0:00:06 > 0:00:11In July 1865, in a fetid prison in York,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17one of the great Victorian heroes of the railway age,
0:00:17 > 0:00:20a man known as the Railway King,
0:00:20 > 0:00:25was locked up with only rats, thieves and gamblers for company.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31George Hudson had been made by the railways
0:00:31 > 0:00:33and utterly destroyed by them.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38He'd gained colossal wealth, power and celebrity.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44Railways proved a magnet for ruthless entrepreneurs,
0:00:44 > 0:00:49visionaries, charlatans, dodgy money men and corrupt MPs.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54It was a boom and like all booms, the winners won big
0:00:54 > 0:00:57and the losers lost it all.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01As the Railway King had learned to his cost.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33In the late 1830s, a great swathe of Victorian London
0:01:33 > 0:01:36was ripped apart. The railways had arrived in the capital.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46The first shock of a great earthquake
0:01:46 > 0:01:48had rent the whole neighbourhood.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52Houses were knocked down, streets broken through, deep pits and
0:01:52 > 0:01:54trenches dug in the ground.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00Carcasses of ragged tenements, unintelligible as any dream.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08Just look at this huge canyon that's been carved through
0:02:08 > 0:02:11what used to be a heavily populated part of London.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Whole streets ripped up to make way for the railways.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20Predominantly working-class tenants, thousands of them, were thrown out
0:02:20 > 0:02:24of here with no compensation, made homeless virtually overnight.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32For the big men of the railways, a little human misery wasn't
0:02:32 > 0:02:35going to stand in the way of progress and profit.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46The power that forced itself upon its iron way, defiant of all
0:02:46 > 0:02:50paths and roads, piercing through the heart of every obstacle
0:02:50 > 0:02:54and dragging living creatures, all classes, ages and degrees behind it.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01Charles Dickens was obviously not a huge fan as the railways came
0:03:01 > 0:03:04smashing their way into London in the late 1830s,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08but linking the capital to the industrial North with an umbilical cord
0:03:08 > 0:03:12was the greatest pride and it would prove a turning point.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17Since the opening of the pioneering line between Manchester and
0:03:17 > 0:03:19Liverpool in 1830,
0:03:19 > 0:03:24less than 100 miles of railway had been built, mostly in Lancashire.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27But the arrival of the railways into London would change everything.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32Before then, people were able to dismiss railways as a
0:03:32 > 0:03:38provincial curiosity, but now it was clear they were here to stay.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41Now the railwaymen were building the spine of a network upon which
0:03:41 > 0:03:43we still rely today.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53A new London to Birmingham line would link up via the Grand Junction
0:03:53 > 0:03:56to the Liverpool and Manchester railway.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01For the first time, the four great cities of Britain,
0:04:01 > 0:04:04London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, would be connected.
0:04:11 > 0:04:16This was the start of a truly national network.
0:04:16 > 0:04:22To achieve this meant an engineering challenge without precedent.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27A new generation of ambitious railwaymen rose to meet it.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42The Victorians viewed the London to Birmingham line as an achievement
0:04:42 > 0:04:45on par with the building of the Pyramids and at the time it was one
0:04:45 > 0:04:48of the greatest civil engineering projects in human history.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56It was built by George Stephenson's son, Robert.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00It would make him one of the most famous men of the railway age.
0:05:01 > 0:05:06But drawing lines linking British cities was easy on paper,
0:05:06 > 0:05:08less so on the ground.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12Particularly deep underground.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15It was incredibly challenging.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17I mean, take this ridge here in Northamptonshire,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19near the village of Kilsby.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Stephenson needed to drill a tunnel through this ridge.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25The trouble is, it's composed mainly of quicksand
0:05:25 > 0:05:27and he had terrible problems with flooding.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30It took Stephenson two years, with a team of 1,000 navvies,
0:05:30 > 0:05:32to get this tunnel built.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43Sheer muscle power alone wouldn't be enough.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48After Stephenson had pumped out all of the water, he had another
0:05:48 > 0:05:50problem to tackle.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54One that no engineer had ever encountered before.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03Stephenson's final act of genius at Kilsby is right here.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05That might look like a castle
0:06:05 > 0:06:07but, in fact, it's the top of a ventilation shaft.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11When Stephenson mooted the idea of this tunnel over a mile long,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14people were appalled - they thought they'd suffocate,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18but Stephenson... Ah, you can hear the train now. It's still in use today.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20Stephenson believed that these would allow the smoke to escape
0:06:20 > 0:06:22and the tunnel would be safe to use.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24No wonder that after it was built,
0:06:24 > 0:06:27he marched through the tunnel at the head of a brass band.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34For me, these show just how far nature was being tamed by the railways.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38Hills were being mined and blasted, valleys were being bridged.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41Nothing could stand in their way.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55Kilsby Tunnel was less than a two-mile stretch of the London to
0:06:55 > 0:06:57Birmingham railway.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01At 112 miles in total, it was almost four times the length of
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Britain's first railway from Liverpool to Manchester.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09And it also required eight tunnels,
0:07:09 > 0:07:14150 bridges, five viaducts and 17 stations.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19Building all of this was one thing.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22The real challenge, though, was paying for it.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Together, these new lines cost £2.5 million,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29triple the cost of any previous railway project.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34There was an unimaginable amount of money to be made, though.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44This would become the age of the railway tycoon, as railway mania
0:07:44 > 0:07:45gripped the nation.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50One of these tycoons began as a building contractor on the
0:07:50 > 0:07:54London to Birmingham line, Samuel Morton Peto.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59Samuel Morton Peto was one of the most famous
0:07:59 > 0:08:01contractors in the Victorian period and his firm would take on
0:08:01 > 0:08:03projects like this,
0:08:03 > 0:08:07the grand Curzon Street station in Birmingham.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10Now standing marooned in this wasteland,
0:08:10 > 0:08:12on the edge of the city centre.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21It feels like a cemetery for the kind of monumental railway
0:08:21 > 0:08:23architecture of the time.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30It consciously mimics a classical temple
0:08:30 > 0:08:33and it was built to celebrate these new men,
0:08:33 > 0:08:37these gods of the railway, that were sweeping all before them.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53Peto was just 14 years old when he was made an apprentice in his
0:08:53 > 0:08:56uncle's building firm.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59When his uncle died, he inherited the business with his cousin, Thomas,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and they were soon building impressive London clubs and theatres,
0:09:02 > 0:09:06as well as Nelson's Column.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Peto's firm worked on some of the grandest
0:09:09 > 0:09:13buildings in the country, like the Palace of Westminster.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16Many of them now in better states of preservation than this.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20But ironically, it was railways that really captured his imagination.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23He was an intriguing character, a workaholic,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27self-styled Christian businessman,
0:09:27 > 0:09:31whose love of the Lord was rivalled only by his love of making money.
0:09:31 > 0:09:36He saw big profits as a sign of divine favour.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Railways became his obsession.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Peto knew nothing would make him richer quicker than the railways.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50He opened his first one here at Curzon Street,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53on the 17th September, 1838,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57confident that it'd be the first of many more.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05And he knew, too, the importance of making railway stations look
0:10:05 > 0:10:07grand and inviting.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16The railwaymen threw money at these buildings.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19They hired the best architects.
0:10:19 > 0:10:24The public still thought of trains as new, as industrial, as dangerous
0:10:24 > 0:10:28and the owners knew that, by wrapping everything in this classical facade,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32they could make the whole experience far more reassuring.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44Early railway passengers certainly needed the reassurance.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Train travel in the late 1830s was fraught with danger.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59This handy little guidebook was produced to help those who
0:10:59 > 0:11:03were nervous about taking their first trip on the railways.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06Francis Coghlan wrote The Iron Road in 1838,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10for these bold pioneers who were using the new trains.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15It said, if you are unlucky enough to be sitting in second class,
0:11:15 > 0:11:20these open carriages, always sit with your back towards the engine.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25Simple. That way it saved you from being nearly blinded by the small
0:11:25 > 0:11:27cinders that escape through the funnel.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Sit as far away from the engine as possible.
0:11:33 > 0:11:34STEAM ENGINE WHISTLES
0:11:34 > 0:11:37If there is an explosion, which is likely,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41you may get away with only losing an arm or a leg, whereas
0:11:41 > 0:11:45if you're close to the engine, you'll be smashed to smithereens.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14The trains were a shock for the British public, as they
0:12:14 > 0:12:16ploughed across the land.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21The press was full of monstrous and terrifying images of them.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30Even the speed they could move at was alarming.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32Trains could already hit 50 miles per hour.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Some people had a real problem dealing with the lack of control.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43Others thought their heads were being shaken around so much,
0:12:43 > 0:12:44it might affect their brain.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47And many people found it very annoying they had to constantly set
0:12:47 > 0:12:52their watches, as each town across Britain kept its own local time.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57A world that had been fundamentally immobile was now on the move.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11For every person terrified by the prospect of train travel,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14there were many more who were exhilarated by it.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19Railways might have been developed to carry freight,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23but now they were making four times the money on passengers.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30They weren't just on board for the ride -
0:13:30 > 0:13:33soon many of them wanted to own a share of them, too.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44If you think about the greatest civil engineering projects
0:13:44 > 0:13:47in history, the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China,
0:13:47 > 0:13:49the Roman road network, they all have one thing in common -
0:13:49 > 0:13:53they were all built on the orders of the Government, of the King
0:13:53 > 0:13:57or the Emperor and then the railways come along, arguably the biggest
0:13:57 > 0:14:02of them all and they're being built and paid for by the public.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11Most of the money for the first lines into London
0:14:11 > 0:14:16came from the Northern industrialists in Lancashire.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19But now, everyone wanted a piece of the action.
0:14:34 > 0:14:40Investments in the railways soared, from less than £200,000 in 1825,
0:14:40 > 0:14:44to more than 17 million pounds in 1844.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50The stock markets were booming.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52This is the last place in Europe where
0:14:52 > 0:14:54they still trade like this, but this would have been a familiar
0:14:54 > 0:14:58sight right across Britain in the 19th Century.
0:14:58 > 0:14:59Provincial centres.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02It seems strange nowadays to think of it,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05like Leicester, Bradford, Huddersfield all had stock exchanges
0:15:05 > 0:15:09as a result of the railway investment boom.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Leeds had three competing stock exchanges,
0:15:12 > 0:15:17where half a million trades a day were placed by 3,000 stockbrokers.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20The railways were making Britain rich.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32So why did people suddenly buy all these railway shares?
0:15:32 > 0:15:36Well, if you go back to the 18th century and the Industrial Revolution,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39you have, what we'd say, ordinary people with an opportunity
0:15:39 > 0:15:43to make money and by the early 19th century, they're looking
0:15:43 > 0:15:47for a place to put that money and there are limited opportunities.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51Railway shares were generating returns, sometimes, of about 10%.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53It's interesting, the kinds of people listed on here.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57He's a confectioner there, so, you know, small businessmen.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00That's a surgeon there, he's a Durham merchant, this guy.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02But it's really grassroots capitalism,
0:16:02 > 0:16:06it's ordinary members of the public buying into this economic system.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Absolutely, but, also, these are local projects.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12People are investing in their local railways.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17There'll be a contrast of investing in a South American goldmine.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20It's miles away, you can't see it.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24There's a high risk it might go wrong, there's a high risk
0:16:24 > 0:16:27that the promoter might just take your money and run.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29With railways, you can see them being built,
0:16:29 > 0:16:31you can see the infrastructure.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Here you have the Great British public becoming owners of this
0:16:35 > 0:16:36great infrastructure.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47The man who the Great British public trusted with their money was
0:16:47 > 0:16:51a no-nonsense Yorkshireman, George Hudson.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54The son of a farmer, he was orphaned when he was just eight years old,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57but good fortune followed.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01Like Samuel Morton Peto, he inherited the estate of a rich uncle.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06With his new-found wealth, Hudson swiftly climbed the greasy pole
0:17:06 > 0:17:09of Tory politics to become Lord Mayor of York.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14But it would be the railways that would make him famous.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20Hudson's enemies labelled him the Railway Napoleon.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24His friends, more approvingly, called him The Railway King and
0:17:24 > 0:17:29he was brilliant, brash and ruthless and he was the consummate showman.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41To celebrate the opening of the York to Leeds railway line,
0:17:41 > 0:17:45into which he'd invested £10,000 of his own money, he organised
0:17:45 > 0:17:50a day of festivities, starting with a sumptuous breakfast banquet for 400 people,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53here at the Mansion House in York, followed by a trip on the line
0:17:53 > 0:17:57and then a party back here that went on till four in the morning.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07Like Peto, George Hudson immediately spotted the potential
0:18:07 > 0:18:09of the railways and was hungry for more.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13He snapped up the post of chairman of the Midland Railway Company.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18The press nicknamed him "The Railway King" now that he had control over
0:18:18 > 0:18:211,000 miles of railway.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24Hudson made it clear that, now he was in charge, there'd be no
0:18:24 > 0:18:28tedious questions about how the money got spent.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30He always got what he wanted.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48By 1845, Britain had over 2,000 miles of lines
0:18:48 > 0:18:49and the beginnings of a network.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57Clever entrepreneurs, who've now become household names,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00quickly spotted the new opportunities.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04A publisher named William Henry Smith realised that every
0:19:04 > 0:19:08long journey needed a good book and quickly secured the right to
0:19:08 > 0:19:10have book stalls at all of the stations.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16In doing so, WH Smith changed British reading habits for ever.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23So how did railways revolutionise the book market?
0:19:23 > 0:19:26They dramatically changed the prices of books.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29Before the railways came, all novels, new novels,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32were published in hardback, which had been a pound.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37This represented six weeks' wages for an ordinary man.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41WH Smith realised that, if you priced books cheaply,
0:19:41 > 0:19:43you would sell large numbers of them.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46They happened to produce very attractive books that
0:19:46 > 0:19:49were down to a shilling, or two shillings.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53It was a huge new market. In 1848, WH Smith
0:19:53 > 0:19:56opened his first railway book stall at Euston
0:19:56 > 0:19:59and within 15 years, there were 500.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02It was a distribution network sent by God.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07So is this the first time the Brits have got access to the classics?
0:20:07 > 0:20:11Prior to this, they had the access to what were called bloods,
0:20:11 > 0:20:14which were cheap leaflets, really,
0:20:14 > 0:20:18claiming to be the last words of the hanged man.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23WH Smith had a moral code and he wouldn't admit anything racy.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26It's the first time they've got access to good classical writing,
0:20:26 > 0:20:30to Dickens, to Jane Austen, to Thackeray, to Thomas Hardy
0:20:30 > 0:20:33and it actually united the British culturally.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36Everybody was buying and reading these books.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46WH Smith wasn't the only moralising Victorian businessman to make
0:20:46 > 0:20:49a fortune from the railways.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52A former Baptist preacher from Derbyshire became the first
0:20:52 > 0:20:55travel agent to offer rail excursions to the middle classes.
0:20:56 > 0:21:01Thomas Cook was an early marketing genius, who got great deals on
0:21:01 > 0:21:05cheap tickets from the railways, who were eager to drum up more business.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10Thomas Cook immediately saw just how seductive railways would be
0:21:10 > 0:21:14for people, but he also believed that they were an agent for change.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16He wrote that they would pull men out of the mire
0:21:16 > 0:21:19and pollution of old corrupt customs,
0:21:19 > 0:21:22so he started organising some pretty wild excursions.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25The first one, in 1841, 500 teetotallers
0:21:25 > 0:21:30went from Leicester to Loughborough, to attend a temperance conference.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33His competitors started to put on some slightly more popular
0:21:33 > 0:21:36trips to public executions and that was more like it.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46As railway tourism kicked off, the working classes got their
0:21:46 > 0:21:48first taste of the rail network.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55They still couldn't afford normal train tickets, which cost the
0:21:55 > 0:21:59equivalent of a labourer's weekly wage, even for second class.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08But now, cheap excursions were being offered at a quarter of the price
0:22:08 > 0:22:11of ordinary fares and they snapped up the tickets.
0:22:22 > 0:22:27On one trip, 24,000 people went by rail between Glasgow and Paisley
0:22:27 > 0:22:32to see the horse races and Manchester emptied out in August,
0:22:32 > 0:22:36as 200,000 people left the industrial grime for their holiday week.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47These excursions were like easyJet for the Victorians.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51The trains would have been packed and rowdy, but they were cheap.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54They opened up the country to the poor.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56Places that would have seemed impossibly far away
0:22:56 > 0:22:59were now accessible in just a day trip.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02Imagine people leaving towns and cities of Britain
0:23:02 > 0:23:05and seeing the sea for the first time in their lives.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13Victorian journalists wrote that before the railways, the Brits
0:23:13 > 0:23:17"were as ignorant of their own country as they were of the moon."
0:23:17 > 0:23:18Not any more.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20STEAM ENGINE WHISTLES
0:23:38 > 0:23:40Britain in the 1840s
0:23:40 > 0:23:43was a perfect breeding ground for railway building.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47Construction costs were falling.
0:23:48 > 0:23:52Interest rates were at their lowest in almost a century
0:23:52 > 0:23:55and there were great returns of 10% on shares.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04More and more plans to build new railways were being submitted
0:24:04 > 0:24:05to Parliament.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10This was a time-consuming and expensive process.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14It involved paying off landowners and vast legal bills, to get
0:24:14 > 0:24:16all the plans rubber-stamped.
0:24:18 > 0:24:19The stakes were high.
0:24:19 > 0:24:24If your plans were accepted, there were fortunes to be made.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Brutal competition broke out among the companies, as they desperately
0:24:27 > 0:24:31tried to get their plans to Parliament ahead of their rivals.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36When Parliament announced a deadline for the submission of plans,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39chaos ensued and if people missed that cut-off point,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42they'd be building nothing next year.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54Printers worked around the clock,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57even sleeping on their benches to get the job done.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59Unless, that is, they had been bribed by your competition
0:24:59 > 0:25:02and all your efforts had been sabotaged. Thank you.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04But if you did manage to get hold of your plans,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06you still had to get them to London.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12Railways and roads leading into the capital were absolutely
0:25:12 > 0:25:15jam-packed, as promoters tried to get their plans in.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Two express trains carrying these officials
0:25:19 > 0:25:21and their documents even crashed into each other.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24Rivals would often stop each other getting on to trains,
0:25:24 > 0:25:27so that one group had to organise a fake funeral
0:25:27 > 0:25:30and hide the plans in the coffin to smuggle them into the capital.
0:25:32 > 0:25:38In 1845 alone, 815 plans were submitted to Parliament.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41At midnight, the deadline passed.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Once the plans had been submitted, it was time to grease the cogs.
0:25:55 > 0:26:00George Hudson kept a special fund set aside for bribing MPs,
0:26:00 > 0:26:04but more than 150 of them had railway investments themselves,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06so this wasn't too difficult.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12And the railway lobby were further helped by the fact that the
0:26:12 > 0:26:16Government had no strategy, or even a vague idea about how the
0:26:16 > 0:26:18network should develop.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25The railway companies were paying for it, so they could do what
0:26:25 > 0:26:26they wanted.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28They were out of control.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38There was a problem with all this private money.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41This was capitalism in its rawest form.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43There was no Government interference,
0:26:43 > 0:26:47no strategic overview - this was the unrestrained free market
0:26:47 > 0:26:51and that meant some ridiculous situations were allowed to occur.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05Here in Manchester, there was utter chaos.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07No fewer than six different major railway companies,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11sharing stations, competing for the same passengers.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13That meant station signs getting painted out,
0:27:13 > 0:27:15notices torn down
0:27:15 > 0:27:18and passengers being locked up
0:27:18 > 0:27:22and using the wrong platforms and the wrong tickets.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25There were even fights between rival groups of station staff.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48And if they survived all that, the distraught passengers then
0:27:48 > 0:27:51discovered that there was no direct link through
0:27:51 > 0:27:54the city of Manchester, from north to south.
0:27:54 > 0:28:00They had to change station, dragging all their belongings with them.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02Frankly, it was utter carnage.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11All over the country,
0:28:11 > 0:28:15railway companies were riding roughshod over their passengers.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18Back in York, the Railway King, George Hudson, had even taken
0:28:18 > 0:28:22to holding up trains and altering schedules for his own convenience.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25His wife even telegraphed for a pineapple and kept a train
0:28:25 > 0:28:28waiting for its arrival.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34When a rival company had the audacity to start selling
0:28:34 > 0:28:38shares in a direct line from London to York, that interfered with his
0:28:38 > 0:28:43own plans, a furious Hudson launched a secret dirty tricks campaign.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48Anonymous letters stared appearing in the Railway Press
0:28:48 > 0:28:49and the Times newspaper.
0:28:49 > 0:28:50Hysterical in tone,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54warning of the dangers of investing in this alternative scheme.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56One of them ended like this.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58"You shall hear from me frequently.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01"The film must be withdrawn from your eyes.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05"You are rushing to destruction in consequence of your blindness.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07"Signed, one of you."
0:29:09 > 0:29:13But there were those who believed the shareholders really were
0:29:13 > 0:29:14rushing to destruction.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21The poet William Wordsworth wrote, "The whole people are mad
0:29:21 > 0:29:27"about railways. The country is an asylum of railway lunatics."
0:29:27 > 0:29:31And the Times newspaper constantly issued warnings to its readers
0:29:31 > 0:29:34about the folly of investing too heavily,
0:29:34 > 0:29:36and of trusting men like Hudson.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39But nobody was listening to the doom-mongers.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44Not when they were growing fat and rich.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55Samuel Morton Peto had reaped the benefits of the railway mania
0:29:55 > 0:29:58and was now one of the richest railway investors in the country.
0:29:59 > 0:30:04He decided that it was time to reward himself with a fancy house.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17You only have to look at this magnificent house at Somerleyton
0:30:17 > 0:30:20to realise just how much money there was swirling around in the railways.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22Peto bought this and, in doing so,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25bought his way into the ranks of the landed elite.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28He'd gone from being a contractor
0:30:28 > 0:30:31to one of the biggest UK investors in railways.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34And he played the role of Lord of the Manor here, in Suffolk,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36with enormous enthusiasm.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38He invested money in Lowestoft, the local town,
0:30:38 > 0:30:40and improvements in other villages
0:30:40 > 0:30:43and he would pay the labourers round here
0:30:43 > 0:30:46twice what the other landowners would pay them.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50The railways, it seemed, were a bottomless pit of cash.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57Everyone had their noses in a trough.
0:31:01 > 0:31:06Landowners got ludicrous sums for nearly worthless farmland.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10And grasping lawyers racked up huge bills during planning delays.
0:31:10 > 0:31:12TRAIN WHISTLES
0:31:12 > 0:31:18The result - Britain had become the most expensive place in Europe to build railways,
0:31:18 > 0:31:21and all of the competition had had a knock-on effect too.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36Like the recent dotcom bubble, nobody saw the warning signs.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42The railway mania was a collective hysteria,
0:31:42 > 0:31:45nobody wants to miss out on the action.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49But the fact was, railway companies weren't making a profit.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51The building costs had gone up enormously
0:31:51 > 0:31:56as all the competition doubled the cost of materials and wages
0:31:56 > 0:31:59and they weren't getting enough customers on the lines.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24And the finances of the railways were built on very unstable foundations.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32In the summer of 1845, a parliamentary report
0:32:32 > 0:32:35revealed the identity of 20,000 railway speculators.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41Many on the list had extended themselves beyond their means,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44but none more spectacularly than two brothers
0:32:44 > 0:32:48who'd signed up for nearly £40,000 worth of shares
0:32:48 > 0:32:52and were found to be sons of a cleaner, living in a garret.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01There was growing evidence that corruption was fuelling the boom.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05Forged certificates were circulating for railways that had been rejected,
0:33:05 > 0:33:07that would never get built.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09Everybody was out for themselves.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13One financial journalist at the time complained about the fact
0:33:13 > 0:33:15that all rule and order had been swept away,
0:33:15 > 0:33:18it was like the Great Plague of London.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22The ties of friendship, blood and honour had just been cast aside.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27The image of old England, tormented by the railway demons,
0:33:27 > 0:33:29hit the headlines.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33Railway companies started demanding funds for further construction
0:33:33 > 0:33:36from their overstretched shareholders.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39They panicked and started selling up.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46In October 1847, the week of terror gripped the City.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52People were desperate to ditch their railway stocks
0:33:52 > 0:33:54and seek refuge in gold.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00There was even a run on the Bank of England.
0:34:21 > 0:34:23Railway shares plummeted.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28The middle classes were hit particularly hard by the slump.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33Bankruptcy courts and debtors' jails were filling up,
0:34:33 > 0:34:36carriages were sold off, servants sacked
0:34:36 > 0:34:38and children forced out to work.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42Even Victorian celebrities were caught out.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47The novelist Charlotte Bronte and her sisters
0:34:47 > 0:34:50had their savings invested with Hudson's schemes.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52She wrote stoically,
0:34:52 > 0:34:56"Many, very many, by the late strange railway system,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59"deprived almost of their daily bread."
0:34:59 > 0:35:01And so, she consoled herself by thinking that,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04"Those that have only lost provisions laid up for their future
0:35:04 > 0:35:07"should take care how they complain."
0:35:07 > 0:35:08And she was right.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11All across the country, reports were coming in of suicides
0:35:11 > 0:35:13by people who had lost everything.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16Mr Elliott, of Bayswater,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19was found dead in Hyde Park having shot himself,
0:35:19 > 0:35:21his pockets stuffed with railway shares.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29As the investors vowed never to gamble on the railways again,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32the whole banking system teetered on the edge.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36The Government had to step in, to do some damage limitation.
0:35:36 > 0:35:38A group of senior bankers gathered together
0:35:38 > 0:35:40and lobbied the Prime Minister
0:35:40 > 0:35:42to pump money into the system to save it.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44Sounds strangely familiar...
0:35:44 > 0:35:47He did so and that staved off economic collapse for the time being.
0:35:47 > 0:35:49But, as the Times newspaper wrote,
0:35:49 > 0:35:53"A great bubble of wealth is blown before our eyes."
0:35:58 > 0:36:01The railway dream was in tatters
0:36:01 > 0:36:04and shareholders on the warpath.
0:36:04 > 0:36:05Even George Hudson,
0:36:05 > 0:36:10the previously untouchable Railway King, was under scrutiny.
0:36:10 > 0:36:12Suddenly, his hatred of financial meetings,
0:36:12 > 0:36:16accounts and red tape looked a little dubious.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18The press had a field day,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21mocking the Railway King's fall from grace.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23His companies were failing
0:36:23 > 0:36:26and he was frequently seen drunk in the House Of Commons.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28His brother-in-law,
0:36:28 > 0:36:32a co-director of one of Hudson's companies, drowned himself
0:36:32 > 0:36:35and Hudson fled into exile abroad.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38When he returned a few years later, he was arrested.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51Hudson was now the most hated man in Britain.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55His companies had haemorrhaged money.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57The Victorians were appalled to learn
0:36:57 > 0:37:02that their hero had, in fact, been an embezzler and a cheat.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05He ended up in the debtors' prison.
0:37:08 > 0:37:13The creature the railways had created had now been destroyed.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20The mania was over,
0:37:20 > 0:37:23the mad bubble had burst.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26£230 million had been lost,
0:37:26 > 0:37:29half of the country's national income.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39But the railways were too big to fail,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42very few of the railway companies themselves went bankrupt
0:37:42 > 0:37:47and men like Peto and the other big contractors survived the crash.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51But, in just over a decade, they too would be destroyed.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59Unlike some of the more modern manias,
0:37:59 > 0:38:02like the dotcom bubble, at least when the money ran out for railways,
0:38:02 > 0:38:05there was something physical left behind.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08The fact was that two thirds of the railway schemes
0:38:08 > 0:38:09that were proposed during the mania
0:38:09 > 0:38:12actually went on to get built.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15And today, the majority of those tracks still survive
0:38:15 > 0:38:18and form the backbone of our modern rail network.
0:38:22 > 0:38:27In 1848 alone, over 1,000 miles of railways opened.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29It would take the motorway builders of the 20th century
0:38:29 > 0:38:33nearly 20 years to achieve a similar distance.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37And all of these railways had created thousands of jobs.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39By the 1850s, there were already
0:38:39 > 0:38:42more than 50,000 men working on the railways.
0:38:52 > 0:38:54New towns like Swindon were built
0:38:54 > 0:38:58to house those who came from far and wide for a better life.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10The railways gave jobs not just to the Victorians,
0:39:10 > 0:39:12but for generations to come.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16That's myself, aged about six, six and a half or so.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18- That's my father. - And your dad worked on the railways.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21Yes, he was a French polisher in those days.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24- This is my grandfather, boilermaker. - That's a handsome man.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26And this is my great-grandfather.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29So how many generations of your family worked on the railways?
0:39:29 > 0:39:30Well, if we include my grandson,
0:39:30 > 0:39:34for just three years with Network Rail, we actually go back six.
0:39:34 > 0:39:35- Six generations.- Six generations.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38My great-great-grandfather started in 1860.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42So, basically, your family virtually span the whole history of... Almost.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45Almost, yeah, almost, very proud to say that as well.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47Why was the railway work so appealing
0:39:47 > 0:39:50to working-class guys back in the 19th century?
0:39:50 > 0:39:53What you've got to remember is, when people worked the land in Swindon
0:39:53 > 0:39:56and they had to work out in all weathers, for example,
0:39:56 > 0:39:58for a minimum wage at the time,
0:39:58 > 0:40:01their living accommodation wouldn't have been too good neither
0:40:01 > 0:40:06and the railway works opened up new opportunities for them.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09For example, Charles Shurmer, my great-great-grandfather,
0:40:09 > 0:40:11started off as a labourer.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15Great-grandfather, messenger boy, labourer and then watchman.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17Grandfather, boilermaker.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20By now, they were changing from labourers and watchmen
0:40:20 > 0:40:24to skilled men and earning more money
0:40:24 > 0:40:27with the chances of progressing through the ranks,
0:40:27 > 0:40:29to become something more
0:40:29 > 0:40:31than they could ever have dreamt about working on the land.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41The railways didn't just bring an employment boom,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44they also drove a cultural revolution.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47Ambitious businessmen saw opportunities
0:40:47 > 0:40:49to change the way we lived,
0:40:49 > 0:40:52the way we died and what we consumed.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10What the railways did was create a national market for food.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14Suddenly, salmon caught in Scotland or fish caught on the east coast
0:41:14 > 0:41:17could be eaten in London fresh, on the day they were bought.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21And the same for fruit and veg.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24It was now coming into the city, to the Covent Garden market,
0:41:24 > 0:41:28from as far away as Cheshire and the Channel Islands.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31Railways were creating a revolution in what people ate.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40Outside the markets, life was changing too.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43Cows disappeared from the cities
0:41:43 > 0:41:45once trains started bringing in
0:41:45 > 0:41:48gallons of fresh milk from the country.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Express dairies brought in so much from Berkshire and Wiltshire
0:41:51 > 0:41:54that these areas became known as the Milky Way.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03And the streets were no longer full of sheep being brought to market.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09'Before the rail network, farmers had to walk the beast to market.'
0:42:09 > 0:42:10Come on, girls.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14'Nearly 200,000 sheep made the trek every year
0:42:14 > 0:42:15'from Lincolnshire to London.'
0:42:15 > 0:42:17Off we go.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19'A distance of over 100 miles.'
0:42:21 > 0:42:23Not only did the journey take nearly a week,
0:42:23 > 0:42:25but they lost so much weight during it,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28they were worth a lot less on the meat market.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30So it was happy days for the farmers
0:42:30 > 0:42:34when they could get their fattened beasts into the city, on the trains,
0:42:34 > 0:42:36in less than a day.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44Shopping was getting better too.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47Now, you could easily get straw hats from Luton,
0:42:47 > 0:42:49cutlery from Sheffield,
0:42:49 > 0:42:53gloves from Worcester, chocolate from Bournville
0:42:53 > 0:42:54and beer from Burton.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00And as well as bringing stuff in,
0:43:00 > 0:43:04trains could be used to remove what you didn't want.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07Railways even went some way to solving the terrible problem
0:43:07 > 0:43:10of London's overflowing graveyards.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13The so-called Waterloo Necropolis was an ingenious idea
0:43:13 > 0:43:16that ran here from Waterloo down to Brookwood, in Surrey,
0:43:16 > 0:43:18to the world's largest cemetery.
0:43:22 > 0:43:27'The first funeral train pulled out of Waterloo November 1854.'
0:43:27 > 0:43:30TANNOY: Please have your tickets ready.
0:43:30 > 0:43:35'And soon, one train per day was carrying up to 72 bodies.'
0:43:37 > 0:43:41People fondly called it the Stiffs Express.
0:43:41 > 0:43:46Like every other aspect of Victorian life, it was divided into classes.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49So you could pay four shillings and your corpse could go third class
0:43:49 > 0:43:51or you could pay a whole pound
0:43:51 > 0:43:54and the corpse could go in the grandeur of first class,
0:43:54 > 0:43:56which also gave you the choice of coffin,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59a private rest chapel when you arrived
0:43:59 > 0:44:02and a choice of the best slots in the cemetery.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25When the trains pulled up here,
0:44:25 > 0:44:27there were actually two separate station complexes.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30There was one up there for Nonconformists
0:44:30 > 0:44:34and there was this platform and chapel for Anglicans.
0:44:34 > 0:44:36And the mourners would go into the Anglican chapel here,
0:44:36 > 0:44:37wait in the waiting room,
0:44:37 > 0:44:40then move through once the previous funeral had finished.
0:44:40 > 0:44:42It was an ingenious use of the new railways,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45changing the world for the living and the dead.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54The trains were everywhere,
0:44:54 > 0:44:58bringing civilisation and progress effortlessly in their wake.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02'But just as the Victorians were getting comfortable in their carriages,
0:45:02 > 0:45:05'all of their worst fears would be realised.'
0:45:19 > 0:45:22The train was coming back down to the goods yards in Bow
0:45:22 > 0:45:24and the driver thought that there was a dead dog
0:45:24 > 0:45:27in the middle of the tracks, there was a lump,
0:45:27 > 0:45:29so he slowed just before the train came to pass
0:45:29 > 0:45:31over Duckett's Canal here.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38The stoker got down, crunched his way back up the tracks
0:45:38 > 0:45:40and found that the mound was, in fact,
0:45:40 > 0:45:43an unconscious and badly beaten elderly gentleman.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47His injuries were really extensive.
0:45:47 > 0:45:49His skull had been smashed in
0:45:49 > 0:45:51and he was mumbling and frothing at the mouth.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54They called doctors locally from Bow,
0:45:54 > 0:45:56but they never managed to revive him.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03The railways had claimed their first murder victim,
0:46:03 > 0:46:06a 69-year-old London banker, Thomas Briggs,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09who'd been travelling in a first-class carriage late at night,
0:46:09 > 0:46:13when he was robbed, beaten and thrown from the moving train.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21Was it significant that this was a banker,
0:46:21 > 0:46:23a man from the very top strata of society?
0:46:23 > 0:46:25It was the most significant thing,
0:46:25 > 0:46:28because this wasn't a murder that happened down at the other end of the train,
0:46:28 > 0:46:33in the third-class compartments, where transgression was sort of expected.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37This had happened up in the closed first-class, privileged part of the train.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40The Times, two days after the murder, trumpeted,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43"If we can be killed thus, we can be killed in our pews
0:46:43 > 0:46:45"or slain at our dining room tables."
0:46:45 > 0:46:47It was the fact that murder had come to call
0:46:47 > 0:46:49right on the doorstep of privilege
0:46:49 > 0:46:52that caused this kind of hiatus of feeling.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55How did this change the public's perception of trains?
0:46:55 > 0:46:59People were nervous about what the train signified,
0:46:59 > 0:47:03the relentlessness of progress, the devour of hierarchies,
0:47:03 > 0:47:05of everything that had happened before.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08The pace of change was so fast, in fact, that I think,
0:47:08 > 0:47:10by those second-generation Victorians,
0:47:10 > 0:47:13there was a latent anxiety about,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16what's the price that's got to be paid for all of this progress?
0:47:16 > 0:47:22And, in some ways, the train symbolised, at its worst,
0:47:22 > 0:47:24a world spinning out of control.
0:47:30 > 0:47:35The relentless railways had also devoured the British countryside.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42With nearly 7,000 miles of track in operation by 1852,
0:47:42 > 0:47:47Britain had the highest density of railways in the world.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49But they'd reached the end of the line.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55The railwaymen had run out of space
0:47:55 > 0:47:58and now had a restless army of contractors,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01engineers and navvies on their hands.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06The great Samuel Morton Peto was hungrily searching
0:48:06 > 0:48:10for new opportunities for them and for himself.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16'And he thought he'd found the biggest prize of all.'
0:48:16 > 0:48:20Across the Atlantic, an enormous country crying out for railways,
0:48:20 > 0:48:23with vast natural resources waiting to be tapped.
0:48:24 > 0:48:30But this next project would be disastrous for Peto and for Britain.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38This was a turning point.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41This is the moment that Britain seriously begins
0:48:41 > 0:48:43to export the railways to the rest of the world.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49Pioneers like Peto would spread railways around the globe,
0:48:49 > 0:48:52creating an incredible infrastructure
0:48:52 > 0:48:55that would drag other nations into the modern world.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59Peto was a missionary for the railways,
0:48:59 > 0:49:01filled with an evangelical zeal.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05He believed this project would lift thousands of people out of poverty
0:49:05 > 0:49:08and prove a huge boost to the British economy.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10He was a pioneer of global capitalism.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18Peto had won the bid to build Canada's first major railway,
0:49:18 > 0:49:20the 1,000-mile-long Grand Trunk,
0:49:20 > 0:49:24which, in the 1850s, was the largest railway project in the world.
0:49:29 > 0:49:31But Canada had no railway industry.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36Peto had to ship in more than 3,000 navvies.
0:49:38 > 0:49:43He also opened a massive factory with 600 workers near Liverpool,
0:49:43 > 0:49:47to make the locomotives and rails, which were then shipped to Canada,
0:49:47 > 0:49:49like a giant Meccano set.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10I always struggle to get my head round just how vast Canada is.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13If I went west from here, it would take me around five days
0:50:13 > 0:50:15until I reached the Pacific.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17It's absolutely enormous.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20I've seen how railways linked up British cities
0:50:20 > 0:50:22but this is step change.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25This is the opening up of an entire continent.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29Peto was soon out of his depth.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34Not only were the distances huge, but the climate was extreme.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40'And every day was costing him £15,000 in labour.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45'Even with the backing of prominent London banks,
0:50:45 > 0:50:47'Peto still had to mortgage his house in Suffolk
0:50:47 > 0:50:49'to top up the funds.'
0:50:54 > 0:50:57It took six long, expensive years
0:50:57 > 0:51:00to deliver the railway to the Canadians.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02So what's the legacy of this,
0:51:02 > 0:51:04the first kind of major railway in Canada?
0:51:04 > 0:51:08It's central to the construction of a Canada, in any way, shape or form.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11You know, the continent is marked by very tall mountains
0:51:11 > 0:51:15and huge, empty, vast plains and dense forests,
0:51:15 > 0:51:18and the railway allows the interior of North America
0:51:18 > 0:51:20to be connected to the global trade,
0:51:20 > 0:51:22you know, this North Atlantic triangle
0:51:22 > 0:51:25between England, Canada and the United States.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27And I think that the Grand Trunk becomes central to that.
0:51:27 > 0:51:29In a way, it's an act of faith.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31It's "build it and the trade will start flowing".
0:51:31 > 0:51:33Yeah, build it and they will come, I guess.
0:51:37 > 0:51:38And to get the trade flowing,
0:51:38 > 0:51:42Peto had to tackle the bridging of the St Lawrence River,
0:51:44 > 0:51:48the crucial link to the Atlantic coast and the American rail network.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54Nothing this ambitious had ever been attempted before,
0:51:54 > 0:51:56in the history of railways.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01To take on this fearsome challenge,
0:52:01 > 0:52:05Peto brought over his old boss from the London to Birmingham line,
0:52:05 > 0:52:08the world's best engineer - Robert Stephenson.
0:52:09 > 0:52:14It's hard to overstate just how big the challenges that he faced were.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17The St Lawrence is one of the most turbulent major rivers on the planet.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21In the winter, millions of tonnes of packed ice come surging down here,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24smashing anything to matchwood.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26Imagine the pontoons
0:52:26 > 0:52:29and the little dams they've had to build around all these footings.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32It'd have been incredibly difficult to man them safely.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38When it was complete, it was the longest railway bridge in the world.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40The Times newspaper wrote,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43"It is to be doubted where there was ever a monument raised
0:52:43 > 0:52:47"which could offer a prouder memorial to the race which made it
0:52:47 > 0:52:49"than the Victoria Bridge."
0:52:49 > 0:52:53It was considered the Eighth Wonder of the World
0:52:53 > 0:52:55and it's still being used.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07But the costs of building the Victoria Bridge had blown the budget.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10Peto had been so desperate to land the job
0:53:10 > 0:53:12that he'd agreed to do the work
0:53:12 > 0:53:15for the ridiculous sum of £3,000 per mile,
0:53:15 > 0:53:19even though it cost more than double that just to build in Britain.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27Peto managed to build 800 miles of the line,
0:53:27 > 0:53:31but the Grand Trunk constantly teetered on the verge of bankruptcy.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34It was the most disastrous investment of his career.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39The history of the railways are littered
0:53:39 > 0:53:41with extraordinary examples of building,
0:53:41 > 0:53:46but few are as remarkable and now as forgotten as the Grand Trunk.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48This quite rapidly became a byword
0:53:48 > 0:53:50for financial mismanagement and failure.
0:53:50 > 0:53:56It nearly ruined Peto and it sent shock waves throughout Britain.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05The moneymen back in London
0:54:05 > 0:54:08who'd lent Peto the cash for the Grand Trunk railway
0:54:08 > 0:54:10were getting nervous.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12From the beginning of 1866,
0:54:12 > 0:54:17railway contractors started to go bankrupt and panic was in the air.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24Faced with the almost impossible job of raising funds from investors,
0:54:24 > 0:54:26most of them had been forced to borrow heavily
0:54:26 > 0:54:29to personally bankroll new railways.
0:54:29 > 0:54:34Peto had lost one million pounds on the Grand Trunk alone.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37Peto never recovered from his losses in Canada.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40One more disastrous investment back in the UK,
0:54:40 > 0:54:44the London/Chatham/Dover line, forced him to declare bankruptcy.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48He'd already sold his big house to pay off his debts.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50He even cleaned his sister out of her savings,
0:54:50 > 0:54:54all of it sacrificed to pay for his addiction to railways.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57Peto died in obscurity,
0:54:57 > 0:55:01yet another railway god consigned to a footnote in history.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07But the bankruptcy of the contractors was just the start.
0:55:12 > 0:55:13The bank Overend, Gurney,
0:55:13 > 0:55:16the cornerstone of the London financial markets,
0:55:16 > 0:55:20had invested heavily in the railways and Peto.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23Now, they were in trouble.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29There were rumours in the City
0:55:29 > 0:55:32that Overend, Gurney was trying to hide something.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39The Bank Of England sent over a delegation to pay a surprise visit.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50What they discovered in the account books horrified them.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57The bank was rotten to the core.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03Overend, Gurney hadn't learnt the lessons of the 1847 crash,
0:56:03 > 0:56:06a bit like the recent subprime meltdown.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09Overend, Gurney had a mountain of toxic debt
0:56:09 > 0:56:12from lending money to railway contractors
0:56:12 > 0:56:14who now couldn't afford to pay them back.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17It was a disastrous credit crisis.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22Word spread quickly and, within just a few days,
0:56:22 > 0:56:24the City of London imploded.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29Lombard Street, here, in the City of London,
0:56:29 > 0:56:32was the site of a riot as panicked bankers and investors
0:56:32 > 0:56:36responded to the news that Overend, Gurney had collapsed
0:56:36 > 0:56:39with debts of millions of pounds.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48This was the Victorian equivalent of Lehman Brothers.
0:56:50 > 0:56:55It, in turn, led to a catastrophic banking failure,
0:56:55 > 0:57:00which culminated on the 10th May 1866,
0:57:00 > 0:57:03a day they christened Black Friday.
0:57:06 > 0:57:11Hundreds of banks, businesses and railways folded across Britain
0:57:11 > 0:57:14and the country was plunged into a five-year recession.
0:57:18 > 0:57:20The railways thoroughly seduced the British people
0:57:20 > 0:57:23and dragged them into the modern world.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27It carved great swathes across the landscape
0:57:27 > 0:57:31and completely changed the way that people worked and lived.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37They created new jobs, new money, a new breed of men.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40But they also flattened working-class neighbourhoods,
0:57:40 > 0:57:44wiped out middle-class savings
0:57:44 > 0:57:49and now they'd brought the venerable British banking system to its knees.
0:57:49 > 0:57:51What would they do next?
0:57:58 > 0:58:01Next time, the age of supremacy.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05How the railways won back the public's confidence.
0:58:06 > 0:58:11How new frontiers were opened up, at home and abroad.
0:58:12 > 0:58:14And how the railways' finest hour
0:58:14 > 0:58:18would come in the face of their most deadly challenge.
0:58:41 > 0:58:44Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd