0:00:02 > 0:00:04BBC Four Collections -
0:00:04 > 0:00:06archive programmes chosen by experts.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09For this collection, Gary Boyd-Hope
0:00:09 > 0:00:13has selected programmes celebrating Britain's steam railway legacy.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16More programmes on this theme, and other BBC Four Collections
0:00:16 > 0:00:18are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23ENGINE ROARS
0:00:23 > 0:00:25WHISTLE BLOWS
0:00:58 > 0:01:01TANNOY: The train now approaching platform 11
0:01:01 > 0:01:04is the Flying Scotsman from London King's Cross.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09'There are very few things that will get the station master at Waverley
0:01:09 > 0:01:13'out of his bowler hat, but the Flying Scotsman is one of them.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15'The famous express that leaves London
0:01:15 > 0:01:18'when he has barely finished breakfast
0:01:18 > 0:01:20'and gets to Edinburgh not long after his lunchtime.'
0:01:22 > 0:01:25There are other trains which get here just as fast but when I'm on the one
0:01:25 > 0:01:28called Flying Scotsman, I feel I've actually got here quicker,
0:01:28 > 0:01:30which is one of the reasons, of course,
0:01:30 > 0:01:32that hard-headed railways companies
0:01:32 > 0:01:35give their trains romantic names.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37But to many people,
0:01:37 > 0:01:40the name Flying Scotsman means something quite different.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42A famous locomotive which was born in 1923
0:01:42 > 0:01:46and has been to many other places beside Edinburgh.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Up and down North America, for a start.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51Is the Flying Scotsman a train or is it an engine
0:01:51 > 0:01:53or is it a white elephant?
0:01:53 > 0:01:55It's one of the most famous names in the world
0:01:55 > 0:01:56but where did the name come from?
0:01:56 > 0:01:58To find all this out,
0:01:58 > 0:02:00we have to go back even before railways were invented.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16Up to about 1850, if you'd wanted to get to Scotland in a hurry
0:02:16 > 0:02:18you'd have gone by flying coach.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22It flew up the Great North Road at an average speed of ten miles an hour,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26stopping every ten miles or so just to change horses.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30Apart from that, it went non-stop, hence flying,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33through the day and the night,
0:02:33 > 0:02:36taking nearly 48 hours to do the 400 miles from London to Edinburgh.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44It wasn't much fun at the best of times
0:02:44 > 0:02:46and was worst if you had an outside seat on top
0:02:46 > 0:02:49where you had to keep awake the whole time.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52That's where we get the expression "dropping off to sleep".
0:02:57 > 0:02:59Then came the railway, and the average speed
0:02:59 > 0:03:03of the journey to Edinburgh magically quadrupled.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08The through-route was open by 1850.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11In 1852, King's Cross station in London was completed
0:03:11 > 0:03:16and in 1862, the first named express appeared - the Scotch Express,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19which was what they first called the Flying Scotsman.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23It left King's Cross station every morning at 10am on the dot
0:03:23 > 0:03:25and started to fly north.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31The speed may have been a lot better
0:03:31 > 0:03:34but the facilities were the same as on the stage coach.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37No toilets, no food, no moving from your seat,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40so they must have been longing to get to that 20-minute stop
0:03:40 > 0:03:44at York for lunch and everything else.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49As the passengers piled into the restaurant at 2.35,
0:03:49 > 0:03:51the soup was put in front of them, and from then
0:03:51 > 0:03:54on the restaurant resounded with the crash of crockery,
0:03:54 > 0:03:56and courses being rushed to and fro.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59Outside, the passengers could hear the shunting and crashing
0:03:59 > 0:04:00of the new engine being put on.
0:04:00 > 0:04:05The sound they were really listening for was the station bell.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08Once you heard that, you left your apple pie where it was
0:04:08 > 0:04:09and rushed back to the train.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11It was the Victorian equivalent almost
0:04:11 > 0:04:14of making a hasty plane change at Heathrow.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17In fact, after York they were leaving Great Northern territory
0:04:17 > 0:04:19and flying up the North Eastern line.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21The new engine, full of coal and water again,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24pulled them over the high-level bridge into Newcastle
0:04:24 > 0:04:27where they had another chance to resort to the lavatories at 4.55,
0:04:27 > 0:04:29then, with hardly a pause, on, on up to Berwick,
0:04:29 > 0:04:33and another change of engines, this time to a North British machine.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37They finally arrived at Edinburgh at 8.35,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40ten-and-a-half hours after leaving London.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43It may seem slow to us, but to them it was a miracle.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48A miracle only to the well-heeled, of course, for it wasn't until 1887
0:04:48 > 0:04:51that third-class passengers were catered for at all.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54After that, things rapidly improved for everyone.
0:04:54 > 0:04:55Restaurant cars were introduced,
0:04:55 > 0:04:59which meant of course that corridors had to be introduced as well.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01The first lavatories appeared on trains
0:05:01 > 0:05:02and as early as 1875,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06the North British Railway had pioneered sleeper compartments.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09All this meant the trains were getting heavier,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12and that meant that engines had to get more and more powerful.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16Then suddenly, the Scotch Express hit the headlines in 1888.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18It got caught up in a series of races to the north
0:05:18 > 0:05:21against rival companies
0:05:21 > 0:05:23and the record time to Scotland was lowered suddenly
0:05:23 > 0:05:25from nine hours to seven-and-a-half hours.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31The race became part of British railway history,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34shortly to be followed by another now-familiar sight
0:05:34 > 0:05:37in British stations, the railway enthusiast.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42I've been on here at three o'clock in the morning.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45Was it here that they always changed engines?
0:05:45 > 0:05:49Oh, yes, always. They changed engines here, Grantham, Newcastle.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52That's good, although it was one company taking off its engine,
0:05:52 > 0:05:54and another company putting it on.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58'I met Arthur Dewar in York Station in 1985.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02'He had first been here to watch trains as a boy in 1916.'
0:06:02 > 0:06:05It must have been quite a sight, York station in those days?
0:06:05 > 0:06:07Oh, yes, it was marvellous.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09Beautiful, gleaming green engines, brass.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11Not dirty and smoke stained?
0:06:11 > 0:06:16No, brass columns and brass round the wheel hall, shining.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19I'm afraid we have to go to the museum to see them nowadays.
0:06:19 > 0:06:24Yes. That's how they were. All like that.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27So you must have seen the Flying Scotsman come through many a time.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Well, it wasn't called that then. Not till about 1938.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34It was known to the railway people as the Special Scotch Express.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39But in the timetable, it wasn't differentiated from any other train.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41It was already known as...?
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Most people knew it by, yes.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47In 1923, Flying Scotsman the engine was born,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50one of a new class, the A1 Pacifics,
0:06:50 > 0:06:52which could run non-stop from London to Edinburgh,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55and also had rather glamorous film-star looks.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58Just as well, as they were about to become film stars,
0:06:58 > 0:07:02as I discovered from railway film collector John Huntley.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04John, this must be about the first film
0:07:04 > 0:07:06of the non-stop Flying Scotsman that exists?
0:07:06 > 0:07:08Yes, it is. It's a bit of a mystery film,
0:07:08 > 0:07:13we don't really know who made it, but it is a most valuable record
0:07:13 > 0:07:15of the old London North Eastern Railway,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19and of course certainly there's no doubt about the film was made
0:07:19 > 0:07:22to celebrate this idea that started on 1st May, 1928,
0:07:22 > 0:07:23when they began the non-stop run,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26even including things like a cocktail bar on the train.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30This train was extraordinary. It had at different times, it had a cinema,
0:07:30 > 0:07:35in-flight movies, Flying Scotsman-style, in the '30s.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38It had a hairdressing salon on the train at one time.
0:07:38 > 0:07:39For women originally,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42it was so successful that they introduced it for men.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44In the early 1930s, there was a sort of disco
0:07:44 > 0:07:48where they had an all-horn radio which piped in dance music
0:07:48 > 0:07:51and people danced as you went on your way to Scotland,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54so it was quite a train, the Flying Scotsman, in those days.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03It was a pretty magical thing, you know, in 1928,
0:08:03 > 0:08:06when you think how long ago that actually is.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08To run a train all this distance.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11There seems to be more than a whiff of advertising about this.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14The feeling that it's not just a documentary,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16it's saying "Come travel with us."
0:08:16 > 0:08:19That probably was the price of all facilities
0:08:19 > 0:08:22and a free ticket on the train, I suspect, in those days.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28How long did the train take in those days?
0:08:28 > 0:08:29How long was it back then?
0:08:29 > 0:08:33It was all slowed up because of the stupid business...
0:08:33 > 0:08:36..Of the agreement. It didn't have to arrive in Edinburgh
0:08:36 > 0:08:40before the Midland train arrived in Glasgow.
0:08:40 > 0:08:41'Frank Mays, our other expert,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45'was actually a fireman on the Flying Scotsman in its heyday,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48'though this was the first time he'd seen any of these films.'
0:08:48 > 0:08:49They purposely slowed it down?
0:08:49 > 0:08:53They did, and they kept it outside of Edinburgh for a little while
0:08:53 > 0:08:56until the time approached and it was allowed in.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58A lovely name. Such a grand name.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02I think it's because they're both full of unfinished buildings.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Those trams, I always associate those
0:09:04 > 0:09:07with the early days of the Edinburgh Festival.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Very much, Princes Street never was quite the same without the trams.
0:09:15 > 0:09:16Before the 1920s were out,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19the engine itself had become an established film star.
0:09:19 > 0:09:24Not in a documentary or a commercial, but in a fully-fledged thriller.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28This looks a very different sort of film. I detect a story here.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30Yes, this was 1929.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33Most of the textbooks say that Alfred Hitchcock's film Blackmail
0:09:33 > 0:09:36is the first sound film, but I don't think it's right.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38This was the first one. It's directed by Castleton Knight,
0:09:38 > 0:09:41and as you'll see, it's mainly shot as a silent film.
0:09:41 > 0:09:42It uses mainly silent shots.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55That's Pauline Johnson, the heroine of the film,
0:09:55 > 0:09:56and this they did for real.
0:09:56 > 0:10:01They were allowed to shoot using 4472 Flying Scotsman.
0:10:01 > 0:10:02She really did this.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06They're certainly not going less than 40-45 miles an hour
0:10:06 > 0:10:08in relatively high-heeled 1920s shoes,
0:10:08 > 0:10:13battling her way forward to the loco, in pursuit, in fact, of the villain.
0:10:16 > 0:10:23Now, the fireman in the film is Ray Milland, it's his first movie.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26The storyline is that he's a young fireman
0:10:26 > 0:10:30and this is his girlfriend, but in fact, although he doesn't know it,
0:10:30 > 0:10:32the engine driver is her father.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39A near thing last night. Her old man came on, nearly caught me.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46Just managed to dodge him with the skin of my teeth.
0:10:50 > 0:10:51Silent acting.
0:10:53 > 0:10:54So you're the one!
0:10:54 > 0:10:58Then a fight on the footplate. What's so incredible about this film
0:10:58 > 0:11:01is that's the sort of thing you'd normally shoot at the studio.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05Here she goes. She's got to cross over from the loco to the tender.
0:11:05 > 0:11:06Not much to hold onto.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09She finds the rhythm of the two is totally different.
0:11:09 > 0:11:10Even that's for real.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13The sort of thing you'd always do in a studio today.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20She's in pursuit of the villain played by Alec Hurley.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23What's his interest, the villain?
0:11:23 > 0:11:27He's out to get the engine driver who ratted on him and lost him his job.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Ray Milland... You see even that's shot for real.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33It's extraordinary the way they set him up.
0:11:40 > 0:11:41THEY LAUGH
0:11:42 > 0:11:45The story is a little on the melodramatic side.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48She sees her old dad knocked for six by the villain.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50Here's a rather interesting bit
0:11:50 > 0:11:53because the villain makes sure that the loco is running,
0:11:53 > 0:11:57and he goes back using the passageway in the tender. There it is,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00which was how you got from the footplate of the locomotive
0:12:00 > 0:12:04back into the train itself, through this little narrow passageway
0:12:04 > 0:12:05running through the tender,
0:12:05 > 0:12:08with the water tank and the coal and everything.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10There's Alec Hurley doing some grimaces.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13This is the bit that Sir Nigel Gresley hated.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15Puts his hand out, pulls a little plug
0:12:15 > 0:12:17and the loco separates out from the stock
0:12:17 > 0:12:19and they both go on racing away.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Sir Nigel said very indignantly afterwards,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24"When I saw this wretched film, they suggested
0:12:24 > 0:12:26"that London North Eastern Railway had not yet discovered
0:12:26 > 0:12:28"the vacuum brake!"
0:12:29 > 0:12:33'Well, the film had a happy ending for everyone, except the villain.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36'Ray Milland went on to become a Hollywood star on the strength of it
0:12:36 > 0:12:40'and Sir Nigel Gresley never let any filming take place on the NER again.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44'In fact, it wasn't until after his death, and well after the war,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47'that our third film was made.'
0:12:47 > 0:12:51The Elizabethan Express was really the last great flowering of steam.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53These marvellous Gresley A4 locomotives,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56and really I think what they decided
0:12:56 > 0:13:00was as they knew that steam's days were numbered, they thought
0:13:00 > 0:13:04they'd have this run non-stop from King's Cross to Edinburgh
0:13:04 > 0:13:08as it had been done in the old days. They didn't actually strangely do it
0:13:08 > 0:13:12with the 10am Flying Scotsman. They did it as a summer service only,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15at 9.30, and this ran in front of the Flying Scotsman but the idea
0:13:15 > 0:13:19was to keep alive this tradition of non-stop running on steam.
0:13:19 > 0:13:24It's very much of the '50s, the whole thing. It has a funny old commentary.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26COMMENTARY: 'The passengers sitting at buffet tables -
0:13:26 > 0:13:29'the Howards, the Berts, the Cynthias, the Mables -
0:13:29 > 0:13:32'enjoying the comfort and ease in their seats.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34'Careless of crumbs in turn-ups or pleats,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37'admire the gleam on the chromium plate,
0:13:37 > 0:13:41'The polish on tables, the unfaded state of curtains and fabrics,
0:13:41 > 0:13:45'but rarely give thought to the long years of training.'
0:13:53 > 0:13:57'Now beyond York, the Scots crew prepare to relieve the strain
0:13:57 > 0:13:59'on the English pair.'
0:13:59 > 0:14:02They had a reserve compartment, and the Edinburgh men,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05they worked from Edinburgh to York the day previous,
0:14:05 > 0:14:11stayed overnight in London in a hostel
0:14:11 > 0:14:15and then they signed on duty in the morning at King's Cross,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19rode passenger in the train in a reserve compartment,
0:14:19 > 0:14:22had a meal on the train before they actually relieved,
0:14:22 > 0:14:26and then went through the corridor tender which we can see now
0:14:26 > 0:14:31onto the footplate and relieved while the train was going at 50-60 mph.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38There you see Tony MacLeod, the Haymarket driver,
0:14:38 > 0:14:40relieving Bob Marroble.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49Bob Marroble's taking his case and walking back and through,
0:14:49 > 0:14:50and there's Mungo Scott.
0:14:56 > 0:14:57Mungo's looking at the fire
0:14:57 > 0:15:00to see the state of the fire before he starts firing up.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07'Sir Nigel Gresley designed his A4 with the speed of a greyhound,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10'the strength of a boar, but when he put fire in her stomach,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13'he taught her to burn with a furious thirst for water,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16'so when she approaches a water trough,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19'watch fireman Mungo doing his stuff.'
0:15:22 > 0:15:26There's the water troughs. He's dropping the scoop in.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32There you can see the water overflowing.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35I should imagine they'll get somewhere in the region
0:15:35 > 0:15:38of about 4,000 gallons if they're lucky.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41MILES: These guys are the kings of the track, aren't they?
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Oh, yes. They're top link men. Probably Tony MacLeod, he's worked
0:15:44 > 0:15:49on the railway 40 years before he started doing this type of work.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52They're all quite old, the drivers?
0:15:52 > 0:15:58On those jobs, yes. Tony MacLeod would be 60, 61.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03He'd been on those jobs for five or six years when that film was taken.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06Mungo Scott was in his middle-20s.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14'As they come down from Groundshouse, the peak of the climb,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16'they're over the worst.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18'And she's running on time.'
0:16:23 > 0:16:26There was great rivalry between the different crews
0:16:26 > 0:16:29and you'd swear by your driver.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37The consumption worked out at about a ton per 60 miles.
0:16:37 > 0:16:42You actually physically lifted, on a little shovel....
0:16:42 > 0:16:44Oh, yes. Yeah.
0:17:04 > 0:17:10'Mr Arnott at Waverley Station has a very high sense of occasion.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12'If a train's a non-stopper, his topper is proper,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15'his homburg's for trains of low station.'
0:17:17 > 0:17:19When that film was made,
0:17:19 > 0:17:21you could feel they thought nothing would change.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Steam engines would go on forever, Britain would always have an empire
0:17:24 > 0:17:27and Blackpool and Newcastle United would always be in the cup final.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31But overnight almost, British Rail's modernisation programme
0:17:31 > 0:17:35announced the end of steam. Four years later, the first Deltic diesels
0:17:35 > 0:17:37were being ordered for the Edinburgh run.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Soon after that, steam engines were being replaced not by steam engines
0:17:40 > 0:17:43but by other kinds of engines, for the first time in history.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46The steam loco really was becoming a threatened species.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49Now, British Rail were going to look after the future
0:17:49 > 0:17:51but who was going to look after the past?
0:17:51 > 0:17:55In the nick of time, a new breed of man arrived - the private collector.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02'40 years old, only done three million miles.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04'What a sniff at £3,000.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08'That's what a businessman paid for this grand veteran of the iron road.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12'All dressed up for the part, the proud man from Nottinghamshire,
0:18:12 > 0:18:15'Alan Pegler, was with the engine he saved from the break-up yard.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17'The Flying Scotsman has years of work in her still, but progress,
0:18:17 > 0:18:20'in the shape of diesel locomotives, has pushed her aside.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23'That's a sad thought for everybody who's ever thrilled
0:18:23 > 0:18:25'at the sight of an express steam engine.'
0:18:33 > 0:18:35WHISTLE BLOWS
0:18:35 > 0:18:38Alan Pegler was realising a dream
0:18:38 > 0:18:41that most men only play with in their attic -
0:18:41 > 0:18:43running a real life-size train set.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49In 1968, 40 years on, he recreated the first non-stop run to Edinburgh.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51There is in fact no real advantage
0:18:51 > 0:18:54in going from London to Edinburgh non-stop, and British Rail
0:18:54 > 0:18:58don't bother to do it even today, and when you have to take two tenders
0:18:58 > 0:19:01to carry all that coal and water, there are disadvantages,
0:19:01 > 0:19:03but when you are on your very own engine,
0:19:03 > 0:19:06you don't think about things like that, you just do it.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14Today, Edinburgh, tomorrow the world, and the next year,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18Alan Pegler took the engine to America.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35The Flying Scotsman was trying to make money
0:19:35 > 0:19:38out of hauling a business exhibition train across America.
0:19:38 > 0:19:43The man who ended up in charge of the operation was George Hinchcliffe.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46After the first trip, which from the exhibitors' point of view
0:19:46 > 0:19:50was very successful, from Boston to Houston, Texas,
0:19:50 > 0:19:56the train was put into store and eventually, the following year, 1970,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59we took it out of store in Slaton, Texas,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02and worked it right up to Green Bay.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06That was fairly successful and I was in charge of the operation then,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09and we were actually making money hand over fist.
0:20:09 > 0:20:15The great thing in 1970 was that we visited very small places,
0:20:15 > 0:20:20where we were a very big event in a comparatively small town.
0:20:20 > 0:20:2420,000 inhabitants, and probably a third of them would turn out.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26It was marvellous.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34But the expense of running an engine so far from home
0:20:34 > 0:20:36turned into difficulties, and difficulties turned
0:20:36 > 0:20:40into enormous debts, until another rescuer was needed desperately.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42He turned up in the nick of time
0:20:42 > 0:20:44in the shape of one of the McAlpine family.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48Well, Bill rang me one night and said,
0:20:48 > 0:20:51"I've heard terrible things about the Flying Scotsman.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54"Could you go over to America and find out what's happened?"
0:20:55 > 0:20:59The day I actually saw the lawyer who was responsible for
0:20:59 > 0:21:01Flying Scotsman while it was in America
0:21:01 > 0:21:04was the day that the girl typist
0:21:04 > 0:21:11in San Francisco was about to type the writ to impound the locomotive,
0:21:11 > 0:21:16but with a time factor of about four hours between Washington time
0:21:16 > 0:21:21and San Francisco time, I had chance to phone Bill McAlpine and say,
0:21:21 > 0:21:25"Look, if you can pay so many thousand dollars,
0:21:25 > 0:21:28"the engine's yours."
0:21:29 > 0:21:31HORN BLARES
0:21:32 > 0:21:35And so, on what might nearly have been a funeral barge,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Flying Scotsman set off home again.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44WIND WHISTLES
0:21:51 > 0:21:55They say that all the cells in the human body are replaced every
0:21:55 > 0:21:59seven years, and something of the same sort happens to a steam engine.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02There isn't much here that dates back to 1923.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06But the spirit lives on, and as much as anything, that's what they're
0:22:06 > 0:22:10restoring today at Steamtown, here at Carnforth in Lancashire.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15The work is done by a mixture of dedicated volunteers
0:22:15 > 0:22:17and permanently employed specialists.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Welding new tubes for the super heater is definitely
0:22:24 > 0:22:27specialist work, but it takes more than expertise
0:22:27 > 0:22:30to get 100 tons of metal steaming again.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32It takes a lot of devotion, a lot of money,
0:22:32 > 0:22:34and backaching hard work.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40Well, we try to do bits and pieces of what we can.
0:22:40 > 0:22:42We're not all skilled.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46I used to be a fireman on this type of engine at Doncaster,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49and that's where my interest stems from.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51I think once you've been on that job,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54there's something bred into you that never leaves you.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00It's inside you. It's probably always there.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07I'm at work here five days a week for pay
0:23:07 > 0:23:10and the other two I'm usually here doing the volunteers' work as well.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12That's how I originally started.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16It's all right going by the textbook but it isn't...
0:23:16 > 0:23:19You know, when you get your hands dirty, you know why it works
0:23:19 > 0:23:21and how it performs.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25We do it for the love of it and not only that -
0:23:25 > 0:23:28we're preserving part of the Railway Heritage of the country.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31'I mean, you can go to a five-year-old child
0:23:31 > 0:23:34'and they've heard of the Flying Scotsman.'
0:23:34 > 0:23:38This crown looks in poor condition, Pat.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41Looks as though the white metal has moved slightly.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46Dirt and grit gets into the white metal.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49It gets so much dirt into it it won't absorb oil,
0:23:49 > 0:23:51and it eventually it'll start to wear.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55It's just like your car big end, exactly.
0:24:00 > 0:24:07White metal, well, it's 65% tin and the rest is lead and antimony.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11It's quite expensive.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20It takes me a day to re-metal one, a full day,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24and then probably another day to machine it and fit it on.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30I first started in 1942, straight from school at 14.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32At one time, if you lived in Carnforth
0:24:32 > 0:24:36and you were in a railway family, you automatically went onto the railway.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42And so Flying Scotsman is ready for the road again.
0:24:45 > 0:24:46Well, almost ready.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50Before it can go out on British Rail track,
0:24:50 > 0:24:52there have to be last-minute checks
0:24:52 > 0:24:56and an intimate inspection by British Rail's surgeons and specialists.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01A match-fitness test on all those hamstrings and cartilages.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07After that, a proper road test, a 30-mile run up to the Yorkshire Dales
0:25:07 > 0:25:11and back, and that's how I came to have the magic chance to go down
0:25:11 > 0:25:14the same tender corridor along which Alec Hurley, the villain, went,
0:25:14 > 0:25:18in 1929, and through which so many drivers and firemen have passed
0:25:18 > 0:25:19on the non-stop run.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25'At the end of the tunnel, I found British Rail Inspector
0:25:25 > 0:25:26'Reg Lawrence.'
0:25:26 > 0:25:28All right if I come?
0:25:28 > 0:25:30Yes, come on. Do what do you want, yes.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32It would be quite safe?
0:25:32 > 0:25:35WHISTLE BLOWS LOUDLY Oh, yeah, yeah.
0:25:35 > 0:25:3860mph is very safe.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41Above that, you've got to think of the age of them.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45They are, after all... This one is actually as old as me.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47- It was built the year I was born. - Really?
0:25:47 > 0:25:48Yeah. 1923, yeah.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Somebody was telling me... Is this really your last day?
0:25:51 > 0:25:54Definitely, yeah. I retire on Friday,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58but I've got two little parties, tomorrow and the day after.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01So your last job is actually testing the Flying Scotsman?
0:26:01 > 0:26:03My last job, yes.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05- That's a good way to go out. - It is, indeed.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09Well, come in with a puff of smoke, go out with one, eh?
0:26:09 > 0:26:11- You wouldn't fail her today? - What?
0:26:11 > 0:26:13You wouldn't like to fail her today?
0:26:13 > 0:26:15Oh, no, no way, no.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18No, she's in good order now. They've made a good job of it.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26So, what's it like riding on the footplate of the Flying Scotsman?
0:26:26 > 0:26:30Well, it shakes around a lot like a bucking horse, it's dirty,
0:26:30 > 0:26:32you can hardly hear yourself speak, things blow in your eyes,
0:26:32 > 0:26:36your legs get hot from the firebox and your top half freezes
0:26:36 > 0:26:37in the 60mph draught.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39In other words, it's fantastic.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57I'm not surprised that people want to give up their weekends
0:26:57 > 0:27:00and their holidays and their fortunes to keep an engine like this going.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02It would never get a train from London to Edinburgh in today's
0:27:02 > 0:27:05four-and-a-half hours, but when you see it charging
0:27:05 > 0:27:08through the English countryside, you just forget that any other
0:27:08 > 0:27:09kind of engine has ever existed.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26You also forget that for the last 20 years, the Flying Scotsman
0:27:26 > 0:27:30has been living on borrowed time, and it may be that one day the only
0:27:30 > 0:27:33relic we'll have of engines like that is films like this,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37but then again, the fast diesels which now do the Flying Scotsman run
0:27:37 > 0:27:40are also living on borrowed time, as electrification
0:27:40 > 0:27:43marches up the east coast, and diesels have their own
0:27:43 > 0:27:46devoted fans, and one day, perhaps, history will repeat itself
0:27:46 > 0:27:50and steam nostalgia films will be replaced by diesel nostalgia films.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00But until then, what a way to go.