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.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44Evercreech Junction, Somerset.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47It was to be the Clapham Junction of the west,
0:00:47 > 0:00:49the place where one line branched away to Bath
0:00:49 > 0:00:52and collared the Midland trade,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56and the mainline ran to Highbridge and collared the coal from Cardiff.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00That Pickwickian figure in the frightful hat
0:01:00 > 0:01:04is, I'm sorry to say, me, talking to the station master.
0:01:04 > 0:01:10But a station master's life - that's something worth living.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13And you can see why Evercreech Junction
0:01:13 > 0:01:17wins the prizes for flowers and tidiness.
0:01:22 > 0:01:29The level crossing gates are worked from the signal box,
0:01:29 > 0:01:34and here comes the 12.32 from Sturminster Newton
0:01:34 > 0:01:37on her way to Bath, calling at Evercreech Junction,
0:01:37 > 0:01:43change for Glastonbury, Shapwick and stations to Highbridge.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51And as we say goodbye to the station master,
0:01:51 > 0:01:55please notice that on expenses, I'm travelling first.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05Forget motor cars, get rid of anxiety.
0:02:09 > 0:02:15And here, to the rhythm of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway,
0:02:15 > 0:02:20dream again that ambitious Victorian dream
0:02:20 > 0:02:23which caused this long railway still to be running
0:02:23 > 0:02:31through deepest, quietest, flattest, remotest, least spoiled Somerset.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36This is the line we'll be travelling on.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41Once it was part of a grand scheme to unite Wales and the South West,
0:02:41 > 0:02:46and even to stretch to France. The scheme failed,
0:02:46 > 0:02:49and the mainline went along there on the right
0:02:49 > 0:02:54to Bath and the Midlands, and here's our own bit of line,
0:02:54 > 0:02:56reduced to a branch,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00and even that has lost its twigs to Wells and Bridgwater.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22The Great Western was the first friend
0:03:22 > 0:03:26the Somerset Central ever had,
0:03:26 > 0:03:31and it's the Somerset Central Line we're travelling now.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34It's rather a relief to be drawn by steam
0:03:34 > 0:03:36through this uneventful countryside,
0:03:36 > 0:03:42and just to hear the noises we knew as children.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44It's the sad road to the sea.
0:03:46 > 0:03:52West Pennard station, built of the local limestone.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56One of the reasons why the Great Western liked this line
0:03:56 > 0:04:00a century ago was because it was also broad gauge,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02like the Great Western used to be.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08Oh, by the way, there's Glastonbury Tor and how nice to see it
0:04:08 > 0:04:11without a foreground of villas and petrol stations.
0:04:15 > 0:04:20In a second or two, you'll find we come to a broad bridge
0:04:20 > 0:04:23and as you look through it,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27you can see how the track was once broad for broad gauge.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Glastonbury Station.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40I suppose the promoters of the Somerset and Dorset
0:04:40 > 0:04:45hoped that this place was going to become a vast industrial town.
0:04:45 > 0:04:50STATION MASTER: Glastonbury. Glastonbury. Glastonbury.
0:04:50 > 0:04:55JOHN: As the train, when it stops, waits here for two minutes,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58I always like to get out and have a look.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02There's always something to see in a railway station.
0:05:02 > 0:05:04Let's have a look at the waiting room.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07Gaslight...
0:05:08 > 0:05:11..solid furniture,
0:05:11 > 0:05:16Georgian tradition carried on into Victorian times.
0:05:18 > 0:05:19TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:05:26 > 0:05:30I say, I hope you're enjoying this journey as much as I am.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34You really see much more country once you've got out
0:05:34 > 0:05:38of the railway station from a train than ever you do from a motor car.
0:05:38 > 0:05:43No hoardings, no road signs, no lorries in front of you,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46and no neurotics hooting behind you.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48This is Sedgemoor.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52Do you remember Hardy's poem The Trampwoman's Tragedy?
0:05:52 > 0:05:55It's written to a sort of railway metre and it fits here.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58"From Wynyard's Gap the livelong day,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00"The livelong day,
0:06:00 > 0:06:02"We beat afoot the northward way
0:06:02 > 0:06:05"We had travelled times before.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08"The sun-blaze burning on our backs,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11"Our shoulders sticking to our packs,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14"By fosseway, fields, and turnpike tracks
0:06:14 > 0:06:17"We skirted sad Sedge-Moor.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21"For months we'd padded side by side,
0:06:21 > 0:06:23"Ay, side by side
0:06:23 > 0:06:27"Through the Great Forest, Blackmoor wide,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30"And where the Parret ran.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34"We'd faced the gusts on Mendip ridge,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37"Had crossed the Yeo unhelped by bridge,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40"Been stung by every Marshwood midge,
0:06:40 > 0:06:42"I and my fancy-man."
0:06:48 > 0:06:54This quiet part of Somerset has got its industries besides farming -
0:06:54 > 0:06:58cutting withies for basket making
0:06:58 > 0:07:03and the railway carries a lot of the peat which is cut on Sedgemoor.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07The villages are a long way from the station.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11This is the village of Shapwick, grey limestone.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14I suppose they hoped there'd be houses
0:07:14 > 0:07:19all along the road from the village to the station two miles off.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23And at Edington Burtle,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26they built a railway hotel by the station.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30I suppose they thought you'd need a rest before the walk to the village.
0:07:50 > 0:07:55Go away, you brute, you enemy of railways and comfortable travel.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09You know, I'm not just being nostalgic and sentimental
0:08:09 > 0:08:12and unpractical about railways.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17Railways are bound to be used again.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19They're not a thing of the past,
0:08:19 > 0:08:23and it's heartbreaking to see them left to rot
0:08:23 > 0:08:27and to see the fine men who served them all their lives
0:08:27 > 0:08:31made uncertain about their own futures and about their jobs.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36What's more, it's wrong in every way when we all of us know
0:08:36 > 0:08:40that road traffic is becoming increasingly hellish
0:08:40 > 0:08:44on this overcrowded island and that in ten years from now,
0:08:44 > 0:08:48there'll be three times as much traffic on English roads
0:08:48 > 0:08:50as there is today.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52What will the West Country be like then?
0:08:52 > 0:08:58How will we get anywhere in summer except by a railway?
0:08:58 > 0:09:03How will we see any country except from a train?
0:09:04 > 0:09:10I think it's more than likely that we'll deeply regret the branch lines
0:09:10 > 0:09:15we've torn up and the lines that we've let to go to rot.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17I mean, even in America,
0:09:17 > 0:09:22they're already building new suburban railway lines.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46Here's Highbridge, the end of the passenger line
0:09:46 > 0:09:51of the Somerset and Dorset, so I suppose I'd better get out.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01The old Somerset Central Railway,
0:10:01 > 0:10:05which later became the Somerset and Dorset Joint,
0:10:05 > 0:10:11started here on its long journey to the English Channel in 1852.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17And Highbridge is a piece of railway history.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21It's also a railway contrast. TRAIN HORN BLARES
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Come and see the older station - there it is,
0:10:24 > 0:10:27with a diesel hurrying through it to the west
0:10:27 > 0:10:30for Bridgwater and Exeter.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35One of Brunel's original stations
0:10:35 > 0:10:37with the broad eaves...
0:10:39 > 0:10:42..and the cut stone for the doorways and the windows.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Now, cross over the bridge...
0:10:53 > 0:10:54..and come and see
0:10:54 > 0:10:57the slightly younger station -
0:10:57 > 0:11:01Highbridge of the Somerset and Dorset Joint.
0:11:05 > 0:11:11You see, Highbridge was the Crewe of the old Somerset and Dorset,
0:11:11 > 0:11:15and there is the war memorial
0:11:15 > 0:11:22to the Somerset and Dorset men who fell in the 1914 war...
0:11:23 > 0:11:27..for this place was the headquarters of the line and I suppose
0:11:27 > 0:11:32that's why it is that the seats are rather special cast iron.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39If you want to see why it's the Crewe, come and look at the works.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41There they are.
0:11:41 > 0:11:47The turntable is still used for turning engines.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52That's an old Midland engine made in Derby.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59It used to turn that turntable, the blue S&D ones.
0:11:59 > 0:12:05The Midland owned the line when the Somerset and Dorset was given up
0:12:05 > 0:12:08and then the Great Western came on.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10By the way, what's that?
0:12:10 > 0:12:17Oh, yes, that's an old push and pull branch line GW car,
0:12:17 > 0:12:22smashed by Teds from Highbridge.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29Where did it go from, I wonder?
0:12:29 > 0:12:33Between Dawlish Warren, Starcross and Exeter,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36between Bourne End and Marlow,
0:12:36 > 0:12:41or Castle Bower Park Halt and Ealing Broadway,
0:12:41 > 0:12:47or was it on the Staines branch or the Uxbridge branch,
0:12:47 > 0:12:52and I wonder what city gents planned their holidays
0:12:52 > 0:12:59as they strap-hung and looked at these sepia photographs
0:12:59 > 0:13:01and wondered where to go.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06I can't tell you
0:13:06 > 0:13:11because this car's now been smashed to bits since I was there.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14People hate anything well made, you know.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16It gives them a guilty conscience.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27This was the carriage works.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35And here they made the S&D coaches, I can just remember them.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44Now let's go to the locoworks.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59That little tank engine was made here at Highbridge
0:13:59 > 0:14:01and given its royal blue livery.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07This shed is still used for maintenance work...
0:14:10 > 0:14:13..and there's a Great Western engine.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17The western region still runs the line.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19Oh, let's go inside this door if you can get in, yes.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25I wonder what they kept here.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Neem oil for the lamps, coupling rods...
0:14:35 > 0:14:38..or phosphor bronze?
0:14:38 > 0:14:42Well, it was all part of the family life of a friendly little railway
0:14:42 > 0:14:47of men who lived here in Highbridge in these brick terraces
0:14:47 > 0:14:51in a faded Swindon, a forgotten Crewe.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01I think you ought to see the goods side of the line.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04There's still a lot of goods traffic
0:15:04 > 0:15:07and that means the roads are that amount clearer.
0:15:09 > 0:15:10CLANKING
0:15:25 > 0:15:26CLANKING
0:15:57 > 0:16:00And if we go on a goods train, we can take a look at Pylle
0:16:00 > 0:16:03which was once a station and is now a halt,
0:16:03 > 0:16:05and with no-one to look after it.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15I doubt if there's a quieter, sadder sight in Somerset
0:16:15 > 0:16:22than Pylle when the train has left and it sinks back to silence.
0:16:45 > 0:16:46BIRDSONG
0:16:58 > 0:16:59BIRDSONG
0:17:11 > 0:17:16See the fringe of Sedgemoor from the footplate of a goods train.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27The line is single track,
0:17:27 > 0:17:33the driver hands a staff, which locks the points and signals, to a porter.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39Now the track behind us is secure.
0:17:54 > 0:17:55TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:18:15 > 0:18:19You remember I told you that the Great Western
0:18:19 > 0:18:23and the Somerset Central were friends a century ago
0:18:23 > 0:18:27when the line we're travelling on was first built?
0:18:31 > 0:18:35Well, now that we're coming in to Highbridge,
0:18:35 > 0:18:40you can see an extraordinary survival of that long friendship
0:18:40 > 0:18:46between two railways which were formerly broad gauge.
0:18:46 > 0:18:47The Great Western -
0:18:47 > 0:18:54there is its main line from Bristol to Exeter...
0:18:58 > 0:19:03..running through Highbridge Great Western station and there,
0:19:03 > 0:19:08right across that important main line, runs the little branch
0:19:08 > 0:19:11to Highbridge Wharf and Burnham-on-Sea
0:19:11 > 0:19:14of the Somerset and Dorset Joint.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21The line is used for goods only now,
0:19:21 > 0:19:26and we'll follow the goods train through the town of Highbridge
0:19:26 > 0:19:27to its lonely end.
0:19:44 > 0:19:49Regardless of roads and motor traffic,
0:19:49 > 0:19:56we'll cross the town and come to Highbridge Wharf.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13There it is - the place the Somerset and Dorset
0:20:13 > 0:20:17hoped to establish as an enormous port.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22Here were to be Welsh colliers from Cardiff and - who knows? -
0:20:22 > 0:20:28perhaps Somerset colliers taking Somerset coal to Wales,
0:20:28 > 0:20:34the rattle of cranes, the noise of shunting,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37goods trains puffing with heavy loads of coal
0:20:37 > 0:20:39for Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43This was to be the Barry of the South West.
0:20:45 > 0:20:50Up here somewhere is where the colliers and cargo boats
0:20:50 > 0:20:52were to unload.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55The hope was partly realised.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59That's what it's like now.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05Highbridge Wharf, your hopes have died.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08They flow like driftwood down the tide,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11out, out into the open sea,
0:21:11 > 0:21:16oh, sad forgotten S&D.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18Let's not be too mournful.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21There was still another hope of prosperity
0:21:21 > 0:21:24for this part of the Somerset and Dorset Railway -
0:21:24 > 0:21:26excursionists.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30In 1858, the little line to Burnham was opened
0:21:30 > 0:21:33and the station is still there.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35Huge crowds were expected,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39and it's worth looking at the station in some detail
0:21:39 > 0:21:43as an untouched example of early railway architecture.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48It's got a roof over it, like a big terminus.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51I couldn't get into the waiting rooms and the booking hall
0:21:51 > 0:21:53because they were locked.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57But the Southern Railway,
0:21:57 > 0:22:01which was one of the many companies that operated this line,
0:22:01 > 0:22:07renamed the place Burnham-on-Sea in a hope to attract railway traffic.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16The line still runs beyond the station out to meet the sea.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19There was a pier at the end for steamship passengers
0:22:19 > 0:22:21crossing the Bristol Channel.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26Welsh people after a holiday in Bournemouth
0:22:26 > 0:22:30could run merrily back to Wales, and vice-versa.
0:22:31 > 0:22:38Now all that remains is this and the gradient going down to the sea.
0:22:43 > 0:22:48The railway bought its own paddle steamer in 1884
0:22:48 > 0:22:55and in 1905, the Barry railway in Wales ran steamer excursions
0:22:55 > 0:23:00over here to Burnham - all gone, all gone.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05Transport more than anything changes a place.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08See how the railway changed Burnham.
0:23:08 > 0:23:09First, the Railway Hotel,
0:23:09 > 0:23:14then boarding houses of the 1880s, Bristol style,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18built with railway prosperity,
0:23:18 > 0:23:21and Victorian hotels on the seafront,
0:23:21 > 0:23:25and slap-up buildings along the seafront of Victorian times.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Signs out to attract the motorist of today.
0:23:39 > 0:23:45Villas for retired folk as permanent residences.
0:23:45 > 0:23:52In the side roads, houses where gofers lived in the 1920s
0:23:52 > 0:23:56and bungalows for our own age of the small car.
0:23:56 > 0:24:02Burnham with its shining sands was a Georgian town
0:24:02 > 0:24:04before the railway came. Let's have a look at it.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35It's a beautiful seaside place.
0:24:35 > 0:24:41The air on the sands and on the pier is like wine.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Burnham-on-Sea -
0:24:55 > 0:25:01the Somerset and Dorset railway brought you prosperity a century ago.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04Burnham-on-Sea -
0:25:04 > 0:25:09in ten years' time, when the roads are so full of traffic,
0:25:09 > 0:25:12we'll all be going by train again,
0:25:12 > 0:25:17you'll be grateful you still have a railway to your town.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Don't let Dr Beeching take it away from you.