0:00:02 > 0:00:04BBC Four Collections -
0:00:04 > 0:00:06archive programmes, chosen by experts.
0:00:06 > 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.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24MILITARY BAND PLAYS
0:00:44 > 0:00:46APPLAUSE Thank you.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49Sheffield Railwaymen's Club, Saturday night.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52We'd just like to, before we carry on, we'd just like to say
0:00:52 > 0:00:56we arrived yesterday, by the way, to make sure we were on time!
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Not like the British railways, always late.
0:00:59 > 0:01:00LAUGHTER
0:01:00 > 0:01:03We'd also like to say that you may think that we're getting
0:01:03 > 0:01:04a lot of money tonight, but we're not.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07We're getting a free pass on the railways.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10It's how it goes. Yes.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12They've all got free passes in here, anyway, haven't they?
0:01:14 > 0:01:21# Jezebel... #
0:01:24 > 0:01:32A steam locomotive is the nearest approach a man-made machine
0:01:32 > 0:01:36will ever be to a human being.
0:01:41 > 0:01:49Every driver and fireman looks upon this machine as a female.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52He always calls it "she".
0:01:53 > 0:01:56Never "it", never "he".
0:01:59 > 0:02:03And he has to pander to its whims.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06And a steam locomotive has whims.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10More so than what a diesel or an electric has.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16Once a steam man, always a steam man.
0:02:16 > 0:02:17Good on you.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19Nothing to touch 'em.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22You don't know what you're talking about.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26- You're an electric man. - I don't. I've never been on it!
0:02:26 > 0:02:28There's two or three of us here,
0:02:28 > 0:02:30we've worked steam, electric and diesel.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33And for the best engine of the lot is the electric.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36MUSIC: "The Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba" by Handel
0:03:25 > 0:03:29The Royal Scot leaving Euston in the 1930s,
0:03:29 > 0:03:31when railways were still heroic.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35They had been heroic since the beginning, since 1825.
0:03:35 > 0:03:36When they opened a new line
0:03:36 > 0:03:39and the first train steamed into the first station,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42they played See The Conquering Hero Comes.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47The Royal Scot, only a generation ago, was still a conquering hero.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51And in those days, the railway had its part in many remembered moments.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53When you parted, it was at Euston, or Liverpool Lime Street,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55or Edinburgh Waverley that you said goodbye.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59People travelled less, but remembered it more.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01ORCHESTRA PLAYS MELLOW SWING
0:04:49 > 0:04:52But this film is not only about railways.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55It's also about the men who work on them.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59In particular, about the men who run, or used to run,
0:04:59 > 0:05:03two lines in the North of England, where railways were first built.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17One line, the old Midland line from Birmingham New Street,
0:05:17 > 0:05:22by way of Derby, Belper, Ambergate and Chesterfield to Sheffield.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26And the former Great Central line from Sheffield Victoria
0:05:26 > 0:05:29across the Pennines by way of Penistone and Woodhead
0:05:29 > 0:05:31to Manchester.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35TRAIN HOOTER SOUNDS
0:05:36 > 0:05:39The hourly Manchester train pulls out from Sheffield
0:05:39 > 0:05:41for a journey of 41 miles,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44running across high moors, or cutting through them.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48The engineer who designed this line
0:05:48 > 0:05:50said it would join the east and west seas.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52He meant you would be able to sail from the Baltic
0:05:52 > 0:05:54to a port on the English east coast,
0:05:54 > 0:05:56come by rail to Sheffield,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59then travel his line to Manchester, continue to Liverpool
0:05:59 > 0:06:02and there catch the Atlantic packet to New York.
0:06:05 > 0:06:11And just about here, his grand railway began, on December 22, 1845,
0:06:11 > 0:06:12when the first through train
0:06:12 > 0:06:16on the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway
0:06:16 > 0:06:17left Bridgehouses Station.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21For many years past, the old station has been used as a goods depot
0:06:21 > 0:06:24and now they're pulling it down.
0:06:26 > 0:06:27It was at Bridgehouses
0:06:27 > 0:06:30that they had the potato siding engines must not enter,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33because the warehouse floor wasn't strong enough to take them
0:06:33 > 0:06:36and they would have fallen 30ft into the road.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43But five years before the first train ran,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45the first men on this line were navvies like these,
0:06:45 > 0:06:49who built it with their picks and shovels.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52In the 1840s, there were 200,000 of them working all over England
0:06:52 > 0:06:54and a tough and rowdy lot they were.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59# In 1841
0:06:59 > 0:07:03# My corduroy breeches I put on
0:07:03 > 0:07:06# My corduroy breeches I put on
0:07:06 > 0:07:08# To work upon the railway
0:07:08 > 0:07:10# The railway
0:07:11 > 0:07:17# I'm weary of the railway
0:07:17 > 0:07:20# Oh, Paddy works on the railway
0:07:20 > 0:07:23# In 1842
0:07:23 > 0:07:25# From Hartlepool I moved to Crewe
0:07:25 > 0:07:26# And found myself a job to do
0:07:26 > 0:07:28# A-working on the railway
0:07:28 > 0:07:31# I was wearing corduroy breeches
0:07:31 > 0:07:34# Digging ditches Dodging hitches
0:07:34 > 0:07:37# Pulling switches # I was working on the railway. #
0:07:37 > 0:07:39Tunnel building was the hardest task.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42An artist of the time saw it like this.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44The most notorious tunnel of all
0:07:44 > 0:07:47was on the Sheffield-Manchester line at Woodhead,
0:07:47 > 0:07:50where 1,500 men hacked and blasted three miles, 20 yards
0:07:50 > 0:07:53through millstone grit, shale, slate and clay.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55When he saw the plans, George Stephenson said
0:07:55 > 0:07:58he would eat the first train through the tunnel.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01CHOIR SINGS HYMN
0:08:11 > 0:08:14These are the moorland churches where they never went alive,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16but only to be buried.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21Their deaths are recorded in the parish registers at Penistone
0:08:21 > 0:08:23and in the Chapel of St James at Woodhead.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27They died when falling rock caught them,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29or they fell 600ft down a ventilating shaft,
0:08:29 > 0:08:31or stood too close to the blasting.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44John Young, killed on the railway, aged 59.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51Robert Blackburn, aged 38.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53John Thorpe, aged 24.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57And their children died, too, in the shanty camps.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00John Henry Newton, aged nine months.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02And then there was cholera.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05They suffered cramps, their fingers shrivelled, their eyes sank,
0:09:05 > 0:09:07they turned blue.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11A doctor from Manchester prescribed port wine as a remedy and they died.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14The others, when they saw a load of coffins,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17brought up to Woodhead to supply the expected need,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20ran away and spread the infection over Lancashire and Cheshire.
0:09:20 > 0:09:2328 died in one brief epidemic.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27The last was Rachel Foulkes, who came to nurse the men on a Friday,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30was afraid from the first and died on the Monday.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44The navvies' greatest memorial is the tunnel they built,
0:09:44 > 0:09:46which was, at the time, the longest in the world.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02Under steam, it was always quite a task keeping to time.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06A lot depended on the conditions of the engine
0:10:06 > 0:10:07and these varied considerably.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11Much more so than the diesel and electrics.
0:10:11 > 0:10:17There was probably much more margin for error, let's put it that way,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19both human and mechanical.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26With the electrics and dieselisation, of course,
0:10:26 > 0:10:28it was a different world altogether for locomotive men.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33I think we look back on steam with a small sigh of nostalgia
0:10:33 > 0:10:35and a great big sigh of relief.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38MUSIC: Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No 2
0:11:16 > 0:11:18We're approaching Penistone now.
0:11:22 > 0:11:23Penistone, I should think,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26is one of the coldest places in England in the winter.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31During snow and frost, conditions can be rough, with the electrics.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34We get quite a lot of slipping.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41We have to take great care not to get the resistances of the engine hot -
0:11:41 > 0:11:44they burn out and the engine is a failure.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48And that means probably someone has got quite a long walk,
0:11:48 > 0:11:49possibly the driver!
0:11:57 > 0:12:01The Midland line. Now, the Midland was a solid railway,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03which flourished by carrying coal and iron
0:12:03 > 0:12:05and by looking after its passengers.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09In 1872, it admitted third-class passengers to all its trains,
0:12:09 > 0:12:11not just the slow ones.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15In 1875, it upholstered all third-class carriages,
0:12:15 > 0:12:16which was unheard of.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21The other companies scoffed at first, but then were forced to do the same.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23The Midland always paid.
0:12:27 > 0:12:28Leaving Birmingham,
0:12:28 > 0:12:32the express from Poole and Bournemouth to Sheffield and York.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34At the controls, Arthur Lindsay, aged 50,
0:12:34 > 0:12:3733 years on the railway, basic pay, £19 a week.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Ken Morgan, second man, aged 27,
0:12:40 > 0:12:41basic pay £14 a week.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30Every loco man, his object is to do time, as we term it.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33That is to leave on time and arrive on time
0:13:33 > 0:13:37and there is nobody fumes more than the driver
0:13:37 > 0:13:39if he is delayed by signals.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42But even then, you have to do your best and abide by it.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47The other week, in thick fog, we left Pancras on time
0:13:47 > 0:13:49and arrived at Sheffield Midland two minutes late -
0:13:49 > 0:13:53which I don't think is so bad, really, in dense fog -
0:13:53 > 0:13:56and waited six minutes outside for the signals
0:13:56 > 0:13:59and arrived eight minutes late.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02Probably a points failure, something like this.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04At least, you feel more satisfied when you've got to time.
0:14:10 > 0:14:11Ticket, sir.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17Thank you.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20Ten minutes to four, we're due in. Thank you.
0:14:25 > 0:14:26Thank you.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32Darlington. Change at York, madam.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35- Thank you. - Thank you.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49I've had occasions when we've run into Pancras on time
0:14:49 > 0:14:52and someone's come up and said, "Thank you, driver,"
0:14:52 > 0:14:53and it's really appreciated.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57If you are on time, probably no-one will speak.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00If you're a little minute before time, they will acknowledge it.
0:15:00 > 0:15:01If they're late,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04they all walk by with their heads down, sort of business.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Particularly, elderly people will thank you.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09Old ladies, particularly.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11HE LAUGHS I don't know whether we look
0:15:11 > 0:15:13as if we need some sort of sympathy!
0:15:19 > 0:15:21TRAIN HOOTER SOUNDS
0:15:33 > 0:15:39I like the life. You get about, you know, meet different people.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44It's not a job where you're stuck in one place all the time.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48The newspapers have run this job down something terrible.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50That's my own opinion.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55There has never been a true picture put over as to what this job
0:15:55 > 0:15:58actually involves and the time, the apprenticeship more or less,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02what you've got to serve to get into, you know, your top post.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Some of the older drivers beyond my days were really...
0:16:07 > 0:16:12I think they took the place of the jet pilot of today.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15They'd gone from the stagecoach to the steam engine
0:16:15 > 0:16:18and I think they've gone from the steam engine now
0:16:18 > 0:16:20to the internal combustion engine.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22We're bound to have found
0:16:22 > 0:16:25a deterioration in the glamour of the job, I think.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30These people, they were little tin gods, really,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32in the old days of driving.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37People used to approach an engine driver with awe.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40Today, we approach pilots of airlines, I should imagine,
0:16:40 > 0:16:41in the same manner.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03This line, the Sheffield-Manchester, though it never paid,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05was the first in the country to be electrified
0:17:05 > 0:17:07for both passenger and goods trains.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10But the change to overhead electrification
0:17:10 > 0:17:12started before the war,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15long before today's inter-city electrification out of Euston.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33We've left Penistone now, on the road to Dunford.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36That is the eastern end of Woodhead Tunnel.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49MUSIC: Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No 2
0:18:21 > 0:18:24After Penistone, the country is wild, with more sheep than men.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27It's a place where nothing much has happened
0:18:27 > 0:18:28since they first built the line.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32There's still a vague tradition about the cholera epidemic of 1849,
0:18:32 > 0:18:34only they talk about it as "the plague".
0:18:45 > 0:18:49This is the new Woodhead Tunnel, built for the electrification.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52The old tunnels, which are closed now, had an evil reputation.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55The train smoke gathered so densely and hung around so long,
0:18:55 > 0:18:58that the gangers maintaining the line often had trouble
0:18:58 > 0:19:01feeling their way through, even with lamps.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03Many got silicosis
0:19:03 > 0:19:06and some became invalids after as little as six years.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09It's always been damp and smelly.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Railwaymen called it "under the hill"
0:19:12 > 0:19:14and said you could get an idea of the tunnel taste
0:19:14 > 0:19:16by drinking bad port wine
0:19:16 > 0:19:19and savouring the taste it left in your mouth afterwards.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22Sometimes, the drivers were half suffocated.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25The footplate was smothered in steam and dirty smoke
0:19:25 > 0:19:28and the driver and fireman had to crouch low down
0:19:28 > 0:19:29to get some breathable air.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31I used to try to have a good fire on
0:19:31 > 0:19:34and keep the smoke down as much as possible,
0:19:34 > 0:19:36because it was terrifying in the tunnel,
0:19:36 > 0:19:38because it hit the chimney and came back onto you.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41You couldn't sometimes see your mate at the other side,
0:19:41 > 0:19:42you didn't know what he was doing.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44You were sometimes gasping for breath
0:19:44 > 0:19:49and you were damn glad to get through in anything like reasonable time.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56It was terrible to breathe, it was just like breathing carbon.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59It's like putting your head in a firebox and breathing.
0:19:59 > 0:20:00What we used to do,
0:20:00 > 0:20:03we used to have a bucket of water on the footplate,
0:20:03 > 0:20:07have a handkerchief or a white rag, as the company used to give us,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10dip it in the bucket and wrap it around your mouth
0:20:10 > 0:20:11and get in the corner.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26TRAIN HOOTER SOUNDS
0:20:35 > 0:20:38Woodhead signal box, and signalman Michael Gatenby, aged 21.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43When he left school, he worked in a shop, then a factory, then a mill.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45But he'd been interested in railways since he was five
0:20:45 > 0:20:49and when he was 18, he decided to train as a signalman.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54His is one of the loneliest boxes on the line, but a busy one.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56His basic pay is £17 7s.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59BELLS RING
0:21:02 > 0:21:05It's one of the most responsible jobs there is, signalman,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08no doubt about it, come to think of it.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12It is more important than a pilot's.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16A pilot has got the life of the people on the plane in his hands.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21A signalman has got the lives of two passenger trains coming up.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23Look at all those lives.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27One wrong move, there's no element of mistake in this job.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29It's a job where you can't make mistakes.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Although they do happen and we've seen the consequences.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34Control's ringing.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39Woodhead. Hello, David.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43Er, Z70 down at 47.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46Two coupled for Penistone at 12:13.
0:21:48 > 0:21:49That's it. TRAIN HOOTER
0:21:51 > 0:21:53Just coming out now. Train engine section.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04Tell Dunford it's gone.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06BELLS RING
0:22:14 > 0:22:16That's the driver ringing in from that train
0:22:16 > 0:22:18to tell me that he's arrived.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20Hello. Yeah.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25Yeah.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29Er, aye, yeah. OK. Thank you.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Yes, I can't go before he gives me the tip.
0:22:38 > 0:22:39The Poole-York express.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47Keith Foster, aged 40, born in Calcutta,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49the son of a district signals engineer
0:22:49 > 0:22:52on the Eastern Bengal Railway.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54He's been a cleaner, fireman and shunter,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57but is now a passenger train guard on the Midland run
0:22:57 > 0:23:00to Sheffield and York. Pay - £15 13s.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09WOMAN: Smile for the birdie!
0:23:17 > 0:23:20I was one of those youngsters who felt that I'd like to play
0:23:20 > 0:23:23with a toy train and I've continued playing with them ever since.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30About four years since, I left it,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33due to all this modernisation and what have you,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36because I felt uncertain in my position.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39But, having left it, I had that period of separation for two years
0:23:39 > 0:23:44from the railway, and I felt completely like a fish out of water.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47I couldn't settle anywhere. I had a host of jobs.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50Till, eventually, the calling was so strong.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52You know the old saying,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56you get sawdust in your veins when you work in a circus.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58The same with the railway.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00So the calling was strong again.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03I decided to swallow a bit of pride because, believe you me,
0:24:03 > 0:24:05there's a tremendous amount of pride involved
0:24:05 > 0:24:08when you have to start back afresh on the railways.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11But now that I've made the move and I've made the grade
0:24:11 > 0:24:15in this particular department, I'm not a bit sorry.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21I'm more than satisfied now. I'm a very satisfied man today.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Dedication to a particular type of industry,
0:24:30 > 0:24:32that seems to have gone from the railways.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37You don't get that feeling among youngsters nowadays.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40They look on the railways as an oddity, a museum piece.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42Something to be studied from a museum point,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46to go and see at Clapham or at York. We don't like this.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52We thought that when we started working in the industry,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55we wanted to make it progressive to the point where everybody
0:24:55 > 0:24:58appreciated travelling on the railway and would like to travel.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02But this, what with the increased fares on the railways,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04discouraging passengers one way or another,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06they've made things a bit difficult.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Some people seem to be of the opinion
0:25:10 > 0:25:13that all you have to do is to make the railways pay
0:25:13 > 0:25:17and everybody's happy. I'm afraid they're disillusioned.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19They haven't seen that in the majority of the railwaymen,
0:25:19 > 0:25:21morale is very low.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Past years, we've had butchers, bakers, candlestick makers.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31They've all had a go at running railways
0:25:31 > 0:25:34because they've justified themselves as good economists
0:25:34 > 0:25:37in their particular field. You don't have that today.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41On the railways today, you can have anybody you like,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44you'll never satisfy the people unless you get a railwayman
0:25:44 > 0:25:47who infuses that feeling into the people that are working under him
0:25:47 > 0:25:50that he understands what they're doing.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53And Mr Johnson, who is our present chief,
0:25:53 > 0:25:55he is about the nearest we've had to a railwayman
0:25:55 > 0:25:57come into the industry now.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01We're hoping that he'll give us a squarer deal.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03Northwards towards Sheffield,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06where the principal commodities carried are steel and coal in trucks
0:26:06 > 0:26:09and businessmen in first-class coaches.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11One tenth of all freight on British Rail
0:26:11 > 0:26:13starts in the Sheffield division,
0:26:13 > 0:26:17where more than £11 million have been spent to bring things up to date
0:26:17 > 0:26:22in the last few years, and where 7,300 railwaymen work and live.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24# Ob-la-di Ob-la-da
0:26:24 > 0:26:26# Life goes on Whoa!
0:26:26 > 0:26:30# La-la la-la Life goes on
0:26:30 > 0:26:32# Ob-la-di Ob-la-da
0:26:32 > 0:26:34# Life goes on Whoa!
0:26:34 > 0:26:38# La-la la-la Life goes on... #
0:26:38 > 0:26:42The Sheffield club is a place where any railwayman can come
0:26:42 > 0:26:45and bring his wife and children, if he likes.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48# Takes it back to Molly Waiting at the door... #
0:26:48 > 0:26:50The younger men of British Rail drink,
0:26:50 > 0:26:52play darts or billiards,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54while the older men of the LNER and LMS,
0:26:54 > 0:26:58or, still further back, of the Great Central or Midland Railways -
0:26:58 > 0:27:01and they still think of themselves like that -
0:27:01 > 0:27:03drink and talk in the back rooms,
0:27:03 > 0:27:06remember their old distinctions with pleasure
0:27:06 > 0:27:07and argue the toss.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11There was more art, there was more skill, there was more,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14what shall I say, there was more harmony
0:27:14 > 0:27:17between the two men. The two men there, you had a job to do.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19That was where the pride of craft...
0:27:19 > 0:27:22- There's none of that today! - The pride of craft was there.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24Well, listen, you've had your...
0:27:24 > 0:27:26You've had your say, Jack. Just a minute.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28A steam engine is out of date.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER
0:27:32 > 0:27:35And they don't expect to come through.
0:27:35 > 0:27:36It may be out of date...
0:27:36 > 0:27:38ALL SPEAK AT ONCE
0:27:39 > 0:27:41Steam engines will come back.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44A diesel, if it stops with a defect, it's a dead duck.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48But a steam engine that stops with a defect,
0:27:48 > 0:27:53even a side rod, you could get out of the way with it in the sidings.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56There wasn't the delay there is today - two and three hours.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59You had to clear the main line and you could do,
0:27:59 > 0:28:02because you'd still got some power.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05The steam engine is obsolete and I'll give you a case in point, Jack.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09You take a heavy coal train from Sheffield, a single load, about 41.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12Today, the electric will take more.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15There's not the skill. I don't care a bugger what you say,
0:28:15 > 0:28:19there's not the skill in driving an electric or a diesel engine
0:28:19 > 0:28:21as there is in driving a steam train.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25You've got nearly an unlimited power.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38When they argue the superiority of steam,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40they don't mean at all that it was more efficient,
0:28:40 > 0:28:42because they know it wasn't.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47But steam to them is better because it was a more demanding thing.
0:28:47 > 0:28:49It was a difficult thing to do well
0:28:49 > 0:28:52and they take pleasure in remembering how they did it.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59We used to walk in the shed at Millhouses
0:28:59 > 0:29:01when I was a young engine cleaner.
0:29:01 > 0:29:07The smell of locomotives, it used to be like a bit of ozone, you know?
0:29:07 > 0:29:11The smell of a locomotive, it's like the smell of ozone.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13Beautiful.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17Yes, I've had some happy times on the old steamers.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20Especially when we used to go down the West of England.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22You'd get the other side of Bromsgrove,
0:29:22 > 0:29:23it was like a different country.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27Especially spring of the year,
0:29:27 > 0:29:32approaching Ashchurch and all the blossom was on the trees.
0:29:32 > 0:29:33The apple blossom.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36You could smell it miles away when the wind was in the right direction.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38Really marvellous.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43Yes, those days will never come back again. Not for me, anyway.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45Lovely.
0:30:11 > 0:30:16I think if I had my time to come over again, I'd do it again. I loved it.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18I loved the steam engines. They were smashing.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39Euston, Britain's newest mainline station
0:30:39 > 0:30:42and full of the latest architectural textures.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46White mosaic, black polished granite, aluminium, glass,
0:30:46 > 0:30:50reinforced concrete and blue-black stove-enamelled steel.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52And people off to see friends this weekend.
0:30:57 > 0:30:5923 acres in all and, in the concourse,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02plenty of room for 30,000 passengers a day
0:31:02 > 0:31:06to hurry to and from trains, but no room for anybody to sit.
0:31:06 > 0:31:07There are no seats,
0:31:07 > 0:31:10because British Rail says they would only attract vagrants.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24The seats in the bars are plastic and hard
0:31:24 > 0:31:25and the superloo is sixpence.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30The only old things are the statues,
0:31:30 > 0:31:32saved from the famous great hall of the old station.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38The power box. All electric, with buttons to push and little switches.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42Not so real, somehow, as the heavy signal levers of the Great Central.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44More like playing with toy trains.
0:31:50 > 0:31:55The 9 hours to Manchester will leave from platform 13.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00Calling at Rugby, Stafford,
0:32:00 > 0:32:05Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly.
0:32:05 > 0:32:11Meals, light refreshments and drinks are available on this service.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16Platform 13 for the 9 hours to Manchester.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24It is not nearly so dramatic or so heroic
0:32:24 > 0:32:26as the Royal Scot of 40 years ago,
0:32:26 > 0:32:29but it's a lot cleaner and it's faster.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31And this is the way railways are going.
0:32:46 > 0:32:50Today's top expresses can do the 188 miles from Euston to Manchester
0:32:50 > 0:32:53in as little as 150 minutes
0:32:53 > 0:32:57and that, city centre to city centre, is faster than flying.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59MUSIC: "Good Morning Starshine"
0:32:59 > 0:33:03# L-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a
0:33:03 > 0:33:07# La-da da da-da da Da-da da da-da da
0:33:10 > 0:33:17# Ba-ba da ba-ba da Ba-ba da ba-ba da
0:33:17 > 0:33:21# Good morning, starshine
0:33:21 > 0:33:24# The Earth says hello.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28# You twinkle above us
0:33:28 > 0:33:32# We twinkle below
0:33:32 > 0:33:35# Good morning, starshine
0:33:37 > 0:33:40# You lead us along
0:33:40 > 0:33:45# My love and me as we sing
0:33:45 > 0:33:49# Our early-mornings singing song
0:33:49 > 0:33:51# Gliddy gloop gloopy
0:33:51 > 0:33:53# Nibby nobby nooby
0:33:53 > 0:33:56# La la la Lo lo
0:33:57 > 0:33:59# Abba dooby sabba
0:33:59 > 0:34:01# Dooby abba nabba
0:34:01 > 0:34:03# Le le lo lo
0:34:05 > 0:34:06# Dooby ooby walla
0:34:06 > 0:34:08# Dooby abba dabba
0:34:08 > 0:34:10# Early morning singing song
0:34:10 > 0:34:15# Song song song Singing sing sing song
0:34:18 > 0:34:23# Song song song Singing sing sing song. #
0:34:39 > 0:34:41The old goods train can be modern and glossy, too.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44Twice a day, the Freightliner ships from Zeebrugge
0:34:44 > 0:34:46come into the Harwich terminal.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49The containers are pulled out of the hold, lowered onto lorries
0:34:49 > 0:34:52and driven off to be lowered onto Freightliner trains.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58"Containerisation" is a mighty big word.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01But what it means is that goods are packed into containers
0:35:01 > 0:35:04all the same size, which can be handled by the same cranes
0:35:04 > 0:35:05and the same lorries
0:35:05 > 0:35:09and loaded onto long trains of the same size trucks.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13Freightliners only started in 1965, but by next year,
0:35:13 > 0:35:15they hope to have 80 Freightliner routes,
0:35:15 > 0:35:17carrying a million containers a year.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23Five nights a week, around midnight, a Freightliner train leaves Harwich
0:35:23 > 0:35:25for Manchester.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28It travels at 75 miles an hour and gets in by breakfast time
0:35:28 > 0:35:30and there are no stops on the way.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36# No more will I go
0:35:36 > 0:35:38# To Blandford Forum
0:35:38 > 0:35:41# And Mortehoe
0:35:42 > 0:35:44# On the slow train
0:35:44 > 0:35:50# From Midsomer Norton And Mumby Road
0:35:51 > 0:35:53# No churns, no porter
0:35:53 > 0:35:56# No cat on a seat
0:35:56 > 0:36:00# At Chorlton-cum-Hardy Or Chester-le-Street
0:36:00 > 0:36:03# We won't be meeting again
0:36:03 > 0:36:06# On the slow train
0:36:08 > 0:36:13# On the slow train. #
0:36:23 > 0:36:25Sheffield, too, has a new way with freight.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32At the new electronic marshalling yard at Tinsley,
0:36:32 > 0:36:35the points change by computer tape
0:36:35 > 0:36:38and the trucks are guided into one of 53 different sidings.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40From the spot where they are automatically sorted
0:36:40 > 0:36:43to the time they enter the right siding,
0:36:43 > 0:36:45trucks have a quarter of a mile to run.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49Tiny devices at the side of the rails sense how fast the truck is moving
0:36:49 > 0:36:52and either brake it or give it a boost.
0:36:56 > 0:36:58Tinsley covers 145 acres.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01Everything here has been built since 1961.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04It is one of the most modern and complex marshalling yards
0:37:04 > 0:37:06anywhere in the world.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20All this is a long, long way from the railways of 20 years ago.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23From the railways of 50 years ago, it is an age.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28I started on the railway at six shillings a week as a van boy.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32Time I was 20, I was getting £2 a week.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36I got married and raised a family up on 50 shillings a week.
0:37:36 > 0:37:42The most you could get as a shunter or guard was 65 shillings a week.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46You know, you're living on the poverty verge all those years.
0:37:46 > 0:37:51It's only just this last few years it's got a lot better
0:37:51 > 0:37:53and it's worth having now.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56I will say it. A railway career is worth having today.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00As a railwayman, I enjoyed every minute of it.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04The bad hours, they had their compensation.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08I, er, enjoyed them to the full.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11But there's only one thing, one disagreeable part of this life,
0:38:11 > 0:38:13it spoilt your social life
0:38:13 > 0:38:17and, in consequence, the wife's life was spoilt, as well.
0:38:17 > 0:38:24I think they're damned good women who stick to locomotive men.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26You know, I think they are the salt of the earth,
0:38:26 > 0:38:30for the simple reason their social life's ruined as well as ours.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32I've had a good time, you know.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36I've had a good wife to look after me and that kind of thing.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39See to me when I get home and keep the kids quiet in the street,
0:38:39 > 0:38:40that's one of the main things.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43"Go out to the rag-and-bone man, have a row with them."
0:38:43 > 0:38:44"Clear off, get off!"
0:38:44 > 0:38:46"Rags and bones," they're shouting
0:38:46 > 0:38:48Oh, gosh, I'm woke up again.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51"Keep the kids quiet." The kids will come home.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53"Is my dad at work, or is he in bed?" You know, that kind of thing.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56That's how you were in those days. All these chaps know.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59They're the same, they've had the same rotten hours as us.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03A fellow came up one day selling fish on his fish cart.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05I just hardly got to sleep and he's shouting.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08And I got up to the window and I said,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12"I'll come and break your so-and-so neck, if you don't shut up!"
0:39:12 > 0:39:13HE LAUGHS
0:39:13 > 0:39:16Nicely gone off to sleep, perhaps in the middle of the morning.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20Fancy getting home, on some of those jobs, at ten in the morning,
0:39:20 > 0:39:22missus would be washing.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24What could you do? If you went to bed, everybody was making a row.
0:39:24 > 0:39:28Kids were in the yards, shouting and screaming and playing about.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31After all, I think we all enjoyed ourselves.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34I think railwaymen, they're a community of their own.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36There's no other job, really,
0:39:36 > 0:39:40that had the rotten hours to put up with as we had.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42But, by and large, I've had a good time and I've done very well.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50We used to come from Gloucester
0:39:50 > 0:39:53with the seven o'clock from Gloucester in the morning
0:39:53 > 0:39:55to Birmingham New Street.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58I used to couple off the train, drop into the siding.
0:39:58 > 0:40:00We used to call that sidings the parlour.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05My mate's job, approaching New Street, was to swill the shovel out.
0:40:05 > 0:40:06Get in the parlour,
0:40:06 > 0:40:11bacon, a couple of Gloucester eggs in the shovel and have a good fry up.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14Believe me, you can't get a better feed
0:40:14 > 0:40:16than bacon and eggs fried on a shovel.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21I've cooked steak, kippers, the lot on the old shovel.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24In fact, the company got a bit old-fashioned to it after a bit.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26They started drilling holes in the shovel,
0:40:26 > 0:40:29so you couldn't use it as a frying pan.
0:40:29 > 0:40:30Ah, yes.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35Yes, I used to enjoy my breakfast at Birmingham New Street
0:40:35 > 0:40:38at that time of day.
0:40:38 > 0:40:39Sheffield Bridgehouses,
0:40:39 > 0:40:44the first terminus of the Sheffield Manchester Railway, is in ruins.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46The navvies are smashing it up and burning the rubbish
0:40:46 > 0:40:47and bits and pieces.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54There aren't any potatoes here any more.
0:40:54 > 0:40:56Or any engines.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59Only the bulldozers of the demolition men.
0:41:01 > 0:41:06This was Bridgehouses in its glory, with lorries and clutter
0:41:06 > 0:41:08and cramped, tiny buildings.
0:41:08 > 0:41:10The potato siding in the background
0:41:10 > 0:41:14and the long canopy of the goods station on the left.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28Bridgehouses was one of four old goods yards in Sheffield.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30They have all vanished now.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51The old engineers built to last.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55They said their works would last 100 years and, even after 125,
0:41:55 > 0:41:59the bulldozers have a hard time tearing it all down.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36The Poole to York express approaches Sheffield.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43For years, the old Midland Railway was deadly enemies with
0:42:43 > 0:42:48the patrician London North Western, which called itself the premier line.
0:42:48 > 0:42:49To which the Midland,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52which didn't have the fastest trains or the biggest engines,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56but generally ran to time, replied that the London North Western
0:42:56 > 0:42:58might call itself what it pleased,
0:42:58 > 0:43:00but that the Midland was the best way.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14This line will remain
0:43:14 > 0:43:17as one of the railway's profitable north-south routes,
0:43:17 > 0:43:21serving the South Coast, the Midlands, the North and Scotland.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23Its future is assured.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08But the future of the Sheffield-Manchester line,
0:44:08 > 0:44:12the old Great Central route through Woodhead, isn't so assured.
0:44:12 > 0:44:13For some years now,
0:44:13 > 0:44:16there has been talk of closing the line to passenger trains.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31What do the men who work the line think of this prospect?
0:44:32 > 0:44:35Well, if they close this line to passenger traffic,
0:44:35 > 0:44:41of course, it will be a blow to my depot...
0:44:42 > 0:44:44..which will lose several jobs.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47But I think it would be a crying shame,
0:44:47 > 0:44:52because I think this is one of the best inter-city services there is.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55Nearly an hourly service from each way
0:44:55 > 0:44:57and we do the journey in about an hour.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02I just think it would be a crying shame.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04In fact, it's now been decided.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06The passenger service which has run on this line
0:45:06 > 0:45:10since the first ceremonial train of December 1845, is closing.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13Freight trains will continue
0:45:13 > 0:45:17and a passenger service by another route will still link the two cities.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21But, by January 1970, the last passenger train will have run from
0:45:21 > 0:45:26Sheffield Victoria through Penistone and Woodhead to Manchester.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35We're approaching Manchester Piccadilly now.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38It used to be called Manchester London Road,
0:45:38 > 0:45:39this station, by the way.
0:45:44 > 0:45:46Dropping down in speed now.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50It's a dead-end station, this, so we have to drop in pretty carefully.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54A slight touch on the stock locks could probably cause
0:45:54 > 0:45:56quite a few injuries.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00Coming into the station now.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03That's it, now, just about on time.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06MUSIC: "See The Conquering Hero Comes" by Handel