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00:00:00Here we are at Locomotion Museum in Shildon, near Darlington, for the next project.
00:00:11Right, this fella, right, let me get this fella's name right.
00:00:16Is it George or Robert?
00:00:19Is it a left?
00:00:21Robert Stephenson. I've got to learn all this as we're doing it, you see.
00:00:25I didn't know.
00:00:26That's Robert Stephenson, son of George Stephenson, the father of the railways, who invented Locomotion, says it on there.
00:00:34And it ran for the first time on the first public railway anywhere in the world, which is just over that fence there.
00:00:42The Stockton and Darlington Railway, it's just yon side of the Flying Scotsman.
00:00:47And the train that ran on there is just in here.
00:00:52How are you getting on?
00:00:54This is what it's all about.
00:00:56Locomotion number one, V1.
00:00:58This is the first passenger train that ever went on a public railway.
00:01:04And hopefully, on the 200th anniversary, I'm going to drive it to your drivetrains.
00:01:11You're only going where the track's telling you.
00:01:14I'm going to hopefully get up to scratch enough to drive Locomotion on its original line.
00:01:22That's the plan.
00:01:24As the original Locomotion number one is now a fragile museum piece, Guy will need to help build a fully working replica.
00:01:33learning the engineering skills which made steam-powered transport possible.
00:01:43It'll test working relationships, this job, won't it?
00:01:47He'll be trained to harness this technology that changed human history.
00:01:51And we're doing, what, 24 mile an hour?
00:01:53We failed to be moving here, eh?
00:01:55Pooring gear, mate.
00:01:57Jesus, going on, he spilled the tea.
00:01:59Meet the beasts which killed the steam locomotive.
00:02:03And this thing shakes the ground.
00:02:08And then, exactly 200 years after its groundbreaking first journey,
00:02:13as Locomotion number one once more sets out along its historic route...
00:02:17What an honour to be aboard.
00:02:19Guy will take to the track on the train that changed the world.
00:02:23We've got everything. We've got engineering, history, driving trains, getting mucky, museums.
00:02:31Yeah, what's not to like?
00:02:33Walk on.
00:02:44Oh, get her out, lass.
00:02:46Good girl.
00:02:49The story of the railways actually begins here, on the canals.
00:02:54By the mid-1700s, Britain was on course to become the most technologically advanced and richest country on earth.
00:03:03Steady.
00:03:04The voracious appetite of the Industrial Revolution demanded raw materials, fuel and products to be transported across the country in previously unimaginable amounts.
00:03:16The city of Melbourne.
00:03:17Over influence.
00:03:18The food of the central to maintenance and oil, the fuel to be transported around by horse and cart on badly maintained roads, just didn't cut it.
00:03:22The solution was the world's first nationwide canal system.
00:03:27By the 1800s, there was like 30,000 boats, so if you take the numbers from that, yeah,
00:03:36they'd be getting on for 100,000 horses. That's a lot of feeding. But not all transport companies
00:03:44use horses. Some would use humans. But they said it was far easier to employ a horse than
00:03:51humans, because there was getting a load of pubs on the towpaths, and it was a job getting
00:03:57the humans out of the pubs, whereas the horses wasn't that bothered really.
00:04:03Britain's canal network was an essential part of the early stages of the Industrial Revolution.
00:04:08It's just a far more efficient way to get your goods around the country, because you'd have
00:04:15a job to get a horse to tow a 30-ton cart up a farm track. But when you're on the water,
00:04:24far less friction. Yeah, so one horse could tow 30 tons. Not a lot of bother, really.
00:04:30You do look beautiful today, lass.
00:04:32At its height, the canal network covered 4,000 miles, and in today's money, had cost tens
00:04:38of billions to construct.
00:04:40So I think we're going to jump on and make our way into the tunnel.
00:04:44OK.
00:04:45All right, let's get out of here.
00:04:46Iggly!
00:04:47Nearly.
00:04:48Becky Wright, from the Dudley Canal and Tunnel Trust in the West Midlands, has been guiding
00:04:56people through the Dudley Tunnel for 10 years.
00:04:59Mind the head on the gauge?
00:05:02It does look a bit dark.
00:05:05Amazingly, this was done by hand. So men with picks, shovels, and gunpowder.
00:05:13And it would have been an incredibly gruelling process.
00:05:18As a result, canal tunnels were no wider or higher than absolutely necessary.
00:05:23This is the lowest point in the tunnel.
00:05:25Well, that's how low it gets, is it?
00:05:27That's the lowest point in the tunnel, yes.
00:05:29Bloody hell, that is low, innit?
00:05:31This, of course, meant no towpath for a horse, so tunnels required a human propulsion technique
00:05:38called legging.
00:05:39So we need to turn her, so we're back to back.
00:05:42Yes.
00:05:43We're going to very carefully lie down so we don't bang our heads.
00:05:46OK.
00:05:47We're going to place our feet flat on the tunnel wall.
00:05:50My head should rest on your shoulder.
00:05:52That'll do, that'll do.
00:05:53That's perfect, Lord.
00:05:54Get my knits, mate.
00:05:55And we're going to push quite gently together, and you can feel the boat is moving.
00:06:01She's going now, mate.
00:06:02So the trick is, work together and try not to touch the sides.
00:06:07Now, that's easier said than done when you're on a 70-foot-long boat like this one.
00:06:13Oh, I can see.
00:06:14But every time we touch the sides, we slow down.
00:06:18Yeah.
00:06:19But we've got a long way ahead of us.
00:06:22Go on, how far?
00:06:232,800 metres.
00:06:24Oh, is that what it is?
00:06:26So it's 1.9 miles.
00:06:29Legging is not easy, I can tell you.
00:06:32Your legs certainly know about it.
00:06:34My legs really feeling it now, I don't know about yours.
00:06:37Yeah, I know, mate, yeah.
00:06:38Them bloody muscles that you never use.
00:06:41It's definitely not a quick way to travel either.
00:06:44It might have taken you four hours to leg all the way through.
00:06:48Four hours?
00:06:49What was the doing?
00:06:50Because that's when we were experiencing over 41,000 boats a year travelling through the tunnel.
00:06:5641,000 boats a year just using this tunnel?
00:07:00It was a boat every seven or eight minutes, roughly, day and night, never stopping.
00:07:06Oh, the arrow's pointing that way now, that means we're closer to the way out.
00:07:11It's a good last climb.
00:07:12Britain's canal network was an incredible feat of engineering.
00:07:16But moving stuff around slower than walking pace was not that efficient.
00:07:21By the early 1800s, it was clear that a better, faster idea was needed.
00:07:27Steam trains were faster and cheaper.
00:07:38The tracks were easier to build.
00:07:40They could be laid right up to every factory's gate, and each train could carry hundreds of tons of cargo.
00:07:46The canal network, we built 4,000 miles in 50 years.
00:07:55You compare that to the railway network.
00:07:58So the rail network was 13,000 miles in just over 40 years.
00:08:0413,000 miles, right. There you go. You can't compete with that, can you?
00:08:08The steam age had arrived, and railways proved to be so effective that there's still a key form of transport today.
00:08:16Last year, over 60 billion journeys were made on public railways around the world,
00:08:23with the fastest passenger trains now travelling at well over 200 miles per hour.
00:08:28And it's all because 200 years ago, in a landmark moment of human history,
00:08:34someone learned how to harness the incredible power of fire and water,
00:08:38and turn that into motion.
00:08:46And now Guy's going to learn exactly how they did it.
00:08:51She's lit.
00:08:53Initially, with a model steam engine.
00:08:56So we've got the pressure gauge here, and just below one bar,
00:08:59so that's when we've no pressure, so...
00:09:02Yeah, we were just heating the water up, using gas to generate steam.
00:09:08200 years ago, yeah, we'd have been using coal.
00:09:12Coal has a high energy density.
00:09:15Burn it, and you release large amounts of heat energy.
00:09:19It became the fuel of the Industrial Revolution,
00:09:22and by 1850, the UK was producing over 60 million tonnes of it every year.
00:09:28We're worrying three bar, we're just over two and a half bar.
00:09:32Steam pressure in here.
00:09:34Erm, I'm going to open the valve up, and then I'm going to explain what's happening.
00:09:40Well, she's off there, isn't she?
00:09:46So, what we're doing, it's all about energy transfer.
00:09:53So, the first thing we're going to do, we're getting the energy out of the gas
00:09:57to heat the water up, and water is the best because of its expansion rate.
00:10:03It expands at 1,700 times from its original state of being water.
00:10:08So, if you're turning it from water to steam, it expands 1,700 times.
00:10:11So, that steam pressure is released from the boiler into the engine here, right?
00:10:18So, that steam pressure is driving the piston up and down,
00:10:22and then we're turning that linear movement into rotary movement at the crankshaft,
00:10:26and then normally, this would be the wheels of a train.
00:10:29But in our case, we're turning a generator to charge my phone.
00:10:35Thor.
00:10:37It's not my SIM card, hell.
00:10:41Steam engines produced previously unimaginable amounts of power.
00:10:45Even a very basic steam locomotive, like Locomotion No. 1,
00:10:50could produce over 20 horsepower.
00:10:53A massive leap from one horse pulling a barge.
00:10:56The world would never be the same again.
00:11:06It's one year until the 200th anniversary
00:11:09of the first ever steam-powered passenger train journey on a public railway.
00:11:15Today, Guy Martin is joining a project to reconstruct a replica
00:11:19of Locomotion No. 1,
00:11:21the famous locomotive that pulled that historic train.
00:11:25We're in Loughborough.
00:11:26Locomotive Maintenance Services.
00:11:30David Wright, he owns this place.
00:11:32Him and all the lads that work there,
00:11:34this is work come hobby.
00:11:36Swimming in enthusiasm.
00:11:40You sunk it.
00:11:41So, what is it you do?
00:11:43Literally anything to do with steam engines.
00:11:45Right.
00:11:46We can basically strip down or rebuild or manufacture new,
00:11:49anything to do with steam engines, really.
00:11:51Make new boilers, retube boilers, all that sort of thing.
00:11:54Yeah, anything to do with that.
00:11:55Right, other than that, that's about as much as I know about doing one.
00:11:59You have to do a bit of everything in this game, really.
00:12:01You have to be able to turn your hands to every bit of it, really.
00:12:03Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:12:04Right, so some knowledge then.
00:12:06Just amongst you, we've only been here ten minutes, right.
00:12:08Oh, that's only in one bit.
00:12:10Right, so this is the mechanical and the machine shop side.
00:12:12Yeah.
00:12:14And then this is into the boiler shop.
00:12:16Right, so go locomotion then, where is it?
00:12:19What, here?
00:12:20The world's only working locomotion replica will be made up of over 600 parts
00:12:26to recreate the technology of the early 1800s.
00:12:29These are actually the locomotion wheels,
00:12:31and these are just a refurb rather than actual brand new.
00:12:36Right, right.
00:12:37How long have you been on with it?
00:12:38So, we've been working solidly on it for about six months now.
00:12:41So we're going about that.
00:12:42Oh, damn.
00:12:43Yeah.
00:12:45So this is locomotion's boiler.
00:12:47The heart of the engine, really, in essence.
00:12:49Is there any of that from the original?
00:12:51So, it depends who you speak to.
00:12:53Even the original locomotion that's at the museum in Childen now,
00:12:56Go on.
00:12:57Isn't original to what it was in 1825.
00:13:00It was rebuilt in various other years.
00:13:02Go on.
00:13:03It's a bit like Trigger's Brew.
00:13:04It kept going, but it was different wheels, a different boiler, a different...
00:13:06What are we calling original then?
00:13:07Right.
00:13:08That's the thing.
00:13:09This is an original version of the replica,
00:13:11but it's a replica of a non-original original.
00:13:13So, you know, in that sense...
00:13:15I like that.
00:13:16That's the mega.
00:13:17So, it's as near as anybody can go,
00:13:18bearing in mind some of it's based off a painting.
00:13:20Always.
00:13:21Right.
00:13:22Because of how locomotion number one is designed,
00:13:26the boiler is where all restoration work must begin.
00:13:29Locomotion, everything is fastened to the boiler.
00:13:32The wheels that we've just been looking at, they'll get fastened to the boiler.
00:13:35The cylinders are inside the boiler.
00:13:38Everything gets fastened to it.
00:13:39So, we've got to finish the boiler first, then start assembling it.
00:13:43As the boiler needs to withstand high pressures,
00:13:46Guy and engineer Tom Heath start by checking for leaks.
00:13:50So, the water's in here, right?
00:13:52Yeah.
00:13:53This is the fires around the inside.
00:13:55At the far end, in this same place at the back end where the firebox is,
00:13:59there will be the fire in that will be licking up against these tubes.
00:14:02All of these tubes are surrounded by water.
00:14:05When the fire's coming through these, it heats up that water and makes it boil.
00:14:10Yeah.
00:14:11And you can just see the odd little bit weeping out.
00:14:13I think that's the main one.
00:14:15It's not a big thing to sort out.
00:14:17Okay.
00:14:18So, what we want to do is get our expander.
00:14:21That wants to go in there like that.
00:14:23Yeah.
00:14:24Hammering the expander into the leaking tubes enlarges them, creating a tighter, stronger seal.
00:14:30You're only in your keep here, by the way.
00:14:32Oh, yeah.
00:14:33I'm spectating.
00:14:34You do.
00:14:35That shouldn't leak anymore.
00:14:36But, again, it's like all these things.
00:14:37You don't know till we pump it up.
00:14:39Yeah.
00:14:40It might start, but it might not.
00:14:41Try an error.
00:14:42Suck it and see with a lot of it.
00:14:43I don't know.
00:14:44See how it goes.
00:14:46To see exactly how it goes right now, Peter Hawkins, a boiler inspector, arrives.
00:14:52Before the project can go any further, he must test locomotion number one's boiler
00:14:57at well above its operational pressure to make sure it's safe.
00:15:03This one works at 50 psi maximum, so we tested it to one and a half at 75 psi.
00:15:09Confining steam at such high pressure, the boiler is basically a huge bomb.
00:15:14If it's not been built correctly, it could explode with devastating results.
00:15:22To make this test as safe as possible, the boiler has been filled with cold water,
00:15:26that's then put under pressure using a compressor.
00:15:29That's a hydraulic test.
00:15:31And then when it's under steam, you just test it to 50 psi.
00:15:35So it always tests more without firing it.
00:15:37This is what I've been learning today.
00:15:39Yeah. Water is safe.
00:15:40Water doesn't compress.
00:15:41The worst that happens if it goes wrong, we get wet.
00:15:46If we're seeing that pressure drop back, then we're looking for a leak.
00:15:49So up to now, you're not worried?
00:15:50No.
00:15:51No.
00:15:52No, not at all.
00:15:54What, is this your third visit up to now, then?
00:15:56Yeah, this is visit number three now.
00:15:57Yeah.
00:15:58So one more to go to see it, finally, and Steve.
00:16:00Is it job done?
00:16:02Look, there's no worried faces here.
00:16:04A lovely anti-climax.
00:16:06This is exactly what we want.
00:16:08No one's getting excited.
00:16:09With the boiler now signed off as safe, the next step will be converting it from a very expensive water heater into a world-changing piece of transport history.
00:16:26Just as groundbreaking as locomotion number one was the railway it ran on, the Stockton and Darlington railway.
00:16:34Why was the railway built coal?
00:16:40The industrial revolution was happening, right?
00:16:44The factories of Manchester and the Midlands had a voracious appetite for coal, but the biggest market was further south.
00:16:52Hang on, the wind's not helping me here, is it?
00:16:55London, fastest growing city in the world at this point in time.
00:16:59And they needed coal?
00:17:00I mean, they used coal for everything. For lighting, heating, industry, everything used coal.
00:17:04We needed coal to get the wheels of the industrial revolution moving.
00:17:09The mines of County Durham wanted to get their coal to keen customers down south.
00:17:15You've got more of a detail map.
00:17:16Let me roll this up without making a pig's ear. Can I borrow that, please?
00:17:19But there was no easy route to the waterways or sea that allowed efficient transport.
00:17:23We've got all of this coal in this area here, right? But we need to get it to the water, get it onto a boat, down into London, down into the Thames, through the sea.
00:17:33If the coal could somehow be transported east from the coal fields, then it could be loaded onto ships at Stockton-on-Tees.
00:17:40You think, well, you just build a canal.
00:17:43But round here, there's not a right load of water.
00:17:46It's uphill and down dale, a really awkward place to try and dig canals.
00:17:50So, what was the next option?
00:17:52And we've got this man here, right, with the solution.
00:17:55We all know that I'm sure the vast majority of us know his name, George Stevenson, right?
00:18:00He said, I'll tell you what you want. You want one of my steam locomotives.
00:18:03And that's where it all came from. The first public railway anywhere in the world.
00:18:10Stevenson oversaw construction of a public railway line that ran from the County Durham coal fields through Darlington and ended at the Riverside Wharf in Stockton.
00:18:20He didn't invent the steam engine, right? He didn't invent the railway. He didn't even invent public transport.
00:18:26He was the genius that brought all of these things together and brought you the public railway.
00:18:30He'll move anything for anyone for a charge.
00:18:34Stevenson became known as the father of the railways.
00:18:38Well, obviously he's a very clever man, but he wasn't that sort of switched on in the way of school and what have you.
00:18:43He couldn't read or write until he was 18, but he knew the steam engine inside out.
00:18:49Pioneering engineer George passed his talents to son Robert.
00:18:54And George was sort of switched on enough to know, he said, right, I want my son to be even more of a doer than I am.
00:18:58I'm going to put him through a proper education. And that's, we've got Robert Stevenson. Swisho boy, isn't he?
00:19:05Building trains, railways and bridges, Robert has been called the greatest engineer of the 19th century.
00:19:12Where did he end up getting buried? Westminster Abbey, right? Only the doers get buried there.
00:19:16By 1825, father and son had designed and built the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
00:19:23And on September the 27th, locomotion number one pulled passengers and coal for the first time.
00:19:30He was sort of, he was engineers running the country. Yeah. And then stuff happened, stuff got done.
00:19:36I'm not over egging this at all. Those boys changed the world as we know it.
00:19:41The first form of powered public transport anywhere in the world.
00:19:47These boys made it happen. These boys changed the world.
00:19:53In Loughborough, the work of putting all of the parts of locomotion number one together begins.
00:20:00On the axle. And then it locks them.
00:20:02No, we're just trying to figure it out.
00:20:05The wheels go on.
00:20:07Go on, where else are we looking?
00:20:09And then the meticulous job of fitting the cylinders, pistons, controls and drivetrain begins.
00:20:16I can't believe how bloody versatile you boys have got to be here.
00:20:19With nine months still to go before the anniversary, everything appears to be well on track.
00:20:24Although locomotion number one is still a fair way off being ready to move.
00:20:30I'm looking at all the work left to do.
00:20:38Guy Martin is in Loughborough, rebuilding a replica of locomotion number one.
00:20:47Ready to run again on the 200th anniversary of its historic first railway journey.
00:20:53With seven months left to the anniversary, it's all hands on deck to get the build completed in time for track testing.
00:21:00All right, boss. Yeah, how are you getting on?
00:21:02Today, Guy will be working alongside the boss, David Wright, learning one of the key skills of the steam age.
00:21:10Where do you want us? What can I do?
00:21:12Not that much use, but I can get stuck in.
00:21:14It'll be all right, doing a bit of hot riveting.
00:21:16We'll go and put the chimney together.
00:21:17Is that what we're going to do?
00:21:18Yeah, put the top half of the chimney together.
00:21:19Sound job.
00:21:21Steam locomotives were the most advanced machines of their day,
00:21:26harnessing huge pressures to produce their power.
00:21:28And hot riveting was absolutely central to their production.
00:21:34Right, do we have a go?
00:21:35Yeah.
00:21:37So you start off with a rivet, a bit like a mushroom.
00:21:40So we heat it up, heat it up until the surface of the metal just is on that point of moving.
00:21:46You can just see it bubbling there.
00:21:47It ain't moving, yeah.
00:21:48That's what we want.
00:21:50Cheers, mate.
00:21:51To be quick, you've got to be quick.
00:21:57Heat is just ripping out of that rivet.
00:22:00You need to be riveting it up as fast as you can, while the metal is still in a malleable state.
00:22:06Put it in the hole, put the press behind it, expand the press out.
00:22:11The vibrating gun vibrates the red-hot rivet, displays it into the hole.
00:22:17Beautiful.
00:22:21Once we'd riveted it up, yeah, let it cool down, so it then contracts and pulls the two bits of metal together.
00:22:26Hot riveting enabled boilers to withstand unprecedented pressures and produce enough power to move their own weight and tow a train of wagons.
00:22:43Just like that.
00:22:45Yeah, so about 18 months ago we were putting a boiler together in the middle of summer and we did something like 500 rivets in the two days, something like that.
00:22:51You earned your keep though.
00:22:53It was red hot.
00:22:55The best hot riveting teams could average 10 to 15 rivets per minute and were rightly celebrated for their extraordinary skills.
00:23:04Right, what's the plan this time then? How are we going to do the rivet?
00:23:07So, yeah, Martin will do the heating, I'll be ready with the jam and then you'll do the riveting.
00:23:12This is the more skilled bit.
00:23:14Yeah, and if I knacker this up, it's a big job getting the rivet back out again.
00:23:17You'd say something I'm not used to and I don't want to knacker it up. I want to make a good job of it.
00:23:25It matches in with mine, so it'll be alright.
00:23:34It'll test working relationships, this job, won't it?
00:23:37Not the neatest, is it?
00:23:38You can make that look really nice just with a bit of light tooling.
00:23:52Slowly got better.
00:24:01Number 20 was definitely far better than number 1.
00:24:04Your best one so far, I'd say, is that.
00:24:08Happy?
00:24:10Yeah, alright, but alright. It's alright.
00:24:13They all look the same now, don't they? The ones he did and the ones you did.
00:24:17A million miles off. It'll be your first time doing it.
00:24:20It's just working with metal, isn't it? Making metal move, that's what I like. Fettling.
00:24:27After a day's riveting, the new top section of Locomotion No. 1's chimney is as finished as it can be.
00:24:34We didn't go right to the top because, for it to go on the main line, it's got to be no taller than 13ft
00:24:39because of the electric lines on the main line.
00:24:42But the original dimensions are a bit woolly.
00:24:46I think I'm right in saying they're a bit woolly, so we don't know the overall height
00:24:50until it's finished and bolt this on and then get the measuring stick out.
00:24:54I think it's, yeah, better off having a bit of leeway.
00:24:57Bit of leeway, that's the word. Bit of leeway.
00:24:59Work on the replica is now nearly completed.
00:25:01But there's still a lot of work for Guy.
00:25:07He needs to learn how to drive a steam train.
00:25:10You all right? You're only a cup of tea, do you?
00:25:17Well, if the butty van comes, I'm not turning me back on a butty van.
00:25:21Thank you very much. Cheers, lass.
00:25:22Thank you, sir.
00:25:25Today, Guy will be learning on this.
00:25:28A BR2MT-class small locomotive, appropriately built in Darlington, owned by David Wright.
00:25:36And you're going to teach me to drive a steam train?
00:25:38That's the theory, yeah. This is the one. Right, OK.
00:25:39If you climb up first...
00:25:40Yeah, thank you.
00:25:42All right, mate. All right.
00:25:43Sound.
00:25:45So this is Dan, our fireman for the day.
00:25:47Well done.
00:25:49Fireman manages the boiler side.
00:25:51So the coal, the water, all that side of it.
00:25:54Go on.
00:25:56Assuming here, everything's hot, everything's dirty, and it moves.
00:26:00OK.
00:26:02Right, so if we just swap places and I'll show you how it all works then, basically.
00:26:06Yeah. Are we going to go for a trip now?
00:26:08We're going to go down to the station.
00:26:22So, yeah, so basically, the controls as a basis, you've got accelerator, and then that's the brakes on the engine.
00:26:29Yeah.
00:26:30Just bring it in slowly, or in an emergency, you can pull it on and put the catch on.
00:26:34And that's hard.
00:26:35Would it lock them?
00:26:36It would lock them.
00:26:37Would it lock them?
00:26:38Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:26:39We're not bad now. It's a nice day. It's dry.
00:26:41But in leaf fall season, on a drizzly, mizzly morning, fog, it's quite slippery, the railhead.
00:26:47So you've got to be quite careful.
00:26:49Direction.
00:26:50So, in essence, this is like the gears on your car.
00:26:52Yeah.
00:26:53Back gear is reverse.
00:26:54Yeah.
00:26:55Forward is forward.
00:26:56Yeah.
00:26:57We're neutral, we have mid.
00:26:58Yeah.
00:26:59And then what these are, these are percentage cut-offs.
00:27:0215 through to 75%.
00:27:04And that's 75% of the stroke of the piston, we're letting steam in.
00:27:08Right.
00:27:09So, if that's the length of your cylinder, at 75% when we're starting, we want maximum steam to start it.
00:27:14Yeah.
00:27:15So, that's 75% of that stroke is admitting steam into the cylinders.
00:27:20It then cuts it off into the exhaust system to get it out.
00:27:24Once up to speed, though, you need less steam to keep moving.
00:27:28If we were running at 40 miles an hour, we'd be down to 15, 20%.
00:27:33Use less coal.
00:27:34Use less steam.
00:27:35Use less water.
00:27:36Right.
00:27:37Run more efficiently, basically.
00:27:41So, if you sit in the seat.
00:27:42Yeah.
00:27:43Then are you happy to go, Dan?
00:27:44Yeah, grab this side.
00:27:45We go.
00:27:46Have a look at it.
00:27:47Clear here.
00:27:48Yeah.
00:27:49You put it into forward gear.
00:27:54Yeah.
00:27:55Make sure the latch is in.
00:27:56Yeah.
00:27:57Yeah.
00:27:58Now release the steam brake.
00:27:59Yeah.
00:28:00Blow the whistle.
00:28:01Just a quick blast.
00:28:02That's it.
00:28:03And then slowly pull that accelerator.
00:28:05There's a lot of lost motion.
00:28:06And then you'll suddenly hear the clunk.
00:28:09See that?
00:28:10Yeah.
00:28:11We're away.
00:28:12Now we're moving.
00:28:14So, you're aiming for getting up to 10 miles an hour.
00:28:16Just give it a breath.
00:28:17That's it.
00:28:19So, just wind it back.
00:28:23Yeah.
00:28:24That's it.
00:28:25Not as far as that.
00:28:26Let it out to about 40.
00:28:27Why not as far as that?
00:28:28You don't want the engine to be straining.
00:28:29You're not trying to pull away in fourth.
00:28:31You're pulling away in second.
00:28:32Yeah.
00:28:33That kind of principle.
00:28:34You've got to have a bit more torque to get you going.
00:28:35Yeah.
00:28:36Yeah.
00:28:37Yeah.
00:28:40About 10 miles an hour.
00:28:42Yeah.
00:28:43As soon as we're out of this bridge,
00:28:46it's 25 miles an hour.
00:28:47Give it a welly.
00:28:48Are you ready for a bit more now?
00:28:51So, you want a little bit more steam.
00:28:53We're now clear of that bridge.
00:28:54What a day for him today, eh?
00:28:55Yeah, exactly.
00:28:56Cool.
00:28:57More deep, beautiful, isn't it?
00:28:5820 miles an hour.
00:28:59Are we happy?
00:29:00So, bring that back a bit more.
00:29:01Yeah.
00:29:02Wind it in a bit.
00:29:0330, yeah.
00:29:04Right.
00:29:05See, I'm now at 25.
00:29:06Just ease that back a little bit.
00:29:07So, as we go round this bend, just give a blast on the whistle.
00:29:09But we are moving here.
00:29:10What do you think we weigh?
00:29:11We're just, we're just, we're just the tractor unit.
00:29:1285 tons?
00:29:1385 tons?
00:29:14Wind it in a bit.
00:29:15Don't see yet, right.
00:29:18See how you're now at 25.
00:29:19Just ease that back a little bit.
00:29:23So as we go around this bend, just give a blast on the whistle.
00:29:29We are moving here.
00:29:30What do you think we weigh?
00:29:32We're just the tractor unit.
00:29:3385 tons?
00:29:3485 tons.
00:29:35Something like that.
00:29:36What, 20, 24 mile an hour?
00:29:38Yeah, 24.
00:29:39We fail to be moving here.
00:29:40Yeah.
00:29:44Anybody can get them going.
00:29:46It's the stopping that's difficult.
00:29:50Slow down quite gradually, but controllably.
00:29:53You need water in that glass all the time.
00:29:56Yeah, you see that, Nat?
00:29:58The water, when I break, the water comes down
00:30:00and that means I'm being too aggressive with a break.
00:30:02Make sure that water doesn't go out of the side glass
00:30:04because it'll just melt the boiler.
00:30:06You've got to be really careful.
00:30:10Right, now you're aiming to stop with that five board
00:30:13alongside you here.
00:30:15No, I can't see...
00:30:16Oh, yeah.
00:30:17Yeah, can you see it?
00:30:18I see it now, yeah, yeah.
00:30:22That's quite responsive, that brake setup, isn't it?
00:30:23Oh, yeah, they're very good brakes from that.
00:30:25Yeah.
00:30:26There we go.
00:30:29Neutral.
00:30:30Right, so now we're going to go backwards.
00:30:32Yeah.
00:30:33So if you put it into back here, full back.
00:30:34Unlike cars, most locomotives are just as happy
00:30:37going backwards at speed as they are going forwards.
00:30:41Release the brake, press the hooter.
00:30:45In there.
00:30:46Just a breath, yeah.
00:30:54You see how that's now at 22?
00:30:55Yeah.
00:30:56We're going uphill here.
00:30:57Yeah.
00:30:58So just give that a little, tiniest little bit.
00:31:00Lordy sensitive, isn't it?
00:31:01Yeah.
00:31:02Yeah.
00:31:09So now we are back on the level going across the reservoir.
00:31:12Bring the speed back down.
00:31:13It's cracked up.
00:31:14Oh, I didn't.
00:31:15Let's rub the brake very slightly.
00:31:17There's a lot of work goes on to keep this going, isn't there?
00:31:20Yeah.
00:31:21Right, shut off.
00:31:22We're off, yeah.
00:31:29Right, team brake.
00:31:32Yep.
00:31:33And that's the engine stable.
00:31:35Right, that's us then.
00:31:36You're doing well, really.
00:31:38Stopped to the right place.
00:31:39Successfully got there and back.
00:31:41That's a lot to take in.
00:31:42Not a lot of time.
00:31:43There's a lot to think about, isn't there?
00:31:44Yeah, my brain's a bit dry.
00:31:45Once you get your head round it, you're all right.
00:31:46Right.
00:31:47You won't be long before you got it wrong and made a mess.
00:31:52And locomotion's going to be out of the mess.
00:31:54Yeah, I think so.
00:31:55It's different.
00:31:56That's the main thing.
00:31:57You've got forwards or backwards.
00:31:58Right.
00:31:59So it's simpler in that sense.
00:32:00It's simpler in that sense, but more difficult to get going originally.
00:32:04Right, right, right.
00:32:05And keeping the fire up on it is going to be a job.
00:32:07Yeah.
00:32:08Yeah, they've had a few challenges with that.
00:32:10Thank you very much.
00:32:11I loved it.
00:32:12I loved it.
00:32:13Yeah, what an introduction.
00:32:14Back at LMS in Loughborough, after a full year of work, the finishing touches are being
00:32:24made to locomotion number one.
00:32:29As specialist joiners fit wooden cladding to the boiler, Guy and Foreman Andy Meredith
00:32:35can now turn their attention to also finishing the tender.
00:32:39This is our tender frame.
00:32:41Yeah.
00:32:42OK.
00:32:43So what we're going to do is fit it onto the wheel sets.
00:32:45Yeah.
00:32:46Almost all steam locomotives use tenders, which attach directly behind them and carry the
00:32:51supply of water and coal to feed the boiler.
00:32:54One person on each corner.
00:32:57Guy's on the far corner.
00:32:58Whoa.
00:32:59I'm going to come down then.
00:33:01A couple of inches.
00:33:03Whoa.
00:33:04How's yours looking, Guy?
00:33:06Knack them all, maybe.
00:33:07Yeah, I think so, mate.
00:33:09That's you, mate.
00:33:10That's you.
00:33:11Yeah?
00:33:12Well, she's in at that.
00:33:13That's the first time it's been on its wheels for quite a while.
00:33:15Go on, are you mentioning a cup of tea?
00:33:17That's where we're going.
00:33:24With tender attached, locomotion is now complete.
00:33:30Whoa.
00:33:31The next step will be to make it move under its own steam, which may prove to be a bit
00:33:37of a challenge.
00:33:39It's going very well, mate.
00:33:41It's just absolutely dead at the moment.
00:33:44Hey there, these things are sent to try us.
00:33:56We're back at LMS in Loughborough.
00:33:58Big day today.
00:33:59Hopefully, the plan is to get our newly rebuilt locomotion replica moving under our own steam
00:34:06for the first time.
00:34:07That's the plan, but we are talking 200-year-old technology, so it might be a long day.
00:34:16Before they can run the locomotive, they need something to run it on.
00:34:22So we'll lay the rails out, all the way out, assemble it all up, and then we'll drag the engine out,
00:34:27get it just outside the building, and then we'll put a fire in it, and then we'll wait while the kettle boils.
00:34:32Which is how long? Because you can't shock it, can you?
00:34:33No, you've got to take a while. It'll be a couple of hours.
00:34:35Right.
00:34:38She's looking so much, though, isn't it?
00:34:40Yeah, yeah.
00:34:42After a whole year of work, the replica of the train that changed the world is finally ready to move.
00:34:51You didn't have to do many of them rivets that I put in.
00:34:54We didn't change any of them.
00:34:55You didn't?
00:34:56So, yeah. The riveting that you can see is your riveting.
00:34:59Bloody hell.
00:35:01I'm going to have to take a picture of it, please.
00:35:03In charge of this first test drive is Foreman Andy.
00:35:08If we manhandle these rails over, we use one of these hooks.
00:35:11Yep.
00:35:12Yeah.
00:35:13Line it over.
00:35:14Go far outside.
00:35:17Right.
00:35:18That's it.
00:35:19It's a very light locomotive, so it's not going to go anywhere.
00:35:22Very light, go on.
00:35:23Very light.
00:35:24About 10 tonnes all up.
00:35:25Yeah.
00:35:26We're looking at those only 10 tonnes.
00:35:27Yeah, about that.
00:35:28It's sat in the locker.
00:35:29Yeah.
00:35:30Whereas a big mainline sort of express engine, 140.
00:35:33Damn God, mate.
00:35:34All right, boss.
00:35:35Yeah.
00:35:36With a couple of tracks laid, Guy levers locomotion out of the shed.
00:35:49Doesn't look much like a train.
00:35:52Heath Robinson.
00:35:54That's the word.
00:35:57Right.
00:35:58Get fire going then.
00:35:59Two or three hours.
00:36:00Gradual heat.
00:36:01Nothing too extreme.
00:36:06All right.
00:36:07Love a good fire, mate.
00:36:08Love a good fire.
00:36:14Put some oily rags in, and then we want a bit of wood on top.
00:36:17That's the foundations of my firelighting, that.
00:36:20Yeah.
00:36:21Just buying bloody firelighters.
00:36:23No, no, no, no.
00:36:24Oily rags.
00:36:25I picked them all up through the year.
00:36:26They generally get us through the winter.
00:36:28Oh, yeah.
00:36:29She's away, that.
00:36:30She's away.
00:36:31She's away.
00:36:32Look in there.
00:36:33That's going the best.
00:36:34So if you shut the door up now, you should find that it'll start to draw nicely up the chimney.
00:36:40Well, if that bugger don't get going, mate, I've bloody cocked up.
00:36:44So we've got the fire there.
00:36:47The fire gets drawn to the front of the engine, through the tubes, and we get the smoke coming out of the chimney there.
00:36:55Right.
00:36:56So we're transferring the energy from the fire to the water.
00:36:59We're going to get the water so hot, we're going to change it from water to steam.
00:37:03And then that steam pressure forces the piston up, which forces that rod up, which pulls that wheel around.
00:37:11But they're both linked together, so everything's in time.
00:37:14Am I right in saying something like that?
00:37:16It's basically right.
00:37:17Right, sort of, sort of like that.
00:37:21The plan is to get the pressure in the boiler up to 50 pounds per square inch, which will produce enough force to get the pistons, and hence the wheels, moving.
00:37:31That requires a lot of heat.
00:37:34However, after an hour, there's clearly a problem.
00:37:38We want some more wood in there.
00:37:41Yeah, it's not going very well, mate.
00:37:43I've cocked up here, I'd always help.
00:37:45That was a good fire lighter, mate.
00:37:47It's not a very big firebox.
00:37:49That's part of the problem.
00:37:50It's really quite small.
00:37:52I think he's a fire operator that's the problem.
00:37:54Well, I wouldn't like to say that.
00:37:55Let's be honest.
00:37:57It definitely could be better.
00:38:01The wood is going at that.
00:38:02It is going, man.
00:38:03He says that, and the fire goes out.
00:38:05Operator error.
00:38:08Another three hours pass, and it's clear the issue isn't Guy's ability to light a fire.
00:38:15Oh, yeah, absolutely.
00:38:17There we go.
00:38:18There we go.
00:38:19A bit of backdraft on you the way now, mate.
00:38:22We thought we'd be, what, light it, half past nine, and then we'd be up to pressure by, what, 11 o'clock.
00:38:30And what, we're on 14.57 now.
00:38:32It's like Gage isn't looking too optimistic, is it?
00:38:34We've still no pressure.
00:38:36If they can't build enough pressure in the boiler, this loco isn't going anywhere except back into the workshop.
00:38:43We can make some modifications.
00:38:44This is the first time we've really, you know, ever played with the engine, so...
00:38:48Oh, she's still stone cold.
00:38:50It's something very different to the normal thing that we're used to.
00:38:53The main issue, it was a very early boiler design, and it wouldn't naturally draw.
00:39:03We've got the fire going, but the fire was just going.
00:39:06We need the thing roaring.
00:39:07We need the fire being pulled down the tubes.
00:39:10So, we had to get an outside air source, right, it's just an air line.
00:39:15Stick that up the chimney to just sort of artificially draw air in the fire, and that created draw.
00:39:21We was cheating, really, by using an outside source, but it got the fire going.
00:39:26We'd have been there for a week.
00:39:28That's what we had to do.
00:39:29More than seven hours after they lit the fire, the pressure gauge finally begins to move.
00:39:3725 psi.
00:39:39So, yeah, nearly in a state to move at that, just about.
00:39:47With the pressure now around 40 psi, a few more metres of track laid,
00:39:52and locomotion towed to the end of it, all is finally ready for the big moment.
00:40:00This will be the first time that it's moved under its own steam for a long time.
00:40:04So, fingers crossed everything's all right.
00:40:07Then that's her, then, ready for action.
00:40:09All good to go.
00:40:10Is this the best place for me?
00:40:11Yeah, I think so.
00:40:12Open the regulator just towards me a bit.
00:40:19And a bit more.
00:40:20A bit more.
00:40:23Watch your head on that one way, mate.
00:40:25She's away.
00:40:26A little bit more.
00:40:29That's it.
00:40:32Shut that off, yeah?
00:40:33Yeah.
00:40:34Oh.
00:40:35That's it.
00:40:36Bloody hell, there we go.
00:40:42Oh, yeah.
00:40:43That's it.
00:40:44A bit of momentum here.
00:40:45Go on.
00:40:46We've got a little bit of track there.
00:40:48That's it.
00:40:49Still got a D16, nearly 40 psi.
00:40:53Despite obvious issues, the first test drive is considered a success.
00:40:58And the locomotive's now building up so much pressure that it needs to let off steam.
00:41:04Safety valves at the front now are just starting to feather.
00:41:07Just now?
00:41:09There you go.
00:41:11That's his very size.
00:41:14What a day.
00:41:15Trying to recreate a cutting edge piece of technology from 200 years ago.
00:41:19And there's some faff getting the thing working.
00:41:22You know what I mean?
00:41:23Trying to understand it.
00:41:24How to keep steam.
00:41:25How to make steam.
00:41:27We've not knackered anything.
00:41:28Exactly.
00:41:29We've not ran over anyone.
00:41:30We've not ended up in the middle of Loughborough.
00:41:31Exactly.
00:41:32Yeah.
00:41:33Cracking job.
00:41:34No thanks very much.
00:41:35It's a promising start.
00:41:37But with the anniversary fast approaching, the locomotive now needs to be tested on a proper track.
00:41:43So it's loaded onto a truck for a short road trip to the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre in Ruddington.
00:42:02Here the team hope to run it on a 10-mile stretch of what was the Great Central Railway.
00:42:08Worryingly though, getting it running is now proving to be even more of a problem than it was in the yard.
00:42:15Even after a full day of feeding the firebox, there is no steam pressure at all in the boiler.
00:42:22Unfortunately, the fire's not drawing very well, so a little bit of an issue with the drafting of the fire.
00:42:30It's only been in steam, what, three times, so you wouldn't have thought the tubes would be blocked up.
00:42:34Yeah.
00:42:35I don't know.
00:42:36I'll ring David and let him know the good news.
00:42:42It's just absolutely dead at the moment.
00:42:43It's just not drawing at all.
00:42:44Yeah.
00:42:45I mean, there's more smoke coming out of the firebox than it's coming out of the chimney.
00:42:48Have we got a tube brush at work?
00:42:50If I come back tonight and pick that up, then maybe we'll have a go rod that through first thing in the morning
00:42:56and then just see if we can actually get the thing to, you know, make pressure.
00:43:01Feeling a little despondent, they call it a day.
00:43:05Hey there, these things are sent to try us.
00:43:08The 200th anniversary run of 26 miles is now looking like a very, very big ask.
00:43:15While the locomotion replica is having trouble getting going.
00:43:30Steam engines for you.
00:43:31Back in 1825, the real thing sparked a transport revolution that changed the world.
00:43:41Soon steam trains were operating on every inhabited continent, transporting people and products at unheard of speeds that shrunk the globe.
00:43:50But after a century of dominance, just like the canals, the age of steam was about to fall victim to progress.
00:44:03Steam was great until the early 1900s.
00:44:06And then this clever German fellow here, he looks like he knows what he's on about, right?
00:44:10He came up with a way more efficient way to make energy.
00:44:13The clever German wanted to adapt the new technology of the internal combustion engine to create a more efficient locomotive.
00:44:23Here's our man's invention here.
00:44:26You'll know what it is when I tell you his name, Rudolf Diesel.
00:44:33Diesel's invention was an engine in which the pistons were moved by the ignition of fuel and air under pressure within the cylinders.
00:44:41Diesel patented his first engine in 1898.
00:44:46His invention would prove to be up to four times more fuel efficient than steam and very, very strong.
00:44:53The most powerful diesel locomotives these days can pull as much as 10,000 tonnes.
00:44:58Today, Guy's at the Seven Valley Railway in Shropshire for the UK's biggest diesel locomotive festival.
00:45:10To immerse himself in a worldwide phenomenon created by trains.
00:45:15That of the rail enthusiast.
00:45:18And he's meeting up with the most enthusiastic of them all.
00:45:21Now, Francis. You're Francis. Nice to meet you, mate. I'm Guy.
00:45:26Lovely to meet you.
00:45:27How are you getting on, mate?
00:45:28Welcome to paradise. We've got so much to talk about engine-wise.
00:45:31Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:45:34Francis Bourgeois' idiosyncratic train-based social media posts have won him over 5 million followers.
00:45:40Oh my God!
00:45:46What train's that there?
00:45:47I think that's 2142.
00:45:50That's a class 20.
00:45:52It's just like someone who likes music can tell what specific woodwind instruments are.
00:45:57So you know it's hooter.
00:45:58It's not that it's hooted in a certain fashion to dictate what train it is.
00:46:01It's just you know that, the note.
00:46:03Just the pitch.
00:46:05It's all about the noises.
00:46:07Right, okay.
00:46:13Every year, the Diesel Festival attracts thousands of railway enthusiasts.
00:46:19And this year, it seems they're all keen to meet both Guy and Francis.
00:46:24So the two of them find a quieter spot away from the crowds to spot trains and talk railways.
00:46:32It feels very weird sitting down here, it has to be said.
00:46:35Why that?
00:46:37I've got a massive train running towards us.
00:46:39Yes.
00:46:40All right mate.
00:46:45There's something about the railway and the feeling that I get from trains.
00:46:51It's like a...
00:46:52I can see this, you're not putting this on here.
00:46:53You are into it.
00:46:54And it's not just me.
00:46:55People come here time after time to hear the same locomotives make the same sound because of the feeling that it gives us.
00:47:04It makes us cry.
00:47:05It makes us laugh.
00:47:06It makes us shout.
00:47:08These trains will make you cry?
00:47:10Yeah.
00:47:11Yeah.
00:47:12I cried yesterday.
00:47:14Did you?
00:47:15Yeah.
00:47:16I love my engines mate but they don't make me cry.
00:47:18They've made me cry in other ways.
00:47:19I even forgot to shave this morning because nothing else mattered that much.
00:47:23Right.
00:47:25Diesel engines started being used on British railways in the 1930s.
00:47:30At that time, there were still over 20,000 steam locomotives in use.
00:47:36But by the end of 1968, steam had disappeared completely from the mainline.
00:47:42Why did diesel overtake the steam train?
00:47:46It was...
00:47:47Because there is a lot of faff with the steam train, isn't there?
00:47:48Yeah.
00:47:49As much as we love them.
00:47:50You had a vast range of skills required to operate a steam locomotive.
00:47:56Compared to diesel engines, they were more likely to be in the shed, in the workshop, than they were working out on the mainline.
00:48:03Yeah.
00:48:04It was British Rail's kind of plan to make the railway more efficient, more cost effective and to make more money, essentially.
00:48:15Diesel was cheaper, faster, more reliable and could pull bigger loads than steam.
00:48:21At the end of the day, that's what it was all about, wasn't it?
00:48:23Shifting stuff about the country, about the world, as cheap as possible.
00:48:26Well, they're still using them now, aren't they?
00:48:30That was a Class 56 horn.
00:48:32Class 56s are your favourite.
00:48:34Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:48:36And 56113, of all Class 56s, has the best horn.
00:48:41Yeah.
00:48:42And this thing shakes the ground.
00:48:44It'll shake your ribcage.
00:48:45Would it?
00:48:47I'm getting to a point where I'm talking about it so much that I'm getting emotional.
00:48:51I can see this, mate. Bloody hell.
00:48:53That's all it takes.
00:48:55I'm not even joking.
00:48:56I know you're not.
00:48:58Do you think you could film for me, Guy?
00:49:00Of course I can.
00:49:01I'm not much of a Steven Spielberg, though, mate.
00:49:04Well, it's a bit posh, this, innit?
00:49:05Do you hear that bass frequency?
00:49:08I do, yeah.
00:49:10Do you hear that turbo?
00:49:11I can hear her, mate, yeah.
00:49:13Oh!
00:49:19Hey!
00:49:20There we go, boss man.
00:49:22Right, come on.
00:49:23I'm watching.
00:49:24Can we have a go on one?
00:49:25Yes.
00:49:26And we'll go up to Kidderminster, into Beaudley Tunnel.
00:49:30And Beaudley Tunnel.
00:49:31And Beaudley Tunnel is like...
00:49:36We'll need to let people off first.
00:49:37Sorry, mate.
00:49:38Sorry.
00:49:39Shall we have a cup of tea while we're here?
00:49:40OK.
00:49:41I just want to make sure we secure a good seat.
00:49:43Put her in gear, mate.
00:49:44Jesus, going on, he spilled the tune.
00:49:45We're approaching Beaudley Tunnel.
00:49:46Ah!
00:49:47Ready for this?
00:49:48It's always going to let rip, isn't he?
00:49:49Yeah.
00:49:50Woo!
00:49:51Woo!
00:49:52Pouring gear, mate. Jesus, going on, he spilled the tune.
00:49:59We're approaching Fugly Tunnel.
00:50:04Ready for this?
00:50:07It's always more like rip, isn't he?
00:50:09Yeah.
00:50:17Woo!
00:50:22Oh, you're into that.
00:50:35Mate, fair point.
00:50:36Yeah.
00:50:39That's what we'll do it for, you know.
00:50:41I love the passion for it, mate.
00:50:52A week later, Guy's up early at another heritage railway.
00:50:56Today, he'll be at the controls of locomotion number one.
00:50:59Looks the job, don't it?
00:51:00For his first proper track test.
00:51:04So the first job, basically, is to take the fire grate out.
00:51:08Just getting locomotion number one into steam is still proving a big challenge.
00:51:13What we've discovered, having operated it several times now, that literally it'll only do a single day of steaming.
00:51:21The amount of soot that gets built up in the tubes, it actually blocks the tubes.
00:51:26Right.
00:51:27Yeah, and then we get no draw on the fire.
00:51:29Mechanically, the engine's been actually very successful.
00:51:31It seems to work nicely.
00:51:33I'll say touch wood at that.
00:51:36But it's just the boiler that seems to be the problem.
00:51:38It just doesn't generate enough steam.
00:51:43I know you don't mind a bit of dirt.
00:51:44Oh, I'm not against a bit of mud, mate.
00:51:48Right, so that crossbar that you can see at the end there.
00:51:51Yeah.
00:51:52If you actually just rotate it towards you, it'll come off the lugs.
00:51:55Yeah.
00:51:56Right, you got it?
00:51:57Yeah.
00:51:58That's the worst part of it, is getting that out.
00:52:00Is it?
00:52:01Yeah, and getting it back in.
00:52:02It is, mate.
00:52:04So now, you can see all the tubes.
00:52:06Probably down to half the original diameter.
00:52:08Is that?
00:52:09So we're not getting enough heat transferring at the wall?
00:52:10Yeah, exactly.
00:52:11The air's not drawing through.
00:52:12And then, of course, the flames, when the engine's actually working,
00:52:14aren't being drawn up through the tubes.
00:52:16Right.
00:52:17So here's the tube brush.
00:52:18Yeah.
00:52:19Lovely job.
00:52:20Lovely job.
00:52:23And then you want to push it all the way through,
00:52:25right to the end.
00:52:26And you feel it drop out.
00:52:28Yeah.
00:52:29And that gets all the soot out.
00:52:31Bloody hell.
00:52:32You can almost see the double the size of it.
00:52:36Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:52:37You can see where I've been and where I haven't.
00:52:42Job's a peach, mate.
00:52:43Yeah.
00:52:47All the soot out of the tube.
00:52:51Build a fire into it now, then.
00:52:52Sam, go on.
00:52:53Where's the coal?
00:52:55She's all there now, man.
00:52:58Once it's away, we'll shut the door.
00:53:00Happy enough.
00:53:01Yeah.
00:53:02They've got smoke coming out of the Chimbley,
00:53:03so that's always a good sign.
00:53:06You had a bit dirt in your face.
00:53:10That's what my missus would say.
00:53:11You had a bit dirt in your face.
00:53:13Yeah, I know.
00:53:14I've been sat in a boiler.
00:53:18The gauge is on the money.
00:53:19Yeah.
00:53:20We've got plenty of steam on.
00:53:21Yeah.
00:53:22You can be the sound for that,
00:53:23so we need to be making the most of it.
00:53:25Yeah?
00:53:26Handbrake off.
00:53:27Dig on the bell.
00:53:28To let people know we're going to start the move.
00:53:31You all right?
00:53:32Yeah.
00:53:34Time to find out if locomotion number one can manage a proper run.
00:53:41Yeah, I was a bit nervous when we set off.
00:53:43It's just unnerving because you're so high and it's so narrow.
00:53:48Shut it off now.
00:53:49Let it roll.
00:53:50David is acting as fireman and a chap from the Grand Central Railway in a bowler hat has come along to operate the points.
00:53:59Ten mile an hour with as little steam as you can get away with.
00:54:04Ten mile an hour with this open as little as possible.
00:54:06Yeah.
00:54:07As little as possible.
00:54:08Yeah.
00:54:13If we can get to a speed and that gauge maintains, then we're in the sweet spot.
00:54:16But if we're going ten mile an hour and that gauge is dropping off, we're not going to mess it.
00:54:20Sadly, the pressure starts to drop sharply and they come to a stop after less than a mile.
00:54:29Right, we'll try and get a bit of pressure back in then.
00:54:31Yeah, exactly.
00:54:32So we're having a bit of a blow up now.
00:54:34That's a blow up.
00:54:35When you're right out of steam, we're just blowing up here.
00:54:37Yeah, yeah.
00:54:38Right.
00:54:39We've got a certain amount of steam.
00:54:40It's how we're going to use it.
00:54:41Obviously, you need a certain amount of steam to get moving.
00:54:43But this is a slight hill, a slight hill.
00:54:46So when we're coming back, we might do it in one go because we've got gravity helping us.
00:54:49Maybe.
00:54:50Maybe.
00:54:51I'm the optimist.
00:54:52We're almost at the magic 40.
00:54:53Right, okay.
00:54:54Are we going to start at 40?
00:54:55Well, we'll get it up to 50, I think.
00:54:57Right.
00:54:58Or near us.
00:54:59After an hour at a standstill, the pressure's back up at the magic 50.
00:55:05Hey!
00:55:14But after another mile and a half, they lose pressure again and stop in Rushcliffe Holt Station
00:55:20for another blow up before the return journey.
00:55:25Well, a blow up to me is when the engine explodes and we've got comrods outside the engine.
00:55:28Yeah.
00:55:29But a blow up here is when you run out of steam.
00:55:31Yeah.
00:55:32Isn't that wasting steam?
00:55:33We're not wasting steam.
00:55:34Yeah.
00:55:35Yeah.
00:55:36Yeah.
00:55:37We are wasting steam.
00:55:38We are wasting steam.
00:55:39All right, come on, man.
00:55:40Let's get cracking.
00:55:41Make the most of this steam.
00:55:42Yeah.
00:55:43How we looking?
00:55:44We'll tell you when to worry.
00:55:45Don't worry.
00:55:4644.
00:55:4740 L.
00:55:48We're doing all right then.
00:55:49Happy?
00:55:50When people were looking at this 200 years ago, there'd have been lots.
00:55:51There's nothing really that we look at and go, oh, is there?
00:55:52Yeah, yeah, SpaceX.
00:55:53Those real landing spaceships, that is amazing.
00:55:54But take me 200 years ago and I'd seen nothing and I saw this.
00:55:56This is beyond amazing.
00:55:57200 years ago.
00:55:58200 years ago.
00:55:59When she discovered there would have gone and gone over here
00:56:03to the sun, the sun, the sun, the star.
00:56:07We've just missed her and I'll keep going over here.
00:56:09Yeah.
00:56:10We've missed her.
00:56:11We are, we're going over here.
00:56:12We can go over here.
00:56:13It would have been a long journey.
00:56:14We don't have to worry.
00:56:15Don't worry, don't worry.
00:56:1644.
00:56:17Oh yeah, we're doing all right then.
00:56:18Happy?
00:56:19When people were looking at this 200 years ago, there'd have been lots.
00:56:22There's nothing really that we look at and go, oh, is there?
00:56:23Yeah, yeah, SpaceX.
00:56:24Those real landing spaceships, that is amazing.
00:56:25But take me 200 years ago and I'd seen nothing and I saw this.
00:56:28When steam trains first appeared,
00:56:30people feared that the smoke and steam would blight crops
00:56:34or that the noise would scare cows so much
00:56:36they'd stop producing milk.
00:56:39Just ring the bell.
00:56:41And animals did get killed.
00:56:43Cows, sheep, dogs and wildlife
00:56:45wandering onto the tracks oblivious to the danger.
00:56:49A problem that still exists to this day.
00:56:53Hey, get a dog!
00:56:55Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:57:03Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:57:06Go on, get the dog, get the dog, get the dog.
00:57:08Bloody hell, love.
00:57:10That was nearly.
00:57:12Bloody hell.
00:57:14Well, you're not riding emergency stops, anyway.
00:57:17Yeah!
00:57:24They complete the return leg with no further animal encounters
00:57:27and Guy now has a full day at the controls under his belt.
00:57:33It's quite simple, but it's, yeah, almost fairly tense.
00:57:38You did really, really well.
00:57:39Yeah, drove it nice and smooth.
00:57:41Yeah, can't fault him at all.
00:57:43There's a lot going on.
00:57:45Not being too keen with the throttle
00:57:47because you're going to waste a bit too much steam.
00:57:50We nearly run over a dog.
00:57:51I don't know if you've got it on your camera.
00:57:52We nearly run over a dog up there.
00:57:54We had to do an emergency stop.
00:57:56Anyway, the dog was all right.
00:57:58Well, that's it then.
00:57:58Sound job.
00:57:59Did you enjoy that?
00:58:00Yeah, brilliant.
00:58:01Brilliant, lol.
00:58:03It's just a lot going on.
00:58:04I'm ready for my bed tonight.
00:58:07Guys had a grand day out,
00:58:09but with the 200th anniversary celebrations now just around the corner,
00:58:14there's still a huge question mark over whether locomotion number one
00:58:19will actually be able to pull a train for 25 miles
00:58:22in front of tens of thousands of onlookers.
00:58:26I was thinking about it.
00:58:38After 18 months of building a perfect replica of locomotion number one,
00:58:43the big anniversary weekend has finally arrived.
00:58:46We're going to get a bit of a fire on this.
00:58:48So if you want to pick up the shovel and that fire grate in there,
00:58:51cover it in coal.
00:58:54Guys up before dawn along with engineer Richard Pearson
00:58:57to prep locomotion for the first of three days of celebrations
00:59:01as it recreates its world-changing journey of 1825
00:59:06along the Stockton and Darlington railway.
00:59:11What we've discovered is that the S&DR
00:59:13is not the Stockton and Darlington railway.
00:59:16With this engine, it is the slow and dirty railway.
00:59:18OK, now it's it.
00:59:20Right, OK.
00:59:24With a long day ahead,
00:59:26it's not just locomotion that needs fuelling up.
00:59:32You like a bit of charcoal in your sausages, do you?
00:59:34Oh, yeah, I'm all right.
00:59:35Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:59:36As you can see, I'm not much of a chef, mate.
00:59:39Oh!
00:59:41Give that one a dog.
00:59:41It's got to make sure they're cut right, too, hasn't it?
00:59:46I've got fairly hard and guts, mate.
00:59:49I can take it anyhow.
00:59:53I'll pick the dregs up, mate.
00:59:56Oh, cheers. Thank you.
00:59:59Lovely.
01:00:00Give me one.
01:00:04No sign of that gauge moving yet.
01:00:06Crowds from around the world
01:00:12and royalty in the shape of Prince Edward
01:00:15have come to see this replica
01:00:17of what is arguably the most important train on Earth.
01:00:22It will need to pull three replica coal wagons
01:00:25plus a replica carriage for 26 miles.
01:00:29A tall order for a machine that during testing
01:00:32struggled to cover even two miles
01:00:35without running out of steam.
01:00:37Right.
01:00:38We drove it at Ruddington three months ago.
01:00:42It was good, wasn't it?
01:00:43But there was niggles.
01:00:44It had a job keeping its steam.
01:00:46So since then, the boys have been on the case
01:00:48swapping the coal type.
01:00:50From what I'm gathering,
01:00:51it's not as calorifically dense
01:00:53because you use twice as much of it,
01:00:55but it burns loads faster and generates loads more heat.
01:00:57So it's more like barbecue coal.
01:00:58That's helped generate more temperature
01:01:01and lets it maintain steam pressure for longer.
01:01:05They were talking about putting a GTI sticker on it.
01:01:07It's loads faster, it's loads more usable now.
01:01:09She's going to rip along today, isn't she?
01:01:12It's up, sir.
01:01:13Yeah.
01:01:14But sadly, new coal isn't the only tweak.
01:01:19Elton Safety's got involved, right?
01:01:20U-I-I, is it U-I-I?
01:01:23O-R-R, right.
01:01:24Office of Rail and Road have got involved
01:01:26and they wasn't too happy.
01:01:28Because you saw when I drove it at Ruddington,
01:01:30I was controlling the regulator from the top.
01:01:34You happy?
01:01:35Yeah, perfect, yeah.
01:01:36O-R-R wasn't overly happy
01:01:39because she's working at heights.
01:01:41Someone could fall in between there,
01:01:43someone could hurt themselves.
01:01:47So they've had to rejig it from them
01:01:50and put the driving controls now here.
01:01:53So now you can drive it from the back.
01:01:55The plan was originally for Guy
01:01:58to co-drive locomotion alongside an experienced driver
01:02:02up on the driver's platform.
01:02:04With the new position of the controls,
01:02:06he'll be riding along as crew on the footplate.
01:02:09Yeah, I think we'd have been struggling
01:02:12to get an industrial revolution going
01:02:14if we was dealing with these sort of people.
01:02:19I'm sure there's reasons and there's sense in there
01:02:21somewhere down the line,
01:02:22but at this point in time,
01:02:23I just think I could swear
01:02:25but I'm not going to swear.
01:02:27But I am now not the driver.
01:02:28So Chris, who is the man,
01:02:31Chris is going to drive it.
01:02:32I'm going to get to experience it.
01:02:34I'm going to be on the footplate.
01:02:42The scheduled departure time is now closing in.
01:02:46If anything needs final adjustment,
01:02:47we can do it up there,
01:02:48but we must leave on time.
01:02:49Down, John.
01:02:50Sorry, sorry.
01:02:52Come on.
01:02:55So Guy and the crew reverse locomotion
01:02:59into its starting position.
01:03:01You will recognise you, Guy Martin.
01:03:14Now then, you're all right.
01:03:16You've been working on this project, haven't you,
01:03:18for quite some time.
01:03:19Yeah, making a documentary for about a year or so.
01:03:22I'm going to be on the footplate with the lads.
01:03:24Yeah, big round, mate.
01:03:25I'm looking forward to it.
01:03:26Enjoy your day.
01:03:26Prince Edward will ride the short journey
01:03:30back to Shilden Station
01:03:32before locomotion continues to Darlington today
01:03:35and then on to Stockton over the following two days.
01:03:39And then closest to us
01:03:42is a gentleman by the name of Mr. Guy Martin,
01:03:44who you may know.
01:03:45He is used to vehicles which go a little bit faster.
01:03:48Time to leave, and the pressure is on
01:03:52this historic machine to perform.
01:04:00He's thinking about it.
01:04:04There she goes.
01:04:05Three cheers for Little Commission No.1
01:04:19and the Stockton and Dunsville Festival.
01:04:22Three cheers, please.
01:04:23Three cheers, please.
01:04:27Three cheers, please.
01:04:29Three cheers, please.
01:04:35One more time.
01:04:37Three cheers, please.
01:04:39Three cheers, please.
01:04:41Three cheers, please.
01:04:42Three cheers, please.
01:04:42Three cheers, please.
01:04:43Three cheers, please.
01:04:44Three cheers, please.
01:04:45Three cheers, please.
01:04:46One more time.
01:04:47On its first short leg,
01:04:48locomotion runs perfectly.
01:04:50A mighty relief.
01:04:51One more time.
01:04:52One more time.
01:04:53Once we got her away, mate,
01:04:54she was a bit steady getting going.
01:04:55What was she got going, mate?
01:04:56We got a bit of momentum into it.
01:04:57Brilliant, excellent, fantastic.
01:04:59Very good.
01:05:01Well done again.
01:05:02I've been running again.
01:05:03It's great.
01:05:04Lovely to meet you.
01:05:05Well done.
01:05:06Cheers.
01:05:07Just as happened 200 years ago.
01:05:21Crowds turn out along the whole 26-mile route to cheer on locomotion number one.
01:05:28This has been amazing.
01:05:31People and busy and a lot going on.
01:05:35Here is locomotion number one.
01:05:41We change the world from here.
01:05:46The locomotion replica is a spectacle once again.
01:05:49After the early challenges, it's holding pressure and maintaining speed
01:05:54and completes the 26-mile route without a hitch.
01:05:58Oh, boy.
01:05:59No, no crash helmet needed on here, mate.
01:06:03Of the amount of people that said today about going fast,
01:06:06this job isn't about speed.
01:06:08It's about mechanics, engineering, thinking of stuff.
01:06:12Just celebrating the mines 200 years ago came up with this amazing invention.
01:06:17This short journey was a key event in the Industrial Revolution.
01:06:24That's drawing well, isn't it?
01:06:26The start of a railway network that over the next century spread across the globe
01:06:32and cemented Great Britain as the world's preeminent superpower.
01:06:37This was the first form of Howard's public transport anywhere in the world.
01:06:41So whether it's boats, trains, cruise ships, buses, anything you can think of,
01:06:47this was the first form of Howard public transport anywhere in the world.
01:06:54It all started, it all started with that train.
01:06:56It all started it all, wasn't it?
01:06:57Yeah.
01:06:58It all started everything.
01:06:59I can see now the passion in the railway world.
01:07:02What an honour to be aboard.
01:07:05Oh boys, thank you very much for your time.
01:07:09Letting me get aboard.
01:07:11What an adventure.
01:07:13Beautiful day.
01:07:15It's great.
01:07:16Thank you very much.
01:07:17It's been an honour, a pleasure to meet you.
01:07:20It has been.
01:07:21As long as you run guide yourself, that's what it's all about.
01:07:23Mate, it's been mint.
01:07:24Right, we'll see you in a bit.
01:07:26Cheers, mate.
01:07:27Yeah, and the amount of people have said,
01:07:28you lucky the way you've done it.
01:07:30Yeah, it was mint.
01:07:35Well, those that keep traditions alive on Moor 4,
01:07:37to the North Yorkshire Heritage Lines for their new series Steam Train Diaries.
01:07:41That starts Bonfire Night from 9.
01:07:43Now, Channel 4 next Sunday in a battle for brilliance in a barn of yarn.
01:07:47Join Tom Daley for a new series, The Game of Wool.
01:07:50That's from 8.
01:07:51Change cars often and stay one step ahead next.
01:07:53That's the lesson of the day in New Hunted.
01:07:56All that time?
01:07:57Yeah.
01:07:58Yeah.
01:07:59Then go, yeah.
01:08:01How?
01:08:03I can take another one of our friends mine.
01:08:04The thing is behind, Curtiss hoop to come in with us,
01:08:06the name.
01:08:07Future Temple is always with our friends,
01:08:08our friends.
01:08:09We're with them.
01:08:10Stay home.
01:08:11Timeute.
01:08:12Give us a grand house.
01:08:13The way we LAN newйman for the day in New Hunted,
01:08:16the room, we're was with our arum of fire.
01:08:19Go home.
01:08:20The eerie frenzy mettars rack.
01:08:21As you live.
01:08:22Don't walk in here.
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