0:00:04 > 0:00:07Archive 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 > 0:00:16More programmes on this theme and other BBC Four collections
0:00:16 > 0:00:18are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05OK, so it's another crowd at a railway station.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09Except that this crowd isn't even going anywhere.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14We'll be back here. That'd be... Well, roughly, roughly there.
0:01:14 > 0:01:15That Union Jack...
0:01:15 > 0:01:17This is Woking 150,
0:01:17 > 0:01:22an event to celebrate 150 years of the London South Western Railway.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25Everyone was delighted - well, fairly delighted -
0:01:25 > 0:01:26to pay homage to the old days.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31To steam in particular, even if it just shunted back and forth.
0:02:06 > 0:02:1160,000 people came to record the past, each in their own style.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15With or without a child to make the task that much easier.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17As for children, who may or may not
0:02:17 > 0:02:19want to become engine drivers these days,
0:02:19 > 0:02:23they could get to grips with simple non-electronic joys.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32Once upon a time, Barry Smith was a small boy, fascinated by trains.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36And he, too, queued to see a piece of the past he used to know so well.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44The high spot of his early life was the annual holiday -
0:02:44 > 0:02:47by steam, of course - down to Devon,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51of which the journey was the very best part of all.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55I've come here today because it's the first time that I've seen
0:02:55 > 0:02:59so many Southern steam engines, since they went in what...21 years ago.
0:02:59 > 0:03:001967.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05It really is a marvellous sight. Working steam engines here.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08Most of them are Southern Railway and southern regions.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11And I'm amazed, actually, there are so many people here today.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13There are literally thousands and thousands.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16It's absolutely marvellous. I must admit,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19I never thought I'd see the day again when I'd see
0:03:19 > 0:03:23so many Southern Railway engines. A lovely sight.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27It all brings it all back, quite honestly. They're really fabulous.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30Of course, one of the great attractions for me here today
0:03:30 > 0:03:33is the City of Wells, and that is running on a steam special
0:03:33 > 0:03:36from Salisbury down to Yeovil in the next two or three weeks.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39That should be hauling it. It should be a lovely sight.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41I'm looking forward to that.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43TRAIN HOOTER SOUNDS
0:03:45 > 0:03:47BAND PLAYS "A Life On The Ocean Wave"
0:04:05 > 0:04:07Life on the ocean wave today
0:04:07 > 0:04:10is life on the same old jam-packed 8:32.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14And it's possible not to see the romance of a railway terminus.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17But the railway terminus has seen it all.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21The comings and goings, the partings, the sweet sorrow,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25as well as the fairly miserable sorrow and all the other kinds.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45For the young Barry Smith, it was all joy.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47And his particular heaven started at Waterloo,
0:04:47 > 0:04:51where the Southern Railway began its journeys to the coast
0:04:51 > 0:04:55for holidays when the sun always shone throughout the stay.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00There we are, Waterloo Station.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Things have changed a lot since I was here 40 years ago.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07No steam, very little noise.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12Plenty of people, still. The fabric's still here.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14Let's have a look.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Waterloo - it's an incredible place now, I think.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25You could virtually eat a meal off the floor, it's so clean.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28It's more or less like a supermarket. You walk in here...
0:05:28 > 0:05:31Look around you. You can get some spectacles over there.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34You can have those made while you wait!
0:05:34 > 0:05:37And you can walk down there and buy a pair of underpants.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41A full chemist over there, selling everything under the sun.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44You've got fast food all the way around here.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47You can have a meal, you can sit down there and have a drink.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49The whole thing's changed so completely.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52I like it. Yes, I do, I like Waterloo now.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58It's important to remember the rivalry of the old lines
0:05:58 > 0:06:02and how the London and South Western Railway listed its destinations
0:06:02 > 0:06:05much like battle honours in some war.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10For those of us today, it is a bit odd that you can go to the South West
0:06:10 > 0:06:14either by the Southern from Waterloo, or the Western from Paddington.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22But it was a war, in a way, with both sets of tracks capturing new land,
0:06:22 > 0:06:24awkwardly meeting at Exeter
0:06:24 > 0:06:27and then conquering different parts of Cornwall.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35For Barry Smith and all the others, 11am was the famous hour
0:06:35 > 0:06:38when the Atlantic Coast Express pulled out of Waterloo.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41TRAIN HOOTER SOUNDS
0:07:20 > 0:07:24There are still small Barry Smiths today, still hooked on trains,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28even if they are just diesel, and still getting down the numbers.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33So will they become sentimental about the old days, the late 1980s,
0:07:33 > 0:07:37when they grow up and trains no longer look as they do today?
0:07:39 > 0:07:41One didn't have a worry in the world then.
0:07:41 > 0:07:47But I'd like to go back knowing what I do now and have another go at it.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50Just to see if it's at all possible.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53I have my doubts, actually, because we don't have the steam,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56although there is going to be some steam further down the line.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00It'll be exciting, without a doubt, because of all the various places
0:08:00 > 0:08:03that used to have engine sheds, for a start.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06I don't know what's there now. It's going to be an exciting journey, yes.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08I'm going to look forward to it, I think.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13Past Nine Elms, for a start, now all fruit and veg,
0:08:13 > 0:08:15and it used to be railway sheds.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18So will this nostalgic journey work,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20this attempt to relive a little of the past with so much change -
0:08:20 > 0:08:25gantries without the old signals and rain instead of sun?
0:08:27 > 0:08:30Oh, well, there is always Ian Allan and the train man's bible,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32which he wrote.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37Yes, Ian Allan, his ABCs, they really were marvellous.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39Very, very difficult to get hold of in the war.
0:08:39 > 0:08:40In fact, they were rationed.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43You really had to know somebody to get hold of one of these.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45I've kept them all. I've still got them to this day,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47with all my original numbers in and suchlike.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52I occasionally look at them, as well, and I find them fascinating reading.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00Nowadays, you can go down to Exeter and back in a day
0:09:00 > 0:09:02and you don't think anything of it, really.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04But, in those days, it was a huge adventure.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08You started off from Waterloo, with all that atmosphere of Waterloo,
0:09:08 > 0:09:12and it was a whole day's trip. It took a long, long time to get there.
0:09:12 > 0:09:13It wasn't until tea time.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16Whereas nowadays, people go off every weekend now.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19But when I was a child,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22it was the one holiday in the year, really.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42It was an adventure, yes, without a doubt.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45You didn't really know what you were going to see, quite honestly.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47It was all new.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50Even though you'd done it in the past several times,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52it was still all very, very new.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56Different things to look at. There were always things to see.
0:09:56 > 0:09:57This was the great thing.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Plenty of railways and plenty of locos all over the place.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07Past proper signals in the old days,
0:10:07 > 0:10:11and full steam ahead for the first stop out of Waterloo, for Salisbury.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15STATION ANNOUNCER: This is Salisbury.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31For the young Barry, it was all quite magnificent.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33Salisbury is a lovely place because
0:10:33 > 0:10:37virtually, in those days, everything changed engines there.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39So you got two engines for the price of one, shall we say.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42One came off and another one came on.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44A lot of those engines were for Exmouth Junction.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47And the Exmouth Junction engines, in those days,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50didn't work through to Waterloo.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52So they were quite rare engines. So it was a lovely place.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56There was plenty of smoke and steam and noises
0:10:56 > 0:10:58and all sorts of things there.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01And of course, everything stopped there.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07So what's left of the past?
0:11:07 > 0:11:09Well, there's still the old water tank,
0:11:09 > 0:11:13which supplied the thirsty engines.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15The coaches are still parked, as formerly,
0:11:15 > 0:11:17and the station entrance smacks of that different age.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22And so do other bits and pieces scattered here and there
0:11:22 > 0:11:25from a period when there seemed to be more time to make
0:11:25 > 0:11:27such things as pleasing arches.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38But for those making the excursion,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41there is nothing a station can provide
0:11:41 > 0:11:43quite so attractive as a locomotive.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47Although, horror upon horrors, this proved not to be the City of Wells,
0:11:47 > 0:11:52as had been promised, but an alien machine from quite another line.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04It was a shame, really, because there was the City of Wells at Woking.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07I've been hauled behind it years and years ago
0:12:07 > 0:12:10and I was most disappointed to find it wasn't running.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14And also, of course, it wasn't a Southern Railway engine
0:12:14 > 0:12:15or ex-Southern Railway engine.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17We're talking about this LMS goods engine.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20It wasn't even a passenger engine.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24So, quite honestly, I was horrified when I saw that.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26It's still steam, I know,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29but, to me, it wasn't quite right.
0:12:29 > 0:12:34Be that as it may, Salisbury was and is the gateway to further west,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38even if the LMS, for heaven's sake, was on the Southern.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07But this was emphatically phase two of the sentimental journey
0:13:07 > 0:13:10out of Salisbury and onwards to the west.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20I suppose when I stood on Clapham Junction that day back in 1967
0:13:20 > 0:13:22and saw the last steam trains on the Southern,
0:13:22 > 0:13:26I never thought I'd travel west of Salisbury behind a steam loco.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28And yet here we are today.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32OK, we've got the wrong engine. It's an 8F, a Stanier 8F,
0:13:32 > 0:13:35which never, ever came onto this section of line.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38I've been back through my records and I can't find one at all.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40They came into Salisbury
0:13:40 > 0:13:43and they up came up to Templecombe on the Somerset and Dorset.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45But, actually, on this stretch of line,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48I think we can say this is unique.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51Nevertheless, it's steam. One mustn't complain too much.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57We haven't got that lovely noise of a Bulleid up at the front there,
0:13:57 > 0:13:58which we used to have.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Haven't got that lovely hooter. That lovely Bulleid hooter.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04We've got a Stanier.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09A Bulleid is from Oliver Bulleid, the famous railway engineer.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12As against the Stanier of Sir William Stanier,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15also a famous railway engineer.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18And both men made certain their hooters weren't the same.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33Of course, all things have changed outside here, outside the window.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35Where are the telephone wires? You look outside here,
0:14:35 > 0:14:37there's nothing at all.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41Dipping and up they went, down and up and down.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44But the smell is there, yes. That doesn't change at all.
0:14:44 > 0:14:51It's good coal, plenty of smoke, smuts in your eyes,
0:14:51 > 0:14:52if you're not very careful.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56So we've got all that back and that was part of childhood.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58I don't know about going back 40 years,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02but I've gone back quite a few years in this today, yes.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04Yes, that smell. That was the joy.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08I always envied the firemen in those days.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11I must admit I'd loved to have been an engine fireman,
0:15:11 > 0:15:14I really would. The family wouldn't let me, this is the trouble.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17A friend of mine two doors away, he was a locomotive fireman,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20but, um, parental pressures, unfortunately,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23prevented me from doing that.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27But I wouldn't mind having a go up front now, behind this Stanier.
0:15:27 > 0:15:32It's back-breaking work. Absolutely. Shovelling coal.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35But, I mean, in those days they did it hour after hour,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38ton after ton they were shovelling.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40A tremendous job it must've been.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47But, nowadays, I mean, when steam came back again,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49they had to have two firemen,
0:15:49 > 0:15:52one just couldn't cope with shovelling the coal.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54Which is not surprising,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57because they were just sitting down most of their working lives.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59Whereas now they have suddenly got to shovel coal.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01So, of course, it was very, very hard work.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06TRAIN HOOTER SOUNDS
0:16:07 > 0:16:10Going back to those old days,
0:16:10 > 0:16:13it must've been absolutely horrendous up in the front,
0:16:13 > 0:16:17because there was the noise, there was a continuous vibration,
0:16:17 > 0:16:20there was swaying about, trying to keep your foot,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24and also trying to shovel coal into a fairly small fire-hole door.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27When you are doing 70mph or 80mph
0:16:27 > 0:16:31and you've got to shovel a ton an hour, it's very, very small.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34I'd love to have done it, I must admit. I wish I'd had the chance.
0:16:47 > 0:16:52Can't have been any easier inside the tunnels, when smoke, smuts,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55vibration, speed and darkness were all part of the job.
0:17:18 > 0:17:20For those today who long for steam,
0:17:20 > 0:17:23they should try and remember the tunnels,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26when smoke became a sorry substitute for nice fresh air.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34After Yeovil, in the old days, would come branch-line country
0:17:34 > 0:17:38on the Southern, with many connections leading to the sea,
0:17:38 > 0:17:40practically all of which have gone today.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45So far as the steam excursion was concerned,
0:17:45 > 0:17:50Yeovil was now the end of the line, causing yet another change of trains.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Only this time, for Barry Smith trying to find the past,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57it was back to diesel and modern times.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17But at least there was a line and a train, of sorts,
0:18:17 > 0:18:20to carry him on his nostalgic voyage.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24For the young Barry, Yeovil and Dorset, with Devon still to come,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26was simply more excitement.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29I think we're very fortunate to be travelling on this line,
0:18:29 > 0:18:34because if one looks at the Beeching proposals and on the maps,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37there was going to be nothing west of Salisbury.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43There's a regular service, of course, Waterloo to Exeter,
0:18:43 > 0:18:45but it's a shame, really,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48because we have so much single track here now.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54Beeching had to come about, there's no doubt about it.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57If it wasn't Beeching, it would have been somebody else.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01It was a shame for the enthusiasts, of course, because we lost out.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04All these lovely branch lines all went.
0:19:04 > 0:19:10But, coming to reality, which I think one has to do, it had to come about.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13And what came about was the closing of branch lines,
0:19:13 > 0:19:15as to Lyme Regis from Axminster.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18But, of course, the closing of each branch meant its connecting junction
0:19:18 > 0:19:20was that much less busy,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23so no longer do trains puff up and down from Lyme Regis
0:19:23 > 0:19:25as they used to do.
0:19:26 > 0:19:27We've got the Lyme Regis branch,
0:19:27 > 0:19:33which, in fact, is frequently worked by just one coach and an engine.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36So you've got, straightaway, a staff of three.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39Then, of course, you have the stations which were fully staffed
0:19:39 > 0:19:43with station master and ticket collector and porter.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46Then, of course, the signalmen all the way down the line.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55The track itself was maintained virtually to mainline standards,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58in excellent condition.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00And, looking all round,
0:20:00 > 0:20:03it was quite tremendous the amount of staff they had on these lines.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06So, really, it was no wonder that they went to the wall,
0:20:06 > 0:20:08because it was only in the summer
0:20:08 > 0:20:11that a branch like the Lyme Regis branch fully worked.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17TRAIN HOOTER SOUNDS
0:20:17 > 0:20:21At Axminster, it's no longer "all change for Lyme Regis".
0:20:21 > 0:20:23It's just "get off if you want Axminster"
0:20:23 > 0:20:27and the car you left in its car park, and the town,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29and, of course, the carpet factory,
0:20:29 > 0:20:30or a bit more travelling.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41Feniton used to be Sidmouth Junction,
0:20:41 > 0:20:44before they cut off the line to Ottery and Sidmouth.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46Now, it's just Feniton.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54And memories. As for Alan Powell, who works here in the family tradition.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59My grandfather was a signalman here, back in the last century.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02And I had an uncle who was signalman here.
0:21:02 > 0:21:07Er, not my father, but then I took on in the 1950s.
0:21:07 > 0:21:14When I joined, I counted up a total of about 16 altogether.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18Station master, three signalmen,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21two booking clerks, two shunters,
0:21:21 > 0:21:26a couple of crossing keepers and four of us on the platform.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28Not all on at once, of course.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30People would come in from all the villages,
0:21:30 > 0:21:34three or four miles around, to get trains away.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39And it was very much a railhead, so it was really lively then.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45On a summer Saturday, you would probably have a train
0:21:45 > 0:21:47going through about every quarter of an hour,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50some of them stopping, some not.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54And, of those that stopped, you had connections to the branch line
0:21:54 > 0:21:57to Sidmouth and Exmouth. Quite busy, generally.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01Now, of course, it's a very scaled-down sort of operation.
0:22:01 > 0:22:07Er, you get about half the trains that go through stopping here.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12We cater for a steady trickle of passengers, not a flood, these days.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20First stop on the branch line was the station, now gone,
0:22:20 > 0:22:25for the market town of Ottery St Mary.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28Well, Ottery still lives, but not its old railway line
0:22:28 > 0:22:32leading either to Sidmouth or Budleigh Salterton.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38The closures had to come sometime, because there was so much opposition
0:22:38 > 0:22:41from the bus services and there was a very good bus service
0:22:41 > 0:22:45between Ottery and Exeter and on into Axminster,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47that it was a foregone conclusion.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51With the goods traffic gone from the station -
0:22:51 > 0:22:56you understand that took up the road transport system,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59which was cheaper, more economical,
0:22:59 > 0:23:05and the trains seemed to get so far behind, it was a foregone...
0:23:05 > 0:23:08There was a lot of controversy and a lot of sympathy for the railway.
0:23:08 > 0:23:13in the council I was on, the urban council, at that time.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16And there was a lot of talk
0:23:16 > 0:23:19and, in fact, there were meetings with the railways and bus services
0:23:19 > 0:23:23to see how many buses were going to connect up with the railways.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26You'd have a marvellous service to Ottery St Mary and suchlike,
0:23:26 > 0:23:27but it never came about.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30I mean, the promises were never carried out.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37So what about those branches? Jeff Vinter of the Railway Ramblers.
0:23:37 > 0:23:39Unfortunately, because the railways
0:23:39 > 0:23:42were in a very difficult financial circumstance
0:23:42 > 0:23:44when these closures took place,
0:23:44 > 0:23:47the lines were sold off,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49sometimes for very small sums of money,
0:23:49 > 0:23:52without any view to their re-use whatsoever.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56So, nowadays, the land is in a very fragmented state.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00If, 25 years ago, we had had a co-ordinated policy
0:24:00 > 0:24:04for the re-use of these abandoned railway lines,
0:24:04 > 0:24:08we could have ended up with a fabulous network of green lanes
0:24:08 > 0:24:13suitable for cyclists, walkers, interconnecting all over the country.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15You will have been in the position where, for example,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18you might have travelled to somewhere like Barnstaple,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22walked out to Ilfracombe, or Bideford, Torrington.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Walking down old railway lines is like passing through a gateway
0:24:27 > 0:24:29into a lost way of life.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32Into a past world when lines were regulated
0:24:32 > 0:24:35not so much by getting things done as fast as possible,
0:24:35 > 0:24:39but by the measured coming and going of the branch-line train.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41You'd find yourself in cuttings
0:24:41 > 0:24:43hewn out by sweat and toil by pick and axe,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46which now become private nature reserves,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49unknown to all but a few people like us who pass through them.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Walking down an old railway line isn't just a matter of striding out
0:24:56 > 0:24:59with six or seven friends and hoping for the best.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04You've got to get involved in finding out who owns the land,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08tracking them down, getting permission, and all the rest of it.
0:25:08 > 0:25:09So it's quite a major undertaking.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12It can involve a lot of letter writing,
0:25:12 > 0:25:15or, perhaps, travelling around, actually knocking on doors.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18In itself, that's quite interesting.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21It becomes extremely so if you should knock on the door
0:25:21 > 0:25:24of an old station and discover, for example,
0:25:24 > 0:25:27that the former station master still lives there.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33For the young Barry Smith, unaware that a Dr Beeching
0:25:33 > 0:25:36and hard times for the railways were both looming,
0:25:36 > 0:25:39the impending arrival of Exeter held an excitement
0:25:39 > 0:25:42which had nothing to do with its cathedral,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45but everything to do with the majesty of its loco shed.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Oh, Exmouth Junction, now that really was a shed.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53I love Nine Elms, and, of course, Salisbury,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56but Exmouth Junction had a ring about it, I think,
0:25:56 > 0:26:01because you could see the whole yard as you went by on the train.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03And, of course, trains were beginning to slow down then,
0:26:03 > 0:26:05because as you were getting close to Exeter,
0:26:05 > 0:26:09you didn't roar past at 60 or 70mph and see nothing.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13And there were lines of engines, everything.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16So it was a lovely place. Gorgeous building.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20It was at Exeter that the two competing railway lines,
0:26:20 > 0:26:24the one from Waterloo and the other one from Paddington,
0:26:24 > 0:26:25met and still do meet.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27And, on Barry Smith's journey,
0:26:27 > 0:26:31Exeter Central was the place of finding yet another train.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49Of course, at Exeter Central, I changed trains here to get
0:26:49 > 0:26:53the branch line down to Exmouth, in this bay here,
0:26:53 > 0:26:57which I don't think is used any more now for the branch-line trains.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01But the great thing, of course, about this branch is it still survives.
0:27:01 > 0:27:02It's the only surviving branch
0:27:02 > 0:27:06off the main line from Waterloo to Exeter.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09All the others have gone.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15After this station, of course, it'll be the end of the line, Exmouth.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19I don't know what I'm going to find there.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21There's a station there,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24but what sort of station, I just can't imagine.
0:27:24 > 0:27:26We'll soon find out, anyway.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28It doesn't take all that long to go down the line.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33Well, the River Exe may still be there, but the old M7 tank engines
0:27:33 > 0:27:38have long since vanished from this lovely piece of line.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43Exmouth Station was a lovely little station.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46I honestly can't remember the full details of it,
0:27:46 > 0:27:48but it seemed, if I remember, about three platforms.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52And, of course, it had an engine shed,
0:27:52 > 0:27:53which is always an attraction itself.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56It was a very small, one-rowed engine shed,
0:27:56 > 0:27:58which housed the loco off the branch.
0:27:58 > 0:27:59It always seemed a busy station.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02I think there must have been freight, because there were goods yards,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05so there was obviously a freight service, bringing coal and suchlike.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07It was a lovely little station.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10I just hope that it hasn't been altered too much.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21Well, here we are, journey's end.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23Exmouth. Sunny Exmouth!
0:28:23 > 0:28:25But what a lot of changes.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30Engine shed's gone, the yard's gone, the station's gone.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33Lovely station. Gone.
0:28:33 > 0:28:38When I came here, it was never like this, for a start, pouring with rain.
0:28:38 > 0:28:43I don't think it was. It was always sunny. Glorious Devon.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46This was the adverts in those days. It was gorgeous.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50ARCHIVE VOICEOVER: Apart from its wonderful stretch of coastline,
0:28:50 > 0:28:53golden beaches and clear blue seas, Exmouth has a lovely river.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57BARRY SMITH: I would call it a disaster, quite honestly.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00I'm absolutely appalled at what they've done to this station.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04No, I don't think it's a good experience at all, quite honestly.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08I don't think I'd recommend this to anybody, to come back.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11I think I'd prefer to remember it as I did, 40 years ago,
0:29:11 > 0:29:14with the smell of steam and...and as it was.
0:29:14 > 0:29:17ARCHIVE CONTINUES: As we take our last look at Exmouth,
0:29:17 > 0:29:20and remember our journey through the Raleigh country,
0:29:20 > 0:29:24pride mingles with regret at having to leave it all too soon.