0:00:02 > 0:00:07BBC Four Collections - archive programmes chosen by experts.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10For this collection, Gary Boyd-Hope has selected programmes
0:00:10 > 0:00:13celebrating Britain's steam railway legacy.
0:00:13 > 0:00:14More programmes on this theme
0:00:14 > 0:00:18and other BBC Four Collections are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26WHISTLE BLOWS
0:01:41 > 0:01:45'It's hard to explain the fascination of steam and speed.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49'Why do hundreds of people pay good money to get onto a steam express
0:01:49 > 0:01:54'which they know, by law, can't go any faster than 60mph?
0:01:54 > 0:01:57'Is it something to do with the fact that a steam engine at 60
0:01:57 > 0:02:00'seems to be going as fast as anything else at 100?
0:02:00 > 0:02:02WHISTLE BLOWS
0:02:02 > 0:02:05'Perhaps it's some powerful folk memory of the sound
0:02:05 > 0:02:07'and smell of steam.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13WHISTLE BLOWS
0:02:30 > 0:02:33WHISTLE BLOWS
0:02:33 > 0:02:36'Any one of the hundreds of experts travelling this train could
0:02:36 > 0:02:39'probably tell you just by listening with their eyes closed how the
0:02:39 > 0:02:43'engine and driver are doing, and even why the wheels are slipping.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52'Not that many of them will have their eyes closed on a day like this,
0:02:52 > 0:02:53'even in a tunnel.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19'This A4 Pacific, Sir Nigel Gresley, is the ultimate in steam glamour.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23'Its sister engine, Mallard, took the world speed record
0:04:23 > 0:04:26'for steam in 1938 and never lost it,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29'but there's a lot more to speed than just breaking records.
0:04:34 > 0:04:35'It's also big business -
0:04:35 > 0:04:38'a case of getting a coachload of paying passengers from A to B
0:04:38 > 0:04:43'faster than your rival company, as any engine designer would tell you.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46'Even so, fast engines have always had an air of elegance and glamour.
0:04:55 > 0:04:56BRASS BAND MUSIC
0:04:59 > 0:05:03'When Patrick Stirling built his famous single-wheeler, No. 1,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06'for the Great Northern Railway, he was after power and speed,
0:05:06 > 0:05:09'but he somehow made it look very good as well.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23'This was one of the crack express engines of the 1870s.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26'If you had lived between London and York a hundred years ago,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29'this is the Intercity special that you'd have seen,
0:05:29 > 0:05:31'steaming past at anything up to 80mph.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58'Hauled by engines like this,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01'the London to Edinburgh train took about nine hours,
0:06:01 > 0:06:05'which beat the old stagecoach record by a good day or two.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07'And yet, in a funny sort of way,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09'they still treated the engines like horses.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12'At Grantham the locomotive would be led off for food and water,
0:06:12 > 0:06:14'and a fresh one put between the shafts.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18'At York, the same again, until the 400-mile haul to the north was over.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51'Today, No. 1's on a rare day out from York Museum,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54'but it still spins along like a well-oiled sewing machine,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58'only slightly dwarfed by its complement of modern coaches.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03'All these engines had their own regular firemen and drivers.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07'Today, the tender loving care comes from driver John Belwood
0:07:07 > 0:07:09'of the railway museum.'
0:07:09 > 0:07:12So this is Stirling's great wheel, the single wheel.
0:07:12 > 0:07:13That's it.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17- How big is it? - It's eight feet diameter.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19Why did it have to be so big, then?
0:07:19 > 0:07:21Well, these were an express passenger engine,
0:07:21 > 0:07:23and the idea was to cover as much ground as you could
0:07:23 > 0:07:27at as high a speed as was possible, and obviously, the larger the wheel,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30the greater the distance you covered per eight revolutions,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34and I suppose the major disadvantage with a single wheel
0:07:34 > 0:07:35was the lack of adhesion.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37Because it was all on this one...?
0:07:37 > 0:07:41This was the only pair of wheels that were being driven that gripped
0:07:41 > 0:07:45the rails, whereas if you had a four- or six-coupled locomotive,
0:07:45 > 0:07:47you spread out that adhesion over four or six wheels.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51- So more skidding? - More tendency to skid and slip.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54I like the way you always say more TENDENCY to slip!
0:07:58 > 0:08:02I can't help thinking these rather graceful curves - sexy, even -
0:08:02 > 0:08:04are not entirely functional.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06Yes, they aren't really functional.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10It was thought to be an elegant way of connecting the circular shape
0:08:10 > 0:08:13of the small box with the circular shape of the cylinder.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16Gave you a nice sweeping appearance.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18Nice way of coupling two curves together.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20I've got to drag you back to this wheel again, actually.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22I'm fascinated by it,
0:08:22 > 0:08:26because this is the thing for me which makes it look,
0:08:26 > 0:08:27I've got to say, old-fashioned.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29I mean, although it's lovely to look at,
0:08:29 > 0:08:31it looks to me as if it's sort of the end of an era,
0:08:31 > 0:08:33rather than the beginning of the 20th century.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38Well, it is, yes. I mean, I suppose the rocket was a single-wheeler,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41and although there was a sort of Indian summer
0:08:41 > 0:08:43of single-wheelers on one or two railways
0:08:43 > 0:08:47with the introduction of steam sanding about 1895,
0:08:47 > 0:08:52really, the single-wheeler was outdated by 1890.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55The design really had finished by then, because they had
0:08:55 > 0:09:00problems with adhesion, and the need for heavier trains.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12WHISTLE BLOWS
0:09:39 > 0:09:43The main thing was that trains were getting heavier, and the demand from
0:09:43 > 0:09:47the passengers for better facilities, better riding carriages, which meant
0:09:47 > 0:09:51heavier, better facilities on-train, corridors, vestibules, toilets.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55Previously they used to have sort of station stops for physical needs,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58whether it was eating or discharging, sort of thing!
0:10:14 > 0:10:15'From time to time,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19'the railway companies indulged in bouts of racing to the north.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23'In 1895, Patrick Stirling himself sent out a message to his staff -
0:10:23 > 0:10:26"The London and North Western Railway Company have
0:10:26 > 0:10:29"expressed their intention to reach Aberdeen before us.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31"This, of course, we cannot permit."
0:10:33 > 0:10:36'But Stirling died only a few months later,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39'probably knowing in his heart of hearts that his famous engines,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43'once model-of-the-year, were already last year's fashion look.'
0:10:43 > 0:10:47The problem was that the large-diameter wheel really inhibited
0:10:47 > 0:10:49the development of the boiler.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53You could have got a longer boiler, but
0:10:53 > 0:10:55a too-long a boiler doesn't steam very well,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58because by the time the heat is all generated at the back end of
0:10:58 > 0:11:02the boiler, the heat goes through the tubes towards the front, and if the
0:11:02 > 0:11:08boiler's too long, there's no heat in the gasses from the firebox
0:11:08 > 0:11:10at the front end, and all you're doing is carrying cold water around.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15There's more to this design business than I'd realised.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18It's all a matter of compromise, as most designs are.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59'The new look came from a quarter which had been
0:11:59 > 0:12:03'out of the headlines for a while - the Great Western Railway of Brunel
0:12:03 > 0:12:07'and broad-gauge fame, with the green and gold charisma which made it the
0:12:07 > 0:12:10'best-loved company to those who loved it,
0:12:10 > 0:12:12'and inspired more resentment among others
0:12:12 > 0:12:14'than any railway company had a right to expect.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21'In the early 1900s, the company set a standard and speed
0:12:21 > 0:12:22'for years to come.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27'Their new locomotive designer, George Churchward,
0:12:27 > 0:12:28'in his first year in office,
0:12:28 > 0:12:32'built an engine which was the first ever to do 100mph -
0:12:32 > 0:12:36'even though news of the world record was kept secret for 15 years.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50'The City of Truro was a hybrid design, with a much more effective
0:12:50 > 0:12:52'new boiler set on a frame and chassis
0:12:52 > 0:12:54'borrowed from his predecessor.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59'In fact, Churchward had designed the revolutionary boiler
0:12:59 > 0:13:02'while his old boss was still in office.
0:13:35 > 0:13:36WHISTLE BLOWS
0:13:47 > 0:13:51'There's still a little doubt over whether the City of Truro did,
0:13:51 > 0:13:53'or did not, reach the ton - enough doubt, at any doubt,
0:13:53 > 0:13:57'to enable you to pull a GWR man's leg.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59'I tried it on Keith Beck.'
0:13:59 > 0:14:00Keith, I've been looking at the City of Truro
0:14:00 > 0:14:03and I find it hard to believe that that engine could have done
0:14:03 > 0:14:06much over 96mph, let alone a hundred.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09Well, I suppose it is a bit difficult to comprehend,
0:14:09 > 0:14:14because it's very small, compared with more recent steam locomotives.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17There is a dispute as to whether it did 102-point-something,
0:14:17 > 0:14:20or whether it was only 100, but I think there is agreement
0:14:20 > 0:14:23that it was the first thing on wheels to reach 100mph,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25despite the size of it.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29Nobody was really saying
0:14:29 > 0:14:32"We're going to be the first people on wheels to go 100mph."
0:14:32 > 0:14:35There was a race on between two companies - the Great Western
0:14:35 > 0:14:36and the London South Western.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40The Great Western took the transatlantic mails from Plymouth.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42The South Western took the passengers,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45and each was determined they were going to reach London first.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49And in the course of trying to set up THE record run,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52the 100-mile-an-hour was just incidental
0:14:52 > 0:14:56and happened without, I think, deliberate intent.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59It was business, and this was an additional publicity
0:14:59 > 0:15:00that happened to come in.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02Though one has to remember that some people were rather
0:15:02 > 0:15:05frightened of speed and...
0:15:05 > 0:15:09Yes, isn't it true that they tried to hush-up the 100-mile-an-hour record?
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Yes, certainly there were attempts that it must be suppressed
0:15:12 > 0:15:14and not be released to the public.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16There were two schools of thought.
0:15:16 > 0:15:17One wanted, I think,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20to blaze it from the housetops as a Great Western feat.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22Others said it would frighten people from ever travelling
0:15:22 > 0:15:25on the Great Western if we go at these excessive speeds.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30And there were one or two nasty accidents at that time,
0:15:30 > 0:15:33due undoubtedly to high speed, and the competing line -
0:15:33 > 0:15:35the London South Western - came off the line
0:15:35 > 0:15:38in the middle of the night with its train at Salisbury,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41killed a number of people, and that effectively put an end to
0:15:41 > 0:15:45the race between Plymouth and London with the transatlantic mails.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48So the City of Truro might have been famous for the first train to
0:15:48 > 0:15:50come off the rails at 100mph?
0:15:50 > 0:15:53Well, it could have been, possibly, but fortunately,
0:15:53 > 0:15:54it managed to cover all the curves,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58and there were quite a lot in the west of England, severe snake-like
0:15:58 > 0:16:02curves without any damage, and without too much rocking and rolling.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10Was there anything special about those compared to any other
0:16:10 > 0:16:12engines at the time?
0:16:12 > 0:16:14The boiler was quite unusual,
0:16:14 > 0:16:19that most railway engineers used a boiler that was parallel throughout.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21On City of Truro, there was a boiler which
0:16:21 > 0:16:25tapered from the back by the firebox, down to the front where the smokebox
0:16:25 > 0:16:28and chimney is, which wasn't used on any other railway
0:16:28 > 0:16:32in this country other than the Great Western, for many years.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35It was a Churchward design.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38The Americans had used it for many years,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41and Churchward seems to have been the first engineer in this country
0:16:41 > 0:16:45who actually read about what happened on the other side of the Atlantic,
0:16:45 > 0:16:48took note of it, and said, "That's a good idea - we'll try it."
0:16:48 > 0:16:51And he adopted it and used it on all his engines,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54and City of Truro was one of the earliest engines that had it.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09'Before 1900, the speed of trains had risen from 5mph
0:17:09 > 0:17:10'to about 100.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14'In this century, steam engines were never to get that much faster.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20'What they did was to get bigger, thicker, and more powerful.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25'Clun Castle was built 30 years after the City of Truro
0:17:25 > 0:17:27'and still has the same look.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30'What's different is that it's been through a body-building course
0:17:30 > 0:17:32'and can pull much longer, heavier trains.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47WHISTLE BLOWS
0:17:49 > 0:17:52'This is Clun Castle pulling out of - suitably enough -
0:17:52 > 0:17:55'the city of Truro, but it was from Cheltenham that for a long while,
0:17:55 > 0:17:59'the Great Western had the world's fastest scheduled service -
0:17:59 > 0:18:01'Cheltenham Flyer.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04'Over the home stretch, from Swindon to Paddington,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07'the start-to-stop average was 71mph.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12'According to the book, on a good day the train would touch about 90.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16'Quite why so many people wanted to fly out of Cheltenham as fast
0:18:16 > 0:18:19'as that was never really properly explained, but the publicity was well
0:18:19 > 0:18:23'worth it to the GWR, and they flew a camera up specially to record it.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07'But then the initiative for speed was snatched back by the East-coast
0:19:07 > 0:19:10'route to the north, where Nigel Gresley's Pacific designs
0:19:10 > 0:19:13'were emerging as the fastest ever.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16'It was hard to prove this in the 1920s, when running times to
0:19:16 > 0:19:18'Edinburgh had not changed for 40 years, but in the 1930s,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21'the race to the north was on again.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27'The LMS held the top speed record of 114mph in early 1938,
0:19:27 > 0:19:32'but this was broken that year by the most famous of all A4s - Mallard.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39'Now stripped down ready for the operating theatre,
0:19:39 > 0:19:43'Mallard is being restored at the National Railway Museum in York.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45'Strange to think, really, that the
0:19:45 > 0:19:49'world steam record is now the daily maximum of every daily Intercity 125.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55'When the streamlining is stripped away, the A4 begins to look
0:19:55 > 0:20:01'a bit more like an ordinary engine - more Clark Kent than Superman!
0:20:01 > 0:20:03'In fact, GWR supporters will sometimes
0:20:03 > 0:20:06'whisper in your ear that the A4s may have been fast,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09'but they didn't have the stamina to finish the course.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12'And wasn't there some design weakness as well -
0:20:12 > 0:20:15'an Achilles heel ready to let down the fastest runner?'
0:20:16 > 0:20:18So this is the infamous big end?
0:20:18 > 0:20:21Yes, this the middle big end on the A4.
0:20:21 > 0:20:28And this is what ran hot when the Mallard broke the record in 1938.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32'Top Shed man Peter Townend looked after the A4s after the Second World
0:20:32 > 0:20:35'War and will defend them against any suggestion of misbehaviour.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39'Though he does admit there was always room for improvement.'
0:20:39 > 0:20:43This web made it much stronger, more rigid,
0:20:43 > 0:20:47and then we put a new piece of steel glut in there
0:20:47 > 0:20:49instead of a brass glut, and then the bearing was made of continuous
0:20:49 > 0:20:54white metal shell bearing, instead of the white metal pocket.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56The lubrication method was changed and the trim intake now,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58and a restrictor put in there.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01The oil comes through here, and if that felt pad is worn,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04all the oil flows through, and your bearing will run hot.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07So the most critical thing on the locomotive, really,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10is to make sure that pad is not worn.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13Otherwise you lose the oil, and this bearing can run hot
0:21:13 > 0:21:15and melt the metal, and you fail to locomote it.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28'These massive chunks of metal seem to take you right back
0:21:28 > 0:21:30'to the heart of the Industrial Revolution -
0:21:30 > 0:21:33'nothing electronic or computerised here.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36'Actually, Gresley was one of the few loco designers who spared
0:21:36 > 0:21:38'a thought for the maintenance men,
0:21:38 > 0:21:42'and very few jobs on his designs involved crawling under the engine.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45'The A4 even incorporated a safety device, which -
0:21:45 > 0:21:49'believe it or not - depended on the efficiency of the driver's nose.'
0:21:49 > 0:21:52When Mallard broke the record in 1938,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56the middle big end ran hot, but it had been fitted with a heat detector
0:21:56 > 0:22:02inside the middle big end crank, and this went off and emitted a smell,
0:22:02 > 0:22:06which was detected in the cab, and the driver and inspector failed
0:22:06 > 0:22:09the locomotive on this occasion in Peterborough instead of going
0:22:09 > 0:22:11through to London.
0:22:11 > 0:22:12- That's it. Ready. - Hup!
0:22:14 > 0:22:16- Forward. - To us!
0:22:18 > 0:22:21- Steady! - That's it. Roll it round.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24All right.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27- That's in, is it? - Back to me.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29- Right. - Mind your fingers.
0:22:32 > 0:22:38I had 19 of these locomotives, A4 locomotives at King's Cross
0:22:38 > 0:22:41and a total, at one time, of about 40 Pacifics,
0:22:41 > 0:22:45and these were going out on every express train from King's Cross,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48some going to Newcastle, York, Doncaster -
0:22:48 > 0:22:53and in summertime, the A4 loco worked through to Edinburgh non-stop.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56WHISTLE BLOWS
0:23:00 > 0:23:04'The elegance of these graceful beasts looks effortless, but the
0:23:04 > 0:23:09'streamlining conceals the effort. Breaking speed records going downhill
0:23:09 > 0:23:12'is all very well, but getting a steam engine to travel fast uphill,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16'and thus maintain a good average speed, was always a tough problem.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22'Breaking 60 uphill was thought to be hard enough,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24'but Gresley regularly got the A4s up to near 80.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28'Nor did the extra speed lie just in the streamlining.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32'Designers found it in what seem to us to be minute adjustments to
0:23:32 > 0:23:34'the boilers and valves, even in the chimney.'
0:23:40 > 0:23:43The boiler fitted to the A4 locomotive was of the round-top
0:23:43 > 0:23:49variety and it was the largest that could be fitted over
0:23:49 > 0:23:52the 6 foot 8 diameter driving wheels.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56You're looking through the combustion chamber,
0:23:56 > 0:24:01which was longer on the A4 locomotive
0:24:01 > 0:24:06and this enabled the tubes in the same length of boiler to be shortened
0:24:08 > 0:24:11This would produce a quicker steaming boiler.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18The one feature of the A4 Mallard,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22which broke the record that was different to the previous A4
0:24:22 > 0:24:26locomotives was the fitting of the double Kylchap blast pipe.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33The double Kylchap blast pipe would improve the power of the locomotive
0:24:33 > 0:24:38by reducing the back pressure from the cylinders, and this was done by
0:24:38 > 0:24:43increasing the size of the blast pipe tops, and that in turn increased the
0:24:43 > 0:24:47power available at the draw bar by about 400-500 horsepower.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01The effect of the Kylala cowl between the blast pipe
0:25:01 > 0:25:04and the chimney base would be to spread
0:25:04 > 0:25:09the pull of the fire across the tube plate, and enable a much more
0:25:09 > 0:25:12even draught which made the loco steam very much more freely,
0:25:12 > 0:25:16and you could maintain the full boiler pressure without difficulty,
0:25:16 > 0:25:20and this in itself would also increase the power of the locomotive.
0:25:20 > 0:25:21Straight down the back.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29STEAM TRAIN APPROACHING
0:25:33 > 0:25:36'A Kyltrap double blast pipe arrangement may seem a bit
0:25:36 > 0:25:40'technical to you and me - well, to me, anyway - but it did the trick.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42'10mph faster than locomotives without it,
0:25:42 > 0:25:47'and more to the point, cheaper on fuel and easier to fire.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22'The golden age of steam really came to an end with the war,
0:26:22 > 0:26:24'and things were never quite the same again.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29'Some people would say that the age of steam should have ended earlier.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32'After all, other parts of Europe had already made the commitment
0:26:32 > 0:26:35'to diesel and electric power in the 1930s.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43'The A4s were perhaps not so much world champions
0:26:43 > 0:26:45'as a glorious sunset, or the last of a line of kings.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51'And yet, the extraordinary thing is that
0:26:51 > 0:26:54'while thousands can tell you which steam engine broke the world record,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57'and when, I've yet to meet anyone who can tell me
0:26:57 > 0:27:01'with confidence what the diesel or electric rail speed record is today.
0:27:10 > 0:27:11WHISTLE BLOWS
0:27:17 > 0:27:20'The image of Mallard and the A4s lives on.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32'The further the age of steam and speed recedes from our anonymous age,
0:27:32 > 0:27:35'the more potent become its sights and its sounds.'
0:28:22 > 0:28:25WHISTLE BLOWS