All Steamed Up Fred Dibnah's World of Steam, Steel and Stone

I were born in a row of terraced houses, something similar to Coronation Street,

all clustered together, and as a little lad, from the back bedroom window,

I could look down an alleyway and up above a long back street,

and see the signal box on the mainline from Manchester to go through Bolton,

and at two o'clock in the morning - be magnificent on a moonlit night -

and you could hear the whistle blowing as it were approaching Bolton, the locomotive,

and it would bash across end of this ginnel

with the firehole door open and a big shaft of fire in t'sky

and you could see, like, two characters on the footplate, you know, crouched in position,

and, you know, that's really what inspired me and got me interested in steam engines.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Fred Dibnah had a passion for steam-powered engines and machinery,

and he spent a large part of his life restoring them and driving them around.

It's a passion that has helped us to see just how important

steam power was in our history.

Fred's passion for steam was something

which absolutely oozed out of his personality.

The idea of solid, shiny machines

with brass surfaces and polished steel is something that,

if you have the bug for that, is something that stays with you forever.

But Fred had a particular way of getting that over to people,

which was particularly good for television as well.

Fred's interest went back to the time when he was a small boy.

I were almost born in the engine shed, you know, it were only a slight detour on my way home from school,

to go to the engine sheds on Crescent Road,

and the vision has never left me, you know,

there'd be row upon row of steam locomotives all getting steam up, and nearly dark in t'winter,

you know, all the smoke and all t'windows seemed to be yellow in t'corners,

in all the little offices and everything, and that wonderful smell, you know...

and fog and coal, black oil everywhere.

To me, it were quite romantic...

I suppose it would have been to the modern day environmentalist - a terrible place!

But I enjoyed it.

There's a lot of enthusiasm now for the steam railways.

It's a touch of when it's all gone, you know, everybody wants one, I think, but there's summat about

a steam locomotive and when it's steamed up,

it sort of comes to life and it smells nice

and all of that, you know, the sulphur in the smoke,

you know, something that nobody, I don't think, can really explain.

Can I come on board? FRED LAUGHS

There's more room on here than the last one they had me on, eh?!

WHISTLE SOUNDS

30 miles an hour -

beautiful. Casey Jones!

To me, looking at a railway line now,

going in and out of a big city, or out in t'country,

and all them stanchions and electric wires, they're all really terribly unsightly,

you know, as against two beautiful silver streaks along...in the fields

and just post and rail fences along each side,

and the odd signal sticking up - it looked a lot more...

picturesque then and more beautiful than what it is now.

To me, now it's a hell of a mess, you know.

I'm sure there could have been a better way than electricity - it's just cheap and convenient

and, of course, doesn't cost as much as steam engines.

Before Fred was on the scene, railway programmes on TV,

steam railway programmes were seen as being very much the thing to

be put on in the late hours and Fred brought it into the living rooms of millions - it was very good indeed.

This locomotive behind me is a Sterling 060, that means it's got

six driving wheels and the actual crank axle is the middle one.

And then of course the whole six are connected up with these outside connecting rods.

It were made in 1895.

I mean, you've got to say something for them men who made these, lasted all them years

with maybe a few overhauls, but it's a great thing

and, of course, they lasted forever, and they were maids of all work.

When they first were envisaged, they didn't have a cab.

I think I'll go and see if I can hitch a lift back to the station at the other end.

-How old's this one, Tony?

-This was built in 1895 at Ashford in Kent.

-Yeah, yeah.

Did it have much done to the boiler?

I think it was a bit of a pet for the apprentices...always doing test cases and what have you.

Yeah, yeah, mending it, like.

-So all the plates are nice and thick and are in good condition.

-Yeah, they are.

Right so you've got a good 'un.

When you see Fred riding on a steam locomotive,

you're suddenly aware of how much fun it is for him

and you want to experience it too. It's much more fun than reading.

And when he went to somewhere like the Bluebell Line

and showed us the people there who keep these things running,

then he makes us appreciate not just our future technology, things that are being produced today,

but also the real intricacy and specialisms that people had in the past,

and I think that it's very important - that he gives us

a sense through his own excitement and pleasure - he makes us enjoy it as well.

I enjoyed that.

This locomotive behind me, Fenchurch,

is what's known as a Terrier, which was a very small locomotive

and very popular in the southern counties and on the rural,

like...little lines, you know.

Designed by Mr Stroudley in the 1870s, and they made quite a lot -

got lots of interesting features about it.

Like the exhaust could be converted from going up the funnel

or diverting into the water tanks which of course pre-heats the water

and saves a bit of water that would normally condense in the atmosphere.

I mean, considering it were made in 1872 and it's still here, it's quite a credit to Mr Stroudley.

I think I'll go and see Clive now, who's going to give me a few lessons in how to drive it.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Bit rash on the regulator.

-Keep it ticking over.

-Yeah.

And then you can accelerate a little bit more.

-Agghhh!

-It is heavy, isn't it?

It's vicious, that, innit?

Fred was held in very great regard and a lot of us in the railway preservation movement

are not good at blowing our own trumpets -

we do what we do, we do it fairly quietly and we bumble along merrily.

What Fred did was to celebrate the world of steam and steam railway in particular,

and the fact that he wasn't afraid to get on

and have a go himself and enjoy himself...

was a fantastic thing and people loved the fact that he was there,

his sense of fun, and that he was flying the flag for Britain's steam heritage.

Are you right, dear?

I think Fred's contribution to

the standing of engineering history has been enormous.

You like my lady fireman, eh?

There is this terrible cultural block, almost, that only people

who wear rigger boots and anoraks and are slightly socially-challenged like steam engines.

-Is this connected to t'other one?

-Yep.

-So we're OK.

This awful word, the "railway buff" or "steam buff", Fred wasn't that,

you had to respect him, he was a working man, he had oily overalls

and as I say, he didn't just look at the subject out of context as an obsessive collector,

he saw it as part of a whole world that he liked,

whether it was chimneys or well built buildings, stone, cobbles,

the whole thing, he swept it all up

and so he made that contextualisation of engineering history accessible.

The industrialisation of the great cities

put a terrible strain on the antiquated water and sewage systems.

Many new reservoirs were built, and of course, to pump water to them,

many steam pumping stations had to be built.

This is one of the more ornate - Papplewick, built in 1884...

..pumped water to the city of Nottingham all the way through till 1969.

These are the six Lancashire boilers that made the steam to drive the pumping engine.

They were made in Manchester by W & J Galloway.

Mr Galloway improved the Lancashire boiler by inserting vertical water tubes

at the end of the fire tubes which greatly increased the steaming capabilities,

and down here, they used to burn five tons of coal a day on three of them, the other three were on standby.

They always did things like that at waterworks, just in case,

and the pressure's getting a bit low now,

so I think I'll do a bit of stoking up and get Jeff to give me a lift

and then we can go and play with the steam engines round the corner.

-Come on, Jeff.

-I've done one side, Fred, so if you fire this side...

-Right!

When the engines of the building were finished, they were well under budget.

With all the money they had left over, they did these wonderful embellishments,

like the stained-glass windows

and the terracotta bits outside, and the fish and the birds.

It's rather sad really, that the general public never saw any of this, you know,

only the waterworks' superintendents and maybe some of the operatives,

but it really shows you how proud the Victorians were of their engineering achievements.

Fred shows his love of the Victorian age a great deal through his appreciation of what he could see.

I mean, he looked at pumping engines being a thing of great beauty, for example -

the water supply at Papplewick, down at Nottingham, and Ryhope up here in Sunderland.

You see a modern electric pump doesn't hold the same appeal -

look at some of those engines lasting 150 years, and they're still here.

How many of our electric pumps are going to be here in ten?

These great beams, of course, transfer the power from the piston rod

to the pump rods down the well or the shaft

and of course, they weigh 13 tonnes each.

Have you ever wondered how they got them up here? There were no fancy cranes in them days.

There's lots of lovely old-fashioned pictures exist with great piles of great baulks of timber

and they're, basically, jacking up the beam as the engine room came up,

then they just slide them in over the top of the central beam that they pivot on,

the eye bolts in the ceiling really are only for lifting bits and pieces up,

just to replace things like bearings, or, you know, cotters and things of that nature.

Steam was Fred's thing entirely, whether it was our steam boat here,

which he was very keen on or the Newcomen engine or other developments, or anywhere.

I don't think he could pass a chimney - his first interest,

without thinking, "That's generating some steam!"

and then explaining to people what that steam was all about,

whether he was driving his road engine or watching a stationary engine.

I mean, steam was in his blood, if you can have such a thing.

For his last series, he travelled the country and gave us a real understanding of

the practicalities of driving these engines.

It's a brand new fusible plug.

It depends how many times you do it.

Like you can get away with a few dos, like, with no water over the top,

but one day it'll have you and that's it, you've got an ashpan off,

fire bars out, black as hell, you know, terrible thing.

And it's always circumstances, you know like, all along the flat, no hydrants,

then you come suddenly over the crest of a hill, bloody great hole,

you know, and the water disappears.

He was the common man in the street that had made good.

And people respected him because of his knowledge, his hands-on approach to everything.

He didn't talk about it, it wasn't that he was an armchair engineer,

who he'd read about it in the Victorian books,

he went out there and did it, he was really a man out of his time

because he had all these skills at his fingertips.

We've always been regarded as eccentric, wanting to play with dirty mechanical things,

but that's the way we're made and I think Fred's enthusiasm

and interest made people understand

that it was something that anybody could do and be interested in.

Well pressure's dropping now, which means we need some more fire,

and fire down here...

And he always enjoyed meeting the next generation of enthusiasts.

It's their interest that will keep the steam preservation movement alive.

So...stop the engine,

then we can open the firehole door...

..and put some coal in.

-Now, does it look as though it needs some?

-Yeah.

Right next to you there's a shovel, got some coal on there already. Would you like to lift that around?

That's it. That will help build the fire up.

Right in... That's about the right place. Just have a look.

Look...yeah!

Now we should be able to make some more steam now. Ahh, here's Fred.

-Did you get all that, young Edward?

-Yeah.

I see you managed all right, doesn't matter what you do, as long as you don't lose the shovel.

Now then, John, how many of these young chaps have you got on your trust?

-Well, at the moment we've got about four or five regulars.

-Yeah.

-And there are one or two who appear now and again as the whim takes them.

-I know what you mean.

-About four or five are regular.

-That's very good, really.

It's the future of our preservation movement.

-Oh, it is without a shadow of a doubt yeah.

-And we have to bring them on.

-Yeah. He's got the right sort of cap for it, hasn't he?

-Well, he insisted on that.

I noticed in your shed you've got lots of projects afloat...you don't mind if I go and have a look around?

-No, there's one or two things going on. I'll see you later.

-I'll buzz off into the shed.

-What are you doing here, then?

-Well, we've just re-tubed the boiler and then we're having...

to expand the tubes, obviously make them watertight to stop any water coming out into the smoke box here.

Yeah I've done that myself, its hard work, isn't it?

-What's next stage, do you fill it up with water?

-Give it its pressure test.

Yeah, yeah that's very good, yeah, and if it passes,

boiler inspector'll give you a certificate and you can light a fire in it then,

and then he'll come down and see it blowing off and then you can set off to a steam engine rally somewhere

and that's a good day that when that happens.

You do the bar with the grease gun,

because the it goes through the firebox, it gets very hot,

and it needs plenty of grease in there, so it doesn't seize up.

If you want to do that one, I'll lubricate the chain and then we'll go for a trundle down the road.

Phil, what've you got this young man doing here?

-He's being trained in the lubrication of the engine, Fred.

-Oh.

This is an important part of the engine,

because the bar goes through the firebox and gets very hot.

Different metals expanding at different rates,

so you've got to make sure that there's plenty of grease to keep it running smoothly.

-Yeah. And this is Neil, is it?

-This is Neil, yeah.

-A trainee?

-Absolutely, yeah.

-A trainee steam man!

-One of our fine young ones.

-You've got some glasses like mine.

-Well, are you taking me for a ride on it?

-You bet your life.

-Let's pack the stuff away.

-Come on, young Neil.

I'll get up first.

Put your grease gun away.

ENGINE CHUGS

-Do you want to blow the whistle?

-Yeah. TOOT! TOOT!

HEAVY TRUNDLING

As well as road rollers, steam also used to provide the power for fairgrounds...

MERRY-GO-ROUND MUSIC

And Fred was always inspired by these showmen's engines.

He did actually go the fairground in the early 1940s during the war,

with his mum and dad, which I think was Moor Lane in Bolton,

and he did see the end of the fairground engines making the electricity for the fairground.

One of the first rides I ever had on a traction engine were on one of these, you know?

I'm gonna ask the driver if I can steer it down the road with him. I think he'll let me.

-Are you all right, Chris?

-Yeah.

-Right, mate, I'm coming.

Right...

ENGINE CHUFFS

I knew a man who bought a fairground engine

and I often asked to play with the thing, but I wanted one of my own,

like you want your own toy, don't you?

So about 30-odd years ago I bought a steamroller.

I think I were ripped off, I paid £175 for it,

you could buy a steamroller about that time for about £60, you know, just beat the scrap man.

Anyway, time went by, and this steamroller were an incredible wreck.

I remember when that first came and he parked it in t'front street,

in front of t'house and believe me you've never seen owt like it.

It were scrap iron. You wouldn't even...you wouldn't have give him £5 for it.

So painstakingly, over a period of 30 years and two divorces,

which took a long time...

I slowly but surely made a new 'un.

Excellent, in a word. I couldn't fault it.

He'd taken meticulous care with the restoration of this engine.

There was nothing about it that I could criticise at all.

I've looked at many restored engines and boilers and so on,

and I can honestly say this is the best I've ever seen.

Fred raised the awareness of steam to a very great height,

the steam engine world was a very close-knit world,

everybody knew what was going on in the world amongst themselves,

but nobody else did, and Fred appeared on television with his steamroller

and it boosted everybody's interest in steam,

they went to steam rallies, mainly to see Fred Dibnah...

..but he wasn't at all the steam rallies, and it created a great deal of interest

in both road-going steam engines, rail steam engines

and industrial steam engines.

Quick!

-FRED LAUGHS

-Hooray!

-Bet you enjoyed that.

-Hang on.

-That's called running away.

-Wait a minute.

Right, we're all right now.

It was difficult at times, but I really took it on board,

because when I came here, I could see how passionate Fred was about his engines

and indeed everything in the garden,

and really that's who Fred was - his engines and his workshop.

I never saw anything as being in competition with me

and my place in Fred's life, the two things were parallel.

I think he loved us both in his way,

but I wouldn't have hedged my bets - I think the steam engines would've come first, really.

He was seen as the mascot of all the steam preservation movement,

which is a huge movement nowadays.

He was also...

not quite so widely regarded as popular in the very early days.

-I'm going for a pint.

-I'm coming with you cos I'm no' a bloody camel.

There are instances when the National Traction Engine Trust,

which is the body that looks after the interests of traction engine owners,f

weren't altogether happy that this guy on the box was,

whilst he was promoting their cause of traction engines, and being out on the road with them,

they weren't altogether happy that it made it look like it was one big pub crawl from one pub to another,

another pint of beer, going to the next pub, another pint.

Fred used to set off from the house, probably nine o'clock in the morning,

and we'd get down to the Lever Bridge,

get his first three pints and then we'd perhaps trundle off for another

half an hour, an hour, to the next pub and I invented this phrase

when everybody used to stop and ask, "How fast does it go?"

I used to say, "Oh, it used to go at two PUBS an hour".

I think...considering, we're not doing too bad.

And that was what it was, we used to kind of stop and start

and I used to count how many of these pints he used to drink,

and believe it or not, it used to be 16. I remember often counting 16 pints

he'd had during one sort of day.

That is bloody good!

And also, when Fred had quite a young family,

there'd be sort of travelling on the trailer drawbar at the back by the living van

all sort of practices which were all a bit, "Perhaps he shouldn't be doing that," showing bad practices.

It made great telly, but it was showing bad practices,

so it was a kind of a bit of a love-hate relationship with Fred originally,

but...a movement like that can't buy

TV time like that and it was great - the way it all ended up, of course, was absolutely fantastic.

When Fred first went on the television with his steeplejacking

and then he brought the steamroller into it,

there was an instant, massive following at the steam rallies,

a lot of people was attending, you know, to go and see Fred

but also at the rallies when Fred wasn't there,

he brought the numbers, attendance numbers up so, with being an engine owner, that was very good,

because without people going and supporting the steam rallies,

I'm afraid they would die a death.

-Now then, young man, how are you doing?

-All right, Fred, and yourself?

-You all right, mate?

-Yeah, not too bad.

-Don't worry about the oily hands, I'm used to it!

-Right.

-Yeah, Wallace and Stephens, eh?

-That's right.

-Basingstoke.

-Apparently this is the only one of two left.

-Yeah.

-On an eight-horse single.

-For the viewers, that's a powerful engine, innit?

-She's very powerful...

Eight-horse power is the equivalent to a big locomotive, like Atlas,

it's good for t'see them doing summat, innit?

We all like to see them out and about, not stuck in a shed really -

-that's the beauty of it, then everybody gets the enjoyment of it as well.

-Yeah, yeah.

-I have a friend who's got a Clayton and Shuttleworth.

-Is that right?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's... What year's this one?

-1919.

-What's furthest you've ridden it, like, along t'road?

Mainly back and forward up and down the lane there, actually.

Oh, you've not been in middle of a city yet?

-No, not yet, no, no.

-That's good fun, that, with all the traffic, yeah.

We did have a little run locally with her and...

it was nice to see the modern tractors waving to you, instead of the other way about.

Oh, aye, you get lots of people who will even put up with the inconvenience of being behind you,

I mean their not all like that, some of them come by giving you rude signs and hooting their hooters.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Best thing do with them then is blow the whistle very loud and drown them out

and they can't hang about, they've got to keep going.

-Yeah.

-I see you've got the wife and all the kids with you, haven't you?

Yeah, they take part in the engine and we all have a bit to do with it.

-Yeah.

-It's a passion we've got between us.

-If you can find a wife that likes them, you're a lucky man.

The biggest problem with it is expense with it all,

because no matter what you're doing, it is terrifically expensive,

but Fred has brought a lot of awareness to all these projects that are going on,

and I think when people wouldn't visit an industrial museum,

all of a sudden they've got an interest to get in the car

and go and visit it, cos Fred's been there, which helps the museums, which brings the money in

and better things happen, more's restored, so yeah, without a doubt he has brought awareness.

It's his passion, passion is the word.

It was the passion that Fred had for steam that came out in everything he did,

either on telly, off telly, at steam rallies, he was just so happy

whenever he was near a steam engine of some sort,

whether it was a huge beam engine or a traction engine in a field,

and that absolutely came out in everything he did.

Magic!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd - 2006

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