The Passion of a Lifetime Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain

Over a period of 40 years, Fred Dibnah demolished 89 chimneys.

His 90th, at the former Park Mill in Royton near Oldham, was to be his last.

It's the end of an era for Royton's textile industry and for Fred.

But being Fred, he's got a new idea.

My steeplejacking days are nearly over with,

there's not many big chimneys like this left to knock down.

They keep coming, but not quite as frequent.

This will enable me to do lots of things that I've always wanted to do.

Now, after 27 years, my tractor's finished.

I intend doing a grand tour of Great Britain, meeting interesting people who do interesting things.

This series follows Fred Dibnah

on the journey he made round Britain on his traction engine.

It was a journey in which he went in search of the skills and technology

that made it possible to build an engine like this in the first place.

It was to be his last, because, by the time he set out,

Fred knew that the cancer he'd been suffering from for nearly three years, was incurable.

This series is a record of Fred achieving his last great ambition.

WHISTLE TOOTS

Fred's engine is a 1912 Aveling & Porter convertible tractor.

On it, he toured the length and breadth of Britain under the power of steam,

to celebrate the achievements of the engineers and industrial workers,

whose endeavours made engines like this possible.

It was a journey that took him to places like ancient iron foundries and boiler works,

where skills that were once very common have now all but disappeared,

and to little workshops where things are still made today just as they were 100 years ago.

Getting around the country under the power of steam wasn't easy.

What are you doing?

An engine like this wasn't designed to be driven in modern-day traffic.

When these engines were made, the traction engine was king of the road.

Everything got out of the way.

As time's gone by,

you've got to be on your toes because they don't stop quick.

You need a yard or two to stop.

A lot of people who own these things don't go on the road.

They're scared to get amongst the modern traffic.

It was a journey full of ups and downs.

Whatever the problems they faced, they made it.

They achieved a few notable firsts along the way, like crossing the Forth Road Bridge,

the first time this had been done by a traction engine under its own steam.

The highlight of the tour was a trip to London.

Fred had been honoured with an MBE for his services to industrial heritage and broadcasting.

He was going to go to the Palace to collect it on the engine.

In some ways, this journey is a celebration of finishing off my tractor

and of Britain's great industrial past.

When I bought it, 27 years ago,

I didn't really think it would take as many years at it's done.

I'll give you 2003 for it.

We're getting nearer now.

The original were rotten.

It were all rusty, and the rivets were pointed. I started off by making a new boiler barrel.

-I

-didn't roll the plate, but I did all the riveting.

You know, all the hole boring and the rivets.

How are we going to manage paying for all the bits and pieces?.

We'll manage. We managed before without, didn't we? No more holidays.

We've never had any!

Fred made nearly all the parts for the engine himself, which is one of the reasons it all took him so long.

Everything were going very well, but with six rivets to do where the barrel goes into the throat plate,

a horrible crack appeared in-between four rivet holes

and this has been caused by expanding and contracting in all them years.

'It meant that we'd got to make a new one which were quite a feat.'

By this time, Fred had a lot of friends helping him.

Once the new throat-plate was made, progress was rapid.

All locomotives and traction engines have all been made by belt-driven machinery.

I should imagine they had their first year of disasters.

This is fully automatic. There's only one difference between this

and the most modern, state-of-the-art thing -

this works off sticks.

The only awkward bit's sawing it up to make it fit in the boiler.

It's nice to know that you've done it by burning sticks!

We've got to the undercoat stage.

Amongst the friends who helped were Alf Molyneux and Jimmy Crooks, both retired miners.

There won't be much room for you in here, Fred, when I'm driving this.

-You what?

-THEY LAUGH

-Oh, this is nice on this side.

-That's nice and smooth.

-Yeah, that's lovely, innit?

-It's nice that we're now getting to this stage.

-Right, I'll go and put the kettle on.

-That's the best idea you've had all day.

I got involved with this... We got talking about pits and he said,

"I've got a pit-head in the back garden."

I said I'd like to see that, being an ex-miner.

I came to have a look and I came on the day when he needed a bit of muscle power on t'traction engine.

He said, "Can you give us a lift with this?"

That were it, I were trapped.

That was it.

He reckons now, I'm his expert stay-knocker.

-What's the word for that? I'm your stay-knocker now, aren't I?

-Oh, aye, yeah.

Where can I put this bloody thing?

-Will it fit on there?

-I've got mine.

-Who's made these?

-Me.

-Looks like there's more in the tray than in the cup.

It was a bit heavy for me.

Finally, after a lot more brews, it's the big day.

Is the engine going to work?

Whoa!

This is it. Here we go. Handle forward, regulator open.

Nothing happens. Wait a minute...

ENGINE CHUFFS

-Like a Rolls Royce.

-One or two knocks but nothing terrible.

Magic.

It's been a long, hard 27 years.

Every time, there were some unforeseen disaster.

I'm not the only guy doing this, there's dozens of them all over England in little sheds,

trying hard with very little money.

In my opinion, instead of giving it to these men with the tight trousers who dance on stage,

they should give a bit to the lads who are mending traction engines,

because they're an unbelievable tourist attraction.

There's a guy in Dorset that has I don't know how many million people

come every year to a Traction Engine Rally from all over t'Continent.

If you've never been to one before, it IS, like, a nice day out.

So why had it taken so long?

If I had an electric motor instead of a steam engine, driving my machinery,

it would be a year or two less than 20 years.

As soon as you light fires in boilers,

they've this fatal attraction for people who just come from nowhere.

And you can't stop talking, can you? You've got to talk to them.

So I would say half the 27 years has been taken up with talking

and not doing the job.

WHISTLE MAKES LONG, SWOOPING NOTES

But finally, in spite of all the interruptions, the great day has arrived.

The engine is ready to go out onto the road for the first time.

Before we set off on this journey,

I want to do a few road tests with it around the local area,

and visit people who have helped me

with machining and engineering the bits that I couldn't do myself.

It should be good fun.

This young man with the red hair is my eldest lad Jack.

He doesn't live here, but he likes coming here to help me.

He's very keen on the world of steam.

He lives in the Isle of Man and well in with a railway job there.

He likes coming here and helping me with my traction engines and steam engines.

He's not got his flat cap on.

Come on, we'll get on with it and then we can get it out of t'shed.

Tighten it up.

An engine like this cannot be moved until it's steamed up.

But even now, there's a problem.

Bloody stupid thing.

While you're getting that steam up,

I'll take that pump off and I'll check it on the floor.

That Land Rover - thing has never been any good since I got it.

We just have one disaster after another at very important times,

never when it don't matter.

T'other day, I went out and it conked out on me miles out of town.

I ended up walking home.

Getting a traction engine out on the road isn't like getting your car out of the drive.

Get that red thing away and hide it somewhere.

There's hours of preparation involved.

Being a traction engine driver, weren't an easy business.

It weren't just a matter of climbing on and setting off down the road.

There's a lot of preparation before the thing even moves.

You've got to procure the sticks and an oily rag

and get the fire lit, make sure there's enough water in the boiler.

If there's no water in the boiler, you're in trouble.

You seem to go round with the oil can.

There's dozens of oiling points.

The whole procedure took a couple of hours before you set off.

I can't think of anybody who's done it any quicker.

Two hours later...

Driving the traction engine is a simple thing.

There's very important things you've got to watch, like the water level in the boiler.

If you're a beginner, and you've put in for your driving test on the traction engine,

the man who comes to do the test is happy as long as you can get round the corner,

do a three-point turn and stop the thing. There's a lot more to it than that.

They don't ask you what you'd do if the water disappears out of the bottom of the glass.

It's very important, because a steam boiler is basically a bomb.

This means that it's vital that it's kept full of water.

Once they set off, this is something that's going to be a constant worry.

What are you doing?

The authorities turn a blind eye nowadays to stealing water from a fire hydrant.

-How do you know when it's full?

-When I get wet through.

In t'olden days, it were a serious business.

There weren't as many hydrants but there were a lot of horse troughs.

It was forbidden to put your sucker-pipe in a horse trough.

It's all new to me this.

I've never filled it up before.

I can't see it. It's somewhere down there.

It's there.

-I can't see anything.

-I

-can't see anything

At last, it's ready to set off.

To make it go...

is what's called the regulator.

It opens the steam valve that lets steam into the cylinders

or, in the case of the proper one - a car - lets petrol into the carburettor.

An internal combustion engine is a very feeble thing compared with the power of steam.

When he was building the engine, the local scrap-metal merchants provided a lot of the materials Fred needed.

Today, he's looking for a bar to make a driving pin for one of the wheels.

I'm on my way to see a scrap-metal dealing company, who have a fine set of weighing scales,

where we can put the engine on and weigh it to the last couple of ounces.

It's important you know how heavy the thing is.

When we get there, you never know what you're going to find.

We've come to have it weighed!

How heavy is it?

Nine kilos.

Eight tonne. Just over eight tonne.

That's all right.

I'll just go and see if there's a piece of three-inch bar in the yard.

If there is at piece, I'll come back and show it you like I normally do.

You'll wave to me through the window and then we'll disappear quick.

See you later. See you in a bit.

I'm looking for a piece of three-inch bar to make a driving pin

for the other rear wheel but there's nothing over there that's suitable.

It's like pot luck. You come in one day and you get something good.

You come for three weeks and there's nowt any good.

There's nowt any good today so we're off.

Stop here a minute. I want a packet of Polo Mints.

-What do you want? Polo mints?

-Aye.

So how is the boiler after a couple of miles of driving?

That's gone worse, this one's stopped.

Even that's not as bad as it looks.

Why is it that we steamed this boiler about 15 times when it were just a boiler...

and it didn't leak.

And we put it all together and now that it's together,

it's picked three places to leak what you can't get at.

They'll seal up, but it's annoying

when you think that we've had it once perfectly steam-tight and OK.

Next stop, the place where Fred got most of the copper and brass for the engine.

I've brought some of your brass back.

He's still short of some brass nuts.

-A fair machine.

-Oh, aye.

There's a lot of your brass.

I'll point a few bits out.

All the metal that these taps are made out of, all come out of this scrap yard.

All the lubricators, the nuts,

the metal that these are made out of come from here.

They were like sheet brass with paper on it.

There's a tap we get the washing water out of that's come from here.

Even these greasers come out of this scrap yard.

People throw away stuff that they think is never going to be of any use in the modern world.

People like me can put it to good use in the old world.

-It's nearly a new one.

-I can see that.

There's only that plate and that one and a bit of the back head

left of the original boiler. The rest is new.

We got a lot of other bits at home that've come from here, that we never got round to putting on.

I'll have all of England jealous if they see this. It's our secret...

you know, collection of jewels and everything splendid.

All this steam stuff.

I'll go and do the bartering.

We've had a maiden voyage now which has gone quite well. I'm pleased.

There are some odds and sods that need seeing to and then it'll be ready for the world tour, I think.

Today has been 99% successful.

The leaks are a bit worrying,

-but it isn't that serious.

-A long 27 years, Fred.

There were some days that I thought I'd never see it. But I've done it.

It's finished.

It's not finished but...

it's running.

All t'birds are singing, everything's going right for us.

Time now for some last-minute preparations.

No living-van can go out on the road without a touch of the signwriter's artistry.

And there are plenty of little jobs to keep everybody else busy.

I'm cleaning t'smoke tubes out.

They get full of a soot, and you've got to keep them clean

or else you lose all your efficiency.

It's one of them jobs you have to do regular, that's all.

Is there any bristles left on that?

-No. That's the last one.

-All t'bristles have come off.

-That's the last one.

-All right, then.

-That do?

-Yeah! We've got...

-We've got our long-vehicle thing now, so come and give us a lift and hold it in position...

-Right.

..while I mark where the screw-holes are.

If you would help hold it up, I'll mark where we want the holes

and then will you take it down and drill it?

We need about eight in here, don't we? Make it look summat presentable.

Is it...horizontal?

-You mean level.

-FRED LAUGHS Yeah, level.

Hang on, we could do with a ruler couldn't we?

-You can still mark your holes, can't you?

-Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Is that right, is it level?

-I believe that's level.

-Jimmy's in charge of the pencil.

Hold it there and let me have a look from up there.

I think it'll do, that.

There's still plenty of testing to do and there's still a few scares for Fred.

Ah, we've got some steam coming from underneath the wagon on the cylinder-block, which shouldn't be.

It could be one or two things - a crack in a cylinder-block, which is disastrous...

-CONSTANT, LOUD HISS

-..or water that's accumulated on a ledge when we hydraulic-tested it.

I've been frightened like this before, when I were a beginner.

All the lagging round the boiler, when you've do a hydraulic test, all the steam coming out everywhere,

it's all the bloody water trapped inside the lagging been turned into steam by heat from the boiler.

I'm going to lift up the lagging...

-HISSING SUBSIDES

-It's almost stopped. ..and we can see where that steams coming from.

If it's coming out of a hole, we're in trouble.

Somebody with asbestos fingers has got to shove that rag in there.

-It's hot.

-YEAH, I know it's hot. You're bad news with them gloves on.

-You'll burn yourself. Shove all the rag in. That's it.

-OK.

-Have you got another piece of rag?

-That's t'best rag we've got and we're ruining it.

-Hey, no, that's our towel!

-< LAUGHTER

-You can't do that.

-How are we going to dry our hands at dinner time? It's a' reet now. It's all gone.

-You're sure?

Yeah. ..It's...

It's a false alarm.

There's no leak. The steam was coming from water that had accumulated under the boiler.

Time for more road tests. And now it's Alf's turn.

We've now got it on t'road. It's beautiful and it's an achievement.

A bit more love involved because you've helped to put it together.

We're not losing any steam you know.

When you're steaming along the road,

and the roads are good and everybody is getting by you, you can relax. A bit like driving a canal boat.

The steering's very similar. A bit this way and a bit that way.

There's no signalling system on it.

You've got to hang outside and put your hand out like the olden days.

On this little trip, Fred's going to a local engineer's, where they machined the gears for the engine.

-Hello, Fred.

-Hiya. Get braked up... I've got to put t'brake on.

I've not quite used to this yet. I nearly drove it through t'next door neighbour's fence this morning.

-It's a credit to you, Fred.

-Thank you. Mick come to see me over there, you know.

He's not very free with his admiration words, is he?

-He never was.

-And he said it were "a good thing".

-What sort of speed d'you get out of it, Fred?

-This, we've had it up to 12mph this morning.

-THEY CHUCKLE

-It's quite early at that speed.

It don't stop!

With t'brake screwed on, it's still going!

All this lot here, Brian, here, did all of this.

On t'other side, there's a great big 'un.

The worn-out original one is still hiding in a corner in this engineering works.

Brian machined all the teeth off and we made it a shrink fit,

then we welded it as well, with a shaving off each side on top of the teeth,

Then we took it to put all the teeth on.

-Then the gear cutters went bankrupt, so we can't go there no more.

-They did that work for Fred for nothing(!)

No, I paid them. Ah, I paid YOU...

-..Did you? Oh, right(!) Bad memory, Fred.

-..two pints.

-Yeah.

We'll go and have a look at that wheel, we'll dig it out.

Them are big lumps, aren't they? Where did them come from?

-Sheffield.

-Have them been forged?

-Yeah.

When I think that when I got it all them years ago,

-the teeth were all like that on every wheel.

-They're really sharp, aren't they?

-Yeah, oh, yeah.

Yes. They must have lost three eighths of an inch off each side, that's worn away.

You can tell how many thousands of miles it must've done.

This sort of engineering was too big for Fred to do in his shed.

In this modern and advanced age, as they say it is that we live in,

it gets more and more difficult to find people who can DO work like this. It's incredible.

If I had to start again at the beginning, I'd be in trouble.

It's the reason we're still here, having these big lathes.

The smaller end of the business we've lost to countries like Taiwan.

-Them as have got one in a shed in t'back yard.

-They won't fit in your shed, Fred.

-I know.

All the people who've helped me, that have done various bits of machining for me,

they've nearly all gone.

That's why Fred's aiming to find some of these places before they all disappear.

Before they can set out on the grand tour, there's one more hurdle to overcome -

the boiler test.

There's the usual, and them blobs that were coming out when we hydraulic-ed it.

-There, see. You can't get at it.

-We need to make sure it seals up.

Give it a dose of Quaker oats or summat like that and see what happens.

-You're almost up to pressure now.

-Yeah.

-We just have to set the safeties to 150.

-Just get it to feather, first, Fred.

-Yeah.

About 145 now, so if you just get it to lift...

-It's coming now.

-VERY LOUD HISS

Just leave it like that for a second...

Fred's adjusting the safety valves

so they lift at the correct pressure, about 150psi.

One's sticking a little bit at the moment, so we're having to adjust a bit more.

We'll bring the pressure down below 150, then raise the pressure again

so they're lifting at the correct pressure

Yeah... I'm happy with those, Fred.

Malcolm's last job is to have a look at the front shoe-plate

to see there's no water fizzing out of it.

-There's nothing there, Fred.

-healthy.

-That's OK.

There's no leaks at all there. That completes it.

If you do those small alterations, it should be all right. I'll be able to sign you off.

DOUBLE TOOT FRED CHUCKLES

So they're ready for the road.

And Alf can't wait to get started.

Aye, I'm on this holiday with him. He's invited me to accompany him.

That'll be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I'm really looking forward to that.

-'I'm the steersman!'

-ALF LAUGHS

I've no doubt he'll show me how to drive the thing properly(!)

Of course, I'll have a running commentary off Fred.

I'm really looking forward to that. That'll be something else, that.

Next, they finally manage to set out on their grand tour...

but not without a bit of trouble getting the living-van out of the drive

as they set off for an open-cast mine to stock up with the coal they need for their journey.

Subtitles by BBC Broadcast - 2005 E-mail us at [email protected]