingham. Still, mustn't get sentimental

Railways nowadays have to be practical and cost effective.

Which is why St Pancras Station of the 78605 looks like this

and Euston Station of the 79605 looks like this.

Euston always reminds me of a giant bath.

lots of slippery marble and glass surfaces

so that people can be sloshed quickly and efficiently around.

All 65,000 of them daily to 200 destinations —

from London to the north of Scotland.

...for the 12.55 calling at Stafford, Crewe, Wilmslow,

Stockport and Manchester, Piccadilly.

The buffet car is in the centre of the train...

You're not encouraged to linger in Euston — that's why there aren't any seats.

They don't want people sticking to the bath.

You just check your ticket and off down the plughole.

There's not much to see down here.

7'hey've taken the tea rooms and the bars away from the trains.

What are engines nowadays anyway? just machines to get you from A to B.

I wonder why they still give them names.

One reminder of the old-style railways that's still left is the Manchester Pullman.

last survivor of luxury travel

For first-class fare, plus a bit more, you can still get pampered with waiter service.

It's the way to travel or, if the BBC are paying, you can just watch it,

secure in the knowledge that Pullmans won't be with us for much longer.

In the age of the train, it's going to be Inter-City for everyone.

The start of a train journey — one of the great sensations of life.

It's hard to believe I'll be on railway lines from here to the Isle of Skye.

It's a pity they don't call trains like this "expresses" any more.

But they have tried to keep the human touch.

British Rail welcomes you to the Euston to Manchester service.

The reason for the late start from Euston this morning...

they had not got a guard for the train.

Personally, I'm not on duty till half past ten, but I happened to be at Euston a bit early.

- Coffee? - Yes, please. I think so.

I need something. It's going so slowly today.

- Would you like a sandwich? - No. I'll just have the coffee.

That's 21, please.

How many more trips have you got to do today on this train?

Two.

So you go up to Manchester and then back down to Euston again, do you?

From Manchester, we go back to London, then back to Liverpool.

What time do they start you in the morning?

- Quarter to six. - That's when you have to get to the train?

The station, yeah. Half past four to get up.

Well, I hope the coffee's good. There's nothing in it.

Along this stretch was set one of British Railways' many world records —

the record for lifting large sums of money out of trains.

In 1963, the night mail was relieved here of £2.25 million —

enough for 600,000 Awaydays to Brighton.

This was the first refreshment stop outside London before they put food on trains,

when they had to serve entire expresses in ten minutes flat.

- (TILLS RING) - A large brown Windsor!

- Kedgeree for two, please! - Devilled kidneys, please.

- Got any muffins? - 18 teas, quickly.

A crate of stout and 24 glasses, please.

You'd have to move fast to get a sausage roll nowadays.

700 miles an hour now as we pass the Grand junction Canal,

built 35 years before they opened this railway.

No wonder the canal owners hated the railways — they had spent a lot of money

on what was becoming Britain's shortest-lived transport revolution.

130 years later, the railways themselves had to fight an even bigger threat.

Who needed crowded, unpunctual trains

when you could drive from London to Birmingham in a couple of hours?

But now the M7 is overcrowded

and with canals undergoing a revival and railways electrified,

the talk's all of an "integrated transport system ", so nobody won.

Someone told me that engine drivers were instructed to go to full speed

whenever they're alongside a road. It's a nice story.

Crewe! A trainspotter's dream.

In 1841 it was one farmhouse.

Since then Crewe has built thousands of locomotives

and, in common with other railway towns like Darlington and Doncaster,

runs a football team that's permanently at the bottom of the Fourth Division.

Despite the horrors painted by the early opposition to railways —

hens ceasing to lay, pregnant women miscarrying,

pheasants dying before they could be shot —

technological progress in the early 79th century was unstoppable.

50 miles from Jodrell Bank,

the world's first regular passenger railway service began on September 15th 1830.

It ran between Liverpool and Manchester.

This is a replica of the engine that made it possible — George Stephenson's Rocket.

Built in 1829, it started a love affair that's lasted ever since.

(MUSIC: COVER VERSION OF "AND I LOVE HER" BY THE BEATLES)

I suppose true railway buffs love all engines —

short, fat, squat, long, rumbling, smelly diesels or swiftly silent electrics —

but, most of all, they love steam.

And the most famous steam engine of them all is Flying Scotsman.

Built in 1923, retired in 1963, and still going strong.

The first locomotive to 700 miles an hour.

I couldn't miss this trip — and I'm not the only one either.

She's like an old film star now Everything she says is faithfully recorded

Every inch of her body explored by a thousand lenses.

Is it just us who are like this — the British?

Are there any trainspotters in Sicily?

Do Belgians go misty-eyed at the thought of seeing the 12.16 to Antwerp?

Do Swedes save up all year for a Hasselblad

to photograph a Stockholm to Gothenburg coal train breasting a one-in-57 gradient?

I think the root of the love affair lies in the cab.

This is where the important people travel.

Bill McAlpine, whose money keeps Flying Scotsman going,

and the driver and the fireman recreating the days

when physical human effort drove railway trains.

And these are their fans.

I'll try and identify those two stations.

It's a very simple tape recorder.

- I'm recording the sound of the locomotive. - Throughout the journey?

Throughout most of the journey, yes.

On the downhill stretches you don't hear much.

You get the best recordings when she's pulling.

When do you play these? At home?

We have stereophonic locomotives steaming through the house at all times.

I think it's great to be able to travel on a train like this — The Flying Scotsman.

I'm 71 years of age and this is my only way of travelling...

in my younger days, was travelling on steam trains.

I think it's one of the nicest days I've had out.

It's brought back memories. Great memories too.

It's travelling behind steam — The Flying Scotsman.

Reliving the age of steam of yesteryear. Reminding me of many journeys of my youth.

It's a living machine that has a tremendous attraction for me.

I just like seeing it work, particularly travelling with them.

I go as much as the money will allow.

It's sight, sound and emotion.

You like the look of the wheels going round — the motion of the driving wheels —

and you also enjoy the sound of it and the sight.

It's magnificent. People have love affairs with steam engines.

Have you always been interested in railways?

Very nearly. There was a short period when I became interested in girls —

at the usual age — and eventually I got married.

Then I went back to railways again

and combined the married life with playing trains.

Thousands of people have turned out to watch us all playing trains

and to stare enviously at the lucky hundreds inside watching themselves being stared at.

Wensleydale?

And the even luckier few who've spurned packed lunches

in order to eat a four-course meal behind Flying Scotsman.

What could be nicer than slipping large gin and tonics

through the Yorkshire coalfields?

I'm being Queen for a day. Now I know what our Queen feels like.

All these beautiful people and the joy on their faces when they saw us coming.

It's tremendous. What has happened?

We've forgotten all about the steam train, haven't we?

Manchester to York in 1980, but the image could be any time in the last 60 years.

It's an enduring image of England —

that made the Englishman abroad go misty-eyed

and reach sadly for the whisky bottle.

The England of "Thomas The Tank Engine" and "The Railway Children "

when the trains were always friendly.

The Scotsman, having satisfied her audience with another Oscar-winning performance,

strolls in rather leisurely fashion to a curtain call at York

With its superb curving roof 800 feet long and over 100 years old,

York Station holds its own with the great buildings outside —

the Norman cathedral, the city wall..

and the National Railway Museum — definitely worth missing a train for.

Not just preserved locos, but seats, signs, posters,

toys, teacups, buttons and other bits of the railway age.

Is that a replica of the crown, do you suppose?

- Indeed. With the lions and unicorns. - I wonder who Stephenson was.

I hope the Americans haven't missed this.

It's called Agenoria,

and its sister engine, Stourbridge Lion, was exported to the USA in 1829

to be the first steam locomotive to run on the American continent.

Which type can go further without refuelling? The tank or the tender?

The tender. That's correct. Circle it.

Which type is better for short-distance work?

The tank. That's correct.

Mallard — still the world's fastest steam locomotive.

With Sir Nigel Gresley's streamlining, it reached 726 miles an hour in July 1938