0:00:07 > 0:00:1050 years ago, almost every part of Wales
0:00:10 > 0:00:14reverberated to the sound of steam hauled freight trains.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17The livelihoods of hundreds of Welsh communities
0:00:17 > 0:00:20depended on the men who ran the railways.
0:00:20 > 0:00:26Then, in the 1960s, Chairman of British Railways, Dr Richard Beeching
0:00:26 > 0:00:29took an axe to the rail system of Wales.
0:00:29 > 0:00:35Depots were closed and jobs were lost as freight was transferred from rail to road
0:00:35 > 0:00:39and steam power was scrapped, in favour of diesel.
0:00:41 > 0:00:47What could not be erased were the memories of the men who worked the railways of Wales
0:00:47 > 0:00:49in the age of steam.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56They used to have a code that once the banker got up behind the train,
0:00:56 > 0:01:01he would tell the front train by going, beep, beep, beep
0:01:01 > 0:01:04and the front one would do the same and off you'd go.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Well, when you look at a steam engine and the men working on it,
0:01:10 > 0:01:14there was more to it, especially on the firing side.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20Straight away, there was one behind the other, there was no stopping in them days.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24You were lucky if you got a bite of your butty because you were that busy.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34With the enthusiasm of volunteers, heritage railways have done much
0:01:34 > 0:01:40to bring back the joys of steam trains to the people of Wales over the past 40 years.
0:01:40 > 0:01:47Enthusiasts like Jim Clemens filmed coal trains and engine sheds before they disappeared.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54Much of this invaluable footage has never been seen on television before.
0:01:55 > 0:02:01This is a celebration of the glory days of steam, past and present,
0:02:01 > 0:02:06and the memories of the last generation of men to work steam hauled freight in Wales.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09It's the story of Beating Beeching.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Early morning on a steam gala day at Llangollen Railway
0:02:27 > 0:02:31finds staff and volunteers busy preparing the engines for the work ahead.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39There is immense pride that all six locomotives have been rebuilt and maintained at the shed.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44The engines are an important part of what has made the railway a major tourist attraction.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51Many of the people who work here were smitten with steam in their childhoods
0:02:51 > 0:02:55simply because their father worked on the railways,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58like Dave Owen, chief of engineering.
0:02:59 > 0:03:04Well, my father worked on the railways as a fireman and driver in the days of steam.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06He worked out of Cloes Newydd at Wrexham.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09I obviously, as a youngster, got hooked on steam locos.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12Didn't bother collecting numbers, just had to be by a steam engine
0:03:12 > 0:03:17whether in was in a shed, on a footplate, just got addicted at an early age.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Just the smell, the feeling of power, the heat,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25just became a fascination with the steam loco.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32The scene at Llangollen today is the nearest one can get to a lost world of skills
0:03:32 > 0:03:34and know-how of steam engines.
0:03:34 > 0:03:41A world of experience from engine sheds across Wales before the Beeching cuts of the 1960s.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53Then, thousands of men worked on the railways,
0:03:53 > 0:03:58many based at sheds like Croes Newydd, Denbigh, Carmarthen,
0:03:58 > 0:03:59Newport, Aberbeeg or Swansea.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08The shed at Pontypool Road was one of the busiest in the Valleys
0:04:08 > 0:04:11and many a young Welshman started work on the railways here.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20This film brings back fond memories for Tony Morgan
0:04:20 > 0:04:23who worked at Pontypool Road in the 1950s.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28We're now at Pontypool Road where I worked as a young lad.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32There is Jimmy Watkins, an old engine driver that I knew quite well
0:04:32 > 0:04:37with his oil can doing his preparation before he goes out on a train.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42There's a small tanky engine which works in the sidings.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46I think that's Len Hoff and his driver on one of the sidings.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50That's Bill Harris.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53That's Ted Ashman, he was one of the good drivers.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00This rare footage of Welsh drivers belies the hard life on the railways.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Young lads started their working day at 3am
0:05:03 > 0:05:06if they were assigned as a caller to make sure
0:05:06 > 0:05:09crews were at the sheds for the first trains of the day.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19Early in the morning, they used to send you out
0:05:19 > 0:05:23on an old-fashioned bike, a great big sit-up-and-beg thing,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25around Griffiths Town and Sebastopol
0:05:25 > 0:05:29where most of the engine drivers lived, to call them out,
0:05:29 > 0:05:33to make sure they wasn't late to get into work,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35two, three o'clock in the morning.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38And you'd be no lights, it'd be pitched black
0:05:38 > 0:05:41and you'd be walking up the garden path and you'd get to the door
0:05:41 > 0:05:44and you'd just go to go on the knocker and the door would open
0:05:44 > 0:05:48and the driver would say, "Don't you dare knock this door, wake my wife.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52"I'm awake, I'll be in." I said, "Thank you very much," and run off.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02Working the coal trains of South Wales was tough.
0:06:02 > 0:06:10Railwaymen drew on skills developed over 100 years since the first locomotives of the 1850s.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14Firemen had to build the engine's fire to provide sufficient steam power at the right moment
0:06:14 > 0:06:20to haul heavy wagons up the steep gradients common throughout the Valleys.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25Driver Dennis Jones was a fireman at Abercynon in the 1950s.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28You built your fire towards the firebox door
0:06:28 > 0:06:32and you built a good platform there so you slide the shovel
0:06:32 > 0:06:35and you could direct your coal to any part of the firebox.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Different engines needed different fires
0:06:44 > 0:06:47and you'd obviously got to learn about this.
0:06:47 > 0:06:52You had the haystack fire, the saucer fire, the hill fire,
0:06:52 > 0:06:57each corner fire, each one had a different way and they would steam better.
0:07:00 > 0:07:06Here at Llangollen, firemen carefully build their fires in readiness for another gala day.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12They use the best coal available but it is prone to creating clinker,
0:07:12 > 0:07:17a stony residue made of impurities produced when coal burns.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22The quality of coal has always been an issue for firemen.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27The goods sheds used to get rubbish coal, really.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29They used to mix it with good coal and bad coal
0:07:29 > 0:07:32and we used to have to put up with it and you'd get a lot of clinker.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36I think the best coal was kept for the passenger turns, from Llandawr.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39They used to get the best coal on the London runs.
0:07:39 > 0:07:45But the goods sheds used to get a bit of good stuff and rubbish mixed
0:07:45 > 0:07:48and we had to clean the fire more often.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52The main thing, of course, is to keep steam
0:07:52 > 0:07:55and you had to learn the best way to keep steam
0:07:55 > 0:07:57because there's different types of coal
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Now with the Welsh coal that was great stuff, that was,
0:08:01 > 0:08:06because it would just expand and keep the heat going all the time.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10When you had coal coming down from Derby Brights, they called them,
0:08:10 > 0:08:13you put a shovel full in and it was gone in no time
0:08:13 > 0:08:16and it wouldn't maintain the bed of the fire.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24Before the Beeching cuts, Welsh railways carried all kinds of freight,
0:08:24 > 0:08:26be it coal, cattle or food.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32Alongside sheds like Pontypool Road, were vast shunting yards
0:08:32 > 0:08:36where the assembly and sorting of wagon loads into freight trains took place.
0:08:38 > 0:08:44At the Neath Railway Club, retired railwaymen meet to talk over old times.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47Among them is Ray Stephens who worked as a shunter at Neath Yard.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51He had his own way of keeping track of the work.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54All up here, all in your head.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58Neath Yard was on a gradient so once you take the brake up,
0:08:58 > 0:09:02the wagon was gone. So you had to take them down carefully
0:09:02 > 0:09:06up to the upside where the shunters were forming the trains then ready
0:09:06 > 0:09:11to get all the loaded out going up to Margam first
0:09:11 > 0:09:13and then going from there further up to London.
0:09:17 > 0:09:23Shunting yards were notoriously hazardous places where all sorts of tricks were used.
0:09:25 > 0:09:32I remember one day, Griff John, he was from Port Albert, I think.
0:09:32 > 0:09:37Griff John, he was about six foot two and about 17 stone
0:09:37 > 0:09:40and he put his, he put the brakes down with his behind.
0:09:40 > 0:09:45He'd sit on the brake and it took two of us to get the brake back up,
0:09:45 > 0:09:47because it would go into the last hole.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51But Griff used to sit on them and you could hear him laughing as he was doing it.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54He knew we couldn't get the brakes up for the wagon.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05The movement of freight trains up and down the lines of Wales
0:10:05 > 0:10:09was kept under control by the signalmen.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15Many of the enthusiasts' films show engine crews and signalmen
0:10:15 > 0:10:18exchanging tokens just as they do today at Llangollen.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33Harry Loundes, who worked as a signalman in North Wales in the '50s and '60s,
0:10:33 > 0:10:35remembers it well.
0:10:35 > 0:10:43The token system was a machine you had and there was 3, 4 or 5 tokens in the machine
0:10:43 > 0:10:46and they covered single track where there was only one...
0:10:46 > 0:10:51one engine in steam allowed along that track at one time.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56When the train come to the signalbox, you'd take the token out of the machine
0:10:56 > 0:10:58and hand it to the driver.
0:11:04 > 0:11:10These films of the axed lines to Brecon capture the atmosphere of a vanished world of branch railways
0:11:10 > 0:11:13as crews and signalmen exchange tokens.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19No matter how many single track sections there were on a line,
0:11:19 > 0:11:22the token system ensured trains would never collide.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Bryan King worked the Neath & Brecon line.
0:11:26 > 0:11:32The system we worked on the N&B was that the signalman had a little frame outside he'd stand in
0:11:32 > 0:11:35and you give him yours with one hand and grab his with the other, you know.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39You used to be pretty quick at changing and it was a bit hairy,
0:11:39 > 0:11:44and I have dropped them on occasion and you have to stop and go back for 'em.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48The driver wasn't too pleased then.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55Many of the signal boxes along the Ruabon to Barmouth line
0:11:55 > 0:11:57oversaw single track sections.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02One of these was near Bala Lake at Llanuchlyn.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07There's been a signal box here since the line was built in the 1860s
0:12:07 > 0:12:11and although this line was axed by Beeching in 1965,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15the box still survives as part of the restored Bala Lake Railway.
0:12:17 > 0:12:23John Roberts is returning to Llanuchlyn where he first started as a signalman in 1955.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Now we're entering the signalbox,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30pretty much the same as it was within my time here.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35There was the two instruments, the token instruments for through to St Anne's there
0:12:35 > 0:12:37and the token instrument for Bala junction there.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40The frame's pretty much, well, it's exactly the same
0:12:40 > 0:12:46but it has a number of white levers now which are not operated with what it is today.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51John Roberts is pictured with the station master in 1964
0:12:51 > 0:12:53a few months before the line closed.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00The mostly Welsh-speaking signalmen would talk to one another by the wall phone
0:13:00 > 0:13:03that connected every box along the line.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27During the years of steam hauled freight,
0:13:27 > 0:13:32the signal boxes of Wales handled far more traffic than at any time since.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36And for signalmen, the work was hard and more dangerous than it seemed.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Some levers they operated pulled a cable
0:13:39 > 0:13:43that could be connected to a distant signal several miles away.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50When you're looking at levers and you're thinking, "Now where is the signal positioned?"
0:13:50 > 0:13:52If it's close to the box, quite easy to pull off
0:13:52 > 0:13:58but if you're pulling three mile of wire, that's a different kettle of fish.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01It gets very, very heavy to pull the wire.
0:14:03 > 0:14:10I've known that you put your foot up to get hold of the lever and give it a good tug over
0:14:10 > 0:14:15and many a time I've had it that the wire snapped and you put your foot against the thing
0:14:15 > 0:14:21and you'd be pulling and it just snapped and I went back straight in to the glass windows
0:14:21 > 0:14:23that was at the back of me.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30When the steam trains were going,
0:14:30 > 0:14:34there was a lot more steam trains about in goods
0:14:34 > 0:14:40and you had to regulate what to let go and what to hold back.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46Straight away, there was one behind the other. There was no stopping in them days.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49You was on the go from when you got there till you went home.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52You were lucky if you got a bite of your butty because you were that busy.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03On steam gala days at Llangollen Railway,
0:15:03 > 0:15:09they like to simulate the working activity of stations in North Wales before the Beeching cuts.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15After the axe fell on the Ruabon to Barmouth line,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19goods trains once again steam back and forth along the eight miles
0:15:19 > 0:15:22between Carrog and here at Llangollen station.
0:15:26 > 0:15:32The revived railway has come a long way since it was started by a few enthusiasts in 1975.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Dave Owen joined them the same year.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38We used to have the workshops under the signalbox in the platform.
0:15:38 > 0:15:43There was no track here, just a few lengths of line on the station.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46Bit by bit, it just became a desire to move the thing forward
0:15:46 > 0:15:49and try to replace something that had been taken away.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57Freight such as slate, stone and cattle was transported through here originally
0:15:57 > 0:16:00but in the new age of steam at Llangollen,
0:16:00 > 0:16:04the station is busier than ever, beating Beeching at its best.
0:16:06 > 0:16:11John Roberts also worked at the signal box here in the 1960s.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17- Hello, Charles.- Hello, John, how are you, nice to see you.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19- Ah, nice to see you.- Nice morning.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22John Roberts has popped into see his friend, Charles Wilson,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25signalling inspector at the revived railway.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29We're dealing with probably more engine movements here now
0:16:29 > 0:16:31than what John was when the line was open
0:16:31 > 0:16:36because this box was normally switched out and they only used to open it for excursion traffic
0:16:36 > 0:16:41or dropping goods wagons off into the sidings behind the signal box,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45or putting a locomotive in the spur at the other end of the bridge.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48So it's probably more busy now than it was in John's day.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50I'll admit to that, yeah.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52It is different.
0:16:52 > 0:16:57With these short frames, you know, you could just stand by your frame.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59You'd never move.
0:16:59 > 0:17:06But with the frame of 50, 55 levers at Bala junction and Barmouth and places,
0:17:06 > 0:17:09you had to walk along the frame and work it, you know.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12- Put it back that one, number two. - Put this one back?
0:17:13 > 0:17:16Oh, it goes back, doesn't it?
0:17:16 > 0:17:19I didn't expect to see that going back so...
0:17:19 > 0:17:21Go on, John.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26Another pull, I'll have a bad back now.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28There we are.
0:17:31 > 0:17:36Today, there are very few drivers alive who know what it was like
0:17:36 > 0:17:42to take 700 ton coal trains up and down the steep gradients of South Wales in the age of steam.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48Among footplate crews, this was known as "incline working".
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Here with the men at the Neath Railway Club is Dick Jones,
0:17:54 > 0:17:59now one of the oldest surviving drivers of steam freight trains in Wales.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03He worked for 45 years on the footplate, 25 of them as driver,
0:18:03 > 0:18:06based at the Glyn Neath shed.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08I wasn't nervous.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13We're all individuals, and some were nervous on the job.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16I was working a train one day and we had a guard from Neath,
0:18:16 > 0:18:18and I didn't know the guard at all.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22I was coming back from the docks with a train of empties
0:18:22 > 0:18:26and when we got to Glyn Neath, he said to me, "Driver, do you know,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29"I was on my hands and knees in the van coming up."
0:18:29 > 0:18:32"Why?" my fireman said to him. "Were you cleaning the van out?"
0:18:32 > 0:18:35"No, I was asking the Lord to take me home safe!"
0:18:35 > 0:18:36LAUGHTER
0:18:42 > 0:18:48Some gradients were so steep, it needed the power of a second engine pushing from behind.
0:18:48 > 0:18:49This was called banking.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53Going up a gradient at Glyn Neath to Aberdare,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56it was 1 in 49, it was a steep gradient.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58You'd have an assistant engine with you as well.
0:18:58 > 0:19:05It would bank you up, you know, and we'd have about 30 wagons, loaded wagons on, you know.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09They used to have a code that once the banker got up behind the train,
0:19:09 > 0:19:13he would tell the front train by going, beep, beep, beep
0:19:13 > 0:19:16and the front one would do the same and off you'd go.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28Though it seemed hard work for crews and engines taking a train up the steep inclines of the Valleys,
0:19:28 > 0:19:33it was much more precarious bringing it down the other side.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40In this remarkable footage, a steam engine on a gradient with heavy coal wagons
0:19:40 > 0:19:44cannot keep control, even with brakes down hard
0:19:44 > 0:19:48and sand being poured onto the rails for extra grip.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53At Llangollen, a staff member demonstrates how the crews
0:19:53 > 0:19:58operated a braking system practised throughout the age of steam-hauled freight.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06When you're coming down an incline, the guard come down, or the brakes man you call him,
0:20:06 > 0:20:10and you start pulling away quietly and he'd be putting the brakes down.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13When you knew you had sufficient brakes down,
0:20:13 > 0:20:19you just blow two on the whistle for him and then he'd go back to the guard's van and away you go.
0:20:19 > 0:20:24It comes through experience, because you knew by the stroke of the engine,
0:20:24 > 0:20:30the power of the engine, you know. You knew there was sufficient brakes that you could come to a stand.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Two particular steep gradients were either side of Quakers Yard
0:20:37 > 0:20:40on the Merthyr to Pontypridd line.
0:20:40 > 0:20:47As a fireman, Dennis Jones knew the line well, so he was immediately alert to a misunderstanding
0:20:47 > 0:20:49between his driver and guard at Quaker's Yard,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53an error that was to result in a runaway train.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59We came out of Black Lion Colliery, which is Merthyr Vale Colliery
0:20:59 > 0:21:04and we approached Quaker's Yard and we came to the top of the bank.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06Then we waited for the guard to come down.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09He started putting the brakes down.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11I'm looking back for the guard.
0:21:11 > 0:21:16He was on the van. I said, "You haven't whistled for sufficient brakes, have you?"
0:21:16 > 0:21:18The driver said, "No, I haven't."
0:21:18 > 0:21:21I said, "The guard's back on the van, give me the tip."
0:21:21 > 0:21:24I said, "You haven't got enough brakes down."
0:21:24 > 0:21:27We couldn't stop, there's no argument about that.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29We were picking up speed all the time.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31There's a one in 40 bank.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36So we came to Abercynon station, the signalman was hanging out of the window
0:21:36 > 0:21:40and I was motioning to go... That I wanted a straight run.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Luckily, the signalman was able to divert the runaway train
0:21:50 > 0:21:55onto a level siding sufficiently long for the engine and coal wagons to come to a stop.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00That was a nasty feeling really because you lose all control
0:22:00 > 0:22:03and you cannot do anything at all about it.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07You've just got to sit and wait or jump.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22The line from Blaenavon Yards to Pontypool Road was built in the 1870s
0:22:22 > 0:22:28to transport coal from Big Pit, high up on the moors of Blaenavon.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33The gradients here were some of the steepest in the country.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41In 1980, Big Pit and the surrounding collieries closed.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49But the very same year, enthusiasts started the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway
0:22:49 > 0:22:55and since 1983, steam trains have travelled again on a short section of the old line.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Dennis Jones worked the coal trains here as a young fireman in the late 1940s
0:23:10 > 0:23:15and can still remember the challenge of the gradients.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18I can relate coming up here actually, it was years ago,
0:23:18 > 0:23:23a very steep part of the track which you had to be so careful
0:23:23 > 0:23:28and it is a complicated road to manoeuvre.
0:23:28 > 0:23:35We knew exactly what was required on incline working and, to me, it was a fine art.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53The many inclines and gorges of the Valleys presented
0:23:53 > 0:23:58plenty of challenges for the Victorian builders of the railways in South Wales.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02But transporting the coal was paramount and, no matter where a mine was located,
0:24:02 > 0:24:07bridges, tunnels or viaducts would be built.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12The spectacular Crumlin Viaduct spanned the Ebbw and Kendon valleys on the Vale of Neath line.
0:24:12 > 0:24:19Opened in 1857, this engineering marvel stood 200 feet at its highest point.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23Tony Morgan fired trains over it a century later.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26There were several viaducts but there was nothing like Crumlin Viaduct
0:24:26 > 0:24:29because when you were up there, the wind it was quite high.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32There was only a small door on a Western engine
0:24:32 > 0:24:35so it was right through and it would be blowing you.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Very exciting, really, because you were way up
0:24:38 > 0:24:43and I used to go over there all hours of the night and all hours of the day.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49The Crumlin viaduct which had stood for over a century
0:24:49 > 0:24:54was demolished within three years of Beeching's closure of the line in 1964.
0:25:00 > 0:25:06For the people of Crumlin, there is very little left for them to remember of this symbol
0:25:06 > 0:25:09from Wales's glorious railway past.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34Restored railways have had great success in bringing the experience
0:25:34 > 0:25:37of steam railways to a modern public.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44But since Dr Beeching finished off steam hauled freight in 1967,
0:25:44 > 0:25:50it is simply not possible for these railways to convey the reality of working steam trains.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Taking 70 wagons of coal up and down the valleys of Wales
0:25:56 > 0:26:03is preserved only on enthusiasts' films and in the memories of railway men like Tony Morgan.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08Here we have an old video and, after watching it, I just could not believe it.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12It took me back right to when I was a young lad working on the railway.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15And the sounds, the smoke, the smell
0:26:15 > 0:26:17everything was great on the railway
0:26:17 > 0:26:22and it was lovely to put your head out through the side and just smell.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34At Llangollen, volunteers and staff do still run goods trains at special steam galas.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40They have earned a reputation for their expertise
0:26:40 > 0:26:42in bringing steam engines back to life.
0:26:44 > 0:26:51Often, these engines had spent many years slowly rusting away at Woodham's Yard, Barry Island.
0:26:52 > 0:26:58Here in 1968, nearly 300 former British Rail engines awaited their fate.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03Over the next four decades, enthusiasts sought to beat Beeching
0:27:03 > 0:27:06by buying these scrapped steam engines.
0:27:06 > 0:27:13Llangollen started rebuilding its first steam engine, Austin 1, in 1975.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15Dave Owen was there at the start.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19There was no handbook on how to repair or restore an engine,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22but even steam locomotives are pretty basic machines.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25So if you've got engineering nous or engineering background
0:27:25 > 0:27:29you can apply that experience into problem solving and manufacture of new items
0:27:29 > 0:27:35because you can't go out to buy a part any more, you've got to manufacture it.
0:27:36 > 0:27:43Llangollen has built up a valuable skill base in the heritage engineering of steam locomotives.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49Foxcote Manor is a fine example of what has been achieved here.
0:27:50 > 0:27:56Rescued from Barry scrap yard after spending much of its working life in Wales,
0:27:56 > 0:28:02it has been resident at Llangollen since 1986, longer than its years with British Rail.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09It's such a beautiful looking engine, that just might be my biased opinion,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12but because it's been here so long, been overhauled twice here,
0:28:12 > 0:28:14it's its natural home.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17Therefore I think we all think of it as the railway's flagship.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21I think it just sits well with this countryside.
0:28:26 > 0:28:32Like all restored lines across Wales, Llangollen Railway is dedicated to keeping engines alive.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37The story of the remembrance and preservation of steam railways
0:28:37 > 0:28:41is one of triumph over tragedy, pride in the past and hope for the future.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Dr Beeching had no idea of the thriving heritage industry
0:28:47 > 0:28:52he would create when he axed the steam hauled railways of Wales.
0:29:02 > 0:29:04Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:29:04 > 0:29:07E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk