0:00:05 > 0:00:09In the 1800s, rail workers were changing our landscape
0:00:09 > 0:00:12and creating new powerhouses of industrial engineering.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18Railways were the making of towns like Derby, Crewe and Swindon,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21as they became key players in the transport revolution.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27The expanding network was at the heart of modern, powerful
0:00:27 > 0:00:32Victorian Britain, a Britain bursting with energy and confidence.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38Railways were transforming virtually everything.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41From where we live, to how we work,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44from what we eat, to how we spend our leisure time.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47They gave us a new shared identity and culture.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57It was a gold rush, and there was money to be made and lost.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03The railways were playing a key role in our economic prosperity,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07but they were also profoundly affecting the WAY we do business,
0:01:07 > 0:01:08something that continues to this day.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28Slicing through the Derbyshire Dales, this line,
0:01:28 > 0:01:32now operated by Peak Rail, dates back to the 1840s.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36It was part of a route which once connected Matlock to Manchester.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42Now a heritage railway, it takes day-trippers on a journey,
0:01:42 > 0:01:44to a bygone age of steam.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50It was one of hundreds of rail routes constructed
0:01:50 > 0:01:54in the 19th century, part of a new, exciting transport network,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56reinvigorating the nation's economy.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02As the Industrial Revolution surged ahead,
0:02:02 > 0:02:04it consumed more raw materials than ever before.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11Many of the early railways were funded by local businessmen,
0:02:11 > 0:02:14who wanted to move their goods more quickly than canals
0:02:14 > 0:02:17or turnpike roads would let them.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19The most important was coal,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22but where it was mined wasn't where it was needed most.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27The Foxfield in Staffordshire is a case in point,
0:02:27 > 0:02:29another of our great heritage lines,
0:02:29 > 0:02:33originally built in the late Victorian period to transport coal.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40But as the early network began to grow,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43it became clear that transporting passengers was going to be
0:02:43 > 0:02:45an equally important source of revenue.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53The publicity surrounding the opening of the ground-breaking
0:02:53 > 0:02:55Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58and the returns on the investments,
0:02:58 > 0:03:00really made the nation sit up and take notice.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08Over the next few years,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12the main spines of a national rail network were laid down.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15Conditions were ripe for investment on a wider scale
0:03:15 > 0:03:17than just local business interests.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22The stage was set for a frenzy of public investment and speculation
0:03:22 > 0:03:27in the mid-1840s. This was later christened Railway Mania.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37So, Jane, there had been investment manias before, hadn't there?
0:03:37 > 0:03:40Like the tulip bubble, and of course, the investment in canals,
0:03:40 > 0:03:42but what made railways different?
0:03:42 > 0:03:45Well, it was on a completely different scale.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48People were really attracted by those high rates of return that
0:03:48 > 0:03:52they could get from buying shares in the early railway companies.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59And those big branch lines, they delivered quite high
0:03:59 > 0:04:02rates of return, particularly compared to government stock,
0:04:02 > 0:04:04which the interest rates were low.
0:04:07 > 0:04:08TRAIN WHISTLE TOOTS
0:04:09 > 0:04:13And unlike the tulip mania or the dot-com bubble,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16railways left us with something really palpable -
0:04:16 > 0:04:20a transport network that drew the whole economy together.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30This Punch cartoon, entitled The Railway Juggernaut of 1845,
0:04:30 > 0:04:32nicely captures how Victorian Britain
0:04:32 > 0:04:34was caught up in Railway Mania.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38The locomotive, called Speculation, is seen ploughing through crowds
0:04:38 > 0:04:41of investors, literally throwing themselves, with money bags,
0:04:41 > 0:04:43under the path of the loco.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50A single share in a canal company was relatively expensive,
0:04:50 > 0:04:52and out of reach for many.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55The new railway shares could be bought for just a few pounds,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57making them much more affordable.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03So, basically, for people on small incomes,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06this is an accessible way to invest, isn't it?
0:05:06 > 0:05:10Spinsters, widows, people with small bits of money,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13hoping to make a return, but in this way
0:05:13 > 0:05:18also contributing to an important infrastructure project,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21that is going to be a platform for the growth of the British economy.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Capitalism was getting faster, and trading in railway shares
0:05:28 > 0:05:31became the lifeblood of not only the London Stock Exchange,
0:05:31 > 0:05:35but a host of smaller exchanges opening in provincial towns.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39It had never been easier to buy railway stock.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Places like this, in Nottingham, allowed people
0:05:42 > 0:05:45to trade shares locally. They often used the new technology
0:05:45 > 0:05:48of the telegraph to transmit information across the country.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56As well as regional exchanges, a huge back office industry emerged
0:05:56 > 0:05:59as part of the new railway gold rush.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Printers fulfilled the demand for fancy engraved share certificates.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08The press thrived from railway company advertisements.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15There were the beginnings of the financial press we know today.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19By 1845, there were no fewer than 15 weekly railway journals.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26Thanks to all this public interest and investment, by the mid-1840s,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29the railways completely dominated the country's economic activity.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35Railway Mania reached a peak in 1846,
0:06:35 > 0:06:38when 272 Acts of Parliament were passed,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42authorising 9,500 miles of new track.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48Not all of these made it off the drawing board.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52Some replicated existing lines, some were fanciful,
0:06:52 > 0:06:54and others were downright fraudulent,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56but nevertheless, thousands of miles of track were built
0:06:56 > 0:06:58as a result of the mania.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04But there was never a grand national plan.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10From the start, Parliament authorised new lines,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13but it was private initiative that drove the railway boom.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20At the beginning, these were local projects,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23where local people could see them being built,
0:07:23 > 0:07:24want to invest in them,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27they would benefit from the building of these railways,
0:07:27 > 0:07:32in terms of passenger travel, in terms of trade and commerce.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36So they'd be investing in what they saw as local projects
0:07:36 > 0:07:38that would benefit their local area.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42'Welcome to Derby station.'
0:07:43 > 0:07:46The upshot of all this was that train companies evolved
0:07:46 > 0:07:48in something of a haphazard manner.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52Here at Derby, three train companies shared the same station.
0:07:56 > 0:08:01The North Midland Railway ran trains between Derby and Leeds.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Midland Counties Railway connected Nottingham and Derby
0:08:04 > 0:08:06with Leicester and Rugby.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08And the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway
0:08:08 > 0:08:11offered another route towards the capital.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17From the start, there was an intense tit-for-tat competition
0:08:17 > 0:08:20between the two southbound routes of transport,
0:08:20 > 0:08:22especially over traffic to London.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27The outcome of this rivalry was that both the Midland Counties
0:08:27 > 0:08:30and the Birmingham and Derby started a price war,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32and slashed their fares to the bone.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34They then became strapped for cash,
0:08:34 > 0:08:37paying out minuscule dividends to their shareholders.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43The network was crying out for rationalisation.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47After its initial unrestrained, haphazard growth,
0:08:47 > 0:08:49order was desperately needed,
0:08:49 > 0:08:51if only to increase profitability and efficiency.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59One of the men who would make this happen was George Hudson,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02a man who had come to be known as the Railway King by his admirers,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05and the Railway Napoleon by his enemies.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10After meeting George Stephenson, he became obsessed with the idea
0:09:10 > 0:09:13of starting a railway empire,
0:09:13 > 0:09:15and soon set out on a career of acquiring
0:09:15 > 0:09:17as many railways as he could.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28So George Hudson, in the early days, he's buying up all these companies.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30He's a real empire builder, isn't he?
0:09:30 > 0:09:33He is. He feels he can achieve anything.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36He also feels, with railway companies coming
0:09:36 > 0:09:39and rising up everywhere, he can unify them.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41This is really a quite revolutionary step, isn't it?
0:09:41 > 0:09:43Getting all of these companies to work together?
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Completely. I mean, it was chaos.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49The beginning of the railway revolution was utter chaos,
0:09:49 > 0:09:51and somebody needed to stamp some uniformity on it.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54Hudson, by the sheer force of his personality,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57was exactly the right man to do that.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01He created a tremendous railway empire within about ten years,
0:10:01 > 0:10:03an incredible achievement.
0:10:07 > 0:10:12In 1844, Hudson oversaw the merger of his own company, North Midland,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15with the two others based here in Derby, and by doing so,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19dangled the prospect of big profits to the mesmerised shareholders.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24And so, the Midland Railway was created.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26Hudson was its new chairman,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29in charge of track stretching from Leeds in the north,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32to Rugby in the south, with Derby as the headquarters.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39This is the former carriage and wagon works here at Derby.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41It's currently owned by Bombardier,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44who make the trains for Crossrail and Gatwick Express,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47and it's a reminder of just how much Derby and the railways
0:10:47 > 0:10:48owe to each other.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56So by the 1840s, mechanical engineering was taking off,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58and it was all happening here in Derby, wasn't it?
0:10:58 > 0:10:59It's all happening right here.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02The epicentre of that is the railways itself.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05You've got the three railways that have merged to form the Midland,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09and they are producing a huge number of locomotives at this point,
0:11:09 > 0:11:13mostly refits and refurbs of existing locomotives,
0:11:13 > 0:11:15cos ultimately what they've done is they've inherited
0:11:15 > 0:11:17a real hotchpotch collection of locomotives.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20They're having to fit them out and standardise them to make them work.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23The key character in this is Matthew Kirtley,
0:11:23 > 0:11:24right at the heart of this.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26He understands that if you're going to be able to run
0:11:26 > 0:11:27a railway network of this scale,
0:11:27 > 0:11:31then you're going to have to do it through a bit of standardisation.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36So Kirtley's obviously a key character for the company,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38but it's not exactly an accident
0:11:38 > 0:11:41that the works are here in Derby, is it?
0:11:41 > 0:11:43It's not. If you think about where we are, geographically speaking,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46we are right in the middle of the country.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52If you actually look at the railways themselves,
0:11:52 > 0:11:53this is one of the principal junctions.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56This is how people are actually getting from Yorkshire into
0:11:56 > 0:12:00the Midlands, to Birmingham, and for onwards travel down to London,
0:12:00 > 0:12:02So here it is in Derby, at the centre, best place to get to London,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04best place to get to Yorkshire,
0:12:04 > 0:12:06and the best place to start building and refurbing
0:12:06 > 0:12:08your own carriages and locomotives.
0:12:11 > 0:12:16By the early 1840s, Midland under George Hudson was going great guns.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18Business was booming,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21and shareholders were being rewarded with juicy dividends.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23So what could possibly go wrong?
0:12:27 > 0:12:31The railway companies are expanding so quickly, so rapidly,
0:12:31 > 0:12:32the law just can't keep up with them.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36Not at all. The Railway Act of 1844 attempted to do so.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38It was framed by William Gladstone,
0:12:38 > 0:12:42possibly the greatest politician and statesman of the 19th century.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Hudson felt, "Let private enterprise drive this revolution."
0:12:47 > 0:12:50He may have been right but, of course, that enabled him
0:12:50 > 0:12:54to make an awful lot of money out of it, sometimes by dubious practices.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00There was some limited state intervention
0:13:00 > 0:13:02to improve safety standards,
0:13:02 > 0:13:05and open up cheap trains to the working classes,
0:13:05 > 0:13:08but capitalists remained firmly in the driving seat.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11George Hudson was one of them,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15but his business methods were built on shaky foundations.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18He began to pay dividends to shareholders
0:13:18 > 0:13:21from his company's capital, rather than the profits.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24This gave the impression his businesses were more successful
0:13:24 > 0:13:25than they actually were.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28With railway financing evolving
0:13:28 > 0:13:32faster than the law's ability to regulate it, trouble was brewing.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38By 1845, a dangerous bubble was forming in the railway sector,
0:13:38 > 0:13:41and the actions of unscrupulous empire builders like Hudson
0:13:41 > 0:13:43were only inflating it further.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51The price of railway shares was driven up unsustainably,
0:13:51 > 0:13:56until bad harvests and rising food prices, along with a steep rise
0:13:56 > 0:13:59in interest rates, led to a rush to sell shares,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02bursting the bubble and precipitating a crash.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11Once the banks started calling back in their money,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15saying they were applying the credit squeeze, it was ordinary,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18small-scale businesses that went out of business.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21I think they were really adversely affected.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26The wealthy had a cushion.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29And if you had land, you could earn money off the land.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31If you were an ordinary investor,
0:14:31 > 0:14:35or an ordinary trader, there was more vulnerability there,
0:14:35 > 0:14:36to booms and bust.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42Speculators found themselves landed with huge debts,
0:14:42 > 0:14:43and unsalable shares.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48It led to bankruptcies, imprisonment for debt, even family break-ups.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54There was one suicide found in a London park,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57whose pockets were stuffed with share certificates.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59A contemporary chronicler wrote,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02"It is the conviction of those who are best informed
0:15:02 > 0:15:06"that no other panic was ever so fatal to the middle class."
0:15:06 > 0:15:08Entire families were ruined.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12The small investors who had been drawn into the market,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15who naively thought the railway boom would continue forever,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19they were really taken aback, they were shocked by
0:15:19 > 0:15:22the way in which the value of their shares decline.
0:15:22 > 0:15:28So that somebody like a clergyman's daughter, Charlotte Bronte,
0:15:28 > 0:15:33she and her sisters invested their small inheritance in railway shares,
0:15:33 > 0:15:35and they practically lost everything.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43Investors lost nearly 80 million in Hudson's downfall.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46He was branded by Lord Macauley "a bloated, vulgar, insolent,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49"purse-proud, greedy drunken blaggard."
0:15:50 > 0:15:54The more Hudson came under scrutiny, the more people discovered that he,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57like many others, was doing dodgy deals,
0:15:57 > 0:15:59but it would be George who paid the price.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03So, Robert, this was one of George Hudson's favourite houses,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07- but it had to go, didn't it?- It had to go, and it broke his heart,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10but as his fortunes waned and the creditors
0:16:10 > 0:16:13came knocking at the door, this had to go.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16When things go wrong it's so easy to blame him, but now we're left
0:16:16 > 0:16:20with quite a lot of blame, but a lot of legacy as well.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24Huge legacy. He built, within ten years,
0:16:24 > 0:16:28a third of the UK's rail track, which is amazing.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34His energy and vision were fantastic, and one wonders,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37if he hadn't existed, how the railways might have evolved
0:16:37 > 0:16:40in the 1840s, cos they needed somebody
0:16:40 > 0:16:43with the vision, commitment, and amazing energy that he had
0:16:43 > 0:16:45to drive them forward.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49George Hudson may have been seen as an embezzler and a cheat,
0:16:49 > 0:16:53but his misdeeds contributed to a much-needed overhaul
0:16:53 > 0:16:56of the way all railway companies operated.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58Sometimes, it takes a scoundrel to shake things up.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09Despite their size and complexity,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11railway companies were still crude affairs,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14and the model of a business as we now know it -
0:17:14 > 0:17:17with departments, directors and consistent book-keeping -
0:17:17 > 0:17:19was only starting to develop.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25So we're going to have a look at some documents
0:17:25 > 0:17:28at the Midland Railway Study Centre...
0:17:28 > 0:17:29- Fantastic.- ..which is great,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32cos most people don't get to see this kind of thing.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36Today, we expect big companies to be called to account by auditors for
0:17:36 > 0:17:40their financial dealings, but that wasn't always the case, was it?
0:17:40 > 0:17:42We take that for granted now,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45but back then, there was very little known, really,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48about keeping correct accounts.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50The person who probably led the way
0:17:50 > 0:17:55was Mark Huish, who was your typical Victorian number cruncher -
0:17:55 > 0:17:57lived and breathed figures.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01Huish deliberately sets out to write the figures down,
0:18:01 > 0:18:06in black and white, very clearly, without any fiddling,
0:18:06 > 0:18:09so that you would be convinced that this is a correct statement
0:18:09 > 0:18:12of the accounts of this railway company.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15So this is really the start of big, professional companies
0:18:15 > 0:18:17for accountants, like William Deloitte?
0:18:17 > 0:18:18Yeah, and Price Waterhouse,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22who became probably the largest accountants during this period,
0:18:22 > 0:18:26and survive today. If you're looking for the historical origins
0:18:26 > 0:18:31of terms like accountability, transparency, visibility,
0:18:31 > 0:18:34it's precisely coming out of the re-form of the accounts
0:18:34 > 0:18:37around the railway companies in the mid-19th century.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45As well as giving work to legions of accountants, the railways helped
0:18:45 > 0:18:49to give birth to a new class of professional managers,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52who were needed to run these complex organisations.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55These were often ordinary men who climbed the ladder.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Promotion through rank was one of the great changes
0:18:58 > 0:18:59wrought by the railways.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05This practice has continued into the modern era,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07and Derby's former School of Transport,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11the railway's first staff college, still instructs workers today.
0:19:12 > 0:19:17We like the look of it, we invested a lot of time and effort in that.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23This training centre has been in operation for over 70 years,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27and people are still being trained here today in practical skills,
0:19:27 > 0:19:28but also in management.
0:19:28 > 0:19:33People could start on the railways as porters or as office clerks,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36and they could develop their skills, come to training centres like this,
0:19:36 > 0:19:38and become managers in other parts of the country.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44Throughout the 1850s,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47trading in railway shares continued to dominate the country's
0:19:47 > 0:19:52stock exchanges. Yet in terms of profits for the shareholders,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55some mining and textile companies now offered better returns.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00After the crash, railway shares continued to be popular,
0:20:00 > 0:20:04- didn't they? Why was that? - Railways continued to be built.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08Thousands of miles of line.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10A lot of them were very successful,
0:20:10 > 0:20:13so there was a really hard-headed investment decision here.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19If you invested in government stock, government bonds,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21there wasn't such a high rate of return.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26Railways were still a profitable investment and less risky
0:20:26 > 0:20:30than sending your money to a gold mine in South America, for example.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Post-Hudson, the Midland Railway grew in strength.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40Under new management and improved business ethics,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43it was now one of the major railway companies in Britain.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Its rivals - the London and North Western, the Great Northern,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53and the Great Western - had ambitions of their own.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56Each one was determined to expand and get the upper hand.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01By the 1860s, the Midland Railway was in a strong position.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05Its Derby HQ was the junction for the two main routes
0:21:05 > 0:21:07from London to Scotland.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12But the growing rivalry with the London and North Western Railway
0:21:12 > 0:21:13was heating up.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18The L&N had the tracks north, and the Midland, to the south,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21and there was a problem deep in the Yorkshire Dales.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29Disputes and stand-offs between railway companies were common,
0:21:29 > 0:21:32but as battlegrounds go, this one was on an epic scale.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41Things came to a head here in Ingleton,
0:21:41 > 0:21:44where the two rivals just couldn't reach an agreement
0:21:44 > 0:21:47on sharing the station and the tracks heading north.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55Passengers were forced off their Midland train, whatever the weather,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59to traipse across this vast viaduct with their luggage, on foot,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02to wait for the London and North Western service to pick them up.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07Eventually, a compromise was reached, so that passengers
0:22:07 > 0:22:10could stay in their carriages and continue their journey.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14But, because of the rivalry and mistrust between the companies,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17the line never reached its full potential.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19The Midland board decided they needed their own
0:22:19 > 0:22:21separate route to Scotland.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31Their intention was to build a new line from Settle in North Yorkshire
0:22:31 > 0:22:33to Carlisle in Cumbria.
0:22:34 > 0:22:3773 miles through extremely tough terrain,
0:22:37 > 0:22:39and these are some of the original plans.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44So this is a mega construction for the railway company,
0:22:44 > 0:22:46out here in such a remote place.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50Not half. This is the ultimate, the biggest of the viaducts,
0:22:50 > 0:22:55but the biggest of 22 like this that there were along the line.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57And there's hardly a mile
0:22:57 > 0:23:02of this 72-, 73-mile-long railway between Settle and Carlisle
0:23:02 > 0:23:05that hasn't got some major structure on it -
0:23:05 > 0:23:08a bridge, a viaduct, an embankment, a cutting.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15Even looking at a photograph like this, that shows part of the
0:23:15 > 0:23:19construction, it also shows in the background some of the, I suppose,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22the support, the infrastructure of a place like this,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24bearing in mind how remote it is,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27how far it is away from smaller towns nearby.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31We don't know for sure just how many people worked on the whole line.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33But in this particular area,
0:23:33 > 0:23:38we know that there were about 2,000 people living and dying
0:23:38 > 0:23:43during the six or seven years it took to build this amazing structure
0:23:43 > 0:23:45and the nearby Blea Moor Tunnel.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52Just about every churchyard has got its navvy graves, navvy memorials,
0:23:52 > 0:23:57but 200 we do know died here and are buried in the tiny churchyard
0:23:57 > 0:24:00at Chapel-le-Dale, just across the near horizon here.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Roughly one a week.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06And the main killers were smallpox and cholera.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12This burial list shows some of the dozens of men,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15women, and children, who died during the construction
0:24:15 > 0:24:17of the Settle to Carlisle line.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22In fact, the churchyard was so overcrowded, that in 1871,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Reverend Smith applied to the Midland Railway for financial help
0:24:25 > 0:24:27in extending the burial ground.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31All industries need workers.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34The navvies perhaps don't always get the credit they deserve.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42The Ribblehead viaduct remains an impressive monument
0:24:42 > 0:24:46to the Midland's commercial and engineering ambitions.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Absolutely stunning, in its landscape here.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Sort of like St Paul's Cathedral is to London,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58this is to the Yorkshire Dales.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05The Settle to Carlisle line opened for freight in 1875,
0:25:05 > 0:25:09and for passengers the following year. For the Midland Railway,
0:25:09 > 0:25:11the final link in the chain was complete,
0:25:11 > 0:25:14and it was now in a commanding position.
0:25:17 > 0:25:22By 1876, the company operated more than 1,500 miles of track.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26It owned a quarter of the country's engines, 3,000 coaches,
0:25:26 > 0:25:28and 33,000 wagons.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37As the larger railway companies continue to expand their networks
0:25:37 > 0:25:41and power bases, the state continued with its light touch approach.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45But with the advent of the First World War in 1914,
0:25:45 > 0:25:47everything changed.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49The state largely took control of the railways
0:25:49 > 0:25:53in order to facilitate the movement of troops and supplies.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57When the fighting ended, the government used compulsory mergers
0:25:57 > 0:26:00to create the Big Four, and the Midland became part
0:26:00 > 0:26:03of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13On the 1st of January 1948,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16a quarter of a century after it was first formed,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19the London, Midland and Scottish became part of British Railways.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26Nationalisation was the end of an era for all our railway companies,
0:26:26 > 0:26:28yet the Midland's legacy lives on,
0:26:28 > 0:26:32through its former workshops and magnificent stations.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35In the glory days of the 1860s,
0:26:35 > 0:26:38the Midland Railway decided it needed its own terminus
0:26:38 > 0:26:42in the capital to help it cope with the increase in coal and passengers.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50The result was St Pancras, opened in 1868.
0:26:55 > 0:26:56And it was described at the time
0:26:56 > 0:26:59as one of the most elegant constructions.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01Elegant, in a way, sells it short
0:27:01 > 0:27:03because it's magnificent, you might say.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07This is the largest clearspan structure that had yet been produced
0:27:07 > 0:27:09anywhere in the world by quite a long way,
0:27:09 > 0:27:10and that's just the train shed part.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14Because, at the other end, and also wrapping all around us,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18in the form of red brick and stone, are the station buildings,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22including, at the far end, the magnificent Midland Hotel,
0:27:22 > 0:27:24designed by George Gilbert Scott.
0:27:24 > 0:27:26This is a magnificent building, by any standards.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34The historians will always debate
0:27:34 > 0:27:37precisely what impact the railways had on our national economy,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40but there's little doubt that we were world leaders in the field.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48Railway shares really developed the investor spirit in the UK.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51So it was a training ground for financial markets,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55also the training ground for investors.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58It was an important step towards shareholder capitalism,
0:27:58 > 0:28:00where the middle classes were encouraged to speculate
0:28:00 > 0:28:02on the stock exchange,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05something that politicians like Margaret Thatcher
0:28:05 > 0:28:08were so keen to emulate when the public snapped up shares
0:28:08 > 0:28:11in British Telecom and British Gas.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15During a few decades in the 19th century,
0:28:15 > 0:28:17the railways drove up excellence in engineering
0:28:17 > 0:28:21and developed accountancy, book- keeping, and management structures
0:28:21 > 0:28:23that remain with us today.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28The railways revolution transformed how we did business in Britain,
0:28:28 > 0:28:29and right around the world.