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00:01one of the most spectacular railway lines ever built with an extraordinary shrouded history
00:09if you want to smuggle people you can go through can Frank if you want to do anything illegal at
00:15all can Frank is your place secret documents revealing smuggled World War two Nazi treasure
00:2486 and a half tons of gold have been shipped through can Frank from occupied France a
00:32remarkable role in the fight against Hitler's Third Reich on one level literally you have Nazis
00:39holding parties and yet on the level above them you've got railway workers who are gathering
00:45information and selling it on and an engineering project that became a victim of its own ambition
00:53a massive success in terms of scale trying to conquer the mountains but in human terms
01:00what was it all about this is the Trans Pyrenean railway line and here is its hidden story
01:12in this series we explore some of the greatest railways in the world and the secrets surrounding
01:19them from the ancient hills of Europe to the wastes of the Yukon Valley in North America
01:27their dark and forgotten pasts have left their mark on history
01:48at the heart of the Trans Pyrenean line is a deserted building of epic proportion
01:58and Frank is in the middle of nowhere it's a certain niche valley high up in the Pyrenean mountains it's
02:07a super
02:08eerie place when it was built in the largest stations in Europe it's not for nothing that
02:16it was nicknamed the Titanic of the mountains you've got to get a sense of the scale of can Frank
02:25it's
02:25absolutely massive it's 240 meters long that's nearly 800 feet and it's got as many windows as
02:35there are days of the year and there are over 150 doors sometimes called the Versailles of the Pyrenees
02:41and for good reason but why was it here and what purpose did it serve
02:51in the big cities of the world in New York Paris and London you get these massive stations there are
02:57statements of confidence and reliability about the railways but this isn't in a capital city this
03:05is in the middle of nowhere but it's a border and it's an important political statement from one country
03:12to another these two countries are France and Spain divided by a mighty mountain range that stretches
03:25over 250 miles from coast to coast between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea those mountains have been
03:36crossed by the bravest adventurers for centuries for trade pilgrimage and even war
03:46the Pyrenees is the natural border but it's also a very tough border to get across the trans Pyrenean route
03:55took a long time to build it was fraught to danger and difficult obstacles crossing the Pyrenees is a landmark
04:03in
04:03engineering history an incredible achievement but it turned out not to be an amazing success
04:13two lines were built at the turn of the 20th century one from Spain the other from France they crossed
04:21right
04:21through the Pyrenees and met in can Frank today the abandoned station is a testament to its former glory
04:33and remains the guardian of many secrets
04:40Jonathan Diaz is a French retired bus driver who used to travel to can Frank daily
04:51now you can see the trees growing inside it's so weird it feels like the place is cursed
05:01you moody in the winter of 2000 he made a remarkable discovery that shocked the world
05:08all the I had gone for a walk after a two-hour drive and I came across some old papers
05:14just thrown on the ground
05:16there what he found was a clue to one of the most important questions of the Second World War
05:29I took a handful of papers and luckily enough one of them said lingotes de oro gold bar it's thanks
05:38to
05:38these two words that I thought it can't be there were papers all over the ground they were copies of
05:48orders
05:48that indicated precisely that nearly eighty six and a half tons of gold have been shipped through can Frank from
05:57occupied France
06:04unbelievably what Jonathan had found was official documentation that proved the passage of Nazi gold through the station during World
06:13War two
06:19over 80 tons of gold went through here at Camp Frank
06:23none of the historians I talked to knew about it and no one had mentioned it in their history books
06:30when you look at 86 tons of gold you look at hundreds of millions of dollars this is a lot
06:36of wealth going into Spain
06:38the Nazis were always interested in gold they had plundered gold from the central banks of various countries they occupied
06:47also notoriously Jews who died in the concentration camp had gold fillings extracted from their teeth and
06:56they plundered private gold rings jewelry earrings that sort of thing from the people who they persecuted and killed
07:04gold the mystery has been whatever happened to that gold this discovery was like a bombshell in the history of
07:12Can Frank but how was so much freight activity possible in the first place and how was this railway line
07:22carved through the mountains
07:30rewind to the mid 19th century when the railway was only a pipe dream
07:36there were already lines going either side to the Pyrenees getting to France to Spain but they needed a faster
07:43route to get between Paris and Madrid and this they decided was the way of doing it right across the
07:49top going through these mountains going up to the valleys build it they must
07:54they thought and build it they did
08:00Nowadays the modern road follows the train tracks and from it we can still see the rail buildings that remain
08:09Local historian Regine Peor-Gerp knows them well
08:14In French the word for all these tunnel bridges is
08:22is
08:23artworks
08:26When you think that it was all done by hand
08:31its name makes complete sense
08:37But these works had a price
08:43The railway construction was hugely costly not in terms of money but also in terms of lives
08:48It was a really treacherous route to build through those mountains and those tunnels and those bridges
08:53They required huge amounts of explosives that of course you know were being detonated you know at frequent intervals
09:01It's a dangerous place to work
09:06The problem was that the French side of the Pyrenees was particularly steep
09:15So how did the early 20th century engineers cope with the mountains seemingly impossible gradient?
09:24The obvious answer was hydroelectric
09:26Use the power of the mountain to generate electricity to drive those trains
09:32What a simple solution
09:39The electric trains were better on slopes than steam powered ones
09:43Without this solution a train through the Pyrenees would not have been viable
09:51But even electric trains have their limits
09:54So other feats of engineering were desperately needed
09:59There are lots of different ways to get an engine up a mountain
10:03To conquer the gradient
10:04But the loveliest solution
10:07And this railway has got a perfect example
10:10Is to build a spiral
10:11So the entrance point
10:12Is almost in the same place as the exit point
10:16With a big circle in between
10:17But 60 metres apart
10:20That's 190 feet
10:24Very, very elegant
10:25And totally hidden within the mountain
10:30It's confusing
10:32It's confusing
10:33Because the train go in
10:35And start by going in the opposite direction
10:40To the place you actually mean to go
10:47The spiral tunnel was ingenious but labour intensive
10:54To go up 190 feet
10:56Workers had to dig a mile long tunnel
11:03But the crown jewel of the Trans Pyrenees construction
11:06Was the majestic Canfrank station itself
11:13However, there was a problem from the beginning
11:17The tracks didn't match in size
11:20The French on their standard gauge
11:23And the Spanish on a slightly broader gauge
11:25Meant that trains couldn't pass straight through
11:29Everything stopped
11:30This was basically a great big border
11:33Yeah, it was a Trans Pyrenean railway
11:35But really, actually, it was two railways
11:37That stopped in the middle
11:42Despite knowledge of the French gauge
11:44The Spanish had built their railway system
11:47With a different one
11:48A sign that they didn't necessarily trust
11:51Their neighbours to the north
11:57In peacetime, railways are mainly used for leisure
12:00Business and freight
12:01But in wartime, they become a vulnerability
12:04Allowing the enemy to penetrate deep into foreign territories
12:11In fact, the truth is that the Spanish started building their railway system in 1848
12:1880 years before the Trans Pyrenean line was opened
12:23When the Canfrank station was being built
12:26The Spanish actually wanted to encourage a good relationship between the two countries
12:32But they already had their train tracks in place
12:35Which were of a different gauge to the French
12:41Canfrank is not just a break of gauge point
12:43It's also a border town
12:45So when the passengers have to change trains between the wide gauge and the narrow gauge
12:49Or vice versa
12:51They also have to have their passports checked as well
12:56It's a massive, massive operation
12:58It's a massive, massive operation
12:58Your luggage, stuff we moved across
13:00It's a massive break of journey at that station
13:04The wait could be long
13:06Very long
13:08And Canfrank was there to accommodate everyone's needs
13:12A luxury hotel
13:14A vast luggage room
13:15A bureau de charge
13:17And a post office for each country
13:22I mean, even the French side had to accommodate the French Embassy, for example
13:26And all the staff working in this mountain resort effectively
13:30In the middle of nowhere
13:31It is the size of about 20 hotels on the Riviera
13:35Just built in a row and all cobbled together
13:38It is the most extraordinary place
13:43The thing that stands out in the holiday photographs is Canfrank Station
13:47The Titanic of the mountains
13:49But actually, the real engineering is behind that
13:57The station, for all its grandeur, was in great danger
14:02To protect it, the engineers would have to play God
14:05And harness the unpredictable forces of nature
14:12Rocio Hurtado is a Spanish mountain engineer
14:15Who's passionate about her predecessor's work
14:17And understands the inhospitable landscape well
14:23When people come to confront, they come to see the station
14:27But they don't look around and see this big forest
14:33It's hard to believe
14:35But every single tree in the mountains surrounding Canfrank has a purpose
14:44I wanted to take you here because this is a great place
14:46Nobody knows it, it's quite unknown
14:48But now that we are up here, we have the sense of the station down there
14:55It's a valley, very narrow and very steep
14:59So from a military point of view, it's very easy to defend
15:05When they started building, they realised that it was the worst place for building a station
15:10Because there were avalanches and rocks falling from everywhere
15:18In winter, a huge amount of snow can build up in the mountains above Canfrank
15:23Threatening to destroy everything in its path
15:29The engineers were forced to throw money at the problem
15:32And 40% of their entire budget was spent purely on its protection alone
15:38Three times the usual amount for a project of this kind
15:47Millions of trees were planted up to the tree line around the mountains
15:50Just to protect it and try to slow some of that snow down before it hit the station
15:56One by one, seven million trees were planted
16:01But trees alone would not stop the power of the snow
16:08These big structures were also constructed to protect both the station and the forest
16:17You can see it right there, some avalanches still come down, they are small ones
16:21But we can see that all the trees are down
16:29The defences didn't stop there
16:31Once the snow melted, fast flowing water became the next threat
16:39The river that ran through this, this river Aragon
16:42It was diverted away from the station with these extra steps put in it as well
16:46Just to try and make sure this treacherous river didn't knock down the railway
16:50I mean the entire landscape is a massive feat of engineering
16:55But giant snow slides, falling rocks and bursting rivers
17:00Weren't the Spanish engineers only problems
17:06Crossing the mountains, gaping valleys also needed practical solutions
17:13Spanish historian and railway worker, Alfonso Marco
17:17Was born in Canfrac Station
17:19And knows this line like the back of his hand
17:26We are now descending from Canfrac to Jacob
17:29And we are now approaching to the tunnel number 8
17:34After this tunnel, we are entering into the Cenarbe viaduct
17:41It's a viaducting cove, it's really lovely
17:48You don't have to be an expert to see the Cenarbe viaduct as a thing of beauty
17:5328 arches in a sort of S-shape that the locals refer to as a snail
17:59Marching across the valley
18:01This elegant man-made simplicity against the chaotic nature of the wild environment
18:10It's a beautiful contrast
18:16The final piece of the puzzle to link France with Spain
18:19Was the Sompour tunnel that was dug in 1912
18:26The Pyrenees are no more, they shouted, across the valley
18:29Because finally they've managed to cross this great divide, the Pyrenean Mountain
18:36The building works carried on through the First World War
18:39And in 1928, the mighty Trans-Pyridion Railway was finally operational
18:47The festivities for its opening were on a grand scale
18:52You had the President of France came down by train, of course
18:56And you had the King of Spain who came up
19:00And the local Spanish MP then drove the opening train into Canfrac Station
19:06This was a massive, massive thing, particularly for Spain
19:09Because it was quite an isolated country, commerce-wise
19:13Suddenly, with the creation of this tunnel and the Trans-Pyrenean route
19:16They had, in theory, this new direct route to the rest of the world
19:22Leading to, you know, a different future for the country
19:28A fancy meal was thrown for the dignitaries
19:31Champagne flowed in the station
19:33And they dined on truffles and sirloin with buttered peas
19:40And then they actually went on up into France
19:42For a second great lunch
19:44So big, with celebrations and their pride in the opening of this railway
19:52But trouble was brewing
19:54Who knew the future of the line that seemed so bright during the opening celebrations
19:59Would so quickly fall under an ominous cloud?
20:06The railway took over 40 years to finish
20:09Which actually is longer than it saw effective use
20:14And you have to wonder whether it really was a success
20:21As if to announce the problems to come
20:23The station suffered a fire within three years of its opening
20:30And in 1936, Spain found itself in the throes of a civil war between fascists and anti-fascists
20:41After three years of ferocious conflict, General Franco's fascist party seized power
20:49In these troubled times, it forced the Trans-Pyrenean line into an actual secret frontline
20:58Because Can Frank is in the middle of nowhere, it makes it the absolutely perfect place for anything clandestine to
21:06go on
21:07If you want to smuggle people, you can go through Can Frank
21:11If you want to smuggle gold, you can go through Can Frank
21:15If you want to do anything illegal at all, Can Frank is your place
21:21Franco knew this, and it sealed the Sompour tunnel during the Civil War
21:25He could use it like a valve, opening and closing it at will
21:31But when the Second World War starts in 1939, Franco opens the tunnel again
21:39In fact, the Trans-Pyrenean Line and Can Frank Station were at their most active during this period
21:48So why did Franco choose to open it during the Second World War?
21:55The key to this mystery lies in a meeting between Hitler and Franco that was held at another border station
22:01between France and Spain
22:05On Dai
22:11The relationship between Franco and Hitler was not as straightforward as you might have thought, considering they were both fascists
22:19Hitler was a much more extreme figure than Franco
22:22I'm not saying that Franco was a nice man
22:25But at the same time, Spain officially was neutral
22:30But, of course, its political system was very sympathetic to Nazism
22:36However, Hitler had a clear agenda
22:41His mission was to try and persuade Franco to join the Axis for himself and Mussolini
22:47And essentially to finish off Britain by choking off the Straits of Gibraltar
22:52Cutting off Britain's access to its empire
22:54And leading, hopefully, to a swift Axis victory
22:58But it didn't turn out like that
23:01In theory, there was no reason why Spain wouldn't be loyal to the right
23:08Franco owed Hitler because he owed him the victory in the Spanish Civil War
23:13So, he owed Hitler big time
23:17The Nazis helped Franco come to power by lending Franco aeroplanes from the German Air Force during the Spanish Civil
23:25War
23:26You know, after all, it is the German Air Force that is bombing towns in Spain in the late 1930s
23:34The famous picture by Picasso, Guernica, depicts the outcome of a German air raid on a Spanish town
23:43But it became clear at the Ondaille meeting that things wouldn't go Hitler's way
23:48Hitler was so frustrated that he said he'd rather have four teeth pulled than go through such an experience again
24:00Spain was in ruins, it was impoverished, just fought this bloody three-year civil war
24:04And frankly, Spain couldn't afford to get involved in the Second World War, even if it really wanted to
24:14The die was cast
24:16Spain would remain neutral, and Hitler would have to do without its help
24:20Or would he?
24:25In spite of Spain's neutrality, the Fuhrer managed to secure a Nazi trade deal that would use the Trans-Pyrenean
24:31Line to ship a vital mineral from Spain in exchange for Nazi gold
24:39The secret to this trade is buried underground in Canfranc, as local journalist Ramon Campo knows
24:5115 years ago, here we can see tungsten
24:56But today it's difficult to find
25:01The most essential raw material that Franco and Spain supplied the Nazis was wolfram, also known as tungsten
25:12Tungsten is a metal which, when added to steel, holds some pretty, magical properties
25:17It reinforces steel and creates this powerful material, which really gives you the edge if you're trying to win a
25:25war
25:28In 2002, Ramon and Canfranc mayor Victor Lopez found the metal buried under the old platform, proof that it did
25:36transit here
25:39Tungsten was absolutely vital war material, both sides needed it, and the Germans were ready to do anything they could
25:46to get hold of it
25:49A dark and sinister trade was taking place to pay for this
25:53The Nazis were using gold obtained in any way possible across Europe to fund their side of the deal
26:05This secret trade was made particularly easy by the station's very particular status
26:13Canfranc essentially, during the war, was in geographical limbo
26:16Before the war, as an international terminus, it was both Spanish soil and French soil
26:22And the Nazis were able to use that to their advantage
26:25So during the war, when they occupy France, they could also send their troops to Canfranc in Spain
26:33So it's the only part of Spain, supposedly neutral, during the Second World War, that has German troops on it
26:44Santiago Moraco was a child when that happened
26:50I can remember the Nazi flag flying outside the station, above the French administration
26:57It was clear then, that the German army was now in charge
27:05But right under the German's nose, illicit activities were taking place
27:14All sorts of people, all sorts of things came through
27:18Spies, Jewish people fleeing persecution, secret agents
27:25People sympathising with the Allied side, trying to escape the Nazis
27:29All came through this one station
27:33Even though it was built in order to strengthen the ties between France and Spain
27:38Before the war, what it ends up doing is promoting secret activity during the war
27:47The vast building complex at the station became the stage for intrigues and mysteries worthy of Hollywood movies
27:59This is the old train
28:01This is the old train
28:06This is the part of French
28:09And this is Spanish
28:13Here, people save 200 child Jews
28:21The children were travelling as passengers, or hidden in the restaurant's coal cabinet
28:27This is the train to freedom
28:31But the train to freedom was filled with risks and danger
28:36If you were a rail traveller passing through Canfrank, you would have met German border guards
28:42Vichy French border guards
28:44People fleeing Nazi persecution, and spies of all sorts
28:50They were all rubbing shoulders in the cafe and waiting room at the station
28:57And the key place where all these people met in Canfrank was the Hotel Morocco, which belonged to Santiago's family
29:08There were all sorts of people at my father's restaurant and bar
29:12And they all had completely different agendas
29:18I believe everyone knew what the others were up to
29:22But they left each other alone
29:28Canfrank becomes almost like a scene from Casablanca during the war
29:34On one level, literally, you have Nazis holding parties
29:38And yet on the level above them, you've got railway workers
29:42who are gathering information and selling it on to British diplomats
29:47You've got local women going to these Nazi parties
29:50in order to gather intelligence
29:53It becomes kind of like a nest of spies
29:57all in this great big building
30:04Hidden in plain sight, one man was the master puppeteer of the Resistance and Information Network
30:11If you look at Canfrank Station as like Casablanca
30:16Well then, it's even got its own Humphrey Bogart figure
30:19in the form of Albert Lelay
30:22One of the Resistance heroes of the Second World War
30:29For years, Lelay, the head of the border control
30:32played a double game
30:34pretending to accommodate the Germans' needs
30:36while secretly orchestrating the Resistance Network and their activities
30:42That included train sabotages
30:44and information and people smuggling
30:50Simone Casablanca and her parents were part of the Resistance
30:57When I was nine years old, I was part of the Resistance with my mother
31:03We used to smuggle documents from Spain to France
31:09We had to be discreet
31:10I used to take the documents and hide at the front of the train with the driver
31:15while my mother went in the passenger carriage
31:25By 1943, the Nazis had had enough
31:29They sought to find and throw in jail every spy and every traitor
31:36Simone and her mother weren't caught
31:38but her dad was not as lucky
31:42When my father was arrested, we still had some documents that we had kept at my grandparents' place
31:51We opened them before destroying them
31:54They showed planes, boats and details like that
31:58but we didn't even try to understand
32:01We just burned them as fast as we could
32:07With danger at the door, Albert Lele's fate was in the balance
32:15Emilio Astier's grandfather was part of Lele's resistance movement
32:20This is a special historic space of Canfran
32:25where Lele fled to freedom
32:28after receiving a telegram from France that he was very sick
32:34He understood he is in danger and his family too
32:37and then he decided to walk by the railways of the station to this tunnel
32:44At the end of this tunnel was waiting a car to take him to Madrid
32:49and flee from the Germans
32:55The resistance had been crushed and the gold carried on flowing
33:05The gold is one thing, it represents a huge amount of money
33:09In wartime, it's a safe currency
33:12But we shouldn't forget that many other things went through here
33:16There were entire trains filled with musical instruments
33:22Tons of crystal went through here and lots of clothes too
33:27It's easy to understand that they were from the concentration camps
33:34If you've seen the movie Schindler's List, you can very well imagine the scene here
33:42In 1945, the Allies defeated Hitler's armies
33:45Now that they were on the losing side, a few remaining Nazi soldiers tried to use Canfranc one last time
33:55As the war is going badly for the Nazis, many senior Nazis see Spain as a possible place to escape
34:03to
34:03And indeed they do
34:10I remember at the end of the war, seeing a group of soldiers accompanied by Spanish people
34:19Wounded with bandages, it was the army in defeat
34:26After the war, Franco closed the international tunnel
34:30It wouldn't be reopened again until 1948
34:36Canfranc has suffered so many misfortunes that many people say that it was cursed
34:41There was the fire after it opened, the closures under Franco, the Nazi presence
34:47To cap it all, the milestone markers between Madrid and Canfranc show a distance of 666 kilometres
34:58It had overcome the risks of avalanches, rockfalls, civil war and World War II
35:09But its tragic destiny was finally sealed one early Friday morning
35:14When fate would play its last card
35:19The weather was freezing in March 1970
35:21When a train stopped on the French side
35:24For the engineers to try to ensure that the wheels had proper traction on the rails
35:29But while they were doing it, the train slipped and rolled backwards
35:33It gathered speed to over 100 kilometres an hour
35:35And crashed into a bridge, destroying it
35:42Although no one died or was injured
35:44The wreck was devastating for the history of the line
35:49It had not been financially profitable for the French for years
35:53And they took the excuse of the crash to close their section of the Trans-Pyrenean line
36:01From then on, it only ever ran properly on the Spanish side
36:08I think what is interesting about Canfranc, perhaps because of the remoteness of its isolated position
36:15Is that it was virtually unknown and forgotten for so many years
36:20But what is fascinating about it is the discovery of the documents that show how much gold went through it
36:29The discovery was particularly revolutionary
36:32Because three years before Jonathan came across the papers
36:36There had been an enquiry into Nazi gold
36:42In 1997, Bill Clinton said, Spain, please tell us what is going on with Nazi gold
36:54There was an official inquiry
36:56But Ramon took it upon himself to research what had happened in Canfranc
37:03I speak with one person who lives here, it was Mr. Asso
37:08And he showed one photograph
37:14The photograph depicted a Swiss truck in Canfranc
37:19According to Mr. Asso, trucks filled with gold arrived from Switzerland
37:25But because the roads after the Civil War were so badly damaged
37:29The trucks were loaded onto trains for the journey through Spain
37:34This revelation put Ramon in a frustrating situation
37:39How can I tell this story?
37:42I haven't the proof of the gold in Canfranc
37:45They have not the documents
37:52Clinton declassified around one million pages for the report
37:56It showed that, in 1945, an investigation had established
38:00That Spain had acquired at least 27 tons of Nazi gold
38:09After much negotiation, Spain had agreed to return just over 100 kilos of the gold in 1948
38:15A far cry from the total of 86 tons that Jonathan found to have transited through the station during the
38:23war
38:28When I understood that the papers were important, I told the press about it
38:35It caused a scandal, Spain was stunned
38:38They tried to give me a rough ride and took me to trial
38:42I could have been thrown in jail
38:45But now they acknowledge me
38:48My discovery is now accepted as part of Spain's history
38:58When France closed its side of the railway line
39:01It could and should have been the end of the Canfranc saga
39:05And yet, the Saint-Paul tunnel hadn't had its last word
39:09It could have been the end of the railway line
39:14It could have been the end of the railway line
39:16It could have been the end of the railway line
39:17Digging it out had been one of the biggest challenges of the railway line construction
39:26In 1908, they started building the international tunnel
39:29And it took four years
39:30Four years of working round the clock
39:33The Spanish coming from one direction, the French coming from another
39:39Two tunnels meeting up in the middle
39:41An incredible achievement
39:47Unwittingly, the railway builders of the early 20th century
39:50Dug a tunnel that became an opportunity for the scientists of the 21st century
39:59This has got to be the best reinvention ever
40:02So they took a redundant railway line
40:05And they've turned it into a state-of-the-art
40:09Buried-in-a-mountain science laboratory
40:12How cool is that?
40:17Scientists have used the railway tunnel
40:19As a ready-made access to the centre of the mountain
40:22To dig a lab half a mile underground
40:26That's the equivalent of being 1.5 miles under the sea
40:33Thanks to this, scientists are able to study invisible particles
40:37Without any interference from outside world radiation
40:43We think that all the stuff around us makes up the universe
40:46The things that we can see and feel and touch
40:50However, this only makes up 15% of the universe
40:54The remaining 85% is made up of something known as dark matter
41:00Carlos Peña Garre is the director of the Canfrank underground laboratory
41:07This is a detector that tries to identify what is the nature of dark matter
41:14For scientists, dark matter remains a mystery
41:18We can't fully understand it
41:20We certainly can't sample it directly
41:23But if scientists can crack this mystery
41:26They could make sense of the entire universe
41:30Its past, its present and its future
41:34This story started in the railway tunnel
41:38And 100 years afterwards, it finishes here
41:41Where we are trying to crack the mysteries of the universe
41:48Today, curse or no curse
41:51The Trans-Pyreneans' beauty and rich history
41:54Pull people toward Canfrank one last time
42:00And it's a telling sign that more tourists have visited the international station now
42:04Than passengers ever travelled on it when it was open
42:12With talks of turning the station into a luxury hotel
42:15There's one last attempt to give the railway line what it seems to have lacked for so many years
42:22A meaning
42:28Of course the idea of this line was to be a viable commercial route
42:32Across directly the Pyrenees
42:35But of course built to single track
42:36Not double track
42:37And that meant you only have one train
42:39On one part of it at any one time
42:41Now that means it's quite a low intensity route
42:44And also by the time it was built
42:46The roads were getting better and better as well
42:48And by the time it had been finished
42:50It was almost outdated
42:51It was basically a 19th century railway
42:54Finishing the 20th century
42:55It was a thing that was old before its time
42:58It could never quite keep up with the world around it
43:02That amount of engineering in the Pyrenees has left its scars
43:07From the road you can see old tunnels
43:10Pits of abandoned railway engineering
43:12Why bother to take it away when it's not hurting anyone?
43:16Looking back on it
43:18The Trans-Pyrenean railway line is quite a haunting project
43:21Not only because of the ghostly beauty of Canfrank Station
43:25But also because of the power of the vision
43:28That put the railway line in
43:30And then that let it crumble
43:34From dreams of grandeur
43:36Through its eventful lifetime
43:38And to its eventual demise
43:40The Trans-Pyrenean railway line
43:43And Canfrank Station
43:45Now remain the silent witness
43:46Of the 20th century's brightest and darkest hours
44:17Of the settings
44:18The page was left to the proof of the vision
44:19If there was not a nearby
44:19The
44:19Patholic поб kerse
44:19You
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