0:00:02 > 0:00:04BBC Four Collections -
0:00:04 > 0:00:07archive programmes chosen by experts.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09For this Collection, Gary Boyd-Hope
0:00:09 > 0:00:13has selected programmes celebrating Britain's steam railway legacy.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15More programmes on this theme
0:00:15 > 0:00:16and other BBC Four Collections
0:00:16 > 0:00:18are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26NARRATOR: There are those who love the splendid steam train -
0:01:26 > 0:01:29the great and disappearing iron horse -
0:01:29 > 0:01:31and there are those who love India.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33And there are, happily, those who love both,
0:01:33 > 0:01:36knowing that the one was made by the other.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45WHISTLE BLOWS
0:01:49 > 0:01:51SITAR AND TABLA MUSIC
0:01:57 > 0:02:02To all romantic amateurs of the history that runs on rails
0:02:02 > 0:02:05and that which stands changelessly since the days of the nobles,
0:02:05 > 0:02:10this is an affectionate salaam to the past that created the present.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29Now, of course, development means diesel -
0:02:29 > 0:02:33a thing of little charm and no chuff, but that is progress.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36India makes her own engines now, and even exports them.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Urban India couldn't live without its railways.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53Imagine the commuter traffic into one Bombay station alone
0:02:53 > 0:02:55of nearly 1.5 million a day -
0:02:55 > 0:02:57a rush-hour train every three minutes,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01each with 4,000 people aboard, or almost aboard -
0:03:01 > 0:03:05all packed so tight, it's almost impossible to pick a pocket.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Of the 2,800 million Indians who use the railways every year,
0:03:16 > 0:03:18nearly half are commuters.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21The suburban lines have been electrified these 40-odd years -
0:03:21 > 0:03:24obviously had to be, to handle this sort of sardine traffic.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27How could India do without the electric train?
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Well, in many places, luckily it does.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38The Puffing Billy is still the workhorse of the countryside
0:03:38 > 0:03:42and of the hills, and its lover, historian, and defender of the faith
0:03:42 > 0:03:43is a dedicated English zealot
0:03:43 > 0:03:46whose life's purpose now is the preservation
0:03:46 > 0:03:50of the great Indian steam train in a permanent museum in Delhi.
0:03:50 > 0:03:51His name is Mike Satow.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57MIKE SATOW: The first railway that I can recall ever turning me on
0:03:57 > 0:04:00was the Matheran railway.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04I think that's one of the most exciting little railways,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08built most improbably, very little known by anyone outside India,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12but it stems from the early days of this century.
0:04:12 > 0:04:17It's the only link with Matheran and the outside world, and it represents
0:04:17 > 0:04:20a technical achievement of some magnitude,
0:04:20 > 0:04:22even though the scale is small.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26I think a very good historical relic of the sort of technical ingenuity
0:04:26 > 0:04:30that was being practised in the late 19th century.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39The railway itself is 12 miles of track,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42which on the map only covers four miles from point to point.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45But in the course of that it rises 2,000 feet,
0:04:45 > 0:04:49there are 281 curves, and probably the sharpest curve
0:04:49 > 0:04:53on any working railway in the world, because the radius is only 45 feet.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55And to get round these corners,
0:04:55 > 0:04:59they have special engines which were the brainchild
0:04:59 > 0:05:02of a dilettante engineer, Sir Arthur Haywood,
0:05:02 > 0:05:04a landed gentleman in Derbyshire,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07and his hobby was railways, and he used to build his own engines,
0:05:07 > 0:05:11and they are the only known examples of this type of engine in existence
0:05:11 > 0:05:15in the world, and furthermore they're all working, and working very well.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17There are four steam engines on this railway which,
0:05:17 > 0:05:23since 1907, have been hauling the trains up and lowering them down,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25outwardly rather conventional engines,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29but inwardly, rather complicated and very novel engines
0:05:29 > 0:05:34which must be a full justification for the design which went into them
0:05:34 > 0:05:37on a landed estate in Derbyshire.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45NARRATOR: Mike Satow was once managing director of ICI in India.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48For 15 years he lived in the country.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51Retired to England, he resolutely returns twice a year
0:06:51 > 0:06:55to the India he loves, and the trains he loves perhaps even more.
0:06:59 > 0:07:0336,000 miles of railway spread a net over India,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06uniting this huge country as nothing else could do.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09This was the one holy bountiful legacy bequeathed to India
0:07:09 > 0:07:12by a British Raj, perhaps the only one.
0:07:12 > 0:07:13It all began in Bombay
0:07:13 > 0:07:16and its memorial and temple is Victoria Terminus.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27Victoria Terminus was built, as was the manner of the 1880s,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30in the likeness of a shrine - a technological cathedral,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32a great caravanserai in the most flowering
0:07:32 > 0:07:37Victorian Gothic Saracenic Italianate Oriental St Pancras Baroque
0:07:37 > 0:07:40to the glory of her late Imperial Majesty,
0:07:40 > 0:07:42and that of the great steam train.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30So the British bequeathed to India the trains and the stations
0:08:30 > 0:08:34and the currency of a common language, and you might say,
0:08:34 > 0:08:37a touch of the class system too, though India had hardly need of that.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47The old times of the Raj also provided the rolling stock,
0:08:47 > 0:08:52and some of these old beauties still remain, largely thanks to Mike Satow,
0:08:52 > 0:08:56whose dream, now taking shape in Delhi, is the railway museum,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59where the first of the old iron elephants is going -
0:08:59 > 0:09:01not to die, but in fact to live.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04THEY CHANT IN NATIVE LANGUAGE
0:09:30 > 0:09:34Did you manage to get the boiler examination done before it came?
0:09:34 > 0:09:36- Yes. - What's it like?
0:09:36 > 0:09:37It is very good.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39- Is it? - You've got to test it.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42So that means, really, we've only got minor...odd minor repairs
0:09:42 > 0:09:45- like the front spring pins to do. - Yes, only minor repairs.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48- Has it been running? - Yes.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53MIKE SATOW: Fairy Queen is only the first of our exhibits.
0:09:53 > 0:09:54There are hundreds more to come.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57When the museum's finished, it should be the most comprehensive,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59perhaps one of the largest in the world.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11NARRATOR: 400 years ago, the great and wise Mughal Emperor,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14Akbar, built the city of Fatehpur Sikri near Agra,
0:10:14 > 0:10:18abandoned within 50 years because its wells ran dry.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22Now it is a thing of dead beauty, a monument.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31MIKE SATOW: I want to see India's industrial heritage preserved,
0:10:31 > 0:10:33as well as her monuments.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36After all, the Taj Mahal doesn't have much of a break-up value as scrap,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39but unfortunately a locomotive does.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42So unless we preserve them today, they'll just disappear.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55My wife, Peggy, of course, had rather different interests from mine.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03She was very much involved with Indian art, Indian music
0:11:03 > 0:11:05and charitable work,
0:11:05 > 0:11:08and on many occasions we'd been travelling together
0:11:08 > 0:11:14for long periods perhaps, in Indian trains. Because journeys are long,
0:11:14 > 0:11:16travel on railways over long distances
0:11:16 > 0:11:18becomes almost a way of life.
0:11:19 > 0:11:25A journey may take two, three, four, five days, even.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27And so you take your cooking equipment,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30you take your sleeping equipment, you may sleep in a railway coach,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33you may sleep on a station platform - life goes on,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35and in the course of it,
0:11:35 > 0:11:37you ultimately move across the subcontinent.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52NARRATOR: The evening brings that imperative of the night,
0:11:52 > 0:11:53the ubiquitous bedroll.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15The bedroll - turning up each evening.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18No-one who knows India will ever forget it, nor ever remember it
0:12:18 > 0:12:21without nostalgia maybe for the great railway names -
0:12:21 > 0:12:27the Frontier Mail, the Deccan Queen, the Brindavan, the Rajdhani Express -
0:12:27 > 0:12:31and even, perhaps, for the empire on which the sun did finally set.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48MIKE SATOW: One of the interesting things about the research work
0:12:48 > 0:12:51and the investigation work that I've been doing for this museum has been
0:12:51 > 0:12:56the need to go off into all sorts of very remote corners of India.
0:12:56 > 0:12:57The Rajasthan desert, for example,
0:12:57 > 0:13:01held out the prospect of finding a special class of five locomotives.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05I had reason to believe that some of the engines that were there
0:13:05 > 0:13:07had now disappeared, or were laid aside,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09so I wanted to go and investigate for myself
0:13:09 > 0:13:12what in fact was still working there.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16NARRATOR: What a place is India for the engineer - not only huge,
0:13:16 > 0:13:18but hostile - rivers to be bridged,
0:13:18 > 0:13:20jungles to be cut, mountains to be tunnelled.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Nothing is easy in India, but it gets done.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31There are 1,750,000 Indians working on the railways,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34by far the biggest employer in the land.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37The gang men on the track pause to give a quick namaste
0:13:37 > 0:13:38to the official trolley.
0:14:07 > 0:14:12What sort of token system do you use here, or block system?
0:14:12 > 0:14:15This section, I suppose, is on Neale's ball token instrument.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19That's a small token, you know? I'll show you at the next station.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22And that instrument does lock and block.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25It cannot be operated by simultaneous coordination
0:14:25 > 0:14:29- of the two stationmasters. - I see.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33And not more than one token can be taken out from one end.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36So only one driver can have a token?
0:14:36 > 0:14:37Yes.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41NARRATOR: The signal system works with some elaboration.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45The points man takes the token from the trolley.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48He then inserts it in the signal.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51He takes the key...
0:14:53 > 0:14:55..approaches the lever...
0:14:57 > 0:14:58..and pulls it.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04The points then change.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09The points man runs over to the point and locks it.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20He pulls the signal lever, and the signal goes down.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24This wonderful rigmarole not only fulfils the Indian love
0:15:24 > 0:15:27of complication - it's also safe.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31- These are the gang men, you know. - Typical Rajasthan gang.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33Yes...
0:15:33 > 0:15:35You wouldn't have to ask anybody if you looked out of the window.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39Mr Vishlani's men, you see, they are belonging to a particular
0:15:39 > 0:15:44Rahat tribe, which used to be, in olden days, criminals.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46Were they? You've tamed them?
0:15:46 > 0:15:48Yes, before the railways came into being.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51After the railways are come into being, we have found them.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56MIKE SATOW: I went out into the Kamli Ghat section,
0:15:56 > 0:16:00on a single metre gauge line, and for working the heavy mineral trains,
0:16:00 > 0:16:04special engines were built in 1929, and they've been working there
0:16:04 > 0:16:08ever since, one engine on the front, one engine on the back.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10And since 1929, these five engines
0:16:10 > 0:16:13have been shouldering this massive task
0:16:13 > 0:16:16of moving the tonnage of freight up this incline,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19and they're still in fighting fettle.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32So you're re-laying this - this 75 pound?
0:17:32 > 0:17:36Yes. We have re-laid this track only about three years ago.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39Yeah? Is this old stuff over here?
0:17:39 > 0:17:41Yes, this is the stuff.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45- Let's have a look at it. - Have a look.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50I'll say it's old. Come here. Look!
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Look at this. It's got railing marks on it.
0:17:54 > 0:17:55These are 1887.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57These are older than anything I've got in the museum so far.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00- I didn't know that. - Yes, they are.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02I'd like some of these. So what are you doing with this?
0:18:02 > 0:18:06We imitate this weight of these old rail stores
0:18:06 > 0:18:09for disposal orders and scrap.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11Oh, right. Let's just see what lengths these are.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14Four, five, six...
0:18:14 > 0:18:17eight, nine...30-footers.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19Yes, you're absolutely right. These are 30-foot rails.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21- You are right. - Will you keep ten for me?
0:18:21 > 0:18:23Yes, excellent.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26Kindly get the orders so that I have the necessary authority.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28All right. I'll do that.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37HORN BLASTS
0:18:48 > 0:18:52NARRATOR: The Indian railways are an enormous absorbent of labour -
0:18:52 > 0:18:55the one commodity, perhaps, of which the nation is never short.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58They are as hierarchical as India itself.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02There are those who are saluted, and there are those who salute.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19Those 36,000 miles of railway track need endless maintenance,
0:19:19 > 0:19:23and almost endless men, which is not indeed a bad thing, on the whole.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07But this immense system of communications
0:20:07 > 0:20:08needs all manner of men,
0:20:08 > 0:20:12all manner of skills and crafts and backroom techniques.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16The days are done when the lines were shared among many companies -
0:20:16 > 0:20:18the great Indian Peninsula, the Madras Company,
0:20:18 > 0:20:21the Bombay, Baroda and Central India,
0:20:21 > 0:20:23the Jamnagar-Dwarka and dozens more.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25Indian railways belong to India now.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37An awful lot of it still depends on that good old fossil fuel, coal.
0:20:37 > 0:20:38And a good thing, too,
0:20:38 > 0:20:41since India has quite a lot of coal and not much oil.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44And coal is comparatively cheap and oil is ferociously dear.
0:21:08 > 0:21:09In consequence, however,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12a good deal of this loose coal gets itself nicked,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15as indeed do most movable and stealable assets of the railways,
0:21:15 > 0:21:17sometime or another.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Therefore, someone has to keep a pretty close eye on the scene.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22And before you triumphantly interrupt,
0:21:22 > 0:21:24let us agree that this scene was set up.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26It was enacted as, shall we say,
0:21:26 > 0:21:28a training exercise for the railway police.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48MIKE SATOW: The great advantage of the steam engine
0:21:48 > 0:21:51is that it is very cheap to build, it's very reliable
0:21:51 > 0:21:54and it can be maintained by more or less anyone.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57The steam locomotive is a labour-intensive machine,
0:21:57 > 0:21:59compared with the diesel or the electric.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03But on the other hand, labour is available in India
0:22:03 > 0:22:06and is very well versed in maintaining the steam engine.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10NARRATOR: They have, of course, to go to training schools
0:22:10 > 0:22:13to learn the complications of the modern systems.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16Any indication on the signal post.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Now, sometimes, this signal becomes defective.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24That time, the driver or the motorman is authorised
0:22:24 > 0:22:29by the station master to pass that signal by a written authority,
0:22:29 > 0:22:34which, on our Western Railway, is prescribed on form TA T8B.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37Second signal, under this system of working,
0:22:37 > 0:22:39is semi-automatic stop signal.
0:22:41 > 0:22:42NARRATOR: Howrah, in Calcutta,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45is the biggest passenger station in all India.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49Just a glance at Howrah shows how much of India's economy
0:22:49 > 0:22:51relies on the rail - not just the passengers,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54but all the other businesses who depend on the station.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57The taxis, the coaches.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01The rickshaws...
0:23:02 > 0:23:05..and the porters -
0:23:05 > 0:23:091,800 of them in Howrah alone, unpaid and living on baksheesh.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25But still it's the ironmongery of this great business
0:23:25 > 0:23:27that absorbs Mike Satow.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31The locomotives, their hisses and snorts to be recorded here
0:23:31 > 0:23:33and recollected in tranquillity.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38One of the prototype WD class, built by Baldwin,
0:23:38 > 0:23:40of which there are seven left.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44Faizabad. Number 7208.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48RECORDING: 'Comes into INDISTINCT Cantonment Station.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51'And this one happens to be drawing behind it
0:23:51 > 0:23:53'one of the standard tenders...'
0:23:53 > 0:23:56TRAIN WHISTLE DROWNS OUT VOICE
0:24:05 > 0:24:10NARRATOR: Udaipur was once a princely state of great prestige and renown.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13The Lake Palace is now a tourist hotel of equally great
0:24:13 > 0:24:17prestige and renown, perhaps the loveliest in India.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27There in the middle of the Pichola Lake in an unspoiled town
0:24:27 > 0:24:30with the dhobi ghats coming down to the water's edge,
0:24:30 > 0:24:32you would think you had everything.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47But Mike Satow dreams only of trains.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50MIKE SATOW: Ron Kumar, the curator of the museum,
0:24:50 > 0:24:53had only recently been appointed and there was much to show him.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57You can't learn everything by just looking into dusty files.
0:24:59 > 0:25:01I took him around with me on several visits.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04One of the more exciting ones, I think, from his point of view,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06was the monorail at Patiala.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11There's the engine shed and the track coming in here
0:25:11 > 0:25:14and another track over there.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Here's the remains of one of the passenger coaches.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22And here is Colonel Bowles' saloon,
0:25:22 > 0:25:24with some of the original paintwork and lining on it,
0:25:24 > 0:25:26so we can get all that.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29And then up the front here, we've got the engines.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31Let's go and have a look at those for a start.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33This one's very good, but, unfortunately,
0:25:33 > 0:25:37the boiler's missing off this one and I can't find it anywhere at all.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40In splendid condition, you know,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43because these things haven't worked for 47 years.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46We've even got the original lettering on the side of these things.
0:25:46 > 0:25:48What is PSMT?
0:25:48 > 0:25:52It's the Patiala State Monorail Trainway.
0:25:52 > 0:25:53What is the history of this monorail?
0:25:53 > 0:25:57It was built in 1907 for the maharajah by Colonel Bowles.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59It ran for 20 years.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02It came into this engine shed and never ran again.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07All that's happened is the rails have been buried by wind-borne dust,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10trees have grown up around the track over there between two wagons.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13But, apart from that, the climate is so good,
0:26:13 > 0:26:15that everything has been preserved very well indeed.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19The principle of this monorail was for temporary light railways
0:26:19 > 0:26:21for building factories,
0:26:21 > 0:26:23moving materials about on construction sites.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27And they were never in one place for more than about one month.
0:26:27 > 0:26:32And it didn't really matter what the condition of the ground was like.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34It only had the one rail under the centre
0:26:34 > 0:26:37and the weight was about 90% on the rail, 10%...
0:26:37 > 0:26:40This wheel which ran on the road to steady it,
0:26:40 > 0:26:43but after 20 years going over the same track,
0:26:43 > 0:26:45it got into a fair amount of difficulty
0:26:45 > 0:26:49because of the grooves worn by the iron wheel here.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Did they have such systems in any other countries?
0:26:51 > 0:26:53Not this system.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55This system was only used in India.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59These engines themselves came from Berlin. They're on a standard couple.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02The main thing now is, having found it,
0:27:02 > 0:27:04we've got an opportunity of saving it.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07I don't mind how long it takes to get it put back into working order,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10the important thing is that anything as historic as this
0:27:10 > 0:27:13just should not be cut up and sold for scrap.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17But if we can get this thing to Delhi, lay a bit of this track,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20because there obviously is still plenty of track in the yard here,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24if we could do that, this would be an absolute winner, it really would.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49NARRATOR: Indians are great travellers within their own land.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52Some of them, you'd think they almost lived on trains.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56The vast bulk of them travel hard, third class,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59for hours and hours and days and days.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15INDISTINCT CONVERSATION THROUGHOUT
0:28:24 > 0:28:27Patience. Patience is the thing
0:28:27 > 0:28:30and no-one has more of that than the Indians.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33We shall arrive sometime, somewhere. We always do.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36STATION HUBBUB
0:28:46 > 0:28:49An Indian railway station is more than a stopping place.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51It is, in fact, a way of life.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54Indian people don't GO to railway stations,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57they inhabit them, sometimes literally so.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00The station is a social centre, a nexus of life,
0:29:00 > 0:29:05a bazaar, an island of activity in the midst of 800,000 villages,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08where you can come by almost anything you want,
0:29:08 > 0:29:10from an orange to a bangle.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20INDISTINCT CONVERSATION
0:29:24 > 0:29:28It may be a couple of days, or three, before your train is due,
0:29:28 > 0:29:29so what can be the hurry?
0:29:33 > 0:29:35In the meantime, on the station,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39one plays, waits...
0:29:39 > 0:29:42lives, waits some more while time slips by,
0:29:42 > 0:29:46washes, eats, sleeps, reflects on eternity.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49Above all, waits.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55WOMAN SINGS INDIAN SONG
0:31:46 > 0:31:48PIG SQUEALS
0:31:58 > 0:32:00Even on the track, there are pickings to be made.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04Even cinders are not without value in a poor country.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06And Indian railway values and economics
0:32:06 > 0:32:09are not to be judged by Western standards.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12Of course, there are hundreds and thousands
0:32:12 > 0:32:14of ticketless travellers every day.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17The railways tolerate them. What else could they do?
0:32:25 > 0:32:28Benares, on the Ganges, is the holiest place
0:32:28 > 0:32:31on the holiest river for all pious Hindus.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35At sunrise, it is a place for the cleansing of the soul.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52Yet this peculiarly sacred place
0:32:52 > 0:32:56is one of the major centres of the Indian railways.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58Most of the pilgrims come to Benares by train, after all,
0:32:58 > 0:33:03from all over India to this especially hallowed riverside
0:33:03 > 0:33:06where one washes away one's spiritual impurities in the Ganges...
0:33:06 > 0:33:11though perhaps acquiring a few physical ones in the process.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:34:06 > 0:34:09And the tireless Mike Satow is still at work,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12still busy on the enshrining of the great Indian railway system
0:34:12 > 0:34:15on film, tape and memory.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18And coaxing the powers that be not to forget
0:34:18 > 0:34:21what the railways were all about.
0:34:34 > 0:34:39VOICE DROWNED OUT BY TRAIN
0:34:40 > 0:34:43TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:34:57 > 0:34:59MIKE SATOW: All over India, one finds
0:34:59 > 0:35:02amongst the great family of railwaymen
0:35:02 > 0:35:05the generosity and kindness
0:35:05 > 0:35:09which has been so much a tradition of railwaymen.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12You find drivers who will invite you onto their footplate
0:35:12 > 0:35:14and, quite frequently,
0:35:14 > 0:35:17extend that hospitality beyond that of the footplate
0:35:17 > 0:35:19and even into their own homes.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21How do you do? Namaste.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24- Here is the eldest son. - Eldest son.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26HE INTRODUCES THE FAMILY
0:35:31 > 0:35:34- Please now take your seat. - Thank you very much.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36Thank you.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48HE READS IN NATIVE LANGUAGE
0:36:04 > 0:36:07We also respect to our guest, Mr Michael.
0:36:07 > 0:36:10This is the way and significance that you have with us.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15- Namaskar. - Namaskar.
0:36:15 > 0:36:16Sit down, please.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20- Your family are coming, too? - Yes.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30You come and sit down here, right? That's fine.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32- Please, please. - Now, did...
0:36:32 > 0:36:33Did Mrs Sharma make these?
0:36:33 > 0:36:36Oh, yes. You should start all these things.
0:36:36 > 0:36:38I enjoy this food.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45It is very, very kind of you to ask me to this,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49this festival, because I've never been inside a family house
0:36:49 > 0:36:51during a Diwali festival before.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54And this is really the Hindu New Year?
0:36:54 > 0:36:57Yes, new Hindu year. So everything we start today.
0:36:57 > 0:36:58Yes.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06NARRATOR: Diwali is, in fact, the autumn festival of lights,
0:37:06 > 0:37:10when every Hindu home is aglow in honour of the coronation of Rama,
0:37:10 > 0:37:12the God King, or the King God -
0:37:12 > 0:37:15who could possibly know after 2,000 years?
0:37:15 > 0:37:18It's dedicated to Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity,
0:37:18 > 0:37:21so every little lamp and light is auspicious
0:37:21 > 0:37:22for both this world and the next.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28FIREWORKS DROWN OUT VOICES
0:37:49 > 0:37:51Now we really take to the hills.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54This is what the true railway buffs all wait for -
0:37:54 > 0:37:56the famous Darjeeling Himalaya Railway.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:38:18 > 0:38:22This is the spectacular little toy train with its 2ft gauge,
0:38:22 > 0:38:26scrambling up the mountains on gradients sometimes 1 in 20,
0:38:26 > 0:38:30chasing its own tail in extraordinary loops and curlicues.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34A single-line track with all the down trains going one after the other
0:38:34 > 0:38:36and then all the up trains going up.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:39:35 > 0:39:39Sometimes the track is too steep even to go in loops,
0:39:39 > 0:39:42so the train has to reverse itself onto a new level,
0:39:42 > 0:39:45while the one five minutes behind busily pursues it.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14CHEERING
0:40:14 > 0:40:16TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:40:27 > 0:40:31It takes eight hours to do its 54 miles
0:40:31 > 0:40:33and it isn't always quicker by rail,
0:40:33 > 0:40:35not when you can hop off at one side of the loop
0:40:35 > 0:40:37and hop back again on the other.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41You learn these techniques only through experience.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:41:10 > 0:41:13At the little hill town of Kurseong, the little hill train
0:41:13 > 0:41:16runs smack down the middle of the main street.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19This is road-rail integration of the closest kind.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22For a while, the train is a tram.
0:41:24 > 0:41:25WHISTLE BLOWS
0:41:25 > 0:41:29For all little hill towns, the train is an event, an occasion.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33It is the train that links these remote places with everywhere else.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:42:17 > 0:42:19This is quite particular.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23For Mike Satow, a special little train as befits a specialist.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25An observation coach for the number-one connoisseur
0:42:25 > 0:42:28of all Indian trains and the Himalayan toy train in particular.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33How many of the B-class engines are still working?
0:42:35 > 0:42:38- All 25 of them are. - 25. All working.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40And, on line, we have 16 of them.
0:42:40 > 0:42:42TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:42:59 > 0:43:02Every so often, of course, some disaster strikes this railway.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06The monsoon washes away large sections of the track.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09And every time this happens, those of us who love it
0:43:09 > 0:43:12feel this must be the final death knell of the railway,
0:43:12 > 0:43:13which, after all, is losing money
0:43:13 > 0:43:16to the extent of 75% of its operating costs.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21But there are strong arguments in keeping it alive.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25First of all, if it were closed,
0:43:25 > 0:43:282,000, 2,500 people would be without a job
0:43:28 > 0:43:32in an area which certainly can't provide alternative employment.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39But even on the emotional side, on a more emotional side,
0:43:39 > 0:43:42as seen by the railway enthusiast,
0:43:42 > 0:43:44this is surely one of the most famous,
0:43:44 > 0:43:48one of the best known of these hill railways.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52I don't think anybody can fail to be moved by the excitement
0:43:52 > 0:43:56of the toy railway, as it's called, up to Darjeeling.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00It's always known in a most friendly fashion as the toy railway.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05And for 54 miles, this exciting little railway plods uphill,
0:44:05 > 0:44:07over the top at Ghum, right on top of the world.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10Because when you come through Ghum
0:44:10 > 0:44:12and into the famous double loop at Batasia,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15you get your first glimpse of the snow
0:44:15 > 0:44:18and Kanchenjunga looming behind Darjeeling,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21which, at that point, lies about 600ft below you.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29NARRATOR: Now, the downward coasting ride towards Darjeeling.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33Darjeeling, one of the famous hill stations of the high North-East,
0:44:33 > 0:44:36squashed in at 7,000ft between Sikkim and Nepal,
0:44:36 > 0:44:39almost within the shadow of Everest.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43A great resort for the sahibs in their heyday
0:44:43 > 0:44:45and the rich tea planters from Assam.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50Now, Darjeeling is a very cosmopolitan place indeed,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54with its Nepalese, Lepchas, Sikkimese, Bengalis,
0:44:54 > 0:44:57all the high-ground people of the edge of India.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00And now, of course, especially the refugee colonies from Tibet,
0:45:00 > 0:45:04the society that insists on retaining its curious identity.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08THEY SING
0:45:57 > 0:46:00BELLS JANGLE
0:46:00 > 0:46:03It is possible to find parts of India
0:46:03 > 0:46:06that aren't within a bullock cart's ride of a railway line,
0:46:06 > 0:46:07but it isn't easy.
0:46:11 > 0:46:13PHONE RINGS
0:46:13 > 0:46:15Hello.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE
0:46:21 > 0:46:24India is so big, so various.
0:46:24 > 0:46:2715 recognised languages and uncountable dialects,
0:46:27 > 0:46:30which could well have been a great Balkanised confusion
0:46:30 > 0:46:35had the railways not, in their long, lumbering way, united it.
0:46:35 > 0:46:36Wherever you are in India,
0:46:36 > 0:46:39when the train comes, everything stops for the train.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11HUBBUB
0:47:14 > 0:47:18And when the train has gone, India takes over again.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14It isn't very beautiful, really.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16But it IS beautiful.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19And because it's part of life, it isn't immortal.
0:48:34 > 0:48:36This will go, one day,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39unless Mike Satow and his friends succeed
0:48:39 > 0:48:41and insist that it shall not go,
0:48:41 > 0:48:45or at least not go unrecorded and unsung.