Golden Age of Travel Special Antiques Roadshow

WHISTLE BLOWS

Tonight on the Antiques Roadshow we are doing something rather special.

We're about to board a great icon of the age of steam.

It evokes strong passions, reducing sensible people to quivering jelly.

There's been huge excitement up and down the country,

grown men have been seen weeping openly in fields,

whole families have camped out in the hope of a quick glimpse,

and I can't wait.

Because any minute, she's going to be coming round that corner.

She's back on the rails. It's Britain's - perhaps even the world's -

most famous steam locomotive.

Yes, it's been a year of Flying Scotsman frenzy,

and we're about to get our own very special ride.

Here she comes. Look at that!

The sound, the smell - there's nothing like it.

Welcome to the golden age of travel on the Flying Scotsman.

It's an ambitious first for the Antiques Roadshow -

never before have we held a show on anything like a moving train.

The Flying Scotsman's been undergoing restoration since 2006,

costing £4 million.

And its first outings in 2016 caused world headlines.

No-one could've imagined the public passion

for this romantic relic of the steam age.

Its launch attracted the kind of attention normally reserved for A-list celebrities.

People flocked to see the Flying Scotsman as it sped through towns and the countryside.

Now we've our own opportunity to take some lucky Roadshow viewers on board

with their vintage travel treasures.

Earlier this year we put the word out

that we'd be celebrating the golden age of travel in a special programme.

Well, a few lucky Antiques Roadshow viewers, complete with their precious mementos,

are now boarding the Flying Scotsman in our own exclusive carriage.

Later, we'll be meeting an obsessive vintage airline uniform collector.

How many of these have you got at home?

At the last count, 133.

The pilot who barrel-rolled Concorde.

They were aghast.

And the Flying Scotsman memorabilia

that gets expert Paul Atterbury all of a quiver.

It's like holding the relic of a true saint.

We've chosen experts Hilary Kay, John Foster and Paul Atterbury

to join us, each passionate about bygone eras of travel.

This is your idea of a dream come true, isn't it, Paul Atterbury,

you mad train enthusiast, you?

I'm a very lucky boy. I mean, to be...a day with the Flying Scotsman,

Britain's most famous locomotive, a day on the train,

-what more could one want?

-I don't know.

John, what about you, are you enjoying it?

I've never been on it before and it is just every boyhood dream.

-It's amazing.

-What about you, Hilary?

Well, anything to do with steam.

You know, the smell of it, the excitement.

The sound. All those smuts blowing in your face.

And, I suppose, anything that can turn the key on the golden age of travel.

Our journey will take us 140 miles,

speeding through some of Britain's most breathtaking scenery, to York.

And what better way to start than with a story about the Flying Scotsman itself?

Wonderful looking out the window and seeing all this steam.

In 1923, in Doncaster, the Flying Scotsman was built.

It was the first nonstop locomotive

to travel between London and Edinburgh.

Its journey made history,

travelling nearly 400 miles in seven and a half hours.

And at the time, that was the longest uninterrupted rail service

anywhere in the world.

Among the Roadshow viewers who contacted us were Graham and Simon,

the great-grandsons of one of the drivers on that record-breaking run.

This was their chance to be reunited with their great-grandfather's loco,

and to tell us their story.

Now, one of the things that has always excited me

was the idea of running nonstop between London and Scotland.

Now, Thomas Blades was one of the drivers on that historic run.

And he was your great-grandfather.

Yes, yeah. And it's such an honour today to be on that very same train.

This is a lifelong dream for me, really,

so for the last two or three years

I've been doing research into my great-grandfather and found lots of information about him.

Found this picture at a local railway museum.

My mother told me about the record-breaking run that he was involved in in 1928,

the run from King's Cross to Edinburgh.

And Thomas Blades was the relief driver who took over at Tollerton,

-just near York.

-Yes.

And took the train all the way to Edinburgh.

And by the relief driver, of course,

he travelled the first part of the journey in the carriage.

In the carriage, absolutely.

He then went through the tender in the special corridor,

-swapped over with driver Pibworth, who then went back.

-Absolutely.

And the train never slowed.

-Yeah, yeah.

-They swapped their hands off the regulator.

-You can see it happening, can't you?

-Absolutely that, yeah.

Now, I've got this book here,

which is a standard LNER locomotiveman's pocket book.

But of course this is his, isn't it?

Yes, it is, yes, we found it clearing out my mother's house after she died,

and noticed that it had his name in,

and the various notes in the back about the record-breaking run.

There it is, that he did that run.

Yes.

And do you think he had this with him at the time?

I think so, yeah, because it tells you how to set fires in the boiler

and all the maintenance of the engine, et cetera.

I'm sure by then he didn't need to be told those things.

But nonetheless, you would always carry your pocket book in case something went wrong.

Yeah. To tell you if you need to fix something.

Not only have you got the locomotive, you've got the book.

That he carried with him.

He's almost with us, isn't he?

I think it's a wonderful story.

And it's a real insight to me into how skilful those men were.

They were a great race of drivers.

Celebrities of the day as well.

-They were the stars.

-Absolutely.

Yeah, they were superstars of the day and there was lots written about them.

I found a number of articles in newspapers and various magazines,

and the real passion that the whole of the country had

in terms of that speed and beating records.

Now, actually, I've got a piece of film that relates very much to this.

This is the Scotsman

on another high-speed run.

Sadly, it's not Thomas Blades, but it could have been.

It shows how popular the locomotive was.

It's been popular all its life.

There are always crowds watching the departure.

Fantastic, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-Have you seen it before?

-Haven't seen this one before, no.

-No.

Now, we're supposed to do values.

A tatty old book - what's it worth?

I mean, you'd be lucky to get £5 for it.

That's not the point. Just think of what it tells us about your

-great-grandfather.

-Absolutely, but it would never be sold.

It'll always stay in the family.

And carry on the research, heaven knows what you might find next.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

'Overhearing Paul's conversation has prompted me to change into regulation railway gear.

'I'm going to find out what it was like to crawl through the narrow

'corridor that allowed Thomas Blades to take over as relief driver

'on the record-breaking nonstop run to Scotland.'

NOISE OF ENGINE ALMOST DROWNS OUT HER WORDS

WHISTLE BLOWS

'While we stoke the furnace,'

let's recall some classic moments

that visitors to the Roadshow have shared with us from the age of steam travel.

Let's begin by remembering a great find that excited Hilary Kay.

One of the earliest toy trains in the programme's history.

There are lots of treats involved

with working on the Antiques Roadshow,

and I have to say, one of them is very occasionally to come across

something that is THE best of its kind.

And this is one of those moments.

It is exquisite metalworking at its very best.

This is all handmade out of tin

with occasional little pieces of brass, around 1845, 1850.

And the more you look at it, the more fabulous it is.

The boiler here is faceted,

then coming back you've got the three classes of coach.

First class, closed in.

Second class, just with a roof.

And third class, well...

you take your risks.

You hope it's a day like this.

As it always is in Scotland!

But look, I'm sure you've done this, Jane, but I'm going to do it, too...

In there, all those fabulous little people.

It looks like a sort of outing from Jane Austen.

There they all are off on their picnic or whatever.

I would be confident in saying this would fetch something

between £25,000 and £35,000 at auction.

And for insurance, certainly £50,000.

When we visited Swindon Steam Railway Museum,

Paul Atterbury was in his element.

Not only was he surrounded by the smell and smuts of locos galore,

but he also discovered a rare and early railway sign found in a garden.

You know, it's really exciting for me to see this map sign.

Because for a start, it's about the Great Western Railway, which I -

and everybody - loves.

It's also a wonderful vision of how that company saw itself,

and how it developed early in its history.

Now, let's look at the story briefly it tells.

This is the map of the Great Western network, and its connections.

-That's right.

-But it's really about going to Ireland, isn't it?

By the new Fishguard route.

-That's right.

-Which is from there to Rosslare.

And this was about the Great Western competing with its main rivals.

The main route, of course, was Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire,

but that was the London and North Western.

Can we date it, do you think, from that?

Yeah. Almost exactly.

The route opened in August 1906.

So it has to be after that date?

It has to be 1906, because they would probably advertise it prior to...

But they're still calling it new, so this is 1906-1908.

It's also in quite good condition.

It's an extraordinary survival.

Enamel signs rust.

If I saw that for sale, I'd expect quite a lot for it.

But you got it in your garden. 30 years sat in the garden.

-In the garden, yeah.

-It's amazing it survived.

I would say £1,500-£2,000.

-Honest?

-Honest.

Our final favourite classic moment for now

is from Walthamstow Town Hall.

The value of a rare railway ticket turned out to be a huge surprise

for one of our visitors.

What we've got here is a ticket for the Midland Counties Railway,

and this is a ticket for the opening of the railway.

Dated on the bottom 30th of May 1839.

The Midland Counties Railway, which opened then,

came about effectively

for the sort of drive and the keenness to supply coal to Leicester.

So you effectively paid nothing for this, did you?

-You inherited it.

-Yeah, yeah, I did, yeah.

So if I were to say to you £1,000, what would you say?

What, for that? LAUGHTER

Rare, rare, rare.

Railway memorabilia is really hotly collected.

-MAN:

-Incredible.

You are... You're having a mumble, in't ya?

You're winding me up, in't ya?

I don't think he is, mate!

Not a shadow of a doubt, my friend.

Oh, what?

Later, we'll return to more stories from the steam era.

As we return to our guests on board the Flying Scotsman,

we move from one golden age of travel to another, to flight.

In the 1940s, the era of luxury passenger flight really took off,

with magnificent flying boats

travelling between London and Australia.

Hilary Kay is meeting a visitor

whose father once flew these exotic trips.

I'm looking at a tableful of items that relate

to the very early, the golden days,

if you like, of commercial air travel.

Now, what's your relationship with this group of objects?

Well, it all stems from my father's involvement in aeroplanes

at that time.

My father actually developed a passion for flying in his teens,

and that stayed with him all his life, until he died in his 80s.

And looking at this, it looks as though he went

almost immediately into working for Imperial Airways,

best known for its use of the Empire flying boats.

-Yes.

-He started with the BOAC in 1946, and he start flying via France

into Cairo, Bahrain, Calcutta,

and then over to Singapore,

and then a little later, Australia and into New Zealand as well.

Exactly. And it was a glamorous time.

Yes, because in the evenings,

everybody dressed for dinner, and he was part of the social side of the life.

Unless there was something he detected that had gone wrong with the aeroplane during the day,

in which case, usually in full evening dress,

he might be found on the wing of the plane,

mending a propeller or something.

-A bit like this, in fact.

-Exactly.

-Exactly.

So he had to do that and then he would put on his white silk gloves

-to go to dinner.

-To cover...

Because his hands were still covered in oil from doing the mending, so...

How amazing. That's the point, actually,

that it was a stopping service.

You would land, you would probably go to a very smart hotel,

you would have your dinner, you would sleep,

then you would board the flying boat the next day and off you'd go.

Well, this is the flying boat in action.

And let's just watch what your father would have had to have done as the captain.

It's a vast craft. It comes down very smoothly.

I suppose there must have been some choppy landings.

But on an estuary like this, out comes the co-pilot, grabs the buoy...

One forgets, of course, you had to tie up to something.

Here comes the tender to take all the glamorous folks to the shore.

And, gosh, where are we?

This looks very grand.

Looked like it could have been the Taj, it could have been...

It looked like the gateway to India, didn't it?

-Yes.

-And this is the sort of hotel, of course,

they would have gone into overnight.

-Absolutely.

-There couldn't be anything that more exemplifies

the golden age of travel.

So when one's looking at a collection like this,

the material that you have here,

the flying boots, the gloves, the helmet,

the oxygen mask, I mean, those have a tangible value.

I'd put those cumulatively at about £1,500.

The rest has a priceless value

-to you and your family.

-It does, it does.

Well, thank you very much indeed.

Don't we all wish we could still do that journey?

-Absolutely, we do.

-We do indeed!

Thank you very much indeed.

Our next story takes us to a different form of early flight -

the airship.

The British R101 hoped to herald a new age of luxury travel.

But it crashed on its maiden flight in 1930,

tragically killing most passengers on board.

As the Flying Scotsman pauses to take on water,

Paul Atterbury is meeting the first officer's granddaughter,

to hear her poignant tale.

Here we are, stationary, unusually on this voyage.

This is one means of transport.

Something that has always intrigued me, though,

is a completely different means of transport.

The British R101, which were a vision of travel for the future.

Comfortable, quiet, elegant.

But, of course, we know that this great dream of the future

came to nothing, because of a series of disasters.

And the R101, of course, had, famously,

that great disaster on its maiden voyage.

But I know you have a very particular connection to it.

Yes, my grandfather was the first officer on the R101,

Lieutenant Commander Noel Grabowsky-Atherstone, known as Grabby.

What was his particular role?

Well, as first officer, he kept a detailed diary,

he was meticulous in observing the performance of the airship.

And noted everything down.

So, he was a key figure.

-Yes.

-And therefore this journal is dynamite.

-TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS

-It's the story of the development of the R101.

-Yes.

-Oh. We're off again.

And this sense of luxury, do you know what it was like?

Well, it's been described as an ocean liner in the sky,

a sort of flying Titanic.

She was 777 feet long, twice the length of a football pitch.

And she was vast.

And she had two decks.

-Yes.

-50 cabins.

It was an extraordinary luxury of a scale that we can't imagine, really.

-Exactly. Yeah.

-So in October 1930,

the R101 sets off for India.

-So what happens?

-Well, she ran into stormy and very windy weather.

In fact, my grandfather had been on watch until 2am.

Nine minutes later, she crashed.

The reason for the fire was calcium flares.

And they ignite against water.

Otherwise, she could perhaps have been salvaged.

So we've got some footage here, which I gather you found.

Yes, I found it in a rusty old biscuit tin hidden in a trunk.

Well, let's see what it tells us.

Look, there it is.

I think what we see first of all is how big she was.

People look like ants on the ground.

I mean, she was vast, enormous.

So this is a sort of brief story of the ship, isn't it?

-Yes, it is.

-Because there is the crash.

And what might have been the most wonderful vision of the future

died away in the fields of northern France.

It certainly did - very sad, very sudden.

-Particularly for you.

-Yes.

What was the impact on your family?

My gran, I don't really know how she coped, and there was a state funeral.

She always said to me that she knew the minute the airship had crashed

because my father had a devoted dog called Timmy

and at 2.09am he let out an unearthly howl.

How, why, we don't know,

but she knew then something terrible had happened.

So, of course, the diary stops at a crucial point.

And it's very interesting, I'll read the last entry.

"Everybody is rather keyed up now,

"as we all feel that the future of airships

"very largely depends on what sort of show we put up.

"There are very many unknown factors

"and I feel that that thing called luck

"will figure rather conspicuously in our flight.

"Let's hope for good luck and do our best!"

Curious that he left it behind.

And did he leave this behind, then, for his evidence?

It's quite possible, because every single thing is documented.

It never made it to the public inquiry,

but it really changes the whole story of the R101.

This is a very valuable document.

That family story and the information contained in this

gives it huge value.

Essentially, we are looking at something that to an airship collector,

they would pay thousands of pounds to own this.

But I think the preservation of this information for the future

is crucial, and actually goes beyond a family.

You know, this is information of national significance.

Well, we'll perhaps have to look at getting it published, then.

-Good idea.

-Thank you.

You can't look at the golden age of flight

without including that iconic jet Concorde.

When Antiques Roadshow viewer Richard

wrote to us about his vast collection of memorabilia at home

in Gloucestershire, we had to see for ourselves.

From toys to ties, from scale models to seats,

from trolleys to teacups, it takes up the whole of his conservatory.

We invited him on board to tell his story to John Foster.

I can see you're a bit of a sort of collecting Concorde nut.

What's going on?

Well, it's been part of our lives for nearly 50 years.

-1969, my wife and I were nearly killed in a car crash.

-Really?

We were in Gloucester Hospital for a long time.

And we were married in hospital.

And the night before we were married,

we were sitting outside Ward Eight,

Concorde 001 and 002 circled the hospital,

and things after an accident like that, you're pretty rough,

and Lesley had been very badly hurt,

and it was a bit of a sign.

It was something that was very special.

It's always been a little bit of our emblem for the rest of our...

Well, we've been married 47 years in a fortnight's time.

And still going strong. And Concorde is just something very special.

It touches the heart, I think, of everybody that flies in it and knows it.

And when you say... So, 1969,

it hadn't actually had a commercial flight then.

Not at all. They were purely in trials at that time.

That really WAS a sign, because it wasn't until '76,

I think, was the first commercial flight.

-Absolutely.

-And you've obviously been on it a few times.

I flew around the bay in 1987 and Lesley and I flew to America

on the 29th of September 2003,

just three weeks before she finally finished commercial flying.

People would say, what was it like to fly?

It was like nothing else in this world.

It was narrower than this train, you were cramped,

but you had wonderful service.

Amazing drinks, food and everything else.

You were on the edge of space, 60,000 feet up,

travelling as fast as a bullet from a gun.

You can't do it now.

All that life experience that you had, it started this...

you could say an obsession, is that fair to say?

Yes, it is an obsession, to be perfectly honest, yes.

Is your wife as obsessed as you?

No, she puts up with it.

I see where you're coming from.

When I went on it, you got... my souvenir was a silver photograph frame.

And you've got some amazing things.

Basically, everything you would see in front of you

when you sat on the plane.

You've got all the chocolates, the knives and forks,

Royal Doulton, Conran.

They went to town on what they provided.

-Definitely.

-There are some things which are most sought after.

-The Machmeter.

-Yeah.

-The nose cone.

The pilot's seat.

And it goes down. Where a food container like you've got here comes in at £200, £300, £400.

Whether these, £30, £40, £50, sort of per bit.

-Because people still love Concorde.

-Oh, yes.

-Thank you.

Thank you very much indeed. Cheers.

'I'm delighted to say, joining us on board the Flying Scotsman is a former Concorde pilot.'

Well, we're on an icon of the golden age of steam, but you were,

Captain Walpole, one of the first pilots of Concorde.

-Indeed.

-With British Airways.

Indeed, I was. Yes.

It must have been an extraordinary time

to be at the forefront of supersonic travel.

It was fantastic, it really was.

It took civil aviation from a pedestrian 600 miles an hour

to 1,350 miles an hour, twice the speed of sound,

in one single giant stride.

21st of Jan 1976.

There are some extraordinary statistics associated with Concorde.

I mean, not least that you yourself have flown four million miles.

Yeah, four million miles, 200 times round the Earth effectively, yes.

Yes. 804 crossings of the North Atlantic.

What was it like to fly at that speed?

Flying Concorde was exciting,

because you were flying up at 60,000 feet.

You could control the aircraft with the fingertips of one hand.

You could see the curvature of the Earth,

the darker blue of outer space,

you had a horizon of 250,000 square miles.

It was demanding, however.

Beautiful, beautiful Concorde, as she looks so beautiful in the sky,

was a highly complex aeroplane.

There's something rather surreal talking about it with all the steam going past, you know, the contrast.

Between what we're talking and what we're on.

-You barrel-rolled Concorde?

-Yes, I did indeed.

Tell me about that.

Well, we had to carry out some tests

on a modification to the Concorde undercarriage,

so I flew with a man called Jean Franchi,

one of the first test pilots on Concorde French 1.

He said, Brian, how about doing a barrel roll in the Concorde?

And I said, "Good grief, Jean,

"are you serious?" We climbed 15,000 feet, 300 knots,

and he just barrel-rolled it beautifully over and round

and straight and level again.

He said, "Brian, I've wound it up, you can unwind it for me."

So I did exactly the same thing the other way round,

barrel-rolled Concorde.

When I got back to London and told people, they were aghast.

Because, firstly, they didn't know it could be done.

Secondly, there were no passengers on board,

so it was perfectly safe and adequate.

Would you say that was the golden era of travel for you?

-Concorde?

-Very much so.

Not for me but for aviation, the world.

And...

It was so different, it became an icon in its own right.

It's been a pleasure to talk to you about it.

-Thank you very much, Captain Walpole.

-My pleasure. Thank you.

The Antiques Roadshow archive contains many tales from bygone eras of air travel.

At our show in Farnborough, a former aeronautical research centre,

expert Graham Lay discovered how the story of flight in Britain

began in the early 20th century.

Well, looking down at us today

is one of the pioneers of British aviation,

Samuel Cody.

So, you're direct descendants of this great man?

-That's right.

-Tell us about him, because he was a bit of a showman,

-wasn't he?

-He was a cowboy showman that came over from America

and he was an American citizen when he actually flew British Army Aeroplane No 1.

He designed, built it, with his own money,

£50 was given from the War Office.

And he achieved the first flight in this country.

He did hops and leaps in April and May of 1908, and then

officially recorded on the 16th of October 1908

for the first powered flight in Great Britain.

And you've brought along today this wonderful

silver model of an aircraft.

This was commissioned by the Shell Oil Company

and it was presented to Cody at the Royal Aero Club in 1912.

It's one of his late aeroplanes,

and probably the plane that killed him in the end.

They gave him a full military funeral from his house in Ash Vale,

and 50,000 people lined the funeral procession.

50,000? That's how important he was.

He was a very important person.

Well, now, let's think about value.

That, I think, would be worth today...

..20,000-£30,000.

How do you feel about the fact

that your great-grandfather was a pioneer of aviation?

-It gives us a lot of pride.

-Gives us a big buzz.

Here at Farnborough, they used wind tunnels

to test the aerodynamics of planes, including Concorde.

And as a former long-haul pilot,

our expert Richard Price was intrigued to meet a collector

with rare design prototypes of the supersonic jet.

The good thing about Concorde was when it started,

only 46 years after Cody's first flight,

there was a completely new idea of supersonic transport

and they had to have a wing that was very efficient at high speed

but was also very handleable at low speed for landing,

so the scientists and aerodynamicists looked

at a large number of wings,

from a triangle to a Gothic shape to an ogee.

I know research and development

is astronomical and we know that the Concorde took a lot of time

to actually achieve its maiden flight,

but to see all of this right through from the first thoughts...

-That's right.

-Magnificent.

We think there were about 100 made over the years,

and all different wing shapes.

What sort of age are we talking about, early '60s for something like that?

Yes. These were just in the early '60s.

It's a wonderful English and French engineering effort, fantastic.

Nothing has been bettered yet.

-No, what a shame it's no longer with us.

-Absolutely. Yes.

How on earth can you put a value on these things?

Terribly rare, wonderful things.

I can't begin to value them.

You just can't put a value on.

Finally, in our look at air-travel stories from the archives,

we found this madcap invention

that looks straight out of a Boy's Own story.

In fact, it was a real design from the 1920s

for a fast rail service powered by a propeller.

As a dedicated railway enthusiast, of course,

I've come across references to the George Bennie railplane.

What he was proposing was a system of railway transport

whereby passengers travel in a sort of dynamic streamlined car

-suspended from an overhead track.

-Correct.

It was a cross between an aeroplane and a train.

Yes, it could be powered either by an internal combustion engine

or by electric motors.

Yes. We're talking 1929, I think.

That's when the test track was built.

There's the interior,

which looks like a deluxe passenger car of any transport system.

There were obviously different interior designs -

there would be a more utilitarian design, but that, being a test car,

was kitted out in Pullman style to create a maximum effect.

This was really the peak of exploring new ideas.

So he's offering us, or offering the world,

-high-speed travel in 1929.

-He was.

-What happened?

-Unfortunately it hit the Depression.

Money wasn't available,

he failed to get backers and could not get it built.

Had he succeeded, it could have been the answer to the future.

We could have now had wonderful high-speed elevated railways

over all the mainline tracks. How the world would have been different.

The country would have looked very different.

We'd have been travelling at 200 or 300 miles an hour

as a matter of course. These are obviously very collectable.

-We're looking at £5,000 per document.

-I'm not interested in...

-But that's neither here nor there.

-It's family history.

-The most important thing is how it would have changed our lives.

-Exactly.

Back on our journey with the Flying Scotsman,

we've pulled into Carlisle station,

just in time to meet Roadshow guests

whose large collections make perfect platform displays.

Mark is perhaps one of the most enthusiastic collectors

Hilary Kay has ever met.

He's amassed so many early airline uniforms,

he's left 125 of them at home.

I'm surrounded by what I can only describe as style in the aisle.

It's a fabulous collection

of air-stewardess costumes, accessories,

and here is a great advertisement from the time,

showing a TWA stewardess wearing exactly what Georgia's wearing.

So, tell me, why have you got four or five uniforms?

I've always had an interest in aviation and that sort of developed

into an interest in early commercial aviation and in particular TWA,

which was really a very pioneering airline in the very early days,

with a slogan which was "run by flyers, not by businessmen".

So how many of these have you got at home?

The last count, 133 uniforms from various airlines.

Obviously you're passionate about this.

-Really passionate.

-I'm passionate about the early commercial aviation,

so I collect anything I can find.

Even the images. The advertisements, the photographs.

And this, I think, sort of epitomises that early artwork.

This is, what, from 1949?

And you can see it was absolutely the golden age of commercial travel.

It was an adventure and a journey and a holiday almost on its own,

-wasn't it?

-That's right - the flying bit was the adventure.

Yeah. This I love.

This is Basic Travel Wardrobes, a TWA travel advisor,

and in it, it says, "Make the most of every thrilling travel moment,"

which, of course, involves, "How to pack a man's suitcase."

-Exactly.

-What every woman should know.

When I was growing up,

it was about the most glamorous thing you could imagine doing.

Hence these uniforms.

It was the ultimate aim in life.

But what we're looking at is not just style in the aisle,

it's about the commercialisation of air travel, and it's popular,

-isn't it?

-It is, yes.

-Getting more popular.

-Which brings me onto the next point.

I'm going to ask you what's the most expensive one that you have here.

The most expensive here has got to be the 1944 cutout uniform.

To find one complete is pretty rare and probably about £1,000.

This is your daughter, Georgia, I should say.

And, Georgia, you do look fantastic in it.

Does Georgia share your passion?

She shares a passion for fashion.

-Well...

-She puts up with modelling for me.

Very good. Yes, I mean,

£1,000 is absolutely what I've been seeing them go for.

And, of course if you're speaking about designer ones,

Mary Quant or the Pucci designs for Braniff or whatever,

then you're up in that price range.

Because it's a passion shared by so many.

And which absolutely epitomises the golden age of travel in the '50s

and '60s. Thanks very much.

Thank you.

You might ask, why is viewer Graham showing Paul Ashbury an iron bar

with a number on it? It doesn't look much,

but could it be the rarest find of the day?

This is the original smokebox numberplate.

-The one you can see up there is a copy.

-It is indeed.

This is the real thing.

-It is the real thing.

-It's like holding the relic of a true saint.

Yes, I would agree with you.

So, how have you got it?

I got it in an auction

about 20 years ago now.

And the auction that I got it from,

the previous owner put it into that auction

and he got it from the original owner.

Right, there's no doubt it's come off that locomotive?

Its provenance is complete.

100% guaranteed?

100% guaranteed.

This dates from the beginning of the British Railways era

in the late 1940s when all the locomotives they took over

had a new numbering system.

-Correct.

-And 4472, as she was, became 60103.

-Correct.

-And the plate went on the front.

-It was.

-And at some point it came off again.

It did. When it was withdrawn from British Railways in 1963.

-You're a very lucky man.

-I'm very proud to have it.

To me, it's off the most special locomotive

and the most famous locomotive in the world.

And there can't be many people who can say, "I've got a bit of that."

I've got a bit of Flying Scotsman.

And a very important bit.

-And a very important bit.

-What do you think it's worth?

I mean, I can put a value on it.

A smokebox numberplate from a famous locomotive

-is going to be £2,000, £3,000, £4,000.

-Correct.

-But this is the Flying Scotsman.

-This is the Flying Scotsman.

Probably between £10,000 and £25,000.

I think that would be a safe bet.

So we're holding a piece of scrap iron which could be worth £20,000.

-I think so.

-You're a very lucky man.

Perhaps I should just get up and put it back?

-No.

-I'll give it to you.

-Thank you.

-Don't drop it.

No, I won't. Thank you.

What better place to display travel posters

than the busy platform at Carlisle station?

John Foster is looking at just a fraction

of Colin's collection of popular masterpieces.

Do you know, nothing sums up a period in our travel history

like a railway poster from the '20s and '30s.

-What do they mean to you?

-It's just the colour, the image, the style.

The value is not so important

as the pleasure one gets from looking at them.

The people that painted these in commission,

they were trying to draw you into a lifestyle of wealth and excitement,

of exotic travel.

-What started you going?

-Rail bridge.

Iconic structure, known all around the world.

And just the colours just caught my attention.

It's interesting you say that, because the way we placed these,

I've deliberately placed this one in the middle,

because that is by far my favourite.

One, I love the Forth Bridge, two, it's done by Frank Mason.

As a Scottish colourist, the fact he's done it in blue

with the blue water, so stylistically brilliant.

It could have been designed in the last ten, 20 years,

not from the '20s and '30s.

Now, he was known mostly for doing buildings,

which is why he's so successful at transferring that to rail.

Ronald Gray, another great artist.

But sort of a more typical scene.

This one behind me, again, a lovely scene of Edinburgh, but not quite...

certainly not as architecturally brilliant as this one.

But all the same, just unbelievably pleasing.

So, where would you buy them?

This one, the Ready For The 12th, and the Princes Street of Edinburgh,

I bought these at auction in New York.

The Forth Bridge came from a Dundee auction house and there was a series

of posters which had been found in a gentleman's attic and his family

didn't even know he had them.

So, when it comes to valuing these things,

I suppose, this one behind me of Edinburgh,

I would say sort of £1,000 to £1,500, that sort of money.

The Ready For The 12th, it's a great image.

It's big, so I would put that one at sort of £4,000 to £6,000.

And...do you mind me asking what you paid for this one?

I paid £1,100 for that.

That's the one I would love, and I think that's close to £2,000.

And it's just great to see, so thank you.

Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.

It's full steam ahead with the Flying Scotsman

in this Antiques Roadshow special.

We're racing along in our own exclusive carriage

with invited guests who've brought along mementos

relating to different eras from the golden age of travel.

Hilary Kay is about to talk luxury liners with Ken, who spent

five decades working on board ships like the QE2 and Queen Mary.

Sounds glamorous? He tells us it was anything but.

I'm looking at a seaman's record book,

and good-looking chap in here, can't think who he is.

And postcards from New York,

some badges from the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth,

and this really relates in the golden age of travel to a time

when ships were going backwards and forwards from the UK to America

almost like a bus running on a timetable.

And what's your relationship with all this?

After leaving the Merchant Navy sea school,

after 16 weeks training on deck, we joined the Queen Elizabeth.

When we were lined up to be given our berths,

we were asked then that they needed volunteers.

We were always told never to volunteer.

We asked what it was. Firemen.

Well, we all thought a fireman was a fireman like with a hose.

Did we get a shock when we ended up in the engine room!

Going down in the engine room in them days was unbelievable,

with 12 boilers. The terminology was different,

it wasn't what we were trained for, but as they were short,

everyone had to muck in.

I can't imagine what it was like,

but it must have been incredibly noisy,

incredibly hot.

-Was it all of that?

-Yes, the heat, noise, was really unreal.

You do four hours down there and the sweat...you sweat like mad,

it runs out of you.

Each time you went up for a break you had to take salt tablets.

We were taking eight salt tablets

-every four hours while we were down there.

-Unbelievable.

And when you came out, the sweat through your gear would turn white.

-It was just caked on?

-Caked on, like, yeah.

At this point, I've got something you might find interesting.

Does this take you back?

Yes, that would be the... Queen Mary, is it?

That's the Mary.

Now, she's going at a heck of a lick.

How fast would she be going?

She'd be going at 27 knots.

You and your fellow firemen were responsible for that.

That's a great shot, I can remember that coming in, like.

Amazing. Did you get to meet the passengers at all?

We never got to meet passengers.

We weren't allowed to meet the passengers unless they spoke to us.

If they spoke to us, that was OK.

But we weren't allowed to speak to them, they called it broaching cargo.

Say that again. "Broaching cargo"?

Yep. It's the same as going into a hatch and taking something out,

was talking to a passenger, unless they spoke to you.

-What was the penalty?

-It could be a day's pay, like.

-Logged.

-My goodness.

-Yeah.

-Looking through here, I can see you started out as a DHU,

-a sort of general deckhand.

-That's right.

But then you progressed on and you became an EDH,

-what was that?

-That's efficient deckhand,

or known as... Senior rates used to call us electrical deckhands.

You get a shock if you see them work.

That's funny! So how long was your career?

-50 years.

-And when did you retire?

I finished last July.

Look, it's been very interesting to have, if you like,

a different view of the golden age of travel.

I mean, obviously the seaman's record book is yours,

that's not going to have any commercial value,

but actually these badges,

particularly those from the QM and the QE,

they are sought-after by collectors.

I'm not going to put a fortune on them.

I would have said perhaps the three together, perhaps £150.

But they do have a market, because everybody wants to feel

that they've got something from those wonderful cruising days.

Yes, that's exactly right.

-They're a great piece of memorabilia for you.

-Definitely.

-Thanks very much indeed.

-Smashing. Nice talking to you.

Our next story is the poignant tale of the Lusitania -

a remarkable British liner that held the Blue Riband

for the fastest transatlantic crossing in 1907.

She was the world's largest passenger liner,

making 202 journeys to the US,

before tragedy struck during World War I

when she was sunk by a German submarine in 1915.

John Foster meets Aidan,

who's brought a rare relic from the Lusitania.

Whenever I see something that's obviously been

at the bottom of the sea for a while, I get really excited.

I spent a lot of time in Florida as a kid diving on ships like this.

Tell me about your connection with it.

I've always had a lifelong fascination

with ocean liners, really from a young child.

I think one Sunday afternoon, watching a Titanic movie,

and I got the bug ever since then.

I was in Southampton

and this happened to be in an antique-shop window.

And I just looked and thought, "I've got to have that."

Now, when you say in an antique-shop window, what was it being sold as?

It was sold as a porthole from RMS Lusitania.

And it came from the mailroom.

So specifically located on the port side of the ship.

And it was recovered back in 1982.

OK, that's all interesting, because 1982 was when

they started removing bits from the Lusitania.

-Sure.

-Just explain to me what it makes you feel

when you have this in front of you?

I'm just amazed. I'm amazed. It's a living part of history,

something so reminiscent

of the grand era of luxury and liner travel.

When you think of the Lusitania, it has got a fascinating history.

Started off as a Blue Riband, er...

transatlantic speed machine, and the German press had warned America

that if they sailed on the Lusitania, it would be a target.

-Absolutely.

-No-one believed it, cos they didn't want to drag the US into the war.

-Sure.

-They didn't think that would be a sensible thing to do.

When it got to UK waters in 1915, it was torpedoed and sunk,

and a huge loss of American life.

Yeah, a lot of children, innocent children, were on board as well.

Babes in arms, so, yeah, a tragedy that affected everybody.

I look at the porthole and I just think, "I wonder who

-"the last person was to actually look through that on the day."

-Yes.

And actually, you can still...

I mean, that is great.

And I found a bit of archive footage which actually, I think,

makes the whole thing come to life.

-Oh, wow.

-It really brings home the sort of sadness, like you say,

the people that were killed on board - women, children.

Yeah, it really...it's living, isn't it?

It's a beautiful ship.

It was a floating palace.

-What a way to travel.

-Pure luxury.

That's when you could argue that the journey was the destination.

-Yes.

-Whereas a lot of people now,

we're just desperate to get from one place to another,

then it was about the whole thing of enjoying that process.

Yes, very much so.

And so, presumably you don't have this bolted to the wall or anything?

I think the wall would give way. It's pretty hefty.

No, it just sits in my dining room.

It's a conversation piece.

It definitely could not be wall-mounted.

OK, so, you bought it in an antique shop.

-How many years ago?

-Probably about eight, nine years ago now.

OK. I think at auction, easily...

..£400, £500, maybe £600, something along those lines.

Yep, sure. No, I'm pleased with that.

As for me, it's just the wow factor.

-Me too.

-Thank you.

-I'm pleased.

We've featured a few classic tales of maritime history

on previous Roadshows. Here are some of our favourites.

At Haltwhistle in Northumberland,

Paul was treated to a very rare sight.

The interior fittings of a White Star liner

that had been stripped out to refurbish office interiors.

Now, of course, everybody knows the story of the Titanic.

They can't not know it.

The Olympic, a much more successful ship commercially,

is still perhaps not so well known.

They were sisters, weren't they?

Yes, there were three sisters.

The Olympic, then the Titanic...

-And then the Britannic.

-Then the Britannic, yes.

So, what have we got?

Well, this, first off,

is a smoke vent from the second-class smoke room.

Now, this is exactly the same as the Titanic one, isn't it?

All the fittings for the ships, the three ships,

were bought at the same time so could have went into either ship.

Light fittings. They're fantastic, aren't they?

You've got to imagine it the other way up,

hanging in some grand saloon, twinkling through the cut glass.

How many of these have you got?

-There's 28 of those.

-28 of those.

Right, so, these show your offices, in effect, do they?

This is the conference room, yes.

So, you've got here a wonderful image

of a sort of wooden surround, carved surround.

Yes, that was first class.

That was what was in your first-class suites.

All these panels, the doors, the architrave,

all of this is out of the ship.

So they bought, in a sense, a complete room?

-Yes.

-Does that show the lights?

Those are the lights and this is all wood panelling

and that's out of the second-class smoking area.

So, you bought up an old factory

which happened to be fitted out with the Olympic. Can I ask how much?

Yes, they valued the total fittings at £40,000.

You've got 28 of those?

A light guaranteed off the Olympic

-I would think is going to be £300, £400.

-Oh, really?

So, multiply that by 28.

You're getting on towards your money back.

It took a trip halfway round the world to Melbourne, Australia,

for Hilary Kay to come face-to-face with a Titanic teddy bear...

..one of the most moving pieces we've seen at the Roadshow.

Picture yourself in 1912.

There's been this terrible disaster, the Titanic has sunk,

hit by an iceberg,

and the Steiff factory produced a whole series of bears in black,

mourning bears, they said, to mourn the loss of life on the Titanic.

And this is what you're holding.

There's one particular aspect of this bear

which I think is very sweet, very touching,

and that's that around these lovely black eyes here

we have red,

a red background which shows the eye up very clearly,

but also it's what your eyes do when they cry.

-You know, this bear has got red eyes from crying.

-I wondered about that.

I have to say that a Titanic bear just like this, five years ago,

at auction, fetched just over 200,000.

200,000?

Which is about £90,000.

He is a bear that is so rare that we've never seen a Titanic bear

on all the British Antiques Roadshows.

-Really?

-And to find him down here in Melbourne...

..well, it's a real eye-opener, and thanks so much for bringing him.

Thank you. Thank you.

An eye-watering valuation from Australia

brings our archive selection to a close.

We're racing through the Yorkshire countryside,

approaching the end of our journey.

Just time for one last story.

Paul Atterbury began the day

with the Flying Scotsman's nonstop record run from London to Edinburgh.

He's now with a family whose mementos record

every detail of train driver Walt Parkinson's life...

..including the end of the age of steam.

I suppose I'm a very typical grown-up small boy.

I like trains, I wanted to be an engine driver,

and I can see here...somebody was.

You know, this is the story in diaries and documents

and pieces of equipment of a driver, a driver's life.

Now, is that your family?

Yes, it was my grandad.

He started after he left the Army in the early '50s.

He worked his way up to become a fireman then an engineman

on steam and then through to diesel.

And as a result, it's a very interesting record.

It's a full catalogue of everything he did for about 40, 50 years.

In the diaries, there's a couple of things that I quite like.

And it says here, 11th of April 1967, he drove 90233,

that's a steam locomotive.

And looking through the diaries, that's the end, isn't it?

-Yes, that's the last one.

-Yeah, that's the last one.

So, suddenly, that world is gone.

And he's then sick for a while and when he comes back from being sick,

-it says straightaway into...

-Diesel training.

.."Started work diesel training York."

-So, the world has changed.

-Yeah.

I think it was a very interesting period, because...

..you know, for us as enthusiasts, everybody likes steam trains,

but the British Rail Modernisation Plan, which was launched in 1955,

was dedicated to removing steam out of the British network.

We had to be modern, we had to be diesel, we had to be electric,

we had to build an up-to-date network.

I've got some footage here which actually is about that moment

when diesels were new and exciting and modern.

Let's have a look. This is a new one being launched.

It's pulling out of Paddington.

And...the view from the cab.

There's the past going past, very literally.

And look how comfortable that is.

He must have sat there and thought, "This is great."

And, of course, his life was radically improved.

I mean, there he was in a locomotive cab.

We're very romantic about it but actually it was a filthy, hard,

demanding job and, suddenly, you're sitting in comfort

in a diesel locomotive, operating controls.

It must have been wonderful for people making the transition.

What was it like in the family?

What changed?

Mainly smell.

-Smell?

-Yeah, because he smelt different when he went on diesels

to what he did when he were on steam trains.

One of the mythologies of being a railway enthusiast

-is this thing about cooking food in the cab.

-Yeah.

Did you have that experience?

Yes, when I were little,

my grandad took me to work quite a few times and...

..in the diesel trains,

they had an electric hob and he used to do toast on the electric hob

and then put a tin of beans on top - you could have beans on toast.

-In the cab?

-In the cab.

But if you go back to steam, you cooked on the shovel, didn't you?

-Yeah.

-And did you do that?

Yeah, me dad took me to work, we did that.

What do you think was the high point of his life?

-The Royal train.

-Probably when he drove the Royal train.

-Tell me about that.

-When he came to see me at home,

he were so giddy when he came in.

-And he gave...

-He gave him the hat.

-He gave me the hat he were given.

That were his new hat for the Royal train.

-So this is the Royal-train hat?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

-Fantastic.

-It were towards the end of his career, so about 1986, '87,

and he always told us that he got picked

because he were a goods-train driver

and used to driving chemicals and nuclear fuel

and things like that.

They chose the goods-train drivers to drive the Royal train

cos they'd got a special cargo.

And because they were careful?

And they were careful, yeah.

So when he gave me that hat, that were the proudest moment.

Right, what's it all worth?

Well, we're looking at a collection

probably worth a couple of hundred pounds.

But the memories it releases, to me, are absolutely beyond price.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, wonderful.

-Priceless.

That story tells of the end of the age of steam,

so we're very thankful that after ten years of restoration,

the Flying Scotsman has given us a unique opportunity

to relive that golden age.

Our guests and experts have loved it.

WHISTLE BLOWS

And I'll never forget my moment on the footplate

of this world-famous locomotive.

Thanks to our visitors for bringing along their precious mementos.

Soon, we'll be arriving in York

and the Flying Scotsman will get a well-deserved rest.

From the whole team here on board, goodbye.