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Britain's Railway Empire in Colour Season 1 Episode 2
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00:00200 years ago Britain gave railways to the world nobody had seen anything going that fast they
00:11were like the rockets of their day and the drivers were kind of like the astronauts railways unleashed
00:17a new era the noise the smell the heat it's not just a machine transforming lives and landscapes
00:28railway builders in Africa faced a whole new set of dangers the Empire and the world became connected
00:37bringing both unity and division bullets are flying shells are bursting and yet they manage to clear the
00:46line hundreds of black and white photographs and reels of film survive from those game-changing
00:54years now using the latest technology to transform rarely seen images and restore sharpen and repair
01:03priceless damaged film the railways come to life oh wow that's gorgeous everything is so gleaming
01:15this is the often surprising story of how a combination of ambitious engineering I hope I
01:21don't slip trailblazers and risk-takers changed Britain and the world the railways were just the
01:33most efficient form of transport it's just something that's found its way everywhere I feel proud that
01:40it's come from Britain by the end of the 19th century railways had reshaped British society culture and the
02:00very pace of life travel on the country's vast and intricate rail network was part of the daily routine
02:09everyone was touched in some way by the whole railway revolution and almost everyone traveled by
02:20train all ages all classes from the humble clerk to the factory owner Britain boasted over 60 locomotive
02:30manufacturers most of their sales were overseas passengers across the Empire traveled in trains made in
02:38cities like Glasgow Leeds and Manchester these engines could cope with almost any terrain and weather
02:46locomotive technology is very flexible once you get that fire going it enables you to travel in all
02:58temperatures and all circumstances but there were still some parts of the world that had yet to greet the
03:05railway age large tracts of Australia because of its vast size hadn't seen the benefits of rail since the 1840s
03:20Australians relied on an older form of transport to carry goods over long distances before the railways were
03:31built over 20,000 camels were imported from India and the Middle East along with 2,000 handlers to carry heavy goods across the harsh
03:42Australian landscape there had been calls for a rail line to link East and West since the 1880s as the country
03:51unified politically these calls became more urgent when Australia became a Federation in 1901 one of the promises made to Western Australia
04:00Australia in order to make it join the Union was the construction of a railway linking it with the states in the east
04:07now it would be a treacherous route across miles and miles of arid desert
04:14finally in 1912 work began on a route to link Port Augusta with Kalgoorlie the locos would be mostly British built but the construction was an Aussie enterprise it would become known as the Trans-Australian Railway
04:31there is surviving footage of the building of this railway and it shows this real mixture of old and new technologies because on one hand you've got men using camels to plow the ground where the new line is going to go
04:44and then along comes this really modern track laying machine that can lay over 2 miles every day
04:51the engineer in charge said it was often so hot it was impossible to even write as the ink dried in his pen
05:01it took five years two and a half million wooden sleepers and a hundred and forty thousand tons of rails
05:13the last railway spike was hammered into place on the 17th of October 1917
05:24the spectacular Trans-Australian Railway was complete
05:28it boosted the nation's economy improved communication and unified the continent
05:35although the railways brought prosperity rail travel could be hazardous as the British knew all too well
05:46in February 1901 young apprentices at the Eastleigh railway works in Hampshire were asked to build an unusual model
05:54this is just a slice one compartment out of the centre of a carriage of compartments
06:01it's sort of Barbie and Ken or action man depending on your your sort of personal background
06:07the seats are upholstered with real maquette which is the material used
06:12there's luggage racks that are strung with tiny bits of string the windows move up and down
06:16there's even a smoking sign painted on the window
06:23apprentices often made models to showcase their skills
06:27but this one was different
06:29and it reveals just how much the train had changed society
06:33in January 1901 a woman named Rhoda King was travelling on a train from Southampton to London
06:44suddenly a passenger named George Parker shot the man sitting opposite her killing him instantly
06:51Rhoda said my god why did you do it
06:58Parker said bluntly he did it for money
07:03she manages to talk him down all the way into London where they pull into the station
07:08Parker flings open the door and tries to escape
07:12and he's sort of chased through the station into a nearby gas works and arrested
07:16the model was built to help the prosecution's case at trial
07:23the lawyers wanted the jury to be able to picture the scene of the crime
07:26I mean the case against Parker was pretty watertight
07:29but they didn't want to leave anything to chance
07:35the jury found George Parker guilty and soon after he was executed
07:41the public was gripped by the trial
07:44Rhoda King's ordeal tapped into a fascination and dread
07:48of one of the few places Victorians were forced to get up close and personal
07:54the railway compartment
07:57the big problem with compartments like this one
08:00is that there were no connecting corridors
08:02so you were trapped with whoever you boarded the train with
08:05if you got lucky it might be a nice person to have a chat with
08:07if you were unlucky you could fall victim to crime
08:10you were stuck together until you reach the next station
08:15it plays into anxieties not just about murderers
08:18but about those sort of intimacies of sharing space with strangers
08:27this new social setting provided perfect material for Victorian artists
08:32who loved to tell a compelling story
08:38this painting by Berthold Woltzer is called The Irritating Gentleman
08:44we see a very vulnerable young woman dressed in black
08:47she probably is in some kind of mourning
08:50but he's oblivious to that looming over her from behind
08:53clearly trying to strike up a conversation
08:55I think it perfectly captures that moment that maybe many of us
08:58have had on public transport
09:00where there is somebody who just insists on interacting with us
09:03but for a vulnerable woman like that in the 19th century
09:06this could be a very real threat
09:08and that's what this painting is capturing
09:13Some artists depicted railway compartments as a place
09:16not of threat but of romance
09:19this is Abraham Solomon's 1854 painting
09:25first class
09:26the meeting
09:27and at first meeting
09:29loved
09:31we are seeing a group of three figures
09:34a father who's slumped in the corner
09:37fast asleep
09:39his daughter presumably in the middle there
09:43and she's deep in conversation with
09:45a young man who's clearly paying her a lot of attention
09:51I think a painting like this looks quite old fashioned to us today
09:54but it would have been deeply shocking to people
09:57in the Victorian period
09:59because the daughter there is essentially unchaperoned
10:03her father is fast asleep in the corner
10:06out for the count
10:07he has no idea of the conversation that she's taking part in
10:12Solomon faced quite a bit of criticism for this painting
10:14and so he painted a new version
10:17where all of those problems are ironed out
10:20this time the father is awake
10:22and he's sat between the two young lovers
10:24policing their conversation in the proper Victorian way
10:29but by the end of the 19th century
10:31Victorians were less easily shocked
10:37pioneering British filmmakers saw the railway compartment
10:40as a place for brief illicit encounters
10:43no chaperone was required
10:47the very first of these was the popular comedy short
10:50from 1899
10:52The Kiss in the Tunnel
10:55the film opens with a shot of a train driving into a tunnel
10:59and clips like this were incredibly popular
11:01with early cinema audiences
11:02it was exciting enough just to imagine yourself
11:04on a moving train while sitting in a cinema
11:07but then this film does something new
11:09it cuts to a shot of an interior of a carriage
11:13a man and a woman are sitting opposite each other
11:16and it's not clear whether they know each other
11:20are they husband and wife?
11:21could they be strangers?
11:22pretty soon they get to know each other very well
11:25they start kissing not once but twice
11:32soon though the train is about to leave the tunnel
11:34and they resume what they were doing before
11:36reading a newspaper
11:37and kind of pretending to not even know each other
11:41and then we cut to the final shot
11:42as the train exits into the daylight
11:45although seeing the story on the big screen
11:48would have caused a buzz
11:50the plot itself was as old as the earliest passenger trains
11:55I've read stories in Victorian newspapers
11:57talking about the strange things that might go on in a tunnel
12:03stories of people playing practical jokes on each other
12:06or trying to frighten other passengers
12:09people planting a kiss on the lips of a stranger
12:11that they've been glancing at across the carriage
12:14there are even some apocryphal stories of Victorian women
12:17feeling that they would need to put pins or needles in their lips
12:20to potentially guard themselves against these kisses
12:24by the time the kiss in the tunnel hit British cinemas
12:33railways had been an agent of change for three quarters of a century
12:39but a new era was dawning
12:42the world was about to shape the railways
12:45control of the tracks could win a war
12:48in the 1860s the British began a rapid expansion of their global railway empire
13:10a priority was South Africa
13:14it had been first colonised by the Dutch
13:17then the British arrived in the early 19th century
13:20later they built a railway network
13:23whose primary purpose was to carry goods
13:26especially valuable minerals
13:27it's all driven by imperial expansion by resource exploitation and general strategic need
13:38at a time when Britain is also up against other rivals for African interests
13:43the South was made up of two British colonies
13:49Natal and the Cape Colony
13:52and the Boer Republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State
13:56the Boers descendants of the Dutch settlers resented the British expansion
14:01they were pioneer farmers they were courageous warriors in addition to which they were extremely religious they were extremely racist
14:14but above all what they wanted was to be left alone to follow their own belief system
14:20tensions between the Boers and the British exploded into war in October 1899
14:32the railways in Southern Africa were basic single track lines used for the transportation of goods and passengers
14:41but at the outbreak of the war they suddenly became very important as a tool for the British Army
14:46the British realised they could use the railway network as an efficient way to deploy troops against the Boers
14:55whose main tactic was lightning raids on horseback
14:59this is footage from 1899 of the Seaforth Highlanders regiment being carried in coal wagons across a bridge
15:08this bridge had been blown up by the Boers and had only recently been rebuilt
15:14you can see a soldier in the front carriage saluting the cameraman
15:23a month after the outbreak of war the Boers laid siege to several towns including the railway hub of Ladysmith
15:35soon after to the south in the town of Estcourt a young journalist arrived and pitched his tent by the station
15:42his name was Winston Churchill
15:49what happened next would launch the future Prime Minister onto the world stage
15:54he was only 24 but he had already had an adventurous life as a cavalry officer
16:00but politics was his true love and he believed his best route to becoming a member of parliament was to achieve fame
16:07for months the British had been developing a way to squeeze even more of an advantage from the railway network
16:15an armoured train
16:22they'd been used with limited success in the American Civil War
16:25but against the Boers they'd be properly tested for the first time
16:32these armoured trains were not sophisticated machines
16:36they had troop wagons reinforced with just thick boilerplate to protect the soldiers
16:41and then they got these slits for their rifles
16:43and then there was this carriage carrying a large gun
16:48and that was actually taken usually from a warship and then manned by sailors
16:54armoured trains were used for reconnaissance and to protect rail lines carrying military traffic
17:01one stood in the sidings close to Churchill's tent
17:04he thought hitching a ride could help get him close to the action
17:09armoured trains have been going out daily from escort
17:13specifically to see if the Boers were planning some kind of expansion of their operations at Ladysmith
17:18maybe even an attack on escort itself
17:21so he managed to blag himself a ride on the 15th of November
17:25at first light the armoured train carrying 120 men
17:31a seven pound naval gun
17:33and one journalist headed north
17:36straight into an ambush
17:38armoured trains look very intimidating
17:41but they're very vulnerable to attack
17:44the engine driver reversed to get them out of trouble
17:48just as the Boers expected
17:50they'd placed boulders on the line
17:52the train hit them at speed and was derailed
17:56Churchill takes control
17:59this is a diminutive
18:02freckly young kid in a way
18:05barking orders left right and centre
18:07bullets are flying
18:09shells are bursting
18:11and yet over 45 minutes almost an hour of heavy work
18:14they manage to clear the line
18:17the train which was carrying the wounded steamed away
18:20the troops left behind scattered
18:24Churchill found himself alone and tried to escape
18:28in the chaos he came face to face with two armed Boers
18:33Churchill reaches for his army issue revolver
18:37but he realises that he's left it on the train
18:40but actually this probably saves his life
18:43because the Boers would surely have shot dead the man who had just led the defence of the train
18:51Churchill is taken prisoner but later escapes
18:55he makes sure his exploits become headline news
18:59he will return to Britain
19:05a hero of the Empire
19:07now with his name made
19:09he is elected Conservative MP for Oldham
19:12and that same Churchill will go on 40 years later to become Britain's wartime prime minister
19:18it's worth reflecting that if it wasn't for South Africa the Boer War the armoured train incident
19:28his career trajectory could be very very different
19:31the Boer War ended in May 1902
19:36the British learned that the railways were a quick and effective way to transport troops around the Empire
19:43the railway companies of the Royal Engineers became a vital part of the British war machine
19:49when the First World War broke out 12 years later
19:53the lessons learned in the Boer War were put into practice on a massive scale
19:59the British government stopped all non-essential traffic
20:04you know things like excursion trains to holiday destinations
20:07and instead trains took tens of thousands of soldiers to port on the south coast
20:14at one point a troop train was arriving at Southampton every 12 minutes
20:22but across the channel the French network was unable to cope with the volume of wartime traffic
20:29and damaged locomotives weren't being replaced
20:32so hundreds of new powerful engines were sent to shift supplies and munitions close to the front
20:39like this 4300 class locomotive
20:43supplies were then taken by innovative narrow gauge light railways to the trenches
20:49they were nicknamed portable railways
20:52several miles could be built in a single day
20:55and in order to stop the Germans hearing them
20:57the French experimented with wooden rails
21:01and they even used metal from biscuit tins to protect vulnerable points on the line
21:07the railways in the First World War were highly efficient
21:12but their success came at a price
21:15they helped prolong the bloody trench warfare
21:19they created a stalemate
21:21there was a constant flow of people and equipment to those trenches
21:29and troops could be relieved and replenished and so on
21:33it was very difficult for troops to move further forward
21:38because they no longer had the railways behind them
21:41so essentially it was the railways which caused the stalemate in the First World War
21:47which lasted effectively for three and a half years
21:51this is a photograph of some soldiers peering out of a shell wrecked freight car
21:58near Beaucourt in France taken towards the end of the war
22:02and it's a real poignancy to this image
22:04because of course it was trains like this that caused the stalemate
22:09by continually resupplying the lines prolonging the war
22:13and leading to so much more loss of life
22:14war had brought about innovative train design
22:19and the railway network had been forced to switch from civilian to military mode
22:25war also changed who worked on the railways
22:30which for some took a bit of getting used to
22:32Before the First World War, Britain's railways employed women chiefly in catering clerical or cleaning roles
22:46but within months of war breaking out, all that changed
23:04World War One was an immense opportunity for women to show what they could do
23:11They left the kitchen sink, they left being stuck in the home
23:16and they came out and they did things they would never have done before
23:20if it hadn't been the war
23:22and they met people they would never have met
23:24With so many men at the front, there were jobs to be filled
23:30Around 35,000 women were employed as booking clerks, porters and ticket collectors
23:39This photograph taken in 1917 shows cleaners from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
23:48This is a beautiful moment where you see them coming together to do this type of work
23:58at a time where the nation needed everybody to be on board
24:03To show this is the type of technology that they worked with and they were entrusted to work with
24:08is really powerful
24:14But for some of the railwaymen, the new arrivals were far from welcome
24:19There's this invasion into the office of young women
24:23And with skills that perhaps you didn't have like dictation and shorthand and things like that
24:32And you'd spent your life working your way up and here they were suddenly doing jobs that you could do
24:40The men sitting in the offices must have found that really hard
24:44The railway bosses felt the need to reassure their male employees that women weren't a threat
24:52All the railway companies had their own in-house magazines
24:56And in these magazines they would show photographs of young female clerks
25:02Sat in uniform, white blouse, sometimes they had a little tie, all very ladylike
25:08They wanted to show them that these girls were still marriageable, young females that would soon be back home once the men got back
25:23The women's revolution was indeed short lived
25:27Within weeks of the end of the war, a third had given up their jobs to make way for returning soldiers
25:33By 1920, only a few hundred remained
25:39But soon a new role for young women was created
25:43With international significance
25:45To help the railways adapt to a fresh challenge
25:57At the National Railway Museum in York is a unique collection of memorabilia
26:01What we see here, it's not real diamonds, it's costume jewellery, it's paste, it's gum
26:13But even though they didn't have lots of monetary value, they would have been worth their way in gold
26:18These tiaras were worn by girls who became teenage celebrities
26:23Known as railway queens, selected to represent and promote the railway industry
26:30You had to be a young woman between 15 and 17
26:38You had to have a male relative who was a railway worker
26:42And importantly a paid up member of one of the railway trade unions
26:45Some of the young female entrants fall foul of this when it turns out
26:50Uncles or brothers or things have not been quite up to date with their union membership fees
26:56It's not looking for someone of great beauty
27:00But rather someone who could embody what the railway queen was to be
27:04And it is looking for something like innocence and purity
27:08Rather than something glamorous
27:09The idea of railway queens was born in 1925
27:16At a time when the industry was struggling
27:21They'd just come out of the First World War and were rebuilding after that
27:27There was competition from the roads and automobile industry
27:31And there was continuing strife from the railway unions
27:34The railway unions
27:37Rail bosses organised a celebration of a hundred years of rail
27:41To show how far the industry had come
27:44And how important it still was
27:46But the unions felt excluded from the official events
27:51So organised a separate festival
27:54They designed their own celebrations in Manchester
27:56On the 27th of September 1925
28:06During this event they all came together
28:09Including the very first railway queen
28:14Thousands and thousands of people coming from across the country
28:17To attend this event
28:19We're seeing a community coming together
28:21To be celebrated
28:23The first railway queen was Ella Wootten
28:27The daughter of a GWR employee
28:30She travelled the country christening locomotives and promoting good causes
28:36And she was so successful
28:38Crowning a queen became an annual event
28:41After a year on the job
28:44Each queen went back to normal life
28:47She has to look regal
28:48You have to believe that she isn't just the relative of a railway worker
28:53She's stepped into a new role
28:55And one of the most beautiful elements of this costume
28:58Is the robe the queen is dressed in
29:01It is a sumptuous royal blue with gold brocade and tassels
29:09She isn't just part of this railway community anymore
29:12She is in a way a representative of the British Railways as a whole
29:16Every railway queen went on a foreign visit to promote goodwill between trade unions across the world
29:24In 1936 it was the turn of 15 year old Audrey Mossen
29:31The Blackpool Railway Guard's daughter was thrust onto the international stage when she visited the Soviet Union
29:38Then under the firm grip of dictator Joseph Stalin
29:41It's in time of incredible tension in Europe
29:46Anxieties about a potential second world war
29:50And Audrey's visit is an opportunity for the Soviets and for Stalin as well
29:55To show they are a modern peaceful country
29:58Even if that might not be what's happening behind the scenes
30:01In later life Audrey wrote a memoir about her year as a railway queen
30:08It's a remarkable document
30:12One minute Audrey is turning on the Blackpool illuminations
30:15The next she's shaking hands with Joseph Stalin
30:17And her memoir has some really lovely details
30:20She writes
30:21Outside my suite during my stay there was always two bodyguards
30:25Who were always with me wherever I went
30:28And the car at my disposal was bulletproof
30:30I thought this was all great fun
30:33I didn't know anything of world affairs
30:35The highlight of Audrey's month-long visit
30:38Was receiving a link of peace
30:41For the Railway Queen's chain of office
30:43We've seen the ceremonial tiaras, how they were crowned
30:50We've seen that they didn't really cost much
30:53This has an incredibly different kind of worth
30:57Each link represents an international goodwill visit
31:08The links actually represent the couplings between railway carriages
31:11So we're always coming back to the railways
31:14And the significance of the railways
31:17The railway queens of the 20s and 30s were part of a new golden age of rail
31:27With faster, sleeker trains
31:30But soon the railways would be faced with their greatest challenge yet
31:35By the 1920s Britain was still the locomotive builder to the empire and the world
31:56But at home the network was looking tired
32:02The railway companies hadn't invested much in years
32:06It was clear that the old system of multiple private companies had run its course
32:14They were told by the government, just sort it out, you know, come together
32:19And they did
32:20The result was the so-called Big Four
32:24LMS
32:26LNER
32:28Southern
32:29And the only one to retain its name
32:31Great Western
32:35The worn-out network was refreshed
32:38Locomotives were given new liveries
32:40And stations repainted
32:42Gleaming new airplanes and automobiles have captured the public's imagination
32:51Trains seemed grimy and old-fashioned
32:54So the Big Four went on a PR offensive
32:58Posters were really important for creating brand identity
33:02They could use logos, particular fonts
33:04And these posters could be displayed in the waiting rooms and on the platforms
33:13LNER went in for Art Deco in a big way in their posters
33:17So really kind of getting across the glamour of the age
33:20But also the kind of sense of speed and excitement and modernity
33:26GWR in contrast
33:29Their posters have a more kind of timeless elegance
33:32They're more traditional in style, not quite so abstract
33:37There was a real kind of understanding that there was now a need for bold design
33:42Imaginative use of colour
33:44Using really strong artists, the best artists of the day
33:49Soon new, more glamorous trains came into service
33:53Like LNER's Flying Scotsman
33:56Designed by Britain's most famous railway engineer, Sir Nigel Gresley
34:00The Flying Scotsman cost just under £8,000 to build in 1923
34:04That's about £2 million in today's terms
34:07But it was worth the money
34:10It became the undisputed star of the LNER's fleet
34:14And people would gather just to see it fly past between Edinburgh and London
34:19In a cloud of steam
34:20In a cloud of steam
34:23Gresley was always looking to improve his locos
34:26Influenced by sleek Bugatti racing cars
34:29His next design looked like the future
34:32The A4 Pacific class
34:34The most famous was Mallard
34:37Built in 1938, it's now in the National Railway Museum in York
34:42Well, the Mallard is a beautifully streamlined racehorse
34:56It's a line that marries itself with the top of the chimney
35:00And sort of glides back down to the cab
35:02Matthew Delaney's great-grandfather, Joe Duddington, drove Mallard in its heyday
35:10It's always an emotional moment for me to come and see her
35:15Every time that I come down, it's like visiting a relative
35:17Just four months after being built, LNER decided Mallard should attempt a new world speed record
35:27And seize the crown from the Germans, who'd reached 124.5 miles per hour
35:33Nigel Gresley chose Joe Duddington to be at the controls
35:38He was known as a driver that would push her a little bit more, possibly knew less fear
35:53On the 3rd of July 1938, Joe was in the cab with fireman Tommy Bray
35:59They headed south from Grantham on the east coast mainline
36:03There were no passengers, but behind Mallard was a carriage known as a dynamometer car
36:10Containing the technical equipment to record the speed
36:14My great-grandfather, Joe, just knew when he opened her up
36:19That she was going to be able to do it
36:21The record was going to be broken
36:24She just jumped to it like a license
36:30Then, 108, 109, 110
36:34Go on, old girl, I thought, we can do better than this
36:37So I nursed her, and shot through a little bathroom at 123
36:41And then for a quarter of a mile, while they tell me the folks in the car held their brakes
36:47126 miles per hour
36:48126 miles per hour is a record for steam locomotives that still stands today
37:02At Peterborough station, Tommy and Joe posed for photos
37:06The fastest men on the planet under steam
37:10It wasn't something that he did for limelight
37:14It wasn't something that he lived off the back of
37:18Driving an engine and driving Mallard was his job
37:21The Second World War broke out the following year
37:36The railway network turned black and white
37:40Fripperies such as bright colours
37:44You forget all that, it becomes utilitarian
37:47But also, it's done from that security point of view
37:51A brightly coloured engine stands out to an aircraft
37:55Even the exceptional had to lose their sparkle
38:02And indulgences like speed records were forgotten
38:06Everything was directed to the war effort
38:10Compartments like this one were transformed
38:12Full-down armrests were removed to make more room for passengers
38:17Blue light bulbs were installed
38:19And the windows were blacked out
38:21Leaving just a tiny gap to see through
38:23And this caused real problems because
38:25The names of the stations were also removed
38:27So that German bombers couldn't use them to discover their location
38:30Troop trains once more headed for south coast ports
38:36They're crossing the channel in some great adventure
38:39We're on our way to Berlin
38:43They feel as if the train might take them straight
38:46To the heart of the Third Reich
38:48Where they can maybe have it out with Adolf Hitler
38:50And then be back in time before Christmas
38:54This sense of adventure
38:57Kind of replicates maybe what some of their fathers might have felt in 1914
39:00But just like their fathers as well
39:03They will quickly be confronted with the harsh and cruel reality of what warfare is all about
39:09That reality meant retreat, humiliation and evacuation from Dunkirk
39:18British troops wouldn't return to French soil for four years
39:21When they did, railways would once again play a key but little known role
39:33The 6th of June 1944
39:36D-Day, the liberation of Europe
39:40The lead up to the invasion was the largest mass movement in the history of warfare
39:46The British Rail Network played a key role
39:48The railways had moved two and a half million troops
39:52And one and a half million tons of stores to the south coast
39:57It was an extraordinary logistical feat
40:03The Allies knew how important the French railway network was for the Nazis
40:08Something had to be done
40:09In the run-up to D-Day, fighters and bombers had destroyed much of the French railway network
40:23In combination with local resistance fighters
40:28To ensure that the Germans could not use the railways to bring up reinforcements to the beaches where the Allied troops were landing
40:41The tactic proved a success
40:44The Allies established a foothold on the Normandy beaches
40:48Next to shore was an unsung railway army
40:51British and American military engineers
40:56Together with civilian workers on a mission to repair the wrecked French network
41:01Southern railway ferries were adapted so locomotives could be unloaded directly onto the quayside in France
41:08Their job was to supply the advancing Allied armies
41:14In the three months after D-Day, some 1300 engines, some 20,000 freight wagons
41:23Cross the English Channel into Normandy
41:25And as the tracks are relayed by the efforts of engineering the railway troops
41:32These trains will be the absolutely critical supply side for the advancing Allied armies
41:43Were it not for the engineering troops, were it not for that effort, that whole gargantuan push
41:49It's possible that the war might not have ended in 1945, it might have gone on into 1946
41:53In the final months of the Second World War, history was repeating itself
42:01There was a rather great irony that some 120 years after the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened
42:10And that British technology was then used to build the first lines in France and Belgium
42:16British engineers were then carrying over rail equipment and rebuilding the lines of the French Railway
42:26Which they had initiated some 120 years before
42:32Victory came at a cost
42:35Heavy wartime use left the railways shabby and worn out
42:39And once again the world was changing
42:42And once again the world was changing
42:45Cars were now affordable
42:47Railway passenger numbers dropped
42:50The big four were almost bankrupt
42:55The idea of them returning to even the relatively modest profits
43:00Which they'd been generating during the 1930s was unrealistic
43:03The Labour government decided to take control
43:06At midnight on the 31st of December 1947
43:10The railways came under public ownership
43:15British Railways was born
43:18Trains were repainted
43:20And a new logo
43:22Nicknamed the Lion on a Unicycle
43:24was introduced
43:26In the following years more modern technology arrived
43:31The age of steam was over
43:34New trains came along in the 50s and 60s
43:37Diesels, electrics, people didn't dislike them
43:39They were faster, they were cleaner
43:41But at the same time the steam locomotive has such a power
43:46The general public recognised that there was something being lost there
43:49There was a yearning or a fondness for what was disappearing
43:54200 years on
43:59Steam trains continue to have a special hold on the public's imagination
44:04At the National Railway Museum
44:08Matthew Delaney has been given access to the footplate of the Mallard
44:12Where his record breaking great grandfather Joe Duddington once stood
44:16Well if we just have a minute
44:20Yeah, of course
44:22This is really...
44:26This is special
44:29I feel the presence of everybody
44:32My great grandfather
44:34His energy is still in here
44:36And my grandparents
44:38They're all here
44:41She's part of our family
44:43It's not as strong, it's not just a machine
44:46This is where it all happened
44:47This is where the noise, the smell, the heat
44:51You wouldn't be able to touch any of these things
44:54You'd feel the motion, the vibration
44:56Of a rumbling down the tracks are coming to life
45:00The muscles, the power
45:05The Empire is no more
45:07And Britain is no longer a significant railway power
45:10But the world-changing influence of the first passenger service 200 years ago
45:16Is undisputed
45:20First, railways change the world
45:23Then the world force the railways to change
45:27Might that versatility be the key to their future success?
45:31I think there'll always be an anxiety that the railway industry is going to become redundant or defunct
45:40But it continues to find new and interesting ways to improve its speed and its style and its relevance
45:48It's going to be really interesting to see how it continues to do this
45:53And the influences it has on the future
45:57To think about how the railway started initially in Collieries
46:02To think how that spread everywhere
46:05It's just the most efficient form of transport
46:10Whether it be freight, whether it be going from A to B
46:13And just covering all sorts of landscapes
46:15Mountainous, across plain flat land
46:19It's just something that's found its way everywhere
46:24I feel proud that it's come from Britain
46:28It's not often that as a country we all have something that we can unify together and be proud of
46:34It feels great
46:45It feels great
46:47It feels great
46:50It has been great
46:52Yeah, I've wondered what it has
46:55But it keeps me nervous
46:57I turn into the darkness
47:00Feels great
47:02It's wonderful
47:04You're welcome
47:07It seems like when you are speaking down
47:10It's you read
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