Episode 2 Trainspotting Live

Hello, and welcome back to Trainspotting Live at Didcot Railway

centre in Oxfordshire. Look at this wonderful train, beautiful. It is a

funny old thing, it is from the 1940s, a kind of all in one coach, a

railcar. This is the show that celebrates the intrepid rail

enthusiasts, fired by their passion, we thrill at the ingenuity of our

entire rail network, the oldest in the world, and the landscapes and

engineering that has made Britain what it is today. Last night we

asked you to get involved and my goodness, you did. Let's look at

some of the fantastic clips you sent us. This first one is a class 68,

spotted today at 12:59pm by Andrew Wright. We have a couple of

pictures. This is the Jacobite at Fort William. What a beauty. And

then, a Class 37 at shield me. An ugly looking thing, but never mind!

We will be focusing on diesel locomotives and there is one that

has probably pulled more passengers than any other class of train. When

I was a lot younger I can remember the excitement of this locomotive

arriving on the scene, a home-grown design classic and an enduring

symbol of the British rail network, the InterCity 125. There it is, that

is what we are asking you to spot tonight. Look how modern it looks,

even today. Lovely. I'm a mathematician and I'm going to look

at the equations behind the shift away from steam, to show you how it

happened and we arrived at diesel. We have Dick Strawbridge out and

about again, where are you tonight? I'm a stone's throw away, 24 miles

down the Great Western Railway, in Swindon, a station that hosted the

earliest recorded refreshment room. But we aren't here to eat, we are

here to spot trains! Too right! We also have our own expert train

spotter, Tim Dunn, who we hope has come back down to earth after his

steam spot in Scotland yesterday. Where are you? OK, I have come down

to us and I am in Carlisle on my steam safari, we are at the major

railway hub. I am moving from steam to diesel. I have come to find a new

locomotive, which is agent, the Class 37. Lovely stuff. We want to

inspire you at home to get out and spot with us again over the next few

days and we will show you how. Tonight's challenge, the iconic 125

and there is another new holy Grail on the rail. Welcome to

Trainspotting Live! Of course tonight we are mindful of

today's rail crash in Italy and our thoughts go to the friends and

families of those affected. This tragedy emphasises how important

safety is on the railways and later we'll be looking at the mechanisms

that routinely keep the network running safely. Now we are joined

again by a rapid instead from the National Railway Museum here.

Separating our various classes! All of us are a bit nostalgic about this

beauty, this steam engine. Why are we supposed to love the diesel?

That's the one that made us where we are now and the steam engine was

modernised, we moved away, they were cheaper to run because they needed

fewer men to look after them and that's why we have moved into the

high-speed world now. Let's look at some of the spots that have come in

overnight. What do you make of these ones? Here we have this 66, I think,

is it? Yeah, there we go. David in Spalding sent us this, there it

goes, eight 66. Not only exciting, but efficient. It is taking goods

and services all around the country. It will be full of all sorts of

interesting stuff in each of those boxes. Freight, one of the most

successful parts of the British system. All of us benefit from that.

We have a more unusual one here, another 66, here we go, coming from

Kent Davies is met Kevin Davies. That is the Royal Scotsman, this is

a luxury hotel train for travelling around the country. Any relation to

the Flying Scotsman? We are looking for the measurement train, the

Flying Banana. We had two during the show and we have had more sightings

of this unique train since. Let's see the other one, this Flying

Banana, this extraordinary measurement train. It is all yellow.

There it is. You can see why it's called that! It is a measurement

train, very unusual, only one in the country. Entitled we had over 80

people sending us sightings of the Flying Banana, which was brilliant

spotting, so thank you very much. Tonight we are moving our sporting

challenge onto the InterCity 125 and over the next 24 hours we would like

you to send us photo and video of this. Bob, this is the name of the

train, but what about the locomotive? It is two locomotives

with a set of carriages in between and the two ends are the class 43

diesels and you have these lovely carriages that people still think

are marvellous and comfortable and that gave us the concept, high

power, less weight on the rails, very fast. Originally they started

in 1972, how many are still going? The prototype in 72, production in

76 and of those, only three are missing. There is still the full

fleet. I have also heard the one to five referred to as the 43. 43 is

the engine at the front and the back of the train. OK, well, call it a 43

or 125, we want you to spot as many as you can tonight. They want you to

get involved over the next 24 hours. If you are new to this or if you are

already familiar with the 125, think again, here is our guide. The key to

spotting the class 43 is to note the numbers at the front of the power

car. Class 43s go by various nicknames including screamer, tram

and the Flying Banana. Some of them are famous, two hold a world speed

record, 43159 and 4104, which has been changed to 43304. 43002 is

called the Grange, named in honour of the designer, Sir Kenneth Grange.

The colour scheme or livery denotes one of the 43s six operators. It is

crucial to note the time and space of any spot, pen, notepad and Camara

are the traditional tools, although smartphone apps are catching on. No

trespassing, never go on the tracks and no flash photography. Stations

are privately owned, so if you spot from one, let the staff know that

you are there. The anorak isn't obligatory but make sure you dress

for the weather! Yeah watch for the rain. This is our map from yesterday

and you can see all the class 66s, 150 of them, from one of them down

in Cornwall up to the top of Scotland. Clustered around London

and the East Coast Main Line, brilliant. There are the Flying

Bananas, one in King's Cross, Cambridge and Hartford. Later we

have today's map, we are moving on to the InterCity 125. Bob, here we

have these little red pins. This is Dick Strawbridge in Swindon and here

is Tim Dunn up in Carlisle. We have very few so far, we want more, send

them in. Where are the 125s running? From Penzance update Inverness,

Aberdeen, the East Coast Main Line, the Midlands line, up to Leeds and

one still goes through the middle, Birmingham. Keep them coming in,

please. The 125 indicates that it goes at a speed of 125 mph, but the

French, Germans and Japanese are going at 200 mph, what's going on?

We are going off a railway that was built in the 1830s, but they are

working off brand-new railways. You can go faster if you have a new

railway and special signalling, but at the moment 125 is the signal. And

very expensive? It is an expensive system but it is coming in. We have

been spotting in Didcot, this came in from the Oxford line. Here it

comes, sweeping past us on its way to Oxford. We aren't sure if it's

going to Oxford. Look at that beauty. The amazing thing is that it

is 40 years old and it looks like a very modern freighter. It does,

yeah. Let's go to Newport and Rees come and see what he's up to. Are

you there? I am. What have you got? It is very quiet at the moment, we

had the HST before we came on air. You missed it by about a minute!

You're going to see some 125s this evening? We have seen a load of

them, we have seen some of the mild ones as well. Look at that! We had

the Harry Patch, the remembrance one. You have had them all coming

in. Keep us posted. Marvellous. We have a new holy Grail on the rail to

spot the night, it is the new beast of burden. We want you to track down

at least one of the six mail trains on the network. This is what it

looks like. It is actually red with a great yellow stripe, these are the

mail trains. There are six of them. Easy to spot, from the colour of

them, Royal Mail. So let's have them, send as many pictures and

spots and goodness knows what else. How important are they? Very

important, they are moving the mail from London to Scotland or from

Scotland to London with a hub in the middle in Warrington. The bill you

don't want to receive, it may be on that train! Excellent, these trains

can be unpredictable but let's see what you can do. Send us your

updates on social media using #TrainspottingLive or e-mail us. We

will catch up with what you have sent later in the show. Now, it is

the iconic aerodynamic design of the 125 that set it apart and that

design was down to a young graduate, Kenneth Grange, who was to become

perhaps the greatest industrial engineer... Designer, I'm sorry, but

his generation. The InterCity is quite a modern train, really. Yes,

modernism is the key word in all of that period. It gave real substance

to the belief that the railways were going to be reborn as a really

modern institution. So tell me about its new technology that it used.

Believe it or not, the front of my train is effectively a plastic

train. It came out of the railways's plastics laboratory, allowing shapes

that hitherto would have been extremely difficult or at least

expensive to make with traditional materials. We could make any shape

we wanted as a result of this technology. Sir Kenneth was asked to

create a new literary originally for the InterCity 125 but he couldn't

resist a challenge. -- a new livery. I had never done anything like that

before. We had a number of weeks in which to work and I thought, it

would be interesting to have a go at redesigning it because it was OK,

but fairly blunt, rather predictable, I would say. We made a

model in the workshop in the day and take it down to the Imperial

College, where we would bribe somebody to wind up the wind tunnel

and using smoke trails, we daily develop some shapes into more or

less aerodynamically efficient. The prototype was a great success, but a

fresh design challenge came when the train drivers union, Aslef asked

that the cabin have two drivers side-by-side instead of one on the

grounds of safety, meaning a much bigger drivers window. It had a

negative effect on the aerodynamics. Really? That would have been a

problem. One key moment in the time I was at Derby with the chief

engineer, going over the ground again. I said look, just supposing

we could do away with the buffers. And to his everlasting credit he

said, it is true that this train, which we hadn't made before, has the

power car at both ends and won't be used for shunting, so we won't need

buffers. That allowed me to go back to the drawing board and exchange

the airflow. Instead of smoothly going down the sides, it went much

more smoothly over the top, hence the shape we have now and this

characteristic peak that the thing has.

When you look at all of the things you've designed, there's some pretty

good things in that list. You've got the Kenwood mixers, the Kodak

intamatic. But does the Intercity 15 manage to get a special place on

your list? Well, my little chest puffed up when I walked past it, of

course, but it start out a decorating job and turned out to be

the west job of my life. Imagine if Sir Kenneth was just worried about

the colours and painted it instead of designing that train. 1976 was

the time I left home and started serious rail travel. All my adult

life has been getting off Intercity 15s. I used to be given a rail

warrant and was sent on my way. 148 miles an hour, the world speed

record for diesels. Phenomenal. I have a support with me. He's taking

numbers, I'm missing one here. Come on, Thomas! I haven't got that one.

168. We've been spotting all day long. We've got some amazing numbers

to look at. Mate, what we were looking at earlier and some of the

things we saw, the Glorious 90 years. Yes, celebrating the Queen's

90th birthday. At Paddington as well. Ot I'm loving here, people are

thinking all the trains have different ideas. I like one for my

mum, she was 80 last week. But the memories are in there. You've been

spotting for quite a while now. Where is your notebook, fella? I

don't use a notebook. I normally take pictures and when I get home I

mark them off on my little pad. So you don't have apps and databases

and things? No. Thomas is the new generation of spotters. The things

we've been looking at, if you record them on, there I want to get one end

of the train or the other? Maybe you should be concentrating a little bit

more. It is difficult, because there's numbers at both ends of the

trains. For me I've got an odd number of 15s, doesn't seem to make

any sense. The reason why there's two engines is they use a pub-pull

type of thing. Push-pull! There you go. The Sir Kenneth Grange is coming

along later this evening. It will be going past you first, Peter. He is

the legendary man who designed the 15. Do keep your 15 spots coming in.

Tim is in Carlisle. Tim. I'm at Carlisle station. My mission tonight

which I have gladly chosen to accept is to hunt down one of the class

37s. We are going to hear it before we see it. These are known as

tractors because of the agricultural reverberating sound of the machinery

inside. These are loud. This is a classic item of traction. These are

British-built built by English Electric between 1956 and 1965.

These are real survivors of the steam age. They are doing the same

jobs today as they were doing then, pulling goods trains, maintenance

trains and passenger trains. There are other trains behind us now. This

is a ScotRail class 156, a nippy little DMU. Carlisle is a big

junction of the West Coast Main Line, the Settle to Carlisle

railway, the Newcastle line and the Cumbrian Coast Railway. Earlier

today we've seen Class 66, 66192 coming light engine through the

station earlier today. We've also seen 66737, which is pulling a coal

train to a power station. These are far less common than they used to

be, and we've also seen a phenomenal on Virgin Trains, a Virgin Voyager

22104, off platform 1 to Glasgow. A shout out to the staff on that, who

wanted to be mentioned on television. And today the Holy Grail

of rail, the mail train. It has already come through tonight. That

is not what we are here to see. We are here to see the class 37, which

will be here next. Trainspotters don't hold the monopoly when it

comes to obsessively collecting train numbers. Some rail enthusiasts

go one step further. Rather than noting the engine number down, they

collect the numberplate. One of those is Ian castle dine who is with

me. Ian, this is an amazing hobby of yours. How many have you got?

Pushing on to round about 200 locomotive plates at home. Where you

do put them, in the shed in the garden? No, my nearest and dearest

allows me to put them on display in the house. You have a very good

nearest and dearest. And there's a shot of your watch. What does she

say about this? What is your favourite? It would be this engine,

a local engine. Based at the local Midland railway centre near where I

love. Near near where I live. What else have you got there? Where is

the most antique of yours? This is Midland railway, rebuilt in 187. In

1876. It is a totally unique plate in terms of pattern. And a lovely

shining brass on some of these. Do they all have this wonderful

foundries, the names where they come from and the numbers. We don't see

that now so much do we? Mostly now the modern locomotives do have a

plate on them, much reduced usually, like an enamel plate with lettering

on. Much more bore than your plate. Where is the most difficult one you

have ever found? A William Beard more, a Scottish shipbuilder on the

Clyde, which turned its hands to building locomotives briefly. They

are magnificent. This great number here. Is this from today? No, it is

a Great Western cab-side numberplate from Keynham Court. I told my mother

when I was nine I was going to own that set. It took me until I was 45

but I got the set. Are these worth anything? Probably ?2,500, if not

more. So your lounge wall is worth raiding one day. I'm not

suggesting... Thank you very much. He's a railwayman too. It is all

very well for two young lads like Ian and me bang on about railways,

but the world of rail needs fresh blood and there is plenty to be

found in the most unlikely of places. It was two summers ago. You

were a typical female teenager, which is Ed Sheeran, shopping, more

Ed Sheeran, more shopping. Yep. And nails. Yep, horrible nails. And now

you are a trainee fireman, which is absolutely great. I still can't get

my head around it. It's been two years now. You can even weld now.

Your boyfriend has taught you to weld. I wouldn't know which end to

start. Not on the hot end. That's a good idea. The passion started three

years ago. I was completely bored with my summer hol days. Just

finished GCSEs and the workshop foreman suggested I borrowed a pair

of boots and overalls, and since that day I have within completely

obsessed with steam. It has grown and grown. Handbrake off. Clear down

that side. And it is clear on my side. This is the loco we are

currently refurbishing. We've put the boiler on and the smoke box on.

Our next job is sorting the smoke box door. Hopefully when it comes

back into steam, which shouldn't be too long away,ly be able to look at

it and point it out to people and say, I helped make that bit. I

helped do the axle box, lowered it on to its wheel sets and chucked

some coal on it to one day hopefully. Waking up at 6.30am to

come and play on the steam engines chucked out my girly girl life. At

that time in the morning you don't get time to put on your mass Cara.

You will come off looking horrendous, but I go home have a

shower and everything is fine again. I've coupled the loco up to the

train using the link and the vacuum pipe. My hands are filthy from doing

it. This is my all time favourite engine. Dougal. It worked in

gasworks and I love it because it is so small and cute. I hadn't felt so

connected to Megan for years. That's because you don't like painting your

nails. Exactly, but I still can't get my head round it but it is

absolutely great. The move from steam to deals was a huge upheaval

to the railway. But why did Britain embrace this move? Well, an equation

can help reveal why. It all comes down to something called torque.

Torque is the twisting force, the force required to twist the wheels

of the engine. The torque that you need is much higher at slower

speeds. If you think of the World's Strongest Man, when they pull a

truck along. It takes a long time to get going but once they're off it is

easier. The same is true with trains. You need a lot more torque

when you start from stationary. You will often hear engines described in

terms of horsepower, but the way you talk about steam engines is by using

torque. Torque and horsepower are related to this equation. Horsepower

is equal to torque, times by two pi because the wheels are circular and

divided by 33,000, because imperial units are weird. In terms of this on

a steam train, let's hop on and see how this works. Inside the steam

train you've got the coal, the fire. You've got a brake here. A Wills. A

whistle. And the regulator. This thing controls how quickly the

wheels are rotating, the revolutions per minute. Every chug of the piston

produces exactly the same amount of torque in a steam engine. Only the

revolutions per minute change. That means that in this equation, this is

constant. This here is constant. The torque is constant. The only two

things you can play with are the horsepower and the revolutions per

minute. And that means that the faster the wheels are rotating, the

higher the horsepower. The horsepower of a Stevenage gin

increases can speed. A deals engine on the other hand always has the

same horse power. It is always running at maximum horsepower. Why

is this? The reason is that a diesel engine can change speed using its

gears, which you've got here. And a brake there. Another horn there. But

I'm not going to use that one. The fixed horsepower on the diesel

engine the thing that makes the difference. If we go back to this

equation and have another version, which I drew earlier. There is your

steam engine. This is it for the deals engine. The diesel engine, the

horsepower is the thing that's fixed. This is fixed the, this is

fixed, these are the only two things that can move. Because this equation

has to stay equal, this, the horsepower overall has to stay equal

that. Means that at slower revolutions per minute you have to

have a much higher torque. And that means that diesel trains are much

better at pulling the train forward, especially at slow speech.ds this is

especially important when you are stopping and starting a lot, as

number the UK between lots of stations. If you add to that the

diesel engines were much more fuel efficient, they distribute the

weight much better. Better at slower speeds, it was a clear winner

between the two unfortunately. I'm confused by one thing. Most trains

now are diesel or diesel electric, so what is driving them, diesel or

trick? This one is full diesel. We have to go to Tim in Carlisle! As

you can probably hear and see, the class 37 has just come. In it came

in a bit early. It is 2031 it was duction e in but it came in a few

minutes ago. It came up the platform in quite a magnificent way.

Locate, as you can imagine, it came straight in, it is concrete Bob, 17

45, it has come up the Cumbrian coast. These machines are

remarkable, quite loud. The trucks are named after the engines inside.

There are 40 left on the mainline, some of them owned by Direct Rail

Services, some by West Coast and others. All of different types and

sorts, and different in their subclasses. This particular

locomotive is quite a stunner and it has been named Concrete Bob on one

side and Lord McAlpine. This machine is named after the man who helped to

build the West Highland line we saw yesterday, the concrete viaduct, in

Harry Potter, was built by the man who this locomotive was named after.

Thereof 40 of these in preservation in the UK -- there are. Down the

West country, the Warwickshire Railway have just restored one of

these magnificent beasts to its former glory in British rail livery.

As you can see, this is just chuntering away slowly, before it

goes back to King more dapper, just north of Carlisle. -- King more

depot. It is time to look at another locomotive we have seen, it is a 37,

similar condition, but British Rail livery. As you can see, just

powering up alongside the platform. I think you can see the 37 footage,

the lard logo. -- large logo. What an amazing train and what a

racket it makes. We have had two sightings of the mail train, one of

them in Stafford, at 8:14pm, and eight minutes later, a bit north of

Stafford, near Manchester. Very exciting. We have some tweets coming

in, keep them coming in. Somebody aged 12, sporting the Class 37 in

Penzance at three minutes past eight. Karen Matthews saw the class

43, the 125 in Durham about half an hour ago. Darren has seen the rare

GW 125 in green livery. Oh yes. OK, Bob, keep these tweets coming in.

You'll spots as well. We have these 125s, building up on the East Coast

Main Line. Terrific stuff. It would be good to get some from Scotland as

well and maybe further west and towards Swansea, that would be good.

Very good indeed, we'll keep watching. Let's go to our life

Oxford Camara and look, right at this moment. We've got a...

Somewhere like Felixstowe. Southampton, I think, that train. I

think I fell away a little bit there. Class 66 doing a good old

job. We are concentrating on the 125, the wonderful Kenneth range

train. -- Kenneth Grange. Earlier we saw this 125, a very special one,

that is the train that is named after Sir Kenneth Grange, the man

who designed this wonderful 125. Kenneth Grange is the name of the

train. That's right, in the original livery for when they first came out

in 1976. That's a really nice spot. Terrific, what a wonderful memorial,

although he is very much alive! Malcolm, you are in crew, what's

going on. We have had a lot of trains coming through, Pendolinos

coming along. We have... Another London Midland. Great stuff, it's

all happening. Crewe is one of the big centres of the railway system in

Britain. I think that the 125 was built there. Can you still hear me?

There is the heritage centre as well, so a lot going on in Crewe.

Thank you, Malcolm. We have had one spot of this diesel train sent in,

it is the DMU, the diesel multiple unit. What is different about these

from the 125? They are self-propelled trains. The 125 has a

locomotive at either end of the carriages, but the DMU is a

self-propelled train and it goes back a long way. 1903, the first one

is just being restored, it was built in York and it goes back a long way.

Many people, they have been travelling on them. Sometimes. They

local trains and very long distance as well. For ages they do as well.

You can travel a long way on the DMU. Good, we will have pictures of

the mail train. I wonder where it's going to get to, maybe Scotland. We

have seen every conceivable kind of train and locomotives have dedicated

groups of spotters and enthusiasts and the InterCity 125s is no

exception. It is no surprise that this iconic

train has a group of dedicated fans, many of them experienced engineers

and railwaymen who call themselves the 125 Group. The long-term aim of

the group when we set up 22 years ago was to preserve the conduction

125 but that train is so successful, there are none for us to preserve. I

don't think any of us expected them to be going in 2016. We thought

maybe 2000, 2005 we would have our hands on one. So by this time you

thought you would have a fleet of them!

So, to get their hands on the power car, they got the National whaling

museum to lend them the only surviving prototype of the 125 and

they promised they would restore it to full working order -- the

National rail museum. So far it has cost them ?125,000. That's a lot

considering their train only ran commercially between Paddington and

Bristol for 18 months. This is yours, that must be great? It's

fantastic, and believable, we have to pinch ourselves to Raillo lights

that we've got it. Part of the attraction, coming here and getting

stuck into a big job like this -- pinch ourselves to believe that we

got it. Amazing that we have got to this stage. We have put in the hours

and now we get to play with it. What these guys called play isn't for

amateurs. Look at this! Tyree wired this from scratch and since then I

have put in 1000 columns of cabling. 599 individual cables. Over in 1100

joints on the cables. Somebody looks at this and they are thinking it is

so complicated, but for us, actually, there is a lot. This is

why as electrical engineers, we get away with murder! All of this work

is to one end. What is it like to drive? Wonderful, wonderful to

drive. It's easy to forget that the 125,

cutting-edge technology in its day, was launched eight years after steam

engines had been officially phased out. Back then, the drivers who

would be put forward to drive the new high-speed train will be used to

driving steam locomotives rather than a space age of looking train

like this. The controls are arranged around the driver with the dials,

the speedometer in easy view. The power of this? 2250 horsepower,

controlled by this power control here. We have five notches of power.

One and two, going into three. Notch four and the best one, full power,

five. There's something nice about that,

isn't there? Oh, yes. I the proof of the pudding is that it is running

after 40 years. Oh, yes. Pleased with that? Yes, the public like them

and the staff like them. John once the train! I know.

I love hearing the power of the motor, amazing. You can tell that

John is happy to be a train driver. I have some different train spotters

with me. Gary and ten free Mac, you don't write down the numbers, you

record. It is all about the changing soundscape of the numbers, -- of the

train, going from diesel and steam to electric. How did you get the

interest in trains? My father worked on the railways so I have been into

trains since I was smaller than this one. Have you recorded anything,

Kip? Yes, was it the 125? A 125? Yes. What is the most interesting

thing you have recorded on the railway? A squeaky wheel! And the

actual collection, what are you going to do with it? It is for

posterity, the future, so people will understand in the future what

the soundscape was like in 2016, for his generation. So the history, like

our heritage, it is exactly the same but is that photographs, sound.

Absolutely, we know that there has been a change in the railway tracks,

there is the solid line, so it is constantly changing. It is silent

here at the moment which is very unusual force wind on. We have some

more trains coming and. -- unusual for Swindon. Some sightings of

Kenneth Grange, I'm interested in when it comes to you. Keep your eyes

open. You are sending us many tweets. Ian

on Twitter says that he has seen another mail train, is currently in

Trent Valley, at 8:32pm. That's the second one, the red ones. And the

ease coast InterCity 125 with the spirit of Sunderland vinyls,

whatever that means. Robert has seen the well Scotsman and Banbury and

Ben Jane Smith has seen the InterCity 125 at King's Cross. At

the forefront of our line today, after the tragedy in Italy, safety

on the network. That requires many calculations and a lot of complex

maths too. Too much for me to handle, so Hannah went to the

regional operations centre in York and put her brain to work.

Every day the rail network carries over 5 million passengers. 50% more

than ten years ago. The regional operations centre in York controls

all of the trains on the London North Eastern route, from King's

Cross up to the Scottish Borders. Was this thing here? This is a

system called the control centre of the future, CCF, what the

controllers look at to see the state of the network at the moment. This

live map displays the London North East and network in sections. So we

have six trains coming in to lead a station and we have just two coming

in from the east end -- Leeds station. The trains are red, green

or clear and each train is a coloured rectangle, the colour

indicating the train's status. Showing green, meaning it is an

time. When things start going purple, we have a problem. The

controllers managed late running trains but also any incident on the

network that might interrupt traffic. What about leaves on the

line? In the autumn, many leaves fall on the rails and as the train

goes over it, it crashes the leaves and raise a Teflon like coating on

the rails. It causes problems, the rails get very slippery and the

trains don't always stop where we want them to and also, train

detection. The signalling system uses electric currents in the tracks

to locate the trains and leaves on the line can block those signals. If

we can't see where the train is, then the network is inherently

unsafe. While the control room coordinates the response to any

incident... It is up to the signal to manage the fine detail of how the

train runs. -- signaller. What did he want? It is a blockage on the

line, basically. Engineering work, between two points, normally

signals. Each signaller controls between six and 60 miles of track

and it is up to them to manage trains around engineering works,

scheduled or not. How does that change how you run the signals?

Before line blockages, I have to look at the timetable and make sure

there is sufficient gap for them to get in. Like always feel a bit

scared going over a level crossing? We have the signal to stop things,

if your car broke down... You could stop the train? Yeah. What about the

automatic systems, how much do they help you and how much is you using

your experience? If you did it on your own, it would be a nightmare

because you would be clicking left right and centre constantly and the

cursor would be flying like table tennis. You aren't just dealing with

the fast intercity trains, the slow trains, the freight trains,

presumably the Queen's train as well? Yes, absolutely, and we look

after it well. And do you make all the signal lights go green for her?

We do our best, yes. Good citizens! Tas natting stuff. You might think

I'm sitting in a cattle truck but this is an old third class carriage

with Roger Orchard, the manager here at Didcot railway centre. Now, what

is this? This is a third class open carriage from 1838, from the days of

Brunel, for third class passengers travelling to Bristol to Paddington.

It is uncomfortable. That's right. But people in those days had never

experienced train travel, the horse was the fastest thing, so this was a

brand-new world. And it allowed people to spend money on other

things. That's right, it allowed people to leave the villages and

towns that they lived in. And exposed to the air? Yes, it was an

interesting journey, sparks and soot from the chimney of the steam engine

landing on your head, and freezing colds in winter. I love the notice.

The best place to be is in the carriage further depress the engine.

Very much so. Thank you Roger. We are going back to Dick. There is one

train that may be more of an apparition. Tim tracked it down and

hitched a ride on the ghost train. Michael, lovely to meet you. Let's

get on board. I think it is just us today.

Gosh! We are leaving now on the ghost train. Michael, why are they

called quest to trains? Because it is the only train of the day in this

direction along this particular line. I did notice as we got on this

train had this was not advertised on the departure board. Not on any

board. So it is a quintessential ghost train. It is done to keep the

line open. To close a railway is complicated, you have to through

lots of procedures. It is easier to keep the line up than the statutory

procedures to open it. Chiltern Railways would say it is for driver

training. This was the Great Western line to Birmingham. It is a rusty

single track. Once the locomotives of the Great Western Railway raced

up here... The King and the Castle classes. Autumn the great classes of

the Great Western Railway came along this line. This isn't the only ghost

train in Britain? Some people estimate there are about 50 ghost

trains or ghost stations in the country, where service start and

begin at strange times with strange people like us on board. People

have, trainspotters who spot ghost trains. They are known as ghosties.

Sometimes when you find one or two people on a ghost train you can be

reasonably sure that they are ghosties. Against all odds it turns

out we are not the only people thon train. I'm here now with John and

Peter, who are both on this remarkable ghost train heading north

to west rye slip. What are you doing on this railway? I've been up and

down this track on trains but never a service train. John said he had

never done it, society was a great opportunity for a day out. We are

going there and become again. Next station is west Ruislip. This train

terminates here. All change. Here we go, the end of the line. Thank you

Tim. We've got someone called David spotting a southbound mail train at

Tam worth in the Midlands. That was 8.38, society looks as if we've got

one going north and one going south. Two tweets, an Intercity 125 at

Inverness. And Charlie spotted an Intercity 125 here at Carlisle.

That's where Tim is. Neil spotted a pair of Intercity 125s in

Cricklewood. Over the Dick right away! This is it. We've been waiting

all evening. It is the Sir Kenneth Grange Intercity 125, 43002. The

whole of the platform has people looking at it. This train is

commemorated, 40 years ago the design was done for this train. It's

coming up to us and it is coming up to us in good old fashion 125

livery. This is what I saw as a youngster. I'm surprised they are

not the same any more. Sir Kenneth is 87 at the weekend. Happy birth

day, Sir. And of my adult life I've been travelling around in your

creations. I love it to bits. And there we go.

This plaque has been designated as of historic interest and is part of

our railway heritage, so the plaque will survive long after the train

has gone. There's a bit of history there. Do you know what? I've been

collecting numbers for 125s but this is the most Special One. We've been

correcting lots of numbers. Come on, Thomas. You need to tell me about

some of the things we are doing. I've got numbers galore. You have.

First things first, I love the hum of the 125. I love it. It is

amazing. We saw a class 59. Yes. 59207, a freight train going towards

Chippenham way. Not too many freight trains in this part of the world.

Not here, this isn't really a good place to see freight trains. 66192

came through as well. A couple, but not many. One of the ones I was most

impressed to see was Squadron Leader Harold Star. I know the names and

you know the numbers. Died in the Battle of Britain but he was from

Swindon. What we have here is some of the history from the town.

Anybody looking at the trains will actually understand what's going on.

They'll get to see part of the history of Swindon if they come to

the railway station, a great part of it. And, of course, we've also got

5300... Sorry, 43005. The new Great Western livery came out yesterday.

There are two sets altogether. I haven't seen anything like it

before. The company changed its name a while back and only had one train,

or one Intercity 125 set in green. And then they added another one.

About a month or so ago. So that was a rare thing to see? It was. There

are only two sets. I'm feeling better about this. What I've got

there is a bit of rate. I've got the beauty of this beside me. Trains

like that, when I was your age, that was the only trains to go between

cities with. This is more special than the others. The rest of the

125s we've seen, if you stay here, do you get to see most of them?

Yeah, pretty much around a handful. They normally do the same journeys.

The train from London to Bristol then does Bristol to London, unless

something happens. I did see one of those coming back. Both directions.

We've seen some of the little DMUs. 158 and 155s yes. The variety of

those, I'm a little bit confused, I'm new to this. When looking at the

numbers, I had a couple of 150s. Yes. A 158. Is that the same as a

150? No, they can go just a tiny bit faster and they are normally formed

of three coaches while the 150s are formed of two coaches. The only way

ky tell ormed of two coaches. The only way ky tell the difference is

-- the only way I can tell the difference is by looking at a data

sheet. I've got a sheet on my computer can check to see if I've

got it. So you do all the filing side of life? Yes. Compared to some

of the older people around here, tur young buck side of life. Yes, trying

to get new technology into the railways. Do pencils scare you? No.

I was just wondering about that. We've come here and what I've

managed to see today has been phenomenal and the star for me

undoubtedly, Sir Kenneth Grange. Stand by for the pun of the evening,

well spotted dick! LAUGHTER We've just had a picture of

the mail train. Very excite. Colin Taylor sent us this from Warrington.

There's a magnificent mail train on its way possibly up to Scotland, who

knows. Knows. Wonderful stuff. And we have some tweets in. The mail

train spotted in Derby from Chris Watt, a couple of minutes ago. Paul

Roberts has seen a Class 66 come in Watt, a couple of minutes ago. Paul

Roberts has seen a Class 66 come and we've got John Bradford who spotted

a Class 66. Tomorrow Dick will be in Clapham and we'll be bring

everything up to date and looking into the future of trainspotting,

with electric trains, super-express trains and 3D modelling. Tim on the

other hand is going to take on the Holy Grail spot himself. Will he be

in Stafford searching for the mail train. Train. Don't forget if you've

managed to spot, there's pictures and videos and the 125. Tomorrow

we'll be asking you to spot the EMUs, the electric multi-cal unit.

That's all we've got time for. We'll be back tomorrow at 8 o'clock, where

we'll leave you now with some