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 > 0:00:15More programmes on this theme
0:00:15 > 0:00:18and other BBC Four collections are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25WHISTLE BLOWS
0:01:04 > 0:01:08No little boy ever dreamt of being a railway porter when he grew up.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10After all, where's the glamour
0:01:10 > 0:01:13and excitement in carrying things around for other people?
0:01:13 > 0:01:16But freight trains did carry Britain's things around
0:01:16 > 0:01:18for 100 years or more, and the engines that pulled
0:01:18 > 0:01:22and pushed and shunted, up and down, to and fro, were the real
0:01:22 > 0:01:26strength of the railway system, the ones that got things done.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49You don't actually need engines at all for a railway, of course.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52Horses will do just as well -
0:01:52 > 0:01:56if you only need to pull one full truck or a few empties a short way.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59And, in fact, they used horses with rails long before engines were
0:01:59 > 0:02:03ever thought of, and were still using them for shunting in the 1940s.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09The 16-tonne truck became standard on railways because it was what
0:02:09 > 0:02:14a horse could pull, but for trains with two or more trucks going a long
0:02:14 > 0:02:18way, there's only one kind of horse that can do it - the iron horse.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27I'm afraid there isn't much nostalgia for steam goods trains.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30People didn't even notice them much at the time.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32They just trundled slowly past,
0:02:32 > 0:02:34holding up the express that you wanted to get on.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40And yet, from 1850 onwards,
0:02:40 > 0:02:44freight trains always made more money than passenger trains.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49Railway freight gave us a whole way of life. The pick-up-goods era.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52Railways were the common carrier,
0:02:52 > 0:02:56which meant that they were legally obliged to carry any consignment,
0:02:56 > 0:02:58however small, to any destination, however remote.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03Everything from sheep to strawberries - anywhere in Britain.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08Now, the whole trouble with a pick-up-goods train is that
0:03:08 > 0:03:11it's great for the community but it's a big headache for the railway.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14What a railway really likes is a long goods train,
0:03:14 > 0:03:18full of just one thing - coal, or oil, or cars - which goes
0:03:18 > 0:03:21straight from its starting point to its destination, without stopping
0:03:21 > 0:03:23to pick up the farmer's chickens,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26and this was the way freight was going more and more, into vast bulk,
0:03:26 > 0:03:30but the vaster and bulkier the trains got,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32the harder they were to pull.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35The quick, cheap and easy solution was to get two
0:03:35 > 0:03:38engines on the front, but this was a false economy,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41because although two trains are twice as expensive,
0:03:41 > 0:03:43they are not twice as efficient,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45and also, apparently there was a temptation for many
0:03:45 > 0:03:48drivers to assume that the other engine was doing most of the work.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50And if they both thought that, well, there were problems.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52No, the most sensible - if expensive - solution,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55was to build much bigger and much stronger engines.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59And this engine behind me, a class 9, is the biggest
0:03:59 > 0:04:01and strongest that British Rail ever built for freight.
0:04:01 > 0:04:02This particular one,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05which has been preserved by the East Somerset Railway, actually
0:04:05 > 0:04:08holds the record for pulling the heaviest load ever known on a British
0:04:08 > 0:04:12line, and one of the nice things about working on a film like this
0:04:12 > 0:04:16is that very occasionally, you do get to drive in a cab yourself, so...
0:04:21 > 0:04:22WHISTLE BLOWS
0:04:50 > 0:04:54Today, we're pulling, rather ironically, a load of stone -
0:04:54 > 0:04:57the stone used to build roads and help the railway's great rival,
0:04:57 > 0:04:59the motor vehicle.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09British Rail's other great contribution to the steam era,
0:05:09 > 0:05:11of course, was to kill it stone dead,
0:05:11 > 0:05:16and these 9Fs were scrapped in the 1960s with almost indecent haste.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19This was one of only five to be preserved.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30I can see why people thought this was British Rail's finest
0:05:30 > 0:05:33contribution to the steam age.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37The feeling of power and strength is immense.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54And I also can't help thinking that it had taken
0:05:54 > 0:05:58the railways 100 years to find out that the type of loads
0:05:58 > 0:06:01they moved best were the ones they started with -
0:06:01 > 0:06:05the no-nonsense train with just one kind of cargo on board.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11Slate was first carried in bulk by boat and canal.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15But you can't get boats up the quarries of north Wales.
0:06:19 > 0:06:24What you can use is a narrow-gauge railway and a little tank engine.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27Now, if our engines had evolved entirely on mountain sides
0:06:27 > 0:06:30among sharp, narrow curves, they might all
0:06:30 > 0:06:34look like this 0-4-0 tank engine built in 1889, specially for the job.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43But of course, they didn't.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54Just coming up to its 100th birthday,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56this 0-6-0 tender engine was designed
0:06:56 > 0:06:59to haul heavy, frequent loads over the industrial centre of England.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Before the 0-6-0 could go out earning money for
0:07:13 > 0:07:17the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway shareholders, it had to be fed...
0:07:17 > 0:07:19and watered.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41So much coal was dug out of our mines that in 1900,
0:07:41 > 0:07:44the French put round a malicious rumour that Britain
0:07:44 > 0:07:46was about to become buoyant and float away!
0:07:53 > 0:07:56But it's hard for us to imagine what quantities of coal
0:07:56 > 0:07:57were eaten up in the steam age,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00which should perhaps have been called the coal age.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05Coal fed British industry, from ironworks to Royal Navy destroyers,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08from engines in Penzance, to shipyards in Glasgow.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12The freight of many railway lines was over 50% coal.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21A lot of that coal never left the railways at all.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24It simply went down the line to feed hungry engines.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33Railway engines are the only vehicles I can think of
0:08:33 > 0:08:36which go just as fast backwards as forwards.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42But going backwards is not much fun for the driver and fireman.
0:08:42 > 0:08:43So it's onto the turntable.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56Turntables were originally operated by hand,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58but then they realised that the steam vacuum
0:08:58 > 0:09:03created in the engine could be used to do the job just as well.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13So they plug it in and make it suck itself round through its navel.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21For 100 years, the standard British workhorse looked
0:09:21 > 0:09:25almost exactly like this - three pairs of driving wheels
0:09:25 > 0:09:28to spread the axle load, and none of the wheels very big -
0:09:28 > 0:09:31not good for speed, but good for traction -
0:09:31 > 0:09:35and a large tender for all that coal and water that they got through.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Meanwhile, there's the job of putting the train together.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50It's beneath the dignity of a big engine to do work like this.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56WHISTLE BLOWS
0:10:17 > 0:10:18WHISTLE BLOWS
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Mile for mile, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway once earned
0:10:26 > 0:10:30more money from freight than any other line in Britain.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46WHISTLE BLOWS
0:11:55 > 0:11:59I wonder if they ever worked out what proportion of freight running time
0:11:59 > 0:12:02was spent going up and down goods yards.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04I bet they were too scared to find out
0:12:04 > 0:12:06how long they took getting nowhere.
0:12:22 > 0:12:2540 years later, and we're on, yes,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28the same old standard British workhorse.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32This one was built for the London, Midland, Scottish Railway.
0:12:32 > 0:12:33It's still an 0-6-0.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37The boiler's bigger, but technically the engine isn't much different.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43A steam buff might say it didn't need to be much different.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46But really it was a case of technological inertia.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49The rest of the world were building much bigger engines
0:12:49 > 0:12:52and even experimenting with diesels.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01But we British steamed on blithely as before.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12Our mixed goods trains never moved at much more than
0:13:12 > 0:13:15a leisurely 20 or 30mph, for safety reasons.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19They didn't have enough stopping power to go any faster
0:13:19 > 0:13:21because only the engine and the guard's van
0:13:21 > 0:13:22were equipped with brakes.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28What the railways wanted was for all the trucks to have brakes as well,
0:13:28 > 0:13:30linked to the engine.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36Technically they could've done it,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39but half the trucks on the average train belonged to private owners,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42everyone from coal companies to Colman's Mustard,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45and they simply didn't want to invest the money in conversion.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58When you see a steam train rolling through a green chunk of England,
0:13:58 > 0:14:00it looks like a poem by John Betjeman.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06But it wasn't always so poetic for the crew.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08Tunnels were their worst enemy.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11Imagine the smoke and sparks being blown down into the cab
0:14:11 > 0:14:13for ten minutes at a go.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45One thing that amazes me about freight trains in Britain
0:14:45 > 0:14:47is that we've never built up the folklore about them
0:14:47 > 0:14:50that they had in America, for instance.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52No Casey Jones, no Rock Island Line,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55no Chattanooga Choo Choo or Honky Tonk Train Blues.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00The only hobos we ever had on British trains were tramps
0:15:00 > 0:15:03looking for a good night's sleep at a freight truck and getting
0:15:03 > 0:15:06moved overnight to somewhere they had no desire to get to.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Yet there is something evocative about the old freight train.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13Where have all those trucks come from?
0:15:13 > 0:15:16What strange cargoes do they all carry?
0:15:16 > 0:15:18And who was waiting for it all at the other end for
0:15:18 > 0:15:21the impossible job of sorting it all out?
0:15:23 > 0:15:27The freight handlers at Bristol Temple Meads Depot, perhaps.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31PRESENTER: 'Temple Meads is like some gigantic sideboard,
0:15:31 > 0:15:36'a sideboard almost as big as Wembley, with 5,000 feet of platform
0:15:36 > 0:15:40'served by 15 railroads, 35 auto trucks and four mobile cranes...
0:15:42 > 0:15:44'..accommodation for 400 wagons
0:15:44 > 0:15:46'and 1,000 tonnes of goods all at one time,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49'goods assembled from the fields,
0:15:49 > 0:15:51'fresh packed from the assembly line,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54'green gathered from the factory.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56'Here, they're sorted and served out to the city,
0:15:56 > 0:16:01'the surrounding country, and on to the sideboards of smaller depots.'
0:16:03 > 0:16:06Wrestling with a loose-coupled train as it wended its way
0:16:06 > 0:16:09between England's "sideboards" was the province of the guard.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11I met Roger Hobson.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15I think it's about one of the least glamorous jobs on the railway,
0:16:15 > 0:16:17actually, to be fair. It's very little heard of
0:16:17 > 0:16:19compared with the driver and fireman.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22People always get the impression you just sit here
0:16:22 > 0:16:24not doing much. What do you actually do?
0:16:24 > 0:16:26Well, it's a matter of controlling the train.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29You see, the guard's in charge of the train,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33and on a loose-coupled freight train, the guard controls the train
0:16:33 > 0:16:36by means of using the handbrake, purely and simply.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38- All the time? - All the time, yes.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41The idea is to keep the couplings taut on the train
0:16:41 > 0:16:43by use of the handbrake.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45And what would happen if you didn't?
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Well, the train could break in half,
0:16:47 > 0:16:49because if you get a snatch from the engine
0:16:49 > 0:16:53and the couplings aren't tied, the train will literally break in half,
0:16:53 > 0:16:55- which is obviously dangerous. - Has it ever happened?
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Oh, yes, certainly, many times.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00It hasn't actually happened on this railway, but in the old days,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03on the original railways, it happened fairly frequently.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08The Severn Valley Railway operates passenger trains
0:17:08 > 0:17:10as a tourist attraction.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14But they also occasionally move pick-up goods trains.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17Now, the passenger trains go faster than you do,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20so you have to waste time stopping and getting out of their way,
0:17:20 > 0:17:22and even after you've politely got into a siding
0:17:22 > 0:17:24and let them through,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27you sometimes find they've created further problems for you.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31I should watch it. You're about to set fire to yourself, mate.
0:17:31 > 0:17:32Oh, that's nice!
0:17:32 > 0:17:36When railways were first invented, landowners worried
0:17:36 > 0:17:39that trains would frighten livestock, run over animals
0:17:39 > 0:17:41and set fire to the countryside.
0:17:41 > 0:17:42And they were dead right.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48For the driver and crew, it's just another headache.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54But for the signalman, it's a question of, "What kept you so long?"
0:17:56 > 0:17:59I remember, as a young boy, my father once persuading
0:17:59 > 0:18:02an engine driver he knew to take me out for the day.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06We went five miles, shunted a few trucks around and came back again.
0:18:08 > 0:18:09It took all day.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14It still does.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32- Morning! - Cheers, mate.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41A pick-up goods train would amble through Highley
0:18:41 > 0:18:43once or twice a day.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46It dropped off trucks full of things ordered locally
0:18:46 > 0:18:49and picked up any truck full of things going elsewhere -
0:18:49 > 0:18:52farm produce, bits of machinery, milk,
0:18:52 > 0:18:55racing pigeons to be released by a station master...
0:18:55 > 0:18:57Anything.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12WHISTLES
0:19:19 > 0:19:23GPV, by the way, stands for gunpowder van.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25And, for obvious reasons, this never went next to the engine.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55People always have a vague look of worry on the railways.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59The signalman worries about the next passenger train coming through.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04The cows worry that this screeching monster has come to take them
0:20:04 > 0:20:06on a last trip to the abattoir.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24One way of speeding up the snail's pace of goods trains
0:20:24 > 0:20:26around Britain was fly shunting.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31You put in your shunting pole while the train was still moving,
0:20:31 > 0:20:33uncoupled the desired van...
0:20:35 > 0:20:38..and then ran after it to slam on the handbrake
0:20:38 > 0:20:39before you had a pile up.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42No wonder that 50 shunters a year were killed
0:20:42 > 0:20:45at the turn of the century, and hundreds maimed.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56Unfortunately for us, time has run out.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59All goods traffic will have to clear off the main line
0:20:59 > 0:21:03because an express passenger train is arriving on it any minute.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11RINGING
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Today, the main cargo of the line is people.
0:21:35 > 0:21:36But in British Rail days,
0:21:36 > 0:21:39the main cargo was something you couldn't escape from...
0:21:39 > 0:21:41even here.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47Mr Richardson, you were stationmaster here in the 1950s
0:21:47 > 0:21:48for five years.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51But although today it's the Severn Valley line,
0:21:51 > 0:21:53it's full of birds and trees,
0:21:53 > 0:21:55in those days it was mostly coal, wasn't it?
0:21:55 > 0:21:58Yes, we carried a terrific amount of coal up and down
0:21:58 > 0:22:01the line from Alveley Colliery.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04About 1,000 tonnes per day used to come out through there.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10So you actually dealt with more coal than passengers?
0:22:10 > 0:22:12Well, revenue-wise, yes.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14We used to deal with quite a lot of passengers,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17but they were all, most of them were short journeys, you know,
0:22:17 > 0:22:21workmen going to Kidderminster, the carpet factories,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24to the military base at Hartlebury,
0:22:24 > 0:22:27one or two to Bridgnorth and one or two to Worcester.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30Stourport used to take a few.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42In its heyday, the railway system employed an incredible
0:22:42 > 0:22:45three quarters of a million people,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48and even a small station like this had a full complement of staff -
0:22:48 > 0:22:53stationmaster and signalman, booking clerks and freight clerks,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56porters, shunters, an agent,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59not to mention the train crews themselves.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Today they have to double up on jobs.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12The shunter has to act as farm hand if necessary.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26MOOING
0:23:39 > 0:23:43I can't imagine anything much nicer than living at
0:23:43 > 0:23:46a flowery station like this, so I'm fiercely jealous of Mrs Oliver,
0:23:46 > 0:23:49who now occupies the stationmaster's house.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53It's hard for us now to believe the range of services that she knew.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Will you give these to Fred Jones at Highley Station, please?
0:23:57 > 0:23:59Of course I will, certainly. Thank you very much indeed.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01'Every little detail taken care of.'
0:24:02 > 0:24:04WHISTLES
0:24:14 > 0:24:18The railways offered a comprehensive service.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20The GWR would collect from your own farm.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24The LMS hired out grain sacks to farming customers,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27though they discontinued this when so few of the sacks came back.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33And the LNER offered a complete house moving operation.
0:24:33 > 0:24:34"If desired," they said,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37"arrangements can be made for the laying of carpets
0:24:37 > 0:24:41"and linoleum, hanging of pictures, placing of articles in cupboards
0:24:41 > 0:24:44"and shelves, etc, to complete a really trouble-free removal."
0:24:47 > 0:24:51It must have been a wonderful service to the locality. But was it economic?
0:24:51 > 0:24:52I mean...
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Well, it was in its day, because of course you must remember
0:24:55 > 0:24:58that the trains were in their heyday before there were motor vehicles,
0:24:58 > 0:25:00and so they were virtually the lifeline
0:25:00 > 0:25:03for the countryside communities.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Nowadays, if you want to do anything like that, you go to, well,
0:25:06 > 0:25:07you send it by post.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Well, nowadays, of course, a lot of stuff doesn't go by rail.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12Rail is only interested in bulk loads these days.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14Oil, coal?
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Freightliner trains... Yes, oil, coal, certainly to power stations,
0:25:18 > 0:25:20but no smalls at all now.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23That's the thing I keep forgetting, actually,
0:25:23 > 0:25:25that motor traffic is a very recent thing, isn't it?
0:25:25 > 0:25:27Oh, yes, comparatively,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30I mean, motor transport has really only come into its own since the war.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32Before then, you went to the station.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34At every station, they used to have a what they call,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37I forget what they called them now, but it was a sort of manager
0:25:37 > 0:25:40who touted for business around the country areas.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42- Really? - Oh, yes, absolutely.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53I grew up next door to the Great Western Railway,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57and I can still remember the clanking of goods trains
0:25:57 > 0:26:00through the night - the lonely whistle, the echoing of empty wagons.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02It never occurred to me
0:26:02 > 0:26:06till now that night-time was the right time for goods trains.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09With nothing else around, no passengers,
0:26:09 > 0:26:11they could get down to business.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14By night they flourished unseen,
0:26:14 > 0:26:18and, unseen, the mixed-goods train died and vanished from British life.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11WHISTLES
0:27:16 > 0:27:18Although I didn't know it at the time,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21shunting engines were a doomed species.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23When other competition arose,
0:27:23 > 0:27:27they would survive only in steam zoos and railway safari parks.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50If the goods train can't take you,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53the lorry must.