Episode 3 Trainspotting Live

Welcome back to Trainspotting Live, our final sure, we're once again

celebrating everything to do with the rail network from tunnels to

bridges, stations and trains. Train spotters are not stuck in the past

but like the rest of us millions of railway enthusiasts they are excited

about the dawn of not just a new golden age but a titanium plated

carbon fire hydrogen powered era. Tonight we will be looking into the

future of Trainspotting with the newest and fastest and most exciting

trains on the network including some which are not even officially on the

tracks yet. You've already been helping us, we have three to show

you. I class 37, it's not the prettiest I

have to say. We also have video of a Class 66 hauling a new batch of

700's. Tonight our very own Dick Strawbridge has moved to the nation

's capital. I am at Clapham Junction, the biggest interchange in

the country. Over the course of the next hour more than 160 trains will

go through their station. I have my notebook and will bag as many as

possible. We will also be showing new Tim Dunn at possibly his most

excited ever as he got to ride on the train of the future. This is

magnificent! Look at this, and magnificent machine! Isambard

Kingdom Brunel. I am a mathematician so I will continue to crunch the

numbers and explore how we fit more trains onto this crowded network. A

commuter 's nightmare or a train spotters dream? And we have spotters

up and down the country and we want you at home to get out once again to

join this surge of national sporting. Your challenge tonight is

the EMU. I am talking about electrical trains, electrical

multiple units. There will be a new holy Grail to find as well. Welcome

to Trainspotting Live. We have been delighted that the

programme has caught the public 's imagination, and been able to spread

our love of Trainspotting country wide. We made front-page news today,

during the first programme on Monday I mistakenly said that some

wonderful footage of a Class 66 train was just in when in fact it

was a beautiful spot which was shot earlier in the year. Sorry for that.

Let's get straight to some spots of the InterCity 125 which come in

overnight. Bob from the National rail museum is here, let's look at

these. Classic location for a photograph.

Lovely shot. Beautiful. We have another one here spotted in Perth.

We'll have just come over the Highland line and involved

magnificent views. The holy grail was the elusive mail train, did we

get it? Of course we did. Here it is at Peterborough. All our post. Well

done for tracking down the holy Grail. We were so inspired we

decided to send our own Tim Dunn with the challenge of finding one

live tonight. Or from him later. Tonight we are coming up today and

try to spot a series of EMUs. What do they have to do with the railway?

They are the way that most people get to work, electrical multiple

units, lots of people on them going in and out all over the country. If

you want to join the army of life spotters up and down the country and

spots EMUs this is what you need look for.

The number of an electrical multiple unit - or EMU - can be found

either at the front or back end of the unit

The number has six digits, the first three denote its class.

Classes from 300-399 run off an AC current.

While 400-499 signify EMUs of the

southern region that need a DC current.

500 and above are for EMU classes which run outside of the

It is crucial to note the time and place of any spot.

Pen, notepad and camera are traditional spotters tools although

Only spot from public land, 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 you are there.

Finally an anorak is not obligatory but make sure you dress

You know the drill by now, every night we fill up the map with your

spots to get a picture of trains around the country, this was Monday,

all the Class 66s all over the country. Here we had the first holy

Grail, the flying banana. Then on the second day we had the map of

125's which go along the line we are on. Not so many appear -- up here.

And the mail train roaring up here to Scotland here and so on. Very

exciting. Onto today, where are we, we have the EMUs we are spotting,

not many coming in, this is Dick Strawbridge in Clapham and Tim Dunn

in Stafford. The line is not electrified jet and it will be in a

year or so, what we have got is the network down in the south and then

around Liverpool, Manchester, then Glasgow and Edinburgh. One or two

units are running around Newcastle and so on. It will fill up slowly.

Let's have a few EMUs. They are very good. Let's go to Martin in

Peterborough. Here is one. That's coming straight through. Rather nice

colour scheme. I think we might have another one here, here she is.

Pender we have a photograph from someone as

well. From Glasgow Central. It's got the saltire literary, could be going

to Edinburgh -- livery. Electrical multiple unit, it has the power on

the train, it is derived from electricity and it's either derived

from the third rail or the overhead. Each carriage is driven along by it,

there are only a few trailer cars. That's the state right now we will

talk about next year in a moment. Let's go to Martin in Peterborough,

are you Trainspotting? Yes, we are in Peterborough and it's been

brilliant this afternoon. Very busy indeed. What are you looking for? We

are looking at allsorts, in the last hour we have had ten Class 66 diesel

engines running on a variety of freight. But the highlight for me

this evening, a train I haven't seen for a long time was the Scotsman.

Right now we have a high-speed train coming in behind us. The Scotsman

train only runs mainly in Scotland, it's the luxury train, you pay

?10,000 to be on it for seven days. Behind you was on the east Coast

mainline presumably? Yes, that is coming down from the north in

towards King's Cross. What have you seen earlier today? Earlier today we

saw a class 91 amongst many other. Right back here it is! Class 9110

yes? Yes, it commemorates the pollen from the First World War. It was

rebranded and it works up and down the east Coast Main line every

single day -- the fallen from the First World War. Tonights holy

Grail, we want you to spot this, the magnificent 91 110. The battle of

Memorial flight, why is it called that? This is amassed piece, it's a

locomotive that is the fastest Briton has ever had, 161 miles an

hour. Thank you for sending us that picture Philip. Send us your

pictures, any updates on social media or e-mail.

It's all very well for us to bang on about trains and the railways but

this new age needs new fresh blood. We sent our very own veteran extra

bridge too severed valley to search out the next generation of

enthusiasts. -- our very own veteran, Dick Strawbridge. Too

there is a lot to love in a beautifully restored old engine. She

was built in 1938 and in their day engines like this were the cutting

edge of design and technology. They take specialist skill and knowledge

to keep old engines like this live. The Heritage skills training Academy

works to pass on that expertise to a new generation. The workers! Max and

Christopher R apprentice engineers. Apprentices how long have you been

working here? Two and a half years for me. Almost three years. How long

is the apprenticeship? Four years in total. How did you choose to work on

the trains, is it a passion? It is, I blame Thomas the Tank Engine for

starting it. I can relate to the Fat controller! Are you train spotters?

It's just enjoyment really. It's more a fascination, sort of a

fascination, I wouldn't want to go too far but we find them pleasing to

watch and look at. Do you get the Mickey taken out of you? There is

some stigma but once you start showing your mates and taking them

to actually see an engine then they start to understand. Seeing what you

do they step back and think that's quite something to be involved with.

Do you have a favourite train? I would say whatever is easiest to

look after! The first thing you work on tends to be the one that sticks

in your mind. Other people will have something else. You do realise... I

just said the numbers and everything. You have just become a

spotter. And you did it so naturally. It's not the be all and

end all of our railway heritage of course. How are we doing? At one of

the newest shades of its kind retired diesel engines are also

preserved and these also attract young enthusiasts. We are draining

out the coolant. You are volunteers? And you can come and train the

coolant? They trust you with that already? I have been doing it for

years. What do you enjoy? I just like getting out of the house. What

is your favourite? This one, it is my baby. Class 37's, they can go any

where in the country. Are these kids really motivated by a love of their

heritage they are preserving? At the end of the day it's best to preserve

everything because its history. What do you think the future is of the

trains out on our mainline is now, will you be working on those in

future? It's a possibility but it also comes down to what Network Rail

want in the future as well. But I think with the way British people

are I think they will want to keep it because it's one of those things

where we are a bit nuts for trains and the idea of keeping things great

and being patriotically. Keep your tweets coming in and your

video, all these spots - marvellous. We had a tweet from Reading station.

He spotted a class 458523. I think it's a class 43 EMU, at 3 minutes

past 8. Steven Hughes spotted a rare class 6 EMU on to East Anglia East

Anglia Sudbury line. We were going to go live to Dick in Clapham but

we've lost him. This is what he sent a few moments ago. 377s the trains

are everywhere. This is a really busy station and I've got maim

problems trying to keep up. This platform alone there's 15 trains an

hour. That's nearly maximum capacity. We've got 17 platforms

here. Clapham Junction, we are talking about the best part of 2,000

trains per day. That's not that surprising, because at the station

24 million passengers a year. That's just absolutely phenomenal. I've got

no idea how I'm supposed to collect them all. Thank you Dick. We have

200 years of rail heritage in this country, but the latest design is

getting the pulse of every enthusiast racing. The newest

high-speed train in the UK launches commercially next year. Tim Dunn was

among the first to clap eyes on it. It's remarkable, a train like this

in 2016 can still pull the cameras in. She's coming in now, Britain's

newest high-speed train. For someone like myself who finds railways

fascinating and believes railways are the future of transport in this

country, this is quite remarkable. This has drawn a crowd of people.

This is magnificent! Look at this, a truly magnificent machine. Isambard

Kingdom Brunel. Absolutely stunning. Here we go. We're on!

We'll find out later just how excited Tim got about riding on that

new train, on the cutting edge of design. Throughout our rail history

designers and engineers have had to innovate and break new ground

constantly. Perhaps the greatest designer of all kind was Isambard

Kingdom Brunel. 175 years ago he designed and built the Great Western

Railway to link the port of Bristol to London. It's one of the most

iconic railway lines in the country. At Didcot this centre is dedicated

to Great Western Railway, so who else to talk to than the curator.

Roger, what did Brunel represent? He was well ahead of his time, in that

he tried to design a high-speed railway line from London to Bristol

with the onset of using his steamships to carry people onwards

to the US of A. It was really the first true passenger high speed

railway in the country. What was important about the geography of it?

He managed to devise the line so it went from London to Bristol.

Virtually as flat as possible, and with minimal curves. He couldn't go

straight? Why not? He could, but there were various hills. But he

managed to get round them in the best way they could, which allowed

to locomotives at that time to go as fast as they could. An amazing an

amazing chap, and he built tunnels and bridges. As Jeremy Clarkson

said, one of the greatest Britons of all time. Brunel was obsessed with

getting everything right, particularly a smooth and fast

service. To test how good his and everyone's route was, people drew

circles. The better the circle, the smoother the line. Just look at

these. You can see the circles he was drawing on his broad gauge

railways. He wrote, the time is not far off when we should be able to

take your coffee and write while going noiselessly and smoothly at 45

miles an hour. All of those engineering innovations over a cup

of coffee. Good for Brunel. Hannah is just down there to talk us

through another idea. I'm standing on it, Peter. This is a closed

museum and not an open track. This is what you will see up and down the

country. This track is what's called a standard gauge. Rails that are 4

foot 8-and-a-half inches apart. But this here is what Brunel wanted us

to have, a 7 foot and a quarter inch gauge. Don't forget the quarter

inch. Brunel, who was a brilliant engineer, a logic behind this. One

of the reasons was you can have a more favourable centre of mass with

a broader gauge. This loco for example, imagine that this is a

standard modern width, and the centre of mass on this is right

here. That's average position of the mass in the logo. It is where the

gravity acts from. The force of gravity is going to act downwards.

But if there's a big gust of wind. If this vertical line falls outside

of this base, the loco is going to topple over. This will be fine

there. But as soon as it goes past that point, it will fall over. But

compare that to the broad gauge. Because it's much wider you can have

a boiler that sits a lot lower, but it is also going to have a lot lower

centre of mass. Understand makes, that means rather that it takes an

awful lot more for this line to go outside of the base of the train. At

small angles this loco is a lot more stable. Brunel was right about this.

Broader bases and lower centres of gravity are a lot more stable. If

you think what a rugby player does when they are tackled, spread their

legs wide to lower their centre of gravity, this was a great idea, but

unfortunately Brunel was too late with it. There was too much momentum

behind the standard gauge, and economics got in the way. Eventually

the stability that Brunel was after came about in some other ways. What

about that cup of coughee on a modern train that brine was up of

coughee on a modern train that brine was after you've dump -- what about

that cup of coffee on a modern train that Brunel was after about. The

secret is that trains can tilt into a curve. So here is a train that is

bolt up right and it is going around the curve in this direction. You

have gravity pulling it downwards, and you also have a centre of force

pushing it out. That's why when you are in a car you slide outwards. The

net effect of these two forces is one that acts. What a tilting train

does is align that carriage to the direction of that net force. That

means that it feels like that force is pushing you and your coffee into

the floor. This is an example of what's

happening in a tilting carriage. You've got your gravity, your force,

your diagonal net force. But this time is carriage is aligned with

that force. That's a slightly extreme example. We don't really get

carriages that tilt that much. Weirdly, if you get this perfectly

right and utility that carriage in that direction like they did in the

original tilting trains, the APTs the, it makes people feel a bit

sick. You see yourself going around the corner, you expect to be pushed

to the side. And when you are not, your body ends up freaking out. So

the new tilting trains, the Pendolinos don't.

One of the awkward parts about the brine were the two different gauges.

At certain point in the country you have to transfer goods from a

standard gauge freight train into a broad gauge freight train or vice

versa. They built transfer sheds to show that process.

So here is a standard gauge train waiting to receive goods or

passengers and here is the broad gauge. What happens? There would be

lots of people here, certainly when dealing with goods or freight

trains. Lots of people carrying the parcels from one train to the other.

The time it took became unbearable really. Extraordinary. Is it sad we

lost the broad gauge? It was inevitable. Inevitably it couldn't

last because of that break of gauge, which meant that you had to move

goods from one place to another. But if he had survived the broad gauge

beyond 1890, would we be happier and more comfortable and calm in broad

gauge trains? We believe so. Looking forward, our trains would have been

going a lot feast, possibly without the need for brand-new railway

lines. Brunel was talking about going at 45 miles an hour. Bob,

looking at what Brunel would make of today's railways, what do you think

would have said, and what about the future? He would have been for High

Speed 2 and Maglev. Knowing brunette he would have some odd side views as

well to throw into the mix. They that a lot with his career. An

extraordinary man Brunel. You owe everything to him here. Without him

we wouldn't be here. Brunel was part of a revolution commune cation.

Across the country railways were letting us to send letters and

parcels faster than before, with the original mail train running in 1830

on the Liverpool and Manchester railway. Yesterday we sent you task

of tracking down its modern ancestors and you did. Today it's

Tim's turn. How are you doing? I'm here in not so sunny Stafford

tonight on the platforms. I was here to see one of the unusual trains on

the British network, the class 325 EMU, the mail train. That hasn't

come through but we've seen two classes. Built at Crewe a few years

ago, and two came chuntering through earlier today. While waiting for it.

However, we have also had just earlier than that, the mail train. A

little bit earlier than expected, as all the best things do. That came on

board and came whizzing past about 10 minutes ago, ahead of schedule.

Straight past us and the people on the platform tonight.

This this station was rebuilt. This is a modern station under the wires.

The entire route was rebuilt as part of the BR modernisation plan of the

1950s. In 1962 this re-opened in a modernist, brutalist style. We spent

some time at the station looking at the details. It is built of

concrete. Not necessarily what everyone enjoys, but I rather

enjoyed it. A lot of famous trains on this route. We've had the Royal

Scot and the Coronation Scot, and the tilting APT. The in 1936 this

route was made famous by WH Auden's poem about the night mail. At that

time it was a different place to it is now. That mail train tonight was

different to the original night mail, in 1936. Back then the railway

was something of a social network, perhaps the first, connecting people

and places and families with mail and messages. This mail train has

gone through. Through. In all its red and yellow glory. That's full of

second class rail from Scotland to London. If you also see any more

trains tonight, whether you see that mail train go past, maybe 15 minutes

early, e-mail us or go to the website or Twitter on the last night

of Trainspotting Live. We've got three tweets here. Alex Lewis, 8.19,

he has seen a 465180 at Kidbrooke. That'sen EMU. X Lewis, 8.19, he has

seen a 465180 at Kidbrooke. That'sen EMU. -- that's an EMU. Dan C on

Twitter at 8.20 as a class 350 at western Milton and a class 390 EMU

seen by Oliver Griggs at Birmingham New Street. That was at a quarter

past 8. It is not just the railways themselves affected by technological

advances, new technology is helping the world of the enthusiast. And

that's the Oxford line spinning past, probably giving us a hoot as

he knows we are live in the transfer shed! We'll look now at a model

maker. All aboard! My name is Will Jarman and I'm a railway modeller

and artist and designer too, so I'm a bit of a create Ivan rack I

suppose. What you see, it is a model of Victoria bridge, which was once

the biggest single-span bridge in the world. Back in the Victorian

era. About 200 yards It's a bit like how a builder would

make the foundations of a house. Piece by piece it prints a cake the

cake shop. I have measured out the floor plan, I haven't measured the

roof. You can guess by counting bricks and measuring the proportions

of the windows. It works out about right. It's a bit like standing on a

platform taking down numbers but I have gone and taken down the

measurements of a building instead. It's like being a sculptor without

any rock and you're on a computer screen. It probably took about two

hours to get that made and then straight into the machine. Every

good models should include a model of the person that made it so I am

present in the scene. If you look amongst the trees you can see a man

with an odd looking jacket and a camera and that's me. People respond

to it as much as a painting. Which in a slightly pretentious way is

quite pleasing. Wonderful to see someone like that. Well done. Some

tweets coming in. Clapham Junction at 11 minutes past eight. Another

scene for four for passing through. Another sending us a class 319 in

Salford heading towards Manchester. And now I think we are going to see

some pictures we have been sent, a class three to two at Leeds. Thanks

for that. Give as a quick description. 322, I think it's very

appropriate it at Leeds as it was built there. That kind of train

might be going down the air Valley, might be going across to Oakley.

Wesley Centre is one as well from entry -- Wesley sent us one. -- from

Aintree. What a great site. We are holding

up, your spots coming in, a lot on the Brighton line which is vital.

And one going down to Kent. And here they are going up the east coast.

Quite a lot from the North as well. Yes but this is not a lecture five,

Manchester, Leeds. -- this is not electrified, Manchester, Leeds. We

are going to Edinburgh to see what's happening. How are you doing? What

is happening? We saw quite a few trains arrive, and 91 from King's

Cross, the service from Penzance, probably one of the longest journeys

on the network today from Penzance to Glasgow Central in just under 12

hours. That's terrific. In Scotland you have EMUs all over the place.

Yes, they are starting to come out now. This was one earlier today.

That is Scott Riddell? Yeah. One has to say, the steam trains

were more beautiful than all this stuff? Yes, in years gone by you

would have the coronation arriving, then in the 1950s there was a decent

service which you can find on YouTube, very interesting to take

you back to the day and lets you see Edinburgh Waverley as it was years

ago. Thank you. Trainspotting is a quintessentially British passion, or

is it? Are American cousins seem to take it to the next level? This

infamous clip that you will see when fired all, it's a long way removed

from our more dignified enthusiasm on these shores. Take a look at

that! All my guard! Listen to that horn! All my

oh my guard! LAUGHTER Incredible. Dick, you are an

enthusiastic man, what did you think of that? I love it. I appreciate it

when we see something new. Slight technical problems here at Clapham

but we are having a ball. Trainspotting is quite difficult

here but I'm getting the hang of it. Earlier on today I got some really

good guidance. 87 for. That is a 455. What excites you about the

EMUs? I like the different colours of the different operators, we have

all these different colours. I get a bit confused and that will be a

theme going through today, that was a big one, two together. Yeah, two

in multiple. How do you collect the numbers? You just have to be careful

as they come through. Get the front and the tail. I don't see a

notebook? I have got our camera, I can slow it down, see it frame by

frame to get the tiny numbers. I will keep my eyes open, this place

is manic. That's a 450 going towards London Waterloo. 020.

I've missed one. Another 455. What do you do with the numbers as you

collect them? It seems like it's cheating to do that? I film them. I

missed another one! I film them and edit the videos, take the numbers

and I have a website where I keep a log of everyone I have seen and went

to the video I have made. Does it count as me seeing it if I watch

your video? That depends what rules you are playing by? You have seen it

just not in the flesh. I just think I have two practice more. Practice

makes perfect. I have this very proud spot, Mark, what is the newest

thing you have seen? The class 700, brand-new train. When you get to be

my age what are you going to remember as being the most important

train of your youth? Probably something like the 700, it's one of

the most advanced trains they have ever had. It's something to see how

the technology changes. When it comes to capturing the trains what

about the old trains, are you interested in them as much? I like

the new ones because they are sleek and modern and comfortable, the best

we have had. It's nice to to see whether future is to be. I am

feeling the pressure a little bit here because... I don't have any

700's in my book! LAUGHTER For heavens sake, enough of this

modern stuff. Some people want a look back, some people continue to

look back and preserve the past including my next guest. You have

been collecting lots of tickets, how many do you have? I don't know, it

must be about 3500 so. Show us your favourite. This one from south

Wales, it closed in 1964. On the right is the Great Western Railway,

very much in enlarged form. This ticket was issued at few weeks

before the line was closed. This is 000, the first of the series and

probably the only one in existence. This one was issued in 1869 Ron

Crouch end on the Northern Heights line which closed in 1954. It was

issued for a parliamentary journey at the minimum fare of one old penny

per mile. That was stipulated by the railway regulation act. Why are they

all pretty colours? Every tickets, Edwards as though it has its place

of origin and then the destination on the ticket. The coloured

generally indicated the class, first, second and third. And there

are various prints to indicate validity for children, returns, all

sorts of things like that. Over here we have an example of a much later

ticket, one of series printed in 1970 for train spotters. Very much

an enlarged version, this is the original. A series of seven of these

produced, each displaying a class of locomotive that you could see at

Reading station. On the back of the ticket, technical details about the

locomotive concerned. Have you had to pay for each one you took a

ticket from? You paid to get on the platform. It was a bit more than the

regular rate for a platform ticket. How long will you keep doing this?

Till you are 70, 80, 90? I am already passed 70! Until I can do it

any longer. Are the valuable? Some of them have value. I would not part

with the first one I should you. An exclusive ticket that any rail

enthusiast would get their hands on is the one which allowed Tim Dunn to

write the super express train. We rejoin him as he tries to contain

himself for the short journey between Reading and London. Three

rows in on the left-hand side. Thank you very much. Free

lets look in the goody bag. A colouring book, that's what irony

want. Fabulous. -- that's what I really want. What else have we got?

Top Trumps. Lovely. This is the kind of blockbuster I want to come to.

Completely smoothly, without sound. Completely silent. Almost completely

silent. We are celebrating and that's the

rail benefit. The speed at which it accelerates. It gets to 105 mph a

whole minute faster than 125 ever could and that is fantastic because

it means journey times are cut and you can fit more trains onto the

same piece of line. The class 800 is made in Japan but will be assembled

in County Durham, Britain's first rail manufacturing facility for 150

years. 59 train sets will travel the great Western and virgin east Coast

mainline. We are now approaching London Paddington. The first time

this train has been into the station. I hope you are enjoying

this first-ever trip. We have just arrived at London Paddington on

Britain's newest express train. London Paddington where I first came

to look at trains with my dad, to come and look at 125's. And here we

are arriving on its replacement. William. -- brilliant. And the day

just gets better, they even let me into the cab. This is truly

computerised, so far beyond anything I have seen in a locomotive. How

complex is it to drive? Not at all, once you are used to the system and

you have two interact with the screen on the right-hand side, the

TMS, that the driver machine interface. Login to that before you

drive it and that monitors everything on the train that is

going on. If you get a fault it tells you and how to rectify it.

That was magnificent wasn't it? Our Holy Grail challenge to you

tonight is red hot. 15 minutes to go and nobody yet has told us they've

seen the 91110 speeding up the East Coast mainline. That's the challenge

for you. Tim, today you bagged that rare beast the mail train. Surely

there is nothing left for you to spot is there? I think I have

probably reached the peak. This afternoon we managed to see

something that summed up the past two evenings here on train train.

46115 Scots Guardsman, a steam locomotive, being hauled down south

from carn forth so Southall. Two things in the past two nights, a

steam locomotive and a class 36 together. By pure coincidence coming

down this evening. Some of the enthusiasm that we've been able to

show and the people we've been able to depict over the past two

evenings, and show people are WHO are not enthusiasts, it is a tryly

lovely hobby with lovely people and we've had an awful lot of fun. Thank

you Tim. Tim. Your joy and enthusiasm has been a delight to

behold. Organising the train time tablings so the trains we enjoy runs

on time is something I can't begin to get my head around, so I asked

Hannah to do it instead. There are some crucial questions that need

answering to keep all of these high speed hi-tech trains running on

time. The calculations are incredibly complicated. To

understand it you need to get to grips with the principles of railway

signalling. That's why I'm here with some traditional-style signals at

Didcot Park way. You can see in the background the red is in your

direction. The black ones are for trains in the other direction. When

they are hang, it is safe to go. When they are horizontal, it means

don't go. And you have the points on the track to make sure you don't

have two trains merging on the same track. This is controlled from the

signal box up here. And today our signaller is Andrew. He's going to

explain to me how this works. Hello Andrew. Thank you very much for

having us. Tell me, what do the different coloured levers do? The

red ones control signals, the black control points and the blue lock

things in place, like the points. How do you change the signalling,

just pull a lever? Yes, this one, push it towards. Gosh! That's

heavier than I was expecting. Yes. You would get some good guns doing,

that that's for sure. And changing the points, how do you do that? You

have to unlock them first. You have to push the lock back. It is quite

stiff. And how do you know when to change what? If you didn't have

radio or phone? The signalman would follow the timetable he is given.

OK. And I guess this is doable on a timetable if there are only a few

trains running a day. But London Bridge at 9 o'clock in the

morning... Quite a stressful task. As our railways become Mo crowd,

signalling and timetables become more complicated. I went up to

Manchester to find out more about it. Network Rail is constantly

trying to squeeze out every last bit of capacity in the network.

Understand involves scrutinising everything from how quickly

passengers get on and off the trains to what the minimum distance can be

between the trains on the network. The end result is called the working

timetable, which outlines the positions of every train on the

track. With around 22,500 train journeys every day, Network Rail

employs and Army of the 00 of 300 people to manage this timetable. If

you put the timetable it is a heft book and lots of numbers. We use the

graphs to represent what we are looking at. Complex graphs like this

one covering train movements around Huddersfield are based on time and

distance. If you wanted to have a particular train and plot it on this

graph, it starts off at a particular station at a certain distance and

time, and travels through your network, with let's say at a

constant speed. In an ideal world they hatch this pattern, travelling

nice and fast, four minutes apart. That's a timetabler's dream. All the

trains the same. The problem is you also want slower local trains. On

this graph that means a shallower line which crosses those of the

faster trains. What that effectively means is you've got two trains at

exactly the same point on the rill network at exactly the same time.

You really want to avoid that. When you look at them at first think look

like aat. When you look at them at first think look like a massive mess

- no offence. Yes, they do. Where the lines cross you are talking

about two trains being in the same place at the same time? We plan

around this to make sure that didn't happen. So you've got a short bit of

track where you can fit two trains? Yes. What about this one? That's in

the opposite direction. Oh yes. Just checking that you've done your maths

correctly. So if you wanted to fit another train in here somewhere, how

do you do it? With great difficulty. There's a little bit of space there

maybe. Put it through there? You could, have that as a gap. However,

you've got a slower train there anyway, so do you want two doing the

same thing a couple of minutes apart? Not really. So with these,

could you make that a bit faster? You could, but it's still got to

pass him somehow, in this stretch here, so unless that one speeds up,

as wells that once you are not going to get past. How far in advance are

you working with these usual time tails? Dvance are you working with

these usual time tails? -- timetables. We do go 30 years in

advance to plan capacity no. So 2040? Yes, we are looking at 2043

now. You can't fix down what the railway will look like in 2043 at

this point? No, we take current knowledge, work out the growth and

try and plan the best. It is phenomenally complicated. It can be.

Very impressive. Thank you. Smashing glimpse of the future. And with

trains like Tim's superexpress coming on the network, with the

existing stock, it is only going to get even more complicated. Good luck

Network Rail. Let's see if anyone has spotted the 9110, the Battle of

Britain Memorial Flight. It should but here somewhere. One thing that

worries me is the speed of these things. We talk about the new

express train, all the excitement, but if they are not going to go any

faster than 150s. They cannot. Until we build a new line or deal with our

signalling system that will enable more trains on the network. How do

you deal with the signalling system? You can go away from having

geographically placed mechanical signals and put them in the cab, so

the train is controlled from inside the cab. Hannah has some tweets. I

have unconfirmed reports that 9110 has just got Peterborough. But it is

unconfirmed, no photo. We've got Twitter, Jack Bruce spotted a class

320 from Glasgow. That tweet was sent at 2032. We also have Jack

Andrews class 390 at Wick. That tweet was sent at 2033. And a class

333 spotted at Leeds by Phil Jackson at 2030. A great start. It is time

to wrap up our final spot. All choose a favourite spot from the

past three shows. Bob, what's yours? The little Network Rail measuring

train, the baby brother of the Flying Banana we talked about a lot.

There it is close to where I live, in theirs borough. It is just doing

its job making sure the line was safe. Hanna? I really like the King

Edward on Monday. But I also, my favourite spot is this from Twitter,

which is of the Flying Banana peeking around the corner. Lovely.

Mine is simple. It is steam for me and it is the Black Five loco in

Fort William. Listen to this wonderful locomotive approaching us.

Listen to that. And look at the power of the wheels and the

connecting rods, the firstons inside. Inside. And the pistons

inside. It is fantastic. Dick, we've all done our favourite spots. What

about you, what is your favourite spot? We are still trainspotting and

Nick is joined me from Doncaster. Nick, we've had a ball. We've been

to Doncaster, Swindon, Clapham Junction. We've seen lots of 66s,

lots of 91s. Never mind lots of 66s. What was the main one? 66719,

Evening Star. It was great. I think that of all the 66s, I've seen them

in Swindon and here, that was one of the things, I think I like freight.

I don't know if it is noble. What about the Darth Vaders? I think they

are a bit scary. We saw a few of these, the 180s at Doncaster. And

you saw the 125s that you thought were Darth saiders as well. I got

those mixed up. At Swindon the sheer quantity of 43s, but the potential

43 was Sir Kenneth Grange. Have you seen it? Not with that name I

haven't, but I have seen them all. You've seen them all? Yes. In that

livery? No, but I saw them all by 1980. I must have something in my

book you haven't seen. What about the new Gatwick ones? I've only seen

three. I have seen things he hasn't seen and my book is getting fatter.

Thank you to the station staff and to the people looking after that,

and most of all the Army of spotters, Nick as well. Well, I do

hope you've enjoyed the programme as much as we have. We tried to bring a

line through the great sweep of when Britain invented the locomotive to

two centuries of change to what the railways are like today. And we've

taken a glimpse into the challenges of the future. And we've celebrated

the uniquely British and eccentric passion of our train enthusiasts

across the country, as well as seeing the best locos. We have time

to thank everyone here at Didcot railway station. Thank you to Bob

and the National Railway Museum in York and all those people who helped

us out with our filming. And we thank the rail enthusiasts, and the

keen old trainspotter who called us, sent their photos and footage and

have been out there spotting with us. And thank you for joining us and

making us nation of supports. Let's have an Army of enthusiasts. We are

going to leave you with some to which best footage you've sent us

over the last few weeks and the last few epic days. Handbrake is off.

Goodbye! I love it to bits. Well spotted,

Dick! I can see steam and smoke on the horizon. A truly magnificent

sight. SONG: Night and Day by Ella

Fitzgerald. Have you recorded anything? Yes. All

the Class 66s. You've spent us all of these. Brilliant! There is

something nice about that. Oh yes. And divided by 33,000, because

imperial units are weird.