0:00:03 > 0:00:07Railways are a fundamental part of British history.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10This is where railways were born.
0:00:10 > 0:00:15The first steam locomotive, the first passenger train,
0:00:15 > 0:00:17the first rail network.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20The British were pioneering modern transport.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24The rail revolution started here.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31But how on earth were railways built almost two centuries ago,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34without any of the tools that we rely on today?
0:00:35 > 0:00:40Who built them, and how did they change our lives?
0:00:40 > 0:00:43In these films, I explore how Britain created the railways...
0:00:47 > 0:00:50..and how they went on to transform the world.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07We can trace the origins of railways right back
0:01:07 > 0:01:11to the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14At this time, Britain was on the brink of a period of massive change -
0:01:14 > 0:01:18the Industrial Revolution.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21The story starts here, in the north-east of England,
0:01:21 > 0:01:27where the revolution was being powered by something known as black gold.
0:01:27 > 0:01:33If you're a lucky landowner, you might find a lot of this - coal.
0:01:33 > 0:01:39Has a strange beauty and, in fact, this is just a huge lump of energy.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41In the 18th century,
0:01:41 > 0:01:46Britain was producing more of this than any other country in the world.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50County Durham alone was exporting 600,000 tonnes of it a year,
0:01:50 > 0:01:51mainly to London.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56THIS was powering the Industrial Revolution
0:01:56 > 0:02:00and it would drive the development of our railways.
0:02:00 > 0:02:07The mining companies needed to get the coal from here, up in the hills around Newcastle,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10down to the River Tyne, where it would be carried on ships to London.
0:02:10 > 0:02:16Not an easy job across the hills and valleys of the region.
0:02:16 > 0:02:22What they came up with was a system based on rails,
0:02:22 > 0:02:24and powered by horses.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29But it was not a railway as we know today.
0:02:29 > 0:02:34It would be some time before we would see steam trains running on tracks.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39But we should not underestimate the impressive achievements of these pioneers.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46This is the Causey Arch, built in 1725.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48This bridge had a bigger span
0:02:48 > 0:02:51than any bridge on the Thames or the Severn.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56In fact, when it was built, it had the widest span of any bridge in Britain.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03On top, horse-drawn wagons carried the coal
0:03:03 > 0:03:06from the mine down to Newcastle.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11Every day, around 2,000 of these wagons
0:03:11 > 0:03:14went back and forward across this bridge.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16That's about one every 20 seconds.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18That meant, despite its limitations,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22it was still a very efficient way of taking coals to Newcastle.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26Once wagons running on tracks was established as a good idea,
0:03:26 > 0:03:28all the mine owners wanted them.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33It was very simple - the more coal you could transport,
0:03:33 > 0:03:35the more money you could make.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39So, you needed a top-notch transport system to help you out.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41HORSES NEIGH
0:03:41 > 0:03:45Unfortunately, Britain's just wasn't up to scratch.
0:03:45 > 0:03:50What it had was a confusing muddle of dirt tracks, trails and basic roads.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56But the demands of newly developing industries and the money which could be made from them
0:03:56 > 0:04:01would call for a transport revolution across the whole country,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05because now horses just weren't keeping pace.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09You could only travel at around eight miles an hour
0:04:09 > 0:04:12and the horses had to be changed every ten miles.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17The roads were often terrible,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20which meant crashes were very common
0:04:20 > 0:04:23and the resulting traffic jams were legendary.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Then there was the lurking threat of the highwayman.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34GUNSHOT
0:04:34 > 0:04:35HORSES NEIGH
0:04:42 > 0:04:45But the big problem with transport wasn't people, it was stuff.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49If you wanted to move cargo, you needed a canal boat.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53Get off the land onto the water.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03This canal boat could carry about 25 tonnes of cargo,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06but during winter, these canals could freeze.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10Barges would be stuck and their cargoes would get pilfered.
0:05:13 > 0:05:14Open the paddles!
0:05:16 > 0:05:19In the summer, though, if it didn't rain, in periods of drought,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22you'd find there was not enough water in the canals
0:05:22 > 0:05:23and the boats could be grounded.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Britain was changing at shocking speed,
0:05:32 > 0:05:37but its transport system remained slow, unreliable and expensive.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40The winners of the Industrial Revolution would be those
0:05:40 > 0:05:44who could transport the most stuff the most quickly.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48There had to be a better way to do it than relying on horses.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01This is an underground wagon way,
0:06:01 > 0:06:04a tunnel two miles long
0:06:04 > 0:06:07used to carry coal under the city to Newcastle's docks.
0:06:10 > 0:06:17Here the wagons weren't pulled by horses, but by ropes attached to an extraordinary innovation.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20The steam engine.
0:06:20 > 0:06:26Machines developed from the early 1700s burned coal to create steam.
0:06:26 > 0:06:32The one for this tunnel had the pulling power of 40 horses.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36For the first time, engineers were combining rails with steam engines.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41But the biggest drawback at that time was that they didn't move.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43Building steam engines that were static
0:06:43 > 0:06:48and able to pull these wagons on ropes and pulleys was one thing.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51But what if steam engines could be made
0:06:51 > 0:06:55to run by themselves, unattached?
0:06:55 > 0:07:01What if they could roam free across the countryside, across the world?
0:07:06 > 0:07:09In the true spirit of this new industrial age,
0:07:09 > 0:07:15brilliant inventors tried out any number of clever devices.
0:07:15 > 0:07:21Yet these first moving steam engines, or locomotives, could only lumber along slowly.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26They could suddenly explode,
0:07:26 > 0:07:28or they were too heavy for their tracks.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32They were still experiments.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44If anyone could crack the whole thing,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47build a powerful, efficient locomotive,
0:07:47 > 0:07:53tracks properly able to support it, bridges, tunnels,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and then make the whole thing into a profitable system,
0:07:56 > 0:07:58that man would be a genius,
0:07:58 > 0:08:05because that man would have turned the humble wagon way into a railway.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13And it wouldn't be long before that man stepped forward -
0:08:13 > 0:08:15a mining engineer from the north-east,
0:08:15 > 0:08:22he was called George Stephenson, and he would go on to change the world.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38By the early 1800s, parts of industrial Britain
0:08:38 > 0:08:42had developed an ingenious way of moving coal around.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47Known as a wagon way, it involved a horse pulling a cart along railway lines.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54It was groundbreaking for its time, but this was the Industrial Revolution,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57and times were changing fast.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02Nowhere was this more obvious than at one huge coalfield in County Durham.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05It had massive moneymaking potential,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08but wagon ways were not enough to unlock it.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11The only thing that could was a railway.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15Step forward George Stephenson, a local engineer,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18and his colleague, Nicholas Wood.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20It was agreed that they would build this railway -
0:09:20 > 0:09:22the first of its kind.
0:09:28 > 0:09:34The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on the 27th September 1825,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37watched by crowds of thousands of astonished onlookers.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43This was something totally new.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46Unlike anything that had come before,
0:09:46 > 0:09:50the rails were made of iron instead of wood, and the power came
0:09:50 > 0:09:55not from horses but from locomotive engines driven by steam.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58It was a success!
0:09:58 > 0:10:03People on board could now travel faster than a man could run.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08The trains were built to take coal from Darlington
0:10:08 > 0:10:11to the port of Stockton on the River Tees,
0:10:11 > 0:10:16but this railway provoked a reaction that no one was expecting.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22Even though I have travelled on faster trains,
0:10:22 > 0:10:26riding on this replica still gives you a sense of just how
0:10:26 > 0:10:30magical it must have been for those first passengers at the dawn of the railway age.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46It was that magic that made it a success.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50While some critics, including writers and artists, were warning
0:10:50 > 0:10:55against the arrival of machines, the people fell in love with them.
0:10:55 > 0:11:00It seems amazing now, but no one had really expected the excitement it would cause.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03Tens of thousands of people wanted to travel between Stockton
0:11:03 > 0:11:07and Darlington, whereas a fraction of that had gone by stagecoach.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11The Stockton and Darlington became world famous,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14and people travelled from across Europe just to see it.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19This has been seen as a huge turning point in the history of railways.
0:11:21 > 0:11:22In a way it was,
0:11:22 > 0:11:26but not because of all the minor incremental improvements
0:11:26 > 0:11:29Stephenson made to the locomotive and the rails.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33It was because, partly driven by this huge demand from people,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35from passengers, it made money.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37It was profitable.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Of course, the line wasn't without its problems.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50The engine broke down all the time, so horses still had to be used.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53There were accidents, and it was far too busy.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57But, make no mistake, this was a massive event.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00For a while, the eyes of the world were on Stockton and Darlington,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04and the line was more popular than anyone could ever imagine.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Put simply, it proved that railways were the future.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18By the early 1800s,
0:12:18 > 0:12:23Britain was at the centre of a worldwide trading web.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26The country was in the midst of an industrial revolution,
0:12:26 > 0:12:31and factories were producing goods on a scale never seen before.
0:12:31 > 0:12:36Now those goods needed to be moved around the country and the world.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41This level of industry had changed the face of Britain.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48In 1783, a small Lancashire town had just one cotton mill.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52One generation later,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54it had 86 mills.
0:12:55 > 0:13:02Its population of 24,000 was now 150,000.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07This was the world's first industrial city -
0:13:07 > 0:13:08Manchester.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18Just 36 miles away from Manchester by road
0:13:18 > 0:13:20was the wealthy port of Liverpool,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23its gateway to the rest of the world.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30In 1824, 10,000 ships a year left these docks,
0:13:30 > 0:13:35bringing back 400,000 bales of cotton from America.
0:13:36 > 0:13:41Trade between the two cities was already 1,000 tonnes a day.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44But the wealthy men who controlled local business
0:13:44 > 0:13:48and local politics were greedy for more.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53These men had one thing in common - they could come together
0:13:53 > 0:13:55in the smoke-filled rooms of downtown Liverpool
0:13:55 > 0:13:58and agree that the city needed to be better connected
0:13:58 > 0:14:00to the rest of the country,
0:14:00 > 0:14:04particularly the rising industrial powerhouse of Manchester,
0:14:04 > 0:14:06just 30 miles away to the east.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09These men shared a dream - that one day,
0:14:09 > 0:14:13Liverpool and Manchester would be connected by a railway.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23This would be a huge and very expensive challenge.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28An engineering project on this scale had never been attempted before.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32There was one man who might be able to take it on.
0:14:32 > 0:14:38A mining engineer from Newcastle called George Stephenson.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41Self educated, barely able to read,
0:14:41 > 0:14:46George had grown up in a working-class mining family.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50But he was known as an incredibly talented inventor
0:14:50 > 0:14:57that had a growing reputation for building reliable steam engines and reliable tracks.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00Some even call him a genius.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Stephenson was certainly self-confident.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08He said, "I will do something in coming time
0:15:08 > 0:15:11"that will astonish all England."
0:15:11 > 0:15:13It wouldn't be easy.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16He'd have to do what had never been done before -
0:15:16 > 0:15:19plan a railway from the heart of one enormous city
0:15:19 > 0:15:21right into the centre of another.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24Stephenson would have to reshape Britain.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31But first he'd have to contend with this...
0:15:34 > 0:15:39..a treacherous piece of natural wilderness known as Chat Moss,
0:15:39 > 0:15:43feared even by the people who lived near it.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46No one, except George Stephenson,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50believed that it would be possible to build a railway across here.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56'It's a peat bog,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59'that seems like one vast piece of watery sponge.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09'To see the scale of the problem that confronted George Stephenson,
0:16:09 > 0:16:13'I've enlisted the help of local ecologist Chris Miller.'
0:16:17 > 0:16:22- So the peat is what I'm getting stuck in now. Is that right?- Yeah.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27How deep is that peat? It seems to go down and down. Are we going to drown in this stuff?
0:16:27 > 0:16:30Well, yeah, you can get some very, very deep spots.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33Whoop, down I go, there we go.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36- Er, as you can see... - Let's see.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39- ..if you just carefully join me. - Ooh.- Ooh, steady.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41- OK, nice. - HE CHUCKLES
0:16:41 > 0:16:44So you can see, it can get very, very deep.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46This is more like a lake than dry land.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48And was it just as bad as this
0:16:48 > 0:16:51200 years ago, when George Stephenson was here?
0:16:51 > 0:16:54When George Stephenson... it'd be even worse.
0:16:54 > 0:16:55It'd have been a lot wetter and boggier,
0:16:55 > 0:16:59- and you'd have had these conditions everywhere.- Boggier than this?
0:16:59 > 0:17:00Boggier than this.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04Why on earth did he think he could build a railway track through this, then?
0:17:04 > 0:17:06Well, he had no choice.
0:17:06 > 0:17:11I mean, this, this bog, used to be about 35 square kilometres.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13It was a massive, massive expanse,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16and it isolated off Manchester from Liverpool, you know.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18You had a really huge, long journey
0:17:18 > 0:17:21to go down the bottom of the bog to make it to Liverpool.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25And so he had to take the railway across the bog.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38Fortunately, George had a plan.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42On the peat bog, he piled on tonnes of rubble
0:17:42 > 0:17:45to squeeze out the moisture, like water from a sponge.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Topping that with a bed of rushes and wood,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59he was able to float the tracks across acres of wetland.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04Stephenson conquered Chat Moss,
0:18:04 > 0:18:09and he and his men went on to complete the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
0:18:09 > 0:18:11in four-and-a-half gruelling years.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13From here you get an incredible view,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16but you also get a sense of the achievement.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21'The railway was 35 miles long, had 64 bridges and viaducts,
0:18:21 > 0:18:26'and even the world's first tunnel under a city.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28'Stephenson had succeeded.'
0:18:28 > 0:18:32And this line now runs like an arrow across the countryside,
0:18:32 > 0:18:34still being used today.
0:18:37 > 0:18:43He'd built the railway, but now he needed the trains and the power.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48The moment had arrived for a final stroke of genius.
0:18:48 > 0:18:53Our museums are filled with the foundations of our civilisation.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Beautiful works of art, ancient texts
0:18:55 > 0:18:59and moments of scientific breakthrough.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03But in here, there's one piece of extraordinary innovation that is second to none.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14It was built partly by George,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18but mostly by his son, Robert Stephenson,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21who would turn out to be an equally talented engineer.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33This wasn't Britain's first steam locomotive.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37There were others, like Stephenson's own Locomotion One,
0:19:37 > 0:19:41which served on the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43But this was different.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48The others were slower, less reliable, more dangerous.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51The Rocket was a watershed.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56Perhaps most impressive was its sheer speed.
0:19:56 > 0:20:0029 miles per hour on a good run.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03At the time, that level of consistent speed was totally unheard-of.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12The Rocket could go faster than anything else ever built by humans
0:20:12 > 0:20:15in the history of the world.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19No chariot, no sailing ship could possibly keep up with it.
0:20:19 > 0:20:24It was the start of our enduring obsession with speed.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26And the Rocket was so well designed
0:20:26 > 0:20:29that it would go on to become the blueprint for all steam engines
0:20:29 > 0:20:32for the next 130 years.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34That's how good it was.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39With all the elements now in place,
0:20:39 > 0:20:46the scene was set for the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway on September 15th 1830.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49Tens of thousands lined the streets
0:20:49 > 0:20:55to see The Rocket and seven other engines speed their way between the two cities.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59The railway was immediately wildly successful,
0:20:59 > 0:21:01and changed Britain for ever.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04It inspired a nationwide thirst for travel
0:21:04 > 0:21:06that led to a frenzy of rail construction,
0:21:06 > 0:21:11connecting the whole of Britain for the first time in its history.
0:21:11 > 0:21:16And it would make George and Robert Stephenson world famous
0:21:16 > 0:21:20as the men who had not only built the Liverpool and Manchester,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22but designed The Rocket, too.
0:21:22 > 0:21:27George was right, he did do something to "astonish all England",
0:21:27 > 0:21:29but the railways did more than that.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32They went on to open up the entire world.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44During the middle of the 19th century,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47railways began to multiply across the whole country,
0:21:47 > 0:21:51an engineering boom the like of which the world had never seen before.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55This was the beginning of a truly national network,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59as railway lines spread like arteries across the country,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02the same lines that are still used to this day.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06At the heart of this network was London,
0:22:06 > 0:22:08at the time, the biggest city on the planet.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11In just a few years,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14the railways tore their way into the centre of the capital,
0:22:14 > 0:22:19and building in such an overcrowded city created some big problems.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Railways could be an incredibly destructive force.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27Just look at this huge canyon that's been carved through
0:22:27 > 0:22:30what used to be a heavily populated part of London.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32Whole streets ripped up to make way for the railways.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Predominantly working-class tenants, thousands of them,
0:22:38 > 0:22:43were thrown out of here with no compensation, made homeless virtually overnight.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49Everyone was affected by the arrival of the railways,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53and the novels of the day were full of descriptions of their awesome force.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57As Charles Dickens wrote in Dombey And Son,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00"The power that forced itself upon its iron way,
0:23:00 > 0:23:04"defiant of all paths and roads,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07"piercing through the heart of every obstacle
0:23:07 > 0:23:09"and dragging living creatures
0:23:09 > 0:23:12"of all classes, ages and degrees behind it."
0:23:15 > 0:23:19Charles Dickens was obviously not a huge fan as the railways came
0:23:19 > 0:23:22smashing their way into London in the late 1830s,
0:23:22 > 0:23:26but linking the capital to the industrial north with an umbilical cord
0:23:26 > 0:23:30was the greatest prize, and it would prove a turning point.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33For the first time, cities the length
0:23:33 > 0:23:36and breadth of Britain were connected by rail.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40And this would give people opportunities that they had never had before.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49It's hard to imagine now, but so many things that we
0:23:49 > 0:23:53take for granted were first made possible by railways.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Goods and people could move around the country with ease.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Post could be delivered quickly.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04National newspapers could be read within hours of being printed,
0:24:04 > 0:24:06and people who had never left their own town
0:24:06 > 0:24:08could go on holiday for the first time.
0:24:10 > 0:24:16Railways brought the country and the world closer together, creating a modern society,
0:24:16 > 0:24:20and giving us new ways to work,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24to spend our free time, even new ways to eat.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30What the railways did was create a national market for food.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34Suddenly salmon caught in Scotland or fish caught on the east coast
0:24:34 > 0:24:37could be eaten in London fresh on the day they were bought.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41And the same is true of fruit and veg.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45It was now coming into the city to the Covent Garden Market
0:24:45 > 0:24:48from as far away as Cheshire and the Channel Islands.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51Railways were creating a revolution in what people ate.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00Our towns were being transformed, too.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02Before the railways, if people wanted milk,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05they had to keep a cow in their garden.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08But railways meant that fresh milk could be brought into the city
0:25:08 > 0:25:10quickly, before it had gone sour.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16Express dairies brought so much in from Berkshire and Wiltshire
0:25:16 > 0:25:19that these areas became known as the Milky Way.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21Cows disappeared from our towns.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31And the streets were no longer full of sheep being brought to market.
0:25:33 > 0:25:37Before the rail network, farmers had to walk the beasts to market.
0:25:37 > 0:25:38Go on, girls!
0:25:40 > 0:25:44Nearly 200,000 sheep made the trek every year from Lincolnshire
0:25:44 > 0:25:48to London, a distance of over 100 miles.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Not only did the journey take nearly a week, but they lost
0:25:52 > 0:25:57so much weight during it, they were worth a lot less on the meat market.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00So it was happy days for the farmers when they could get their
0:26:00 > 0:26:04fattened beasts into the city on the trains in less than a day.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13Shopping was getting better, too.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18Now you could easily get straw hats from Luton, cutlery from Sheffield,
0:26:18 > 0:26:21gloves from Worcester, chocolate from Bournville
0:26:21 > 0:26:22and beer from Burton.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27Clever entrepreneurs who have now become household names
0:26:27 > 0:26:30quickly spotted the new opportunities.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34A publisher named William Henry Smith realised that every
0:26:34 > 0:26:36long journey needed a good book,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39and quickly secured the right to have bookstalls at all of the stations.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46He named the shops after himself - WHSmith.
0:26:50 > 0:26:52They were incredibly successful.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56Within 15 years there were 500 shops, and Smith was a millionaire.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03And WHSmith isn't the only famous high street name that grew
0:27:03 > 0:27:05alongside the railways.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09Thomas Cook himself was an early marketing genius
0:27:09 > 0:27:13who was instrumental in opening up real travel to the working classes.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16He popularised excursion trains, which would offer
0:27:16 > 0:27:19cheap and cheerful days out on the train for people,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22many of whom had never been away from home before.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31These excursions were like EasyJet for the Victorians.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33The trains would have been packed, they would have been rowdy,
0:27:33 > 0:27:37but they were cheap. They opened up the country to the poor.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40Places that would have seemed impossibly far away were now
0:27:40 > 0:27:42accessible in just a day trip.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46Imagine people leaving the towns and cities of Britain
0:27:46 > 0:27:49and seeing the sea for the first time in their lives.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56Victorian journalists wrote that before the railways,
0:27:56 > 0:28:01the Brits were ignorant of their own country as they were of the moon.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03Not any more.
0:28:03 > 0:28:04TRAIN WHISTLES
0:28:13 > 0:28:20On one trip, 24,000 people went by rail between Glasgow and Paisley to see the horse races,
0:28:20 > 0:28:25and Manchester emptied out in August as 200,000 people left
0:28:25 > 0:28:27the industrial grime for their holiday week.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38Cheap excursions were being offered at a quarter of the price
0:28:38 > 0:28:41of ordinary fares, and they snapped up the tickets.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54Britain's expanding population was enjoying a new experience -
0:28:54 > 0:28:56leisure time.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Railways can even be credited with the popularisation
0:29:15 > 0:29:19of perhaps our biggest national obsession - football.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28# Championes, championes
0:29:28 > 0:29:30# Ole, ole, ole! #
0:29:30 > 0:29:33As early as 1892,
0:29:33 > 0:29:37a newspaper article appeared which recalled the new football mania,
0:29:37 > 0:29:41describing this phenomenon of groups of youths and young men
0:29:41 > 0:29:44travelling to "fields of combat" 50, 100 miles away
0:29:44 > 0:29:47from their homes to watch football, and already, complaints about
0:29:47 > 0:29:51how rowdy and noisy trains and their stations were getting.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55Come on, City! Come on, City!
0:29:55 > 0:30:00In no time, attendances at major football games rocketed.
0:30:01 > 0:30:08In 1872, the first FA Cup final was watched by just 2,000 spectators.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14Less than 20 years later, the 1901 final drew an estimated crowd
0:30:14 > 0:30:20of 114,000, the majority of whom arrived at Crystal Palace by train.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35Football, food, books, holidays.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38Railways helped to transform our daily lives.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44But this was more than just changing our habits.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46They even changed the way we think.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52TRAIN WHISTLE
0:30:52 > 0:30:56Nowadays, we expect to travel wherever, whenever.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59And to go at speed.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04And all our modern inventions are designed to increase that speed.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09That all began with the steam locomotives and the metal tracks.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13Railways changed the way that we live but, more importantly,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16they created the modern state of mind.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35Railways are everywhere,
0:31:35 > 0:31:39so much a part of our daily lives, that it's easy to forget just
0:31:39 > 0:31:42what incredible pieces of engineering they are.
0:31:43 > 0:31:47But how on earth do you actually go about building a railway?
0:31:47 > 0:31:52Who builds it? And how would you go about doing it nearly two centuries ago,
0:31:52 > 0:31:55without many of the tools that we rely on today?
0:31:56 > 0:32:01The answer is through a remarkable combination of engineering genius,
0:32:01 > 0:32:05a determined and skilled workforce and sheer strength.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10Take the London to Birmingham line,
0:32:10 > 0:32:14one of the most extraordinary achievements in our history.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21It was 112 miles long...
0:32:22 > 0:32:27..and it required eight tunnels, 150 bridges, five viaducts
0:32:27 > 0:32:29and ten stations.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40The Victorians viewed the London to Birmingham line as an achievement
0:32:40 > 0:32:43on par with the building of the pyramids, and at the time,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46it was one of the greatest civil engineering projects
0:32:46 > 0:32:48in human history.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55It was designed by Robert Stephenson,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58son of the celebrated engineer, George.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01It would make him one of the most famous men of the railway age,
0:33:01 > 0:33:04and it was truly a remarkable feat.
0:33:09 > 0:33:10It was incredibly challenging.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12I mean, take this ridge
0:33:12 > 0:33:14here in Northamptonshire near the village of Kilsby.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17Stephenson needed to drill a tunnel through this ridge.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20The trouble is, it's composed mainly of quicksand,
0:33:20 > 0:33:22and he had terrible problems with flooding.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26It took Stephenson two years to get this tunnel built.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32After Stephenson had pumped out all of the water,
0:33:32 > 0:33:34he had another problem to tackle.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39One that no engineer had ever encountered before.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46Stephenson's final act of genius at Kilsby is right here.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49That might look like a castle, but in fact,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52it's the top of a ventilation shaft, just one of several
0:33:52 > 0:33:55which was used to allow the smoke from the locomotives to escape.
0:33:55 > 0:34:00When Stephenson mooted the idea of this tunnel, over a mile long,
0:34:00 > 0:34:03people were appalled. They thought they'd suffocate. But Stephenson...
0:34:03 > 0:34:06You can hear the train now, it's still in use today.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09Stephenson believed that these would allow the smoke to escape
0:34:09 > 0:34:11and the tunnel would be safe to use.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13No wonder, after it was built, he marched through
0:34:13 > 0:34:17the tunnel at the head of a brass band.
0:34:17 > 0:34:22For me, these show just how far nature was being tamed by the railways.
0:34:22 > 0:34:27Hills were being mined and blasted, valleys were being bridged.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30Nothing could stand in their way.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34TRAIN WHISTLE
0:34:37 > 0:34:39Across the country, the story was the same.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48Embankments, cuttings, hundreds of tunnels, thousands of bridges.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52Stephenson and his fellow railway engineers found ways to
0:34:52 > 0:34:56overcome the giant problems posed by railway building.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01But despite the genius of these engineers,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04it was another breed of men who were responsible
0:35:04 > 0:35:08for the actual building of the entire railway network.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13These men were skilled builders
0:35:13 > 0:35:16with staggering levels of strength and endurance.
0:35:20 > 0:35:22They were called navvies,
0:35:22 > 0:35:26and they were the unsung heroes of the railways.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29How do you become a navvy? Is it a sought-after job?
0:35:29 > 0:35:33A man would look at you, he'd size you up pretty quick to see
0:35:33 > 0:35:35if you'd done labouring work,
0:35:35 > 0:35:37and he'd maybe have a look at your boots to see
0:35:37 > 0:35:40if they had muck on them, so you'd been working fairly recently.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44They said it took a year to turn a farm labourer into a navvy,
0:35:44 > 0:35:46but when you were good at it, you were really at
0:35:46 > 0:35:50the cutting edge of the labour force of the Industrial Revolution.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58I'm going flat out. I don't think I can continue this more than an hour.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00This is sprint pace.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08It was said that a navvy could shift 20 tonnes of muck a day.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12That meant a single man could fill all these skips
0:36:12 > 0:36:15every day, for weeks on end.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18So what would my life be like if I was a navvy?
0:36:18 > 0:36:21Where would I be living and what sort of conditions would it all be?
0:36:21 > 0:36:23Away from the towns, up on the moors,
0:36:23 > 0:36:28if you were lucky, there might be some kind of shacks knocked up by the contractor.
0:36:28 > 0:36:33If not, you'd dig out topsoil, build up sod walls
0:36:33 > 0:36:36and a bit of a roof on it, and that'd be it.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39So, you had to pay them a fair wage.
0:36:39 > 0:36:40No.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44You had to pay them as always.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46What you could get away with.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53BELL TOLLS
0:36:57 > 0:37:01This is Woodhead in the Cheshire Pennines.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05Nowhere is there a better example of the horrendous conditions
0:37:05 > 0:37:07that navvies had to endure.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09Digging the tunnel here took six years
0:37:09 > 0:37:13and cost the lives of more navvies than any other dig in Britain.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19Here at the parish church of St James,
0:37:19 > 0:37:22we know that something like 26 navvies were buried here,
0:37:22 > 0:37:25but not in the graveyard, but in this field next to it.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28Over 30 navvies were killed during the building of this tunnel,
0:37:28 > 0:37:33many, many more were wounded, lacerated, crippled for life.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36The ones buried here, we have a record in the parish register.
0:37:36 > 0:37:41We've got John Young, who was killed on the railway, he was aged 59.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45John Thorpe, killed on the railway, 24 years old,
0:37:45 > 0:37:48then four days later, what appears to be another John Thorpe,
0:37:48 > 0:37:51probably his son, who dies as an infant.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58And now they lie here in unmarked graves beneath this field.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02It's not much of a monument to the men who made modern Britain.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09This story is just one of many.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12In fact, the history of Britain's railways is littered
0:38:12 > 0:38:16with tales of navvies working in brutal conditions.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20There were hundreds of navvy deaths, whether from accidents,
0:38:20 > 0:38:23overwork, disease or alcoholism.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28But despite such horrendous conditions,
0:38:28 > 0:38:32by the end of the 19th century, millions of these navvies
0:38:32 > 0:38:36would gouge and blast 20,000 miles of railways,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40the equivalent of going to Australia and back.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44Today, much of our railway system is the same as it was
0:38:44 > 0:38:48when the engineers and navvies built it well over a century ago.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58We use the same bridges, the same tunnels and even the same lines.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01So next time you take a train,
0:39:01 > 0:39:04think about the incredible levels of effort required to build
0:39:04 > 0:39:08this system, and about the men who made it happen.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd