0:00:10 > 0:00:12For more than 100 years,
0:00:12 > 0:00:14steam engines drove Britain.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18But in the 1950s, the government planned to modernise the railways,
0:00:18 > 0:00:22scrap steam and close thousands of miles of track.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28Most people embraced it as progress,
0:00:28 > 0:00:31but a few resisted the changes.
0:00:31 > 0:00:36They made plans to open branch lines and bring back steam.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38Some even filmed their efforts.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44Their home movies tell the story
0:00:44 > 0:00:47of how they set about recreating this lost world
0:00:47 > 0:00:50and how their commitment helped millions of people
0:00:50 > 0:00:54to reconnect to a past that most thought had gone for ever.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01TRAIN WHISTLE BLASTS
0:01:09 > 0:01:11The hair stands up on the back of your neck.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14It is absolutely wonderful.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18It is a living being,
0:01:18 > 0:01:22a whole thing bursting to life with tremendous power.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28Every schoolboy's wish - "I've got to get onto an engine."
0:01:28 > 0:01:35# Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
0:01:35 > 0:01:39# Let your heart be light... #
0:01:41 > 0:01:43Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,
0:01:43 > 0:01:45and welcome to the Severn Valley Railway.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47Welcome to our Santa Special weekend.
0:01:51 > 0:01:52It's the week before Christmas
0:01:52 > 0:01:56on a small railway that runs through Worcestershire and Shropshire -
0:01:56 > 0:01:58the Severn Valley Railway.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01There are hundreds of volunteers on duty.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04Our next departure this afternoon will be the 12:45...
0:02:04 > 0:02:07the 1:15 service to Santa's Grotto.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13You hungry?
0:02:16 > 0:02:19Paul Fathers is one of those volunteers.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23During the week, he works in the security industry.
0:02:23 > 0:02:28How do you like your bacon done? My wife likes it really burnt,
0:02:28 > 0:02:31but she's not here.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33Probably still in bed, if she's got any sense.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37Thousands of enthusiasts like Paul
0:02:37 > 0:02:40built the station and the platform he's walking along.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43They restored the coaches he's passing.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46They even rescued and restored 2857,
0:02:46 > 0:02:48the steam locomotive he's about to drive.
0:02:48 > 0:02:49WHISTLE PEEPS
0:02:56 > 0:03:00'I started back in 1967, as a very young schoolboy.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05'The railway was in its infancy. We had no locomotives, no coaches
0:03:05 > 0:03:09'so I started helping out and then just stayed with it, really.'
0:03:11 > 0:03:12WHISTLE BLASTS
0:03:17 > 0:03:21When Paul first got involved, there were just a handful of volunteers,
0:03:21 > 0:03:24but over the decades, railway preservation has blossomed.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32Today, there are more than 250 steam engines
0:03:32 > 0:03:36running on preserved lines right across the country.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38WHISTLE BLASTS
0:03:38 > 0:03:41What captured the imagination of a handful of people like Paul
0:03:41 > 0:03:45was a love of the way railways in Britain used to be.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52But from the early 1950s, things changed.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55A newly-nationalised British Railways Board
0:03:55 > 0:03:58planned to modernise the railways,
0:03:58 > 0:04:01uprooting thousands of miles of branch lines
0:04:01 > 0:04:03and ending the days of steam.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09Well, in the 1950s, BR moves from a profit situation
0:04:09 > 0:04:11to a loss situation.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13And to a thumping loss situation.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16And this is something rather new for the politicians,
0:04:16 > 0:04:17cos up until that stage,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20it's basically, "The railways run themselves
0:04:20 > 0:04:23"and we don't really need to worry that much about them,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26"apart from times of national crisis, like wars."
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Now they've got to do something about it,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31because it's costing the Exchequer money
0:04:31 > 0:04:33at a time when we haven't got much money.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39The railways go from profit to loss in the '50s,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43really because you start the great car economy.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47People start buying their first Austin 7 or whatever,
0:04:47 > 0:04:49or their first motorbike.
0:04:54 > 0:04:59The trunk roads, which were built in the 1930s, start to fill up
0:04:59 > 0:05:01and they start being developed more
0:05:01 > 0:05:03and at the end of the 1950s,
0:05:03 > 0:05:05you start the motorway building programme
0:05:05 > 0:05:07and the whole thing rolls on from then.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15British Railways responded to this financial crisis
0:05:15 > 0:05:19by weeding out unprofitable branch lines.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21In the 1950s,
0:05:21 > 0:05:253,000 miles, out of a 20,000-mile network, were lost.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28A few people resisted these closures
0:05:28 > 0:05:31and two places - the Worth Valley in West Yorkshire
0:05:31 > 0:05:34and the Severn Valley in Shropshire and Worcestershire -
0:05:34 > 0:05:35were the vanguard of a movement
0:05:35 > 0:05:38that was to spread across the whole country.
0:05:39 > 0:05:45They say, "Well, actually, we think people still want this service
0:05:45 > 0:05:47"and it's a public good. We ought to have the service,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50"so if you're not going to run it, we will."
0:05:50 > 0:05:52And that's just what happened
0:05:52 > 0:05:55in 1963, in Bridgnorth in Shropshire,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57on the Severn Valley Railway.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07What you see with the station name board
0:06:07 > 0:06:12is a group of us putting it back in its rightful place,
0:06:12 > 0:06:14where it should stand on the platform.
0:06:14 > 0:06:19That was, if you like, reclaiming the railway for us.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22When you think,
0:06:22 > 0:06:24just a few humble railway enthusiasts
0:06:24 > 0:06:26could stop something like that, BR,
0:06:26 > 0:06:28from cutting the track up,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31that was marvellous, you know. It was fantastic, wasn't it?
0:06:35 > 0:06:37That's Keith in the brown coat
0:06:37 > 0:06:40in a home movie shot by one of the enthusiasts.
0:06:40 > 0:06:41He was 26 at the time.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46Like lots of people, you don't take a great deal of notice of things
0:06:46 > 0:06:48or do anything, but I felt,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52at this stage, with railways,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55that it was my hobby, my love,
0:06:55 > 0:06:56and that something had to be done.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01What he did was write to his local paper.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05A meeting followed that came up with the astonishing idea
0:07:05 > 0:07:08of buying and running the railway themselves.
0:07:08 > 0:07:09They formed a committee
0:07:09 > 0:07:13and another 20-something, from Bewdley, became treasurer.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21'We were called bunches of nutters. We were stupid.'
0:07:21 > 0:07:25They didn't have anoraks in those days, by the way.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28That was before the days of anoraks.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32But the big key was to save the railway,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35to save our local branch lines,
0:07:35 > 0:07:37and they were being cut at such a rate
0:07:37 > 0:07:40and they are the veins of the country - and were.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48Keith and Columb weren't quite alone
0:07:48 > 0:07:52in their resistance to British Rail's closure programme.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05Further north, in West Yorkshire,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08a few of the locals were campaigning
0:08:08 > 0:08:10to keep open a branch line in the Worth Valley.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18I do remember one of the local mill owners saying,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21"I don't care what you're going to run on the line,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23"I don't care about the locomotives or the rolling stock,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26"I want to know, will there still be a 7:15 train
0:08:26 > 0:08:28"for my workers to get to t'mill?"
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Graham Mitchell was a teenager in Oakworth,
0:08:34 > 0:08:35a village in the Worth Valley,
0:08:35 > 0:08:40when, in 1961, British Rail said it would close the line.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42I remembered on this platform,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45you know, boxes of day-old chicks being loaded.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49It was of that, sort of, importance to the locality, and the fact that
0:08:49 > 0:08:53it was the local people who first banded together to save it,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56because the locals wanted the transport link.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59The railway had been here since the 1860s,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01doing the job it was built to do,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04moving people and goods up and down the valley.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06And people wanted it still to do that.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10Graham, along with other locals,
0:09:10 > 0:09:13began a campaign to keep the branch line open.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17It was led by a college lecturer, Bob Cryer.
0:09:17 > 0:09:24This is a photograph taken in the spring of '63,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26when I was engaged to Bob,
0:09:26 > 0:09:30and he was the Parliamentary candidate
0:09:30 > 0:09:31for Darwen
0:09:31 > 0:09:33and I was a town councillor.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37It's quite a nice photograph of him making a speech
0:09:37 > 0:09:39and myself looking admiringly on.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45They met in 1961, at the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50For two nights during the week, they would have a dance
0:09:50 > 0:09:54and at this dance, this young man came and asked me to dance with him.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Tall, quite good-looking young man,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01and told me all about his ambition to preserve a railway,
0:10:01 > 0:10:03which I thought was slightly bonkers.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07But I thought, well, other than that, he seemed to be all right!
0:10:09 > 0:10:13'Bob was a very much larger-than-life character.'
0:10:13 > 0:10:17I was, at that time... I know I'm not now, but at that time,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19I was a fairly, sort of, subdued person.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25I was very impressed by him, but possibly more impressed by his car -
0:10:25 > 0:10:27two-tone green, colour of your jumper -
0:10:27 > 0:10:31a two-tone green Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36And whatever he did, he did it to the nth degree.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40People either thought he was absolutely wonderful
0:10:40 > 0:10:42or he got right up their nose.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47The noses he really got up belonged to the British Rail executives,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50who refused to keep the branch line open.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53So the campaign he led switched tack
0:10:53 > 0:10:56to raise money, buy the line and run it themselves.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10While negotiations with British Rail dragged on,
0:11:10 > 0:11:13volunteers worked at weekends to save what was left of the track.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19David Kay was one of the founding members.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25'When negotiations got a bit further on,'
0:11:25 > 0:11:29they said we could maintain the track and run works trains.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31Well, the track was in disgusting condition.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33It had been run down for years.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37Its main crop was pussy willows.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40At Damems, you couldn't see the track
0:11:40 > 0:11:43and they have hellish roots, these pussy willows.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47To help tackle the pussy willow problem,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50volunteers came from across the North of England.
0:11:50 > 0:11:56As well as his scythe, Brian Baker brought his film camera.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59What you're seeing there is
0:11:59 > 0:12:01our desire to see the track
0:12:01 > 0:12:05back to what it should be - nice and neat, weed-free,
0:12:05 > 0:12:09the cesses, the sides of the track, all neat and tidy.
0:12:11 > 0:12:12Like many of the volunteers,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16Brian had a history of involvement with steam railways.
0:12:17 > 0:12:23My father was a station master in Ireland, on the West Cork railways,
0:12:23 > 0:12:25and I've always been a railway nut.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29I think it runs in my blood. It's just one of those things.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35I was never afraid of manual labour.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38I thoroughly enjoyed what we did at the railway.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42I mean, you did it at home, digging gardens and things,
0:12:42 > 0:12:46doing fences, laying footpaths and so on,
0:12:46 > 0:12:50but there was a totally different feel about working on a railway
0:12:50 > 0:12:54and when you did it, you felt you'd achieved something.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03Volunteers in the Worth Valley
0:13:03 > 0:13:07weren't the only ones weeding out unwanted growth.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10In the aftermath of the 1963 Beeching Report,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13British Rail was pruning ever more branches.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17Groups up and down the country
0:13:17 > 0:13:20responded with plans to save their local line.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28For the volunteers in Bridgnorth on the Severn Valley line,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32rescuing the track was arduous and heavy work,
0:13:32 > 0:13:33but in 1966,
0:13:33 > 0:13:36they got a tremendous boost.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38They found an old works trolley.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47You'd go along, we'd use our feet, like this, on the sleepers.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Highly dangerous. We recovered bits and pieces,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55brought them up from further down the railway, back up to Bridgnorth,
0:13:55 > 0:13:57and, you know, we thought that was a big thing.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00We'd actually got something to go up and down with!
0:14:08 > 0:14:11We even rescued some little ground signals.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20We pushed this trolley five miles
0:14:20 > 0:14:23a couple or three times on a Sunday,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25and so, it was a respite to jump on the thing
0:14:25 > 0:14:28and come whizzing down the bank into the station.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38The volunteers worked every weekend for two years.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41They ran open days to raise the deposit they would need
0:14:41 > 0:14:44to buy just five miles of track from British Rail.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51We got a lot of sleepers that were lying about in the station yard
0:14:51 > 0:14:53and put these on bricks
0:14:53 > 0:14:57and this little steam engine went up and down along the platform,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01charging fivepence a ride or something like that.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05All to raise the £2,500 deposit
0:15:05 > 0:15:09to give to BR, so we could be sure that we'd got the railway line.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19And a lot of publicity was produced to show what our idea was.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21And in due course,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24we started getting one or two railwaymen interested.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29And they, of course,
0:15:29 > 0:15:31and their knowledge, was exactly what we wanted.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39A steam engine driver, John Hill, joined in 1966,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41but there was no engine for him to drive.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46'All the time we were putting in, it could have gone to waste.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48We certainly didn't know
0:15:48 > 0:15:51whether we were going to get any steam engine or not.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55We didn't even... We had to find a tremendous sum of money
0:15:55 > 0:15:59to buy the five miles of line from Bridgnorth to Hampton Loade
0:15:59 > 0:16:03and we didn't even know whether we'd be able to succeed in doing that,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07so it was just an act of faith on everybody's part.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14Help would come from a most unexpected quarter.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17British Railways were in the middle of a modernisation programme,
0:16:17 > 0:16:22replacing all their steam engines with diesel and electric trains.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24SIGNAL BELL RINGS
0:16:26 > 0:16:27You end up with
0:16:27 > 0:16:29lines and lines of locomotives
0:16:29 > 0:16:34parked up in scrapyards, being cut, right through the 1960s.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37Locomotives that used to be the king of the road,
0:16:37 > 0:16:41used to be the thing that really pulled the premier expresses...
0:16:43 > 0:16:47..looking rather shabby, taken to the scrapyard and sliced into bits
0:16:47 > 0:16:49to feed the motor industry.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58British Rail's decision to scrap so many steam engines
0:16:58 > 0:17:02was, ironically, just the boost the Severn Valley volunteers needed.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10They sold some of their redundant locomotives to steam enthusiasts.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17A Great Western engine, 3205,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20was bought by a group who then offered it to the Severn Valley,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24providing the society could raise the £2,500 deposit
0:17:24 > 0:17:26and buy the five miles of line.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34It took them three years
0:17:34 > 0:17:38to raise what seems today such a trifling amount.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41But on Easter Saturday, March 1967,
0:17:41 > 0:17:443205 arrived at Bridgnorth.
0:17:45 > 0:17:50After four years' absence, steam had returned to the Severn Valley.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53We just didn't believe it!
0:17:53 > 0:17:56It was there, a real live steam engine.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04A whole station jammed with people of all ages,
0:18:04 > 0:18:07who'd come to see this engine arrive.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18The enthusiasm was just absolutely tremendous.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25It was absolutely incredible. It was a marvellous day.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38The driver on that day was John Hill.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41I was quite a dashing young blade in those days.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45I didn't ever get round to going to a cinema and slashing the seats,
0:18:45 > 0:18:47but it was that sort of era.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50I had a huge Brylcreem quiff,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54which I look back on now as, I looked like some kind of idiot.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57But that was all the rage at the time.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04Nobody was absolutely certain that this day was ever going to come
0:19:04 > 0:19:05and here it was.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10Not only an engine, but we brought four coaches with it, as well.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12We did all kinds of weird and wonderful things,
0:19:12 > 0:19:14which we weren't supposed to do -
0:19:14 > 0:19:17giving people rides in and out of the station.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22It was euphoria gone mad, I suppose.
0:19:22 > 0:19:23WHISTLE BLASTS
0:19:27 > 0:19:31For Columb Howell, the arrival of that first engine
0:19:31 > 0:19:33was a boyhood dream come true.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36He could finally learn how to drive a steam engine.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48I loved it. A steam engine is a very live thing.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52You've got the heart of the engine, which, of course, is the fire.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57You've got the blood, which is the steam.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02And that steam is transferred
0:20:02 > 0:20:05by the reciprocation of the valves to the pistons,
0:20:05 > 0:20:09and the pistons then push and push the rods, then onto the rail,
0:20:09 > 0:20:11and there was this terrific exhilaration
0:20:11 > 0:20:13when you're driving a steam engine,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16of the thing working up its speed and all that sort of thing.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20The fire going absolutely white hot and watching the gauges to make sure
0:20:20 > 0:20:25that you've got the correct steam pressure, the water pressure.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28And it isn't just shovelling coal into a hole.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30You've got to put it where the coal's wanted,
0:20:30 > 0:20:32and this is where the skill comes in.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42When you feel the engine move for the first time
0:20:42 > 0:20:45as a result of your effort,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48it is absolutely wonderful.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03John Hill was very sympathetic to us amateurs,
0:21:03 > 0:21:08and I would never, ever claim to be a professional driver.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11When you see the professional do it,
0:21:11 > 0:21:15you think, "God, I wish I could do it like that!"
0:21:19 > 0:21:21Any hope that was flagging,
0:21:21 > 0:21:25any enthusiasm that had started to flag was immediately boosted,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29and so Severn Valley Railway was underway.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31We were going places.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36Columb Howell and John Hill weren't the only ones
0:21:36 > 0:21:39enjoying the experience of steam.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42British Rail's policy of moving to diesel and electric power
0:21:42 > 0:21:45was giving people up and down the country
0:21:45 > 0:21:48the chance to buy their very own steam locomotive.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54Where I lived as a youngster, when you went to bed at night,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57you were never without the sound of a train going by.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01WHISTLE BLASTS
0:22:01 > 0:22:04Richard Greenwood lived close to the Worth Valley Railway
0:22:04 > 0:22:06in West Yorkshire.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09He and some friends were keen to buy a small engine.
0:22:10 > 0:22:15One of our favourite engines was the pug engine.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17They were so typical of where we lived.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20It was part of our heritage, really,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23even though at that stage, we were only in our twenties.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29Any small engine is called a pug engine.
0:22:31 > 0:22:36Most railways that served industrial areas had a fleet of these,
0:22:36 > 0:22:38because they used them in docks,
0:22:38 > 0:22:43where they could go round right-angle bends between one dock and the other.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49And I remember them very well, from seeing them shunting,
0:22:49 > 0:22:52a low-level shunting yard in Salford,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55and to get from one yard to the other yard,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58they had to cross the street, and every time they had to do this,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02a man came out with a red flag, stood in the middle of the road like that,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06and held the traffic up while the engine went across.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31Oh, there was a band of us around that time,
0:23:31 > 0:23:33probably about 12 or 18,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36who were dead keen, so we decided
0:23:36 > 0:23:40we'd do what we could to buy a pug engine.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43Started printing photographs and selling them to people,
0:23:43 > 0:23:47having stalls at exhibitions and selling this, that and the other.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52'Bit by bit, we raised a bit of money
0:23:52 > 0:23:55'and bit by bit, we had enough
0:23:55 > 0:23:58'to buy this engine and to transport it.'
0:24:00 > 0:24:03By 1964, they'd raised the money -
0:24:03 > 0:24:06£450.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09To move it, Pickfords charged £80.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16It came on a low loader, all the way from Neath in South Wales
0:24:16 > 0:24:20and when, on the morning, they started to unload it,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23unfortunately, the wheels missed the rails
0:24:23 > 0:24:28and the crew, obviously, used to this sort of thing,
0:24:28 > 0:24:33they used jacks to jack it up and throw it over onto the tracks.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38Then they went away with the Pickfords Scammell Tractor. Job done.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43The problem for Richard and his friends
0:24:43 > 0:24:46was that they had nowhere to put the engine.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49So you go out and you buy a steam locomotive,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52relatively cheaply by present-day standards,
0:24:52 > 0:24:56and then the wife says, "You're not keeping that in the back garden."
0:24:59 > 0:25:01So what do you do with it?
0:25:02 > 0:25:06Initially, they have permission to run them on the state network.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09They can run rail tours with them
0:25:09 > 0:25:12and they may get a place in a shed to park them and so on.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16However, BR decides
0:25:16 > 0:25:22they don't want any locomotives they don't own running on the network.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26In 1968, when they run their last steam locomotive,
0:25:26 > 0:25:31they also ban all other steam engines from running on the network.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37And this is great for the start of the preserved lines,
0:25:37 > 0:25:39because they basically, suddenly,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42have the monopoly to be able to run steam engines.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45If you owned a big steam engine or even a small one,
0:25:45 > 0:25:50you've got no choice. You've got to go to one of those nascent schemes
0:25:50 > 0:25:51that are just starting out
0:25:51 > 0:25:55and say, "Do you mind if I bring my loco to your railway?"
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And of course, the railways themselves are short of power.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01They're run by enthusiasts and the first thing they'll say is "Yes".
0:26:03 > 0:26:07In Rochdale, Richard Greenwood needed a home for the pug
0:26:07 > 0:26:09and the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
0:26:09 > 0:26:14was the obvious - indeed, the only - realistic home for it.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17We approached the offices of the railway here.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21You know, "If we buy one of these engines, can we bring it?"
0:26:21 > 0:26:23And they said, "Yes!"
0:26:23 > 0:26:28Simple as that, you know, on the basis, really, of a telephone call.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32No agreements, nothing written. Nothing like that, at all.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37There were people here working to reopen a railway.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41There were people coming in from left field with rolling stock.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45Each group needed the other and so it was a happy marriage.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53The locals realised that the railway meant something,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56and the appearance of a steam engine in the yard, of course,
0:26:56 > 0:27:00began to convince the locals that something was going to happen here.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13British Railways gave permission to run a weekly works train
0:27:13 > 0:27:15to go out with wagons and tools
0:27:15 > 0:27:19and start clearing the drains, putting the fences in order,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23relaying bits of bad track and things like that.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25This engine was ideal for that
0:27:25 > 0:27:28because it was quite small and it didn't burn much coal
0:27:28 > 0:27:31and it didn't cost very much to run.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36And it made money, too -
0:27:36 > 0:27:39£50 for this advert featuring Ronnie Corbett.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42The railway was very important
0:27:42 > 0:27:45to commercial organisations,
0:27:45 > 0:27:47such as the advertising company,
0:27:47 > 0:27:51because they had the railway to themselves for the day,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55if that's how they wanted it, and money changed hands,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58but what we were after, of course, was maximum publicity.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10Ronnie Corbett, I got my own little bits of film of him on the day.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13You know, there he is - the bit of film I've got of him,
0:28:13 > 0:28:16he's doing his wardrobe, on Ingrow platform, doing up his fly.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23He really was a character.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33The effect they wanted was for the viewer to think
0:28:33 > 0:28:35that poor Ronnie Corbett, you know,
0:28:35 > 0:28:38had been plastered on the front of this locomotive
0:28:38 > 0:28:40coming towards you, the viewer,
0:28:40 > 0:28:44when, of course he hadn't. He'd been filmed going backwards.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46The poor cameraman had to trust the driver
0:28:46 > 0:28:49that he would go backwards and not come forwards.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55You know, Ronnie Corbett has got the secret of the Symbol Biscuits
0:28:55 > 0:28:59and there he is, in a tunnel, trying to tell everybody about it.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02I know how Symbol bake those delicious chocolate chips
0:29:02 > 0:29:05into Maryland cookies. The secret is...
0:29:05 > 0:29:07TRAIN WHISTLE BLASTS
0:29:07 > 0:29:09Aaargh!
0:29:09 > 0:29:11I know the Symbol secret!
0:29:11 > 0:29:15I know the Symbol secret! I know the Symbol secret!
0:29:17 > 0:29:19All the effort made by the little pug
0:29:19 > 0:29:22and the West Yorkshire volunteers paid dividends
0:29:22 > 0:29:26when the Worth Valley Railway reopened in 1968,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29six years after British Rail had first closed the line.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41Two years later, it was the turn of the Severn Valley Railway
0:29:41 > 0:29:45and, by 1970, there were 18 steam railway preservation groups
0:29:45 > 0:29:47across the country.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53Just as hundreds of branch lines were closing
0:29:53 > 0:29:55and steam had gone forever from the mainline,
0:29:55 > 0:29:58the preservation movement was gaining momentum.
0:30:02 > 0:30:04Then, in the summer of 1970,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07there was a film set in the Worth Valley
0:30:07 > 0:30:12that would take railway preservation to new and undreamed-of heights.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14Graham Mitchell landed a part.
0:30:15 > 0:30:20This is actually the spot where I stood to flag off the train
0:30:20 > 0:30:23in several sequences in the 1970 film.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26- Can you remember what you said? - Yes. Bernard Cribbins said to me...
0:30:26 > 0:30:29And away, Mr Mitchell! And give it to Bert!
0:30:29 > 0:30:34'I was slightly overenthusiastic with the flag. Only slightly.'
0:30:34 > 0:30:38The film was Lionel Jeffries' box-office sensation,
0:30:38 > 0:30:39The Railway Children.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44'The railway was being used for six weeks.'
0:30:44 > 0:30:47It had to provide a lot of volunteers over that period
0:30:47 > 0:30:51and the appeal went out to the qualified volunteers,
0:30:51 > 0:30:55to say we actually need guards and firemen and drivers.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59'I was teaching in Dudley.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04'It was a week's half-term and I came up here for a week's holiday.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07'And I said, I'll work every day as a guard.'
0:31:08 > 0:31:10ENGINE TOOTING
0:31:15 > 0:31:18As well as needing the society's volunteers,
0:31:18 > 0:31:20the film needed its locomotives.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23This one, 957, featured heavily.
0:31:25 > 0:31:27It doesn't look like it today,
0:31:27 > 0:31:30but this was the Green Dragon in The Railway Children film.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34'For The Railway Children, it was required to be green,
0:31:34 > 0:31:36'to fulfil the name of The Green Dragon.'
0:31:38 > 0:31:40'I think it looks wonderful, but sometimes
0:31:40 > 0:31:43'people are disappointed that it doesn't look like The Green Dragon.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48All the volunteers, rolling stock and engines
0:31:48 > 0:31:51were organised by the railway's chairman, Bob Cryer.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55And he even found time to shoot this behind-the-scenes home movie.
0:31:57 > 0:31:58'He got a credit for it,'
0:31:58 > 0:32:01which he thought was just absolutely bliss,
0:32:01 > 0:32:03'to have a credit for a feature film.'
0:32:17 > 0:32:20'After my week of filming, I went back to Dudley'
0:32:20 > 0:32:24on the Sunday night and I was back in the classroom on Monday morning.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28And on Monday evening, I got a phone call from the assistant director
0:32:28 > 0:32:32saying, "We want you on set again tomorrow, Tuesday morning."
0:32:32 > 0:32:35I said, "No, I'm back in the classroom, I'm sorry."
0:32:35 > 0:32:39And it happened to be the day when they were filming Daddy coming back.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43Anne's husband Bob stepped in.
0:32:44 > 0:32:51'There is a vague figure, which is Bob in Graham's outfit,
0:32:51 > 0:32:54'and, at that point, Bernard Cribbins says,
0:32:54 > 0:32:56"Right away, Mr Cryer!"'
0:32:56 > 0:32:58Right away, Mr Cryer!
0:32:59 > 0:33:02'It was great with that, because otherwise,'
0:33:02 > 0:33:05he would've had his credit at the beginning,
0:33:05 > 0:33:07but he wouldn't have had a part in it.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14Bob Cryer died in a car accident in 1994.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18'What he wanted, more than anything,
0:33:18 > 0:33:22'was that those people who did the work made the decisions.
0:33:22 > 0:33:28'In essence, it was a sort of socialist democratic experiment.'
0:33:28 > 0:33:30And it works to this day.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36Don't you think it's extraordinary, David, that here we are,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39as two elderly gentlemen now and it's 42 years
0:33:39 > 0:33:41since this film was made...
0:33:41 > 0:33:44- and we're still here and part of it?- Yes.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47But an old chap in the village said to me,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50"You know, what's really important about that film -
0:33:50 > 0:33:54"there's no drugs in it, no sex, no folk around with no clothes on.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58- "It's just a nice morality story for the family."- Yes.
0:33:58 > 0:33:59And it all works out.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03And it's amazing when you consider how much the producer swore.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06No, we're going to cut that bit, David.
0:34:10 > 0:34:16'It is said that Lionel Jeffries' daughter read the book
0:34:16 > 0:34:20'and said, "Daddy, you really must make a film of this."
0:34:23 > 0:34:26'Lionel came up here and saw the railway
0:34:26 > 0:34:28'and was convinced this was the place.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32'The wonderful thing, from the point of view of promotion of the railway,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35'is that he kept Oakworth as the name of the station.'
0:34:35 > 0:34:36BELL RINGING
0:34:39 > 0:34:41'Whereas in the book, it's called Meden Vale.'
0:34:43 > 0:34:48He retained it for the film and it did us wonders.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50MUSIC
0:34:54 > 0:34:56'After the film was released,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59'there was a flock of new visitors to the railway.'
0:35:02 > 0:35:06Because the film has been shown so often on television
0:35:06 > 0:35:10and because Barry Norman says it's the finest British film
0:35:10 > 0:35:12ever made for children in this country,
0:35:12 > 0:35:15it's got an enduring attraction,
0:35:15 > 0:35:20which continues to bring people here, time after time and year after year.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23MUSIC CONTINUES
0:35:30 > 0:35:33The impact on the Worth Valley was phenomenal.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38That caused us a great problem, The Railway Children.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42All of a sudden, we were carrying about 60,000 passengers.
0:35:44 > 0:35:46And we didn't know whether,
0:35:46 > 0:35:50you know, shall we lock it up and run away?
0:35:50 > 0:35:55'We carried 4,000-odd passengers in a day on one train,'
0:35:55 > 0:35:58so it was decided then to put the loop in.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03This model demonstrates the principle.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06The loop on the right is the short section of line on a single track
0:36:06 > 0:36:08that allows trains to pass each other.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14Once we had The Railway Children film,
0:36:14 > 0:36:17there was such an increase in traffic we realised straightaway
0:36:17 > 0:36:20we needed to run more trains. And the way to do that was
0:36:20 > 0:36:24'to split the line in two and have a place for trains to pass, which is
0:36:24 > 0:36:28'why we built this loop line at the side of the main line here,
0:36:28 > 0:36:30'so we could have a train in each section
0:36:30 > 0:36:34'and they can cross each other. That gives you twice as many trains.'
0:36:38 > 0:36:40'My grandfather worked on the railways.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42'I'd always been fascinated by the idea
0:36:42 > 0:36:45'of how you control traffic and control trains.'
0:36:47 > 0:36:51Bruce became a volunteer on the railway in his teens.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53He and his mates installed a loop in time
0:36:53 > 0:36:56for the influx of visitors in 1971.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02'The loop had to be controlled, somehow.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05'Originally, we just had some levers at each end
0:37:05 > 0:37:08'and a person on the ground signalled the trains by hand.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11'But that wasn't suitable for a permanent arrangement,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14'so we had to find a signal box and put proper signalling in'
0:37:14 > 0:37:17and that's where the signal box behind came in.
0:37:24 > 0:37:29How they got the box was typical of the determination of the volunteers.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32Bruce found it near Bradford and he contacted British Rail.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35'And they were willing to sell it'
0:37:35 > 0:37:39and so I bought, the actual building, I bought,
0:37:39 > 0:37:43because by then I was an employee on what was called a firewood order,
0:37:43 > 0:37:47which was a note originally intended purely for buying firewood,
0:37:47 > 0:37:49so that's a piece of firewood, officially.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54Once it was paid for,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57all they had to do was bring it to the railway and make it work.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02'We set about thinking about how to move it
0:38:02 > 0:38:05'and rather than try and take it apart and risk damaging it,
0:38:05 > 0:38:09'we thought it would be practical to move it in one piece.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12'So I contacted a crane hire firm
0:38:12 > 0:38:15'and they agreed that they could do the lift.'
0:38:36 > 0:38:40'And that's how it came along the road all the way from Bradford,
0:38:40 > 0:38:44'to Oakworth further up the line and we brought it down on a train'
0:38:44 > 0:38:48to its present position on this loop line and it was then
0:38:48 > 0:38:52'taken off on rollers onto a pile of sleepers above the foundations,
0:38:52 > 0:38:57'which were then jacked down and the box was put down on its base.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00It's an interesting way of doing it. Others have done it since,
0:39:00 > 0:39:04but I think we can claim a first for moving a signal box in one piece.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14While the loop was a great success, The Railway Children was to have
0:39:14 > 0:39:17an effect on preservation well beyond the Worth Valley.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23The film captured a seemingly-lost world of steam,
0:39:23 > 0:39:27a world for which the British public held a particular affection.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31It was a nostalgia that the preservation societies
0:39:31 > 0:39:33were quick to exploit.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38Some of these preserved railways,
0:39:38 > 0:39:40which have got really quite clever marketing teams,
0:39:40 > 0:39:44start to think about this and think, "What are we selling here?
0:39:44 > 0:39:47"We're selling a kind of symbol of the past."
0:39:47 > 0:39:50'The best of the preserved railways recreate this past
0:39:50 > 0:39:52'on their own stations.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55'You'll be surrounded by enamel signs'
0:39:55 > 0:39:59and often staff in wool, sort of jacket uniforms,
0:39:59 > 0:40:03sometimes with a flower in their buttonhole
0:40:03 > 0:40:06looking exactly like you might have looked
0:40:06 > 0:40:10were the Royal train passing through your station in about 1950.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25'You'll see the original tap'
0:40:25 > 0:40:28and the stop tap cover still originally there,
0:40:28 > 0:40:31that was not new put in, that was still there when we built it,
0:40:31 > 0:40:34saying GWR, W for water.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39Volunteers began to fashion this world of the railway
0:40:39 > 0:40:41from a bygone era in minute detail.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46This is Malcolm Broadhurst at Bewdley station
0:40:46 > 0:40:48on the Severn Valley Railway.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53'It's only a gents' urinal,
0:40:53 > 0:40:57'but it is superb and it's recreating what was here.'
0:40:57 > 0:41:00If we're going to try and bring the railway back to as it was,
0:41:00 > 0:41:02you want to try and get it looking as it was.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06'The restoration of the loo
0:41:06 > 0:41:10'was just a part of the big jigsaw of the railway, really.'
0:41:10 > 0:41:13When you look at the effort that was required to
0:41:13 > 0:41:16restore the line and the station and the rolling stock.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20It might have been just a loo,
0:41:20 > 0:41:24but volunteer Phil Cheesewright thought it was worth filming.
0:41:26 > 0:41:31At that time, I was filming trains along the line and other things.
0:41:31 > 0:41:33It just happened this was a project
0:41:33 > 0:41:37that happened to be going on at the time, purely accidentally.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43They discovered the loo more than 250 miles away
0:41:43 > 0:41:46on a platform at Melrose Station in Scotland.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52'When we got there, we took the gutter off, that was easy peasy,
0:41:52 > 0:41:54'came off, cut it down'
0:41:54 > 0:41:58and then I think we tried sliding these up, and a bit of hammering,
0:41:58 > 0:42:02not too heavy and of course it wouldn't dismantle and we thought,
0:42:02 > 0:42:04oh, my God, what are we going to do?
0:42:08 > 0:42:10A blowtorch came in handy,
0:42:10 > 0:42:14then came the logistical nightmare of getting it home.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18'Luckily as we would have it, where it was situated,'
0:42:18 > 0:42:20there was a platform edge next door
0:42:20 > 0:42:24and we were able to just back the truck up to the platform edge
0:42:24 > 0:42:28and all we did then was lower the sections down onto the platform
0:42:28 > 0:42:29and just slid them in.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43'I think we regarded ourselves as adventurers, pioneers.'
0:42:44 > 0:42:48We didn't fund it from ticket sales, we funded it ourselves,
0:42:48 > 0:42:49'we put our hands in our pockets
0:42:49 > 0:42:53'and raised the cash we needed to take the project on.'
0:42:54 > 0:42:56One of the volunteers who helped rebuild it
0:42:56 > 0:42:59is the driver of the Santa Special, Paul Fathers.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05The reason I became involved is there wasn't a lot going on.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08Nothing on a Sunday, apart from church,
0:43:08 > 0:43:10and of course I was in the choir and did my bit,
0:43:10 > 0:43:12but there was nothing much going on,
0:43:12 > 0:43:16so being able to come here and help to restore the railway
0:43:16 > 0:43:17seemed a very sensible thing to do.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21MUSIC: "Night Fever" by the Bee Gees
0:43:24 > 0:43:26Did I see you in red flares then, Paul?
0:43:26 > 0:43:31- Quite possibly, yes. Fashionable at the time.- Yes.
0:43:31 > 0:43:32- As was the haircut.- Yes.
0:43:34 > 0:43:36Paul was young and a heart-throb in those days.
0:43:37 > 0:43:42We can see him in his John Travolta phase later on in the film.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44# Night fever, night fever
0:43:44 > 0:43:48# We know how to do it
0:43:51 > 0:43:54# Night fever, night fever
0:43:54 > 0:43:56# We know how to show it. #
0:43:59 > 0:44:01Then we invited the Mayor of Bewdley to open it,
0:44:01 > 0:44:05who congratulated us on providing Bewdley with the first urinal
0:44:05 > 0:44:07on this side of the river.
0:44:09 > 0:44:11# Borne on the wind
0:44:11 > 0:44:13# Making it mine... #
0:44:13 > 0:44:15'I like the mat idea,'
0:44:15 > 0:44:18to wipe your feet before you went in to the toilet.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20# ..night fever
0:44:20 > 0:44:22# We know how to do it. #
0:44:27 > 0:44:30'We wanted to recreate the railway as it would've been,
0:44:30 > 0:44:34'probably in the 1930s, 1940s, probably up to the 1950s.'
0:44:34 > 0:44:38So when people take the ride on the steam train,
0:44:38 > 0:44:40they get to look at railway stations
0:44:40 > 0:44:42as they were, probably, in their heyday.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48By the time the urinal opened in 1975,
0:44:48 > 0:44:51preservation societies were growing very quickly.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57They were all recreating a sense of the past with steam at its heart,
0:44:57 > 0:44:59but they faced a big problem.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02Now that British Rail had scrapped all its engines,
0:45:02 > 0:45:05where would they find the locomotives they needed
0:45:05 > 0:45:07to cope with a huge public appetite for steam?
0:45:21 > 0:45:25They would find engines in the most unlikely of places,
0:45:25 > 0:45:28in a scrap yard in South Wales.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32It's where in 1971, a group of volunteers from the Severn Valley
0:45:32 > 0:45:36found this Great Western locomotive, number 2857.
0:45:41 > 0:45:43They raised the money, bought the engine,
0:45:43 > 0:45:45towed it back to the Severn Valley
0:45:45 > 0:45:49and have been working on it off and on ever since.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52I'm just having a struggle with this one screw here,
0:45:52 > 0:45:54which I think has got to be a longer one.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56I've got it the wrong way round...
0:45:56 > 0:45:58THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER
0:45:58 > 0:45:59Yes. Sorry about that, H.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02I'm going to talk to you.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06- Yeah. Well, I'm trying not to breathe in.- Oh, right, OK. Fair enough.
0:46:06 > 0:46:08For my health, it's very fine dust,
0:46:08 > 0:46:11it's the same as loft insulation
0:46:11 > 0:46:14and it can damage your lungs if you're not careful.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18One of the reasons why I got involved,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21I could see all the other engines being preserved
0:46:21 > 0:46:24were express engines with names
0:46:24 > 0:46:27and I can remember these because I lived in Wolverhampton,
0:46:27 > 0:46:30next to the main line and I can remember these trundling up and down,
0:46:30 > 0:46:34day in, day out, and I didn't think anybody was going to bother
0:46:34 > 0:46:37rescuing one of these, so that's why I got involved.
0:46:37 > 0:46:41- You've not got a tape measure on you, have you?- No.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44- It's about like that. - Is it?- Yes.- Great, I'll...
0:46:44 > 0:46:49The man looking for the tape measure is Steve Whittaker.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53Steve took over the role of engineering team leader in 1980.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57But his interest in steam engines goes back much further.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00When I was three,
0:47:00 > 0:47:03my dad drew a train after tea one day
0:47:03 > 0:47:05and it was really good and lifelike
0:47:05 > 0:47:09and the next time the pencil and drawing paper came out,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12before he even picked the pencil up it was, "Dad,
0:47:12 > 0:47:14"will you draw me a train?"
0:47:14 > 0:47:18It just somehow gets in your blood, it's an infectious hobby.
0:47:19 > 0:47:25He would need all his enthusiasm and lots of know-how to restore 2857.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28The job would be massive.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31'Organising all the missing parts,'
0:47:31 > 0:47:37that had been taken off the engine, which is very difficult and complex,
0:47:37 > 0:47:41drawings required, patterns to make castings, machining,
0:47:41 > 0:47:44and all stuff that the average,
0:47:44 > 0:47:48even railway enthusiast is not familiar with these parts.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50So, a great deal to learn.
0:47:52 > 0:47:582857 was just one of more than 200 steam engines rusting away
0:47:58 > 0:48:00in the Barry scrap yard.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05'I can remember going down to Barry scrap yard and...'
0:48:05 > 0:48:09looking at it and I felt, you're wasting your time here.
0:48:09 > 0:48:14It was an absolute load of just scrap and nothing else.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17'It was in poor condition,'
0:48:17 > 0:48:20having been left out in the open for many years,
0:48:20 > 0:48:23but compared with many of the engines in the scrap yard,
0:48:23 > 0:48:25this one was actually fairly complete.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30The scrap yard in Barry has a special place
0:48:30 > 0:48:33in the history of steam preservation in Britain.
0:48:33 > 0:48:35It was one of many hired by British Rail
0:48:35 > 0:48:39to cut up thousands of redundant steam locomotives.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41All the other scrap yards got on with the job,
0:48:41 > 0:48:44but in Barry, the owner, Dai Woodham,
0:48:44 > 0:48:47hadn't got round to doing it.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50Preservation societies like the Severn Valley
0:48:50 > 0:48:52headed for South Wales.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54Columb Howell joined the party.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59'I used to do it in two hours from here.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03'We used to go down, a group of us, which was great fun, go to Wales,'
0:49:03 > 0:49:07it was always lovely weather down there at Barry.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14Lovely. In the sun we used to go to Barry Island and have our chips,
0:49:14 > 0:49:18go round on the big dipper and everything, just good fun.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22'And of course you used to fool about getting your overalls on,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25'pushing people over and that sort of thing.'
0:49:25 > 0:49:26Oh, it was great fun.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31The atmosphere at Barry was very special,
0:49:31 > 0:49:34because there were other railways, Keighley and Worth Valley,
0:49:34 > 0:49:38Dart Valley, Bluebell, and other railways coming up,
0:49:38 > 0:49:42all wanting to preserve another engine for another...
0:49:42 > 0:49:44You looked at each other and said,
0:49:44 > 0:49:47"I hope you're not going to touch my engine..."
0:49:47 > 0:49:49So you'd mark it up for preservation.
0:49:53 > 0:49:54'But we often pooled our work
0:49:54 > 0:49:57'so we could help each other to get our engines ready,
0:49:57 > 0:50:00'so we all set to on the 28's bearings.'
0:50:02 > 0:50:06There's three of us sitting down there, like milking a cow, basically.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09We're working away with this emery cloth.
0:50:11 > 0:50:12You had to do it like this.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15One started, then the next one, and the next one,
0:50:15 > 0:50:18and it was all part of... it was just such fun.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24'It was a long uphill struggle,'
0:50:24 > 0:50:30rescuing the parts that all the other scrap men and enthusiasts
0:50:30 > 0:50:34and collectors were ravaging, trying to get everything
0:50:34 > 0:50:37that was valuable off the engine before it went missing.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40'And what about the chap who sold it to you?
0:50:40 > 0:50:44'Dai Woodham. Well, very interesting character.
0:50:44 > 0:50:50'We were all very thankful to him, because having bought 236 locos,
0:50:50 > 0:50:56'he then continued cutting up steel coal wagons for several years
0:50:56 > 0:50:59'and all the engines were just left languishing in the yard,
0:50:59 > 0:51:02'which was great for preservationists.'
0:51:03 > 0:51:07'He doesn't cut them up because he doesn't need to.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09'He's at the bottom end of the Welsh valleys'
0:51:09 > 0:51:12and they're getting rid of the little coal wagons
0:51:12 > 0:51:16and they're much easier to cut up than a steam locomotive,
0:51:16 > 0:51:17which is quite complicated,
0:51:17 > 0:51:21so he doesn't bother to cut them up. He leaves them to one side.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24It's kind of like his nest egg for when he retires.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30Dai Woodham died in 1994.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35His sons, Paul and John, grew up around the scrapyard.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42All this would be big piles of scrap
0:51:42 > 0:51:46and this was where everything took place, the main part,
0:51:46 > 0:51:49all the cranes would be working, all the burners would be working.
0:51:55 > 0:52:01These are photos of the wagon wheels, piles of them. Just shows
0:52:01 > 0:52:06how many wagons that come through and I can remember the axles
0:52:06 > 0:52:10stacked on either side of the lines where all the wagons were cut up.
0:52:10 > 0:52:12We just kept cutting and cutting
0:52:12 > 0:52:15and we didn't have time to cut up the steam engines.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32'It was a playground for... older kids.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37'My favourite game was to start at one end and see
0:52:37 > 0:52:41'if I could get from one end to the other without getting off them.
0:52:41 > 0:52:43'And I'd go up through the chimneys, across the top,'
0:52:43 > 0:52:46down and from one engine to the other.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53'As people realised they were here'
0:52:53 > 0:52:55and more and more people came to visit,
0:52:55 > 0:52:58then they realised these were the last
0:52:58 > 0:53:03and somebody had obviously said to him, can we buy them off you? Yes.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07And it just snowballed and snowballed
0:53:07 > 0:53:10and in hindsight, they were lucky.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22You go away to these preservation societies and you see something
0:53:22 > 0:53:25that would never have been if it wasn't for him.
0:53:28 > 0:53:30But nothing happened overnight.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34It took four years of hard fundraising
0:53:34 > 0:53:37before the group had raised the £5,700,
0:53:37 > 0:53:4180,000 in today's prices, they needed to buy the engine.
0:53:45 > 0:53:50Bob Kyte filmed the journey as it was towed to Bewdley.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53'It arrived here August 13th in '75,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56'we started replacing the copper pipes'
0:53:56 > 0:54:00and making the gunmetal fittings that were missing
0:54:00 > 0:54:06'and in 1979, we steamed it, just to see what it was like.'
0:54:06 > 0:54:10And then we found out why British Rail had withdrawn it.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12It was an absolute bag of nails...
0:54:12 > 0:54:13HE LAUGHS
0:54:16 > 0:54:18They discovered a crack n the cylinder block.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21It was a disaster that could've ruined eight years' work
0:54:21 > 0:54:23on their dream project.
0:54:23 > 0:54:25But Steve scoured the country
0:54:25 > 0:54:28and a year later found a replacement cylinder
0:54:28 > 0:54:31in a South Wales steelworks.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34Then four more years of hard graft started.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38The whole locomotive was stripped
0:54:38 > 0:54:43and rebuilt to mainline condition in the elements, out in the open.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48It was even painted to completion out in the open...
0:54:48 > 0:54:49at Bewdley.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54Incredible. And here's the living proof.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58Anyone feeling strong?
0:55:00 > 0:55:01That's your end.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03'The thing that's made 2857,
0:55:03 > 0:55:08'an unpopular old goods engine as it is, a success,
0:55:08 > 0:55:11'is the tremendous guys that we've got.
0:55:11 > 0:55:17'A ramshackle team from all walks of life who work like Trojans.'
0:55:18 > 0:55:21OK. Get down at this end.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24Just a bit in the middle.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27'If something wanted doing, you know, Steve would do it,
0:55:27 > 0:55:32'or get somebody else to do it, which is the sort of chap that you want.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35'I mean, I've done my fair share,
0:55:35 > 0:55:38'but I think I've taken him as a lead, really.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40'If it wasn't for him,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43'we wouldn't have got anywhere, I don't think.'
0:55:46 > 0:55:49'I wouldn't swap it for anything.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52'You'll never get me to a football match.'
0:55:52 > 0:55:55Too much rail engineering to be done.
0:55:57 > 0:55:58Mission accomplished.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01Harry.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10Steve and Bob's story on the Severn Valley
0:56:10 > 0:56:13could be replicated right across the country.
0:56:13 > 0:56:15These days, all over Britain,
0:56:15 > 0:56:18more than 200 restored steam locomotives
0:56:18 > 0:56:21are running on more than 100 preserved railway lines
0:56:21 > 0:56:24and they cover 500 miles of track.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35The achievement of the preserved railway movement is to go
0:56:35 > 0:56:39in a little over 60 years from nothing at all
0:56:39 > 0:56:42to having hundreds of railways,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46thousands of volunteers, hundreds of steam locomotives working
0:56:46 > 0:56:50and millions of visitors, which means
0:56:50 > 0:56:56they've become part of our day-to-day lives and that's a major achievement.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01ENGINES WAIL
0:57:05 > 0:57:08Steam preservation touched a nerve with the nation.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12It helped us rediscover a history we thought we'd lost
0:57:12 > 0:57:15and as well as being part of our heritage,
0:57:15 > 0:57:18steam has become part of today's economy.
0:57:18 > 0:57:19HE WHISTLES
0:57:23 > 0:57:28Some societies have their own railway and carriage workshops.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31They're even building steam engines from new.
0:57:33 > 0:57:34HORNS TOOTING
0:57:36 > 0:57:40But the backbone of the movement remains the thousands of volunteers
0:57:40 > 0:57:43who continue to turn out day after day,
0:57:43 > 0:57:48week after week to ensure that the trains run on time.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51'They're even doing things like running Santa specials,'
0:57:51 > 0:57:55so that if you're a child of four, these days,
0:57:55 > 0:57:59you'd probably go to at least three preserved railways
0:57:59 > 0:58:02in the course of your childhood,
0:58:02 > 0:58:04because they'll take you on a Santa special.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08And that's something that the railways invented and run
0:58:08 > 0:58:11and it's a big part of their income
0:58:11 > 0:58:14and it's probably one reason why you no longer go to a department store
0:58:14 > 0:58:18to see Santa, because he's on a steam train, at a railway near you.
0:58:24 > 0:58:30# So have yourself
0:58:30 > 0:58:37# A merry little Christmas...
0:58:37 > 0:58:45# Now... #
0:58:52 > 0:58:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd