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00:10For more than a hundred years, steam engines drove Britain.
00:14But in the 1950s, the government planned to modernise the railways,
00:18scrap steam and close thousands of miles of track.
00:26Most people embraced it as progress, but a few resisted the changes.
00:31They made plans to open branch lines and bring back steam.
00:36Some even filmed their efforts.
00:42Their home movies tell the story of how they set about recreating this lost world
00:47and how their commitment helped millions of people to reconnect to a past
00:52that most thought had gone forever.
01:08The hair stands up on the back of your neck.
01:11It is absolutely wonderful.
01:16It is a living being.
01:18The whole thing bursts into life with tremendous power.
01:24Every schoolboy's wish, I've got to get onto an engine.
01:41Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Severn Valley Railway.
01:45Welcome to our Santa special weekend.
01:50It's the week before Christmas on a small railway that runs through Worcestershire and Shropshire,
01:56the Severn Valley Railway.
01:58There are hundreds of volunteers on duty.
02:01Our next departure this afternoon will be the 12.45, the 1.15 service to Santa's Grotto.
02:12Are you hungry?
02:16Paul Fathers is one of those volunteers.
02:19During the week, he works in the security industry.
02:23How do you like your bacon done?
02:25My wife likes it really burnt.
02:28She's not here.
02:31Probably still in bed if she's got any sense.
02:34Thousands of enthusiasts, like Paul, built the station and the platform he's walking along.
02:40They restored the coaches his passing.
02:42They even rescued and restored 2857, the steam locomotive he's about to drive.
02:56I started back in 1967 as a very young schoolboy.
03:01The railway was in its infancy.
03:03We had no locomotives, no coaches, and so I started helping out and then just stayed with it, really.
03:17When Paul first got involved, there were just a handful of volunteers.
03:21But over the decades, railway preservation has blossomed.
03:29Today, there are more than 250 steam engines running on preserved lines right across the country.
03:38What captured the imagination of a handful of people like Paul was a love of the way railways in Britain
03:44used to be.
03:48But from the early 1950s, things changed.
03:53A newly nationalised British Railways Board planned to modernise the railways,
03:58uprooting thousands of miles of branch lines and ending the days of steam.
04:06Well, in the 1950s, BR moves from a profit situation to a loss situation and to a thumping loss situation.
04:13And this is something rather new for the politicians, because up until that stage, it's basically, well, you know,
04:20the railways run themselves and we don't really need to worry that much about them,
04:23apart from times of national crisis like wars.
04:26Now, they've got to do something about it, because it's costing the exchequer money at a time when we haven't
04:32got much money.
04:37The railways go from profit to loss in the 50s, really, because you start the great car economy.
04:44People start buying their first Austin 7 or whatever, or their first motorbike.
04:54The trunk roads, which were built in the 1930s, start to fill up, and they start being developed more,
05:01and at the end of the 1950s, you start the motorway building programme, and the whole thing rolls on from
05:07then.
05:12British Railways responded to this financial crisis by weeding out unprofitable branch lines.
05:19In the 1950s, 3,000 miles out of a 20,000-mile network were lost.
05:26A few people resisted these closures, and two places, the Worth Valley in West Yorkshire,
05:31and the Severn Valley in Shropshire and Worcestershire, were the vanguard of a movement that was to spread across the
05:37whole country.
05:39They say, well, actually, we think people still want this service, and actually it's a public good.
05:46We ought to have this service, so if you're not going to run it, we will.
05:50And that's just what happened in 1963, in Bridge North in Shropshire, on the Severn Valley Railway.
06:03What you see with the station name board is a group of us putting it back in its rightful place,
06:12when it should stand on the platform.
06:15That was, if you like, reclaiming the railway for us.
06:20When you think just a few humble railway enthusiasts could stop something like that, VR, from cutting the track up,
06:28that was marvellous, you know, it was fantastic, wasn't it?
06:35That's Keith in the brown coat, in a home movie shot by one of the enthusiasts.
06:40He was 26 at the time.
06:42Like lots of people, you just don't take a great deal of notice of things or do anything,
06:47but I felt at this stage, you know, with railways, it was my hobby, my love, that something had to
06:56be done.
06:58What he did was write to his local paper.
07:01A meeting followed that came up with the astonishing idea of buying and running the railway themselves.
07:07They formed a committee, and another 20-something from Beaudley became treasurer.
07:17We were called bunches of nutters, we were stupid.
07:21They didn't have anoraks in those days, by the way.
07:25That was before the days of anoraks.
07:29But the big key was to save the railway, to save our local branch lines.
07:35And they were being cut at such a rate, and they are the veins of the country, and were.
07:46Keith and Colin weren't quite alone in their resistance to British Rail's closure programme.
08:03Further north, in West Yorkshire, a few of the locals were campaigning to keep open a branch line in the
08:09Wirth Valley.
08:14I do remember one of the local mill owners saying,
08:18I don't care what you're going to run on the line, I don't care about the locomotives or the rolling
08:23stock.
08:23I want to know, will there still be a 7.15 train for my workers to get to mill?
08:31Graham Mitchell was a teenager in Oakworth, a village in the Wirth Valley, when in 1961 British Rail said it
08:37would close the line.
08:39I remember on this platform, you know, boxes of day-old chicks being loaded.
08:44You can remember that sort of importance to the locality.
08:48And the fact that it was the local people who first banded together to save it,
08:54because the locals wanted the transport link.
08:56You know, the railway had been here since the 1860s, doing the job it was built to do,
09:01moving people and goods up and down the valley.
09:04And people wanted it still to do that.
09:08Graham, along with other locals, began a campaign to keep the branch line open.
09:13It was led by a college lecturer, Bob Cryer.
09:18This is a photograph taken in the spring of 1963, when I was engaged to Bob.
09:27And he was the parliamentary candidate for Darwin, and I was a town councillor.
09:33It's quite a nice photograph of him making a speech, and myself looking admiringly on.
09:41They met in 1961, at the Labour Party conference in Blackpool.
09:46For two nights during the week, they would have a dance.
09:50And at this dance, this young man came and asked me to dance with him.
09:55Tall, quite good-looking young man.
09:57And told me all about his ambition to preserve a railway, which I thought was slightly bonkers.
10:03But I thought, well, other than that, he seemed to be all right.
10:09Bob was a very much larger-than-life character.
10:13I was, at that time, I know I'm not now, but at that time, I was a fairly sort of
10:18subdued person.
10:20I was very impressed by him, but possibly more impressed by his car, two-tone green, colour of your jumper,
10:28two-tone green Armstrong Sidley Sapphire.
10:31But, and whatever he did, he did it to the nth degree.
10:37People either thought he was absolutely wonderful, or he got right up their nose.
10:44The noses he really got up belonged to the British Rail executives, who refused to keep the branch line open.
10:50So the campaign he led switched tack to raise money, buy the line, and run it themselves.
11:07While negotiations with British Rail dragged on,
11:09volunteers worked at weekends to save what was left of the track.
11:16David Kay was one of the founding members.
11:22When negotiations got a bit further on,
11:24they said, we can maintain the track and run work strength.
11:29Well, the track was in disgusting condition.
11:32It had been run down for years.
11:34Its main crop was pussy willows.
11:37At Demham's, you couldn't see the track, and they have hellish roots, these pussy willows.
11:44To help tackle the pussy willow problem, volunteers came from across the north of England.
11:51As well as his scythe, Brian Baker brought his film camera.
11:56What you're seeing there is our desire to see the track back to what it should be.
12:03Nice and neat, weed free.
12:05The cesses, the sides of the track, all neat and tidy.
12:10Like many of the volunteers, Brian had a history of involvement with steam railways.
12:17My father was a stationmaster in Ireland, and on the West Cork railways.
12:23And I've always been a railway nut.
12:25I think it runs in my blood.
12:27It's just one of those things.
12:31I was never afraid of manual labour.
12:35I thoroughly enjoyed what we did at the railway.
12:39I mean, we did it at home, digging gardens and things, doing fences, laying footpaths and so on.
12:46But there was a totally different feel about working on a railway.
12:51And when you did it, you felt you'd achieve something.
13:01Volunteers in the Worth Valley weren't the only ones weeding out unwanted growth.
13:06In the aftermath of the 1963 Beeching Report, British Rail was pruning ever more branches.
13:15Groups up and down the country responded with plans to save their local line.
13:25For the volunteers in Bridgenorth on the Severn Valley line, rescuing the track was arduous and heavy work.
13:31But in 1966, they got a tremendous boost.
13:36They found an old works trolley.
13:42You'd go along, we'd use our feet like this on our sleepers.
13:47Highly dangerous.
13:50We recovered bits and pieces, brought them up from further down the railway, back up to Bridgenorth.
13:55And, you know, we thought that was a big thing.
13:58We'd actually got something to go up and down with.
14:08We even rescued some little ground signals.
14:17We'd pushed this trolley five miles, a couple of three times on a Sunday.
14:22And so it was a respite to jump on the thing and come whizzing down the bank into the station.
14:35The volunteers worked every weekend for two years.
14:39They ran open days to raise the deposit they would need to buy just five miles of track from British
14:44Rail.
14:47We got a lot of sleepers that were lying about in the station yard and put these on bricks.
14:53And this little steam engine went up and down, you know, along the platform, charging five pence a ride or
14:59something like that.
15:01All to raise the two and a half thousand pound deposit to give to BR so we could be sure
15:07we'd got the railway line.
15:13And that a lot of publicity was produced to show what our idea was.
15:19And in due course we started getting one or two railwaymen interested.
15:27And they, of course, with their knowledge, was exactly what we wanted.
15:34A steam engine driver, John Hill, joined in 1966.
15:39But there was no engine for him to drive.
15:43All the time we were putting in, it could have gone to waste.
15:46We certainly didn't know whether we were going to get any steam engine or not.
15:51We didn't even...
15:52We got to find a tremendous sum of money to buy the five miles of line from Bridgenort to Hampton
15:58Load.
15:59And we didn't even know whether we'd be able to succeed in doing that.
16:03So it was just an act of faith on everybody's part.
16:10Help would come from a most unexpected quarter.
16:14British Railways were in the middle of a modernisation programme, replacing all their steam engines with diesel and electric trains.
16:26You end up with lines and lines of locomotives, parked up in scrapyards, being cut right through the 1960s.
16:35Locomotives that used to be the king of the road, used to be the thing that really pulled the Premier
16:40Expresses.
16:42Looking rather shabby, taken to a scrapyard and sliced into bits to feed the motor industry.
16:54British Railways' decision to scrap so many steam engines was ironically just the boost the Seven Valley volunteers needed.
17:06They sold some of their redundant locomotives to steam enthusiasts.
17:14A great western engine, 3205, was bought by a group who then offered it to the Seven Valley,
17:20providing the society could raise the £2,500 deposit and buy the five miles of line.
17:32It took them three years to raise what seems today such a trifling amount.
17:37But on Easter Saturday, March 1967, 3205 arrived at Bridge North.
17:45After four years' absence, steam had returned to the Seven Valley.
17:51We just didn't believe it. It was there. It's a real-life steam engine.
18:00A whole station jammed with people of all ages had come to see this engine arrive.
18:14The enthusiasm was just absolutely tremendous.
18:21It was absolutely incredible. It was a marvellous day.
18:35The driver on that day was John Hill.
18:38I was quite a dashing young blade in those days.
18:41I didn't ever get round to going to a cinema and slashing the seats,
18:44but it was that sort of era.
18:47I had a huge brooklyn quiff, which I look back on now as I looked like some kind of idiot.
18:55But that was all the rage at the time.
18:59Nobody was absolutely certain that this day was ever going to come.
19:03And here it was, not only an engine, but we brought four coaches with it as well.
19:09We did all kinds of weird and wonderful things which we weren't supposed to do,
19:14giving people rides in and out of the station.
19:27For Colm Howell, the arrival of that first engine was a boyhood dream come true.
19:33He could finally learn how to drive a steam engine.
19:44I loved it.
19:45A steam engine is a very live thing.
19:48You've got the heart of the engine, which of course is the fire.
19:55You've got the blood, which is the steam.
20:00And that steam is transferred by the reciprocation of the valves to the pistons,
20:05and the pistons then push and push the rods and onto the rail.
20:09And there is this terrific exhilaration when you're driving a steam engine
20:12of the thing, you know, working up its speed and all that sort of thing,
20:16the fire going absolutely white hot and watching the gauges
20:19to make sure that you've got the correct steam pressure, the water pressure.
20:25And it isn't just shoveling coal into a hole.
20:28You've got to put it where the coal's wanted.
20:30And this is where the skill comes in.
20:39When you feel the engine move for the first time as a result of your effort,
20:45it is absolutely wonderful.
20:58John Hill was very sympathetic to us amateurs.
21:03And I would never, ever claim to be a professional driver.
21:08When you see the professional do it, you think,
21:12God, I wish I could do it like that.
21:19Any hope that was flagging, any enthusiasm that started to flag was immediately boosted.
21:25And so, Seventh Valley Railway was underway.
21:29We were going places.
21:34Colm Howell and John Hill weren't the only ones enjoying the experience of steam.
21:39British Rail's policy of moving to diesel and electric power
21:42was giving people up and down the country the chance to buy their very own steam locomotive.
21:50Where I lived as a youngster, when you went to bed at night,
21:54you were never without the sound of a train going by.
22:01Richard Greenwood lived close to the Worth Valley Railway in West Yorkshire.
22:06He and some friends were keen to buy a small engine.
22:10One of our favourite engines was the Pug engines.
22:14They were so typical of where we lived.
22:17It was a part of our heritage, really,
22:20even though at that stage we were only in our 20s.
22:26Any small engine is called a Pug engine.
22:31Most railways that served industrial areas had a fleet of these
22:36because they used them in docks
22:39where they could go around right-angle bends
22:41between one dock and the other.
22:45And I remember them very well
22:47from seeing them shunting
22:49a low-level shunting yard in Salford.
22:52And to get from one yard to the other yard,
22:55they had to cross the street.
22:57And every time they had to do this,
22:59a man came out with a red flag,
23:01stood in the middle of the road like that
23:02and held the traffic up while the engine went across.
23:28Well, there was a band of us around that time,
23:31probably about 12 or 18,
23:33who were dead keen.
23:34So we decided we'd do what we could to buy a Pug engine,
23:40started printing photographs and selling them to people,
23:44having stalls at exhibitions
23:45and selling this, that and the other.
23:49And bit by bit, we raised a bit of money.
23:52And bit by bit, we had enough to buy this engine
23:56and to transport it.
24:00By 1964, they'd raised the money.
24:10It came on a low loader all the way from Neath in South Wales.
24:16And when, on the morning, they started to unload it,
24:20unfortunately, the wheels missed the rails
24:23and the crew, obviously, used to this sort of thing.
24:28They used jacks to jack it up and throw it over onto the tracks.
24:33And then they went away with the Pickford Scammell tractor.
24:36Job done.
24:40The problem for Richard and his friends
24:42was that they'd nowhere to put the engine.
24:46So you go out and you buy a steam locomotive relatively cheaply
24:51by present-day standards,
24:52and then you find the wife saying,
24:54well, you're not going to keep that in the back garden.
24:59So what do you do with it?
25:02Initially, they have permission to run them on the state network,
25:07and they can run rail tours with them,
25:09and they may get a place in a shed to park them and so on.
25:14However, BR decides they don't want any locomotives they don't own
25:20running on the network.
25:21In 1968, when they run their last steam locomotive,
25:26they also ban all other steam engines from running on the network.
25:33And this is great for the start of the preserve lines
25:36because they basically suddenly have the monopoly
25:39to be able to run steam engines.
25:42If you own a big steam engine, or even a small one,
25:45you've got no choice.
25:46You've got to go to one of those nascent schemes
25:49that are just starting out and say,
25:51do you mind if I bring my loco to your railway?
25:55And, of course, the railways themselves are short of power.
25:58They're run by enthusiasts,
25:59and the first thing they're going to say is yes.
26:02In Rochdale, Richard Greenwood needed a home for the pug,
26:07and the Keithley and Worth Valley Railway was the obvious,
26:10indeed the only realistic home for it.
26:14We approached the officers of the railway here.
26:18You know, if we buy one of these engines, can we bring it?
26:21And they said yes.
26:23As simple as that, you know.
26:25On the basis, really, of a telephone call.
26:28No agreements, nothing written.
26:30No, nothing like that at all.
26:34There were people here working to reopen the railway.
26:36There were people coming in from left field with rolling stock.
26:41Each group needed the other, and so it was a happy marriage.
26:49The locals realised that the railway meant something.
26:53And the appearance of a steam engine in the air,
26:55of course, began to convince the locals
26:58that something was going to happen here.
27:09British Railway gave permission
27:11to run a weekly works train
27:13to go out with wagons and tools
27:16and start clearing the drains,
27:18putting the fences in order,
27:19relaying bits of bad track and things like that.
27:23And this engine was ideal for that
27:25because it was quite small
27:26and it didn't burn much coal
27:28and it didn't cost very much to run.
27:34And it made money too.
27:36£50 for this advert featuring Ronnie Corbett.
27:40The railway was very important
27:42to commercial organisations,
27:44such as the advertising company,
27:48because they had the railway to themselves for the day,
27:51if that's how they wanted it.
27:52And money changed hands,
27:54but what we were after, of course,
27:56was maximum publicity.
28:06Ronnie Corbett, I've got my own little bits of film of him on the day.
28:10You know, there he is.
28:11The bit of film I've got of him
28:13is doing his wardrobe on the Ingro platform,
28:16doing up his fly.
28:21He really was a character.
28:29The effect they wanted was for the viewer to think
28:33that poor Ronnie Corbett, you know,
28:35had been plastered on the front of this locomotive,
28:38coming towards you, the viewer,
28:40when, of course, he hadn't.
28:41He'd been filmed going backwards.
28:44The poor cameraman had to trust the driver
28:46that he would go backwards and not come forward.
28:51You know, Ronnie Corbett has got the secret of the symbol biscuits,
28:54and there he is, you know, in a tunnel,
28:57trying to tell everybody about it.
28:59I know how symbol bake those delicious chocolate chips
29:02into Maryland cookies.
29:04The secret is...
29:16All the effort made by the Little Pug
29:19and the West Yorkshire volunteers paid dividends
29:21when the Worth Valley Railway reopened in 1968,
29:26six years after British Rail had first closed the line.
29:37Two years later, it was the turn of the Seven Valley Railway,
29:41and by 1970,
29:42there were 18 steam railway preservation groups
29:46across the country.
29:50Just as hundreds of branch lines were closing
29:53and steam had gone forever from the main line,
29:55the preservation movement was gaining momentum.
30:01Then, in the summer of 1970,
30:04there was a film set in the Worth Valley
30:07that would take railway preservation
30:09to new and undreamed-of heights.
30:12Graham Mitchell landed apart.
30:15This is actually the spot
30:17where I stood to flag off the train
30:20in several sequences in the 1970 film.
30:23Can you remember what you said?
30:24Yes, Bernard Cribbin said to me...
30:27On the way, Mr Mitchell!
30:28And give it to Burks!
30:29I was slightly over-enthusiastic with the flag,
30:32only slightly.
30:34The film was Lionel Jeffery's box office sensation,
30:38The Railway Children.
30:40The railway was being used for six weeks.
30:44It had to provide a lot of volunteers over that period,
30:47and the appeal went out to the qualified volunteers
30:51to say, we actually need guards and firemen and drivers.
30:57I was teaching in Dudley.
30:59It was a week's half-term,
31:01and I came up here for a week's holiday,
31:04and I said, I'll work every day as a guard.
31:15As well as needing the society's volunteers,
31:18the film needed its locomotives.
31:20This one, 957, featured heavily.
31:25This, it doesn't look like it today,
31:27but this was the Green Dragon in the Railway Children film.
31:30For the Railway Children, it was required to be green
31:34to fulfil the name of the Green Dragon.
31:38I think it looks wonderful,
31:39but sometimes people are disappointed
31:41that it doesn't look like the Green Dragon.
31:45All the volunteers,
31:47rolling stock in engines,
31:48were organised by the railway's chairman, Bob Cryer,
31:51and he even found time
31:53to shoot this behind-the-scenes home movie.
31:57He got a credit for it,
31:58which he thought was just absolutely bliss
32:01to have a credit for a feature film.
32:17After my week of filming,
32:19I went back to Dudley on the Sunday night,
32:22and I was back in the classroom on Monday morning,
32:24and on Monday evening,
32:26I got a phone call from the assistant director saying,
32:29oh, we want you on set again tomorrow, Tuesday morning.
32:32I said, well, no, I'm back.
32:34I'm back in the classroom. I'm sorry.
32:35And it happened to be the day
32:37when they were filming Daddy coming back.
32:40Anne's husband, Bob, stepped in.
32:46There is a vague figure, which is Bob,
32:49in Graham's outfit,
32:51and at that point,
32:54Bernard Cribbins says,
32:55right away, Mr Cryer.
32:57Right away, Mr Cryer.
32:59It was great, was that,
33:01because otherwise,
33:02he would have had his credit at the beginning,
33:05but he wouldn't have had a part in it.
33:11Bob Cryer died in a car accident in 1994.
33:16What he wanted more than anything
33:18was that those people who did the work
33:20made the decisions.
33:22In essence, it was a sort of
33:26socialist, democratic experiment,
33:28and it works to this day.
33:33Don't you think it's extraordinary, David,
33:35that here we are,
33:36as two elderly gentlemen now,
33:38and it's 42 years since this film was made,
33:41and we're still here part of it.
33:43Yeah.
33:44But an old chap in the village,
33:46you know, said to me,
33:47you know what really is important about that film?
33:50There's no drugs in it,
33:51no sex,
33:52no folk running around with no clothes on.
33:54It's just a nice morality story
33:56for the family.
33:58And it all works out.
33:59And it's amazing when you consider
34:01how much the producers were.
34:04No, we're going to cut that bit, David.
34:11It is said that Lionel Jeffery's daughter
34:14read the book
34:16and said,
34:17Daddy, you really must make a film of this.
34:23Lionel came up here
34:24and saw the railway
34:26and was convinced that this was the place.
34:28And the wonderful thing, of course,
34:30from the point of view of promotion of the railway,
34:32is that he kept Oakworth
34:33as the name of the station.
34:39Whereas in the book,
34:40it's called Meadowvale.
34:44He retained it for the film
34:45and it did us wonders.
34:55After the film was released,
34:57there was a flock of new visitors to the railway.
35:02Because the film has been shown
35:04so often on television
35:05and because Barry Norman says
35:08it's the finest British film
35:09ever made for children in this country,
35:12it's got an enduring attraction
35:15which continues to bring people here
35:18time after time and year after year.
35:30The impact on the Wirth Valley
35:32was phenomenal.
35:35That causes a great problem,
35:37the railway children.
35:39All of a sudden,
35:40we were carrying about 60,000 passengers
35:44and then we didn't know whether,
35:46you know,
35:47shall we lock it up and run away?
35:51We carried 4,000-odd passengers in a day
35:53on one train.
35:55So it was decided then
35:57to put the loop in.
36:00This model demonstrates the principle.
36:03The loop on the right
36:04is the short section of line
36:05on a single track
36:06that allows trains to pass each other.
36:12Once we had the railway children filmed,
36:14there was such an increase in traffic
36:16that we realised straight away
36:17we needed to run more trains.
36:19But the way to do that
36:20was to split the line in two
36:22and have a place for the trains to pass,
36:24which is why we built this loop line
36:25at the side of the main line here
36:27so that we could have a train in each section
36:30and they can cross each other.
36:31That gives you twice as many trains.
36:38My grandfather worked on the railways.
36:40I'd always been fascinated by the idea
36:42of how you control traffic
36:44and control trains.
36:47Bruce became a volunteer
36:48on the railway in his teens.
36:51He and his mates
36:52installed the loop in time
36:53for the influx of visitors
36:55in 1971.
36:59The loop had to be controlled somehow.
37:02Originally, we just had
37:03some levers at each end
37:05and a person on the ground
37:06signalled the trains basically by hand.
37:08But of course,
37:09that wasn't suitable
37:10for a permanent arrangement
37:11so we had to find a signal box
37:13and put some proper signalling in
37:14and that's where
37:15the signal box behind came in.
37:24How they got the box
37:25was typical of the determination
37:27of the volunteers.
37:29Bruce found it near Bradford
37:30and he contacted British Rail.
37:33And they were willing to sell it
37:35and so I bought
37:37the actual building I bought
37:39because by then I was an employee
37:41on what was known as a firewood order
37:43which was a note
37:44originally intended
37:46purely for buying firewood.
37:47So that's a piece of firewood
37:49officially.
37:53Once it was paid for
37:54all they had to do
37:55was bring it to the railway
37:56and make it work.
37:59We set about thinking
38:01about how to move it
38:02and rather than try
38:03and take it apart
38:04and risk damaging it
38:05we thought it would be practical
38:06to move it in one piece.
38:09So I contacted
38:11a crane hire firm
38:12and they agreed
38:13that they could do the lift.
38:37And that's how it came
38:38along the road
38:38all the way from Bradford
38:40to Oakworth
38:41further up the line
38:42and then we brought it down
38:43on a train
38:44to its present position
38:46on this loop line
38:47and it was then
38:48taken off on rollers
38:49onto a pile of sleepers
38:51above the foundations
38:52which were then
38:53jacked down
38:54and the box was put down
38:55on its base.
38:57It's an interesting way
38:58of doing it.
38:59Others have done it since
39:00but I think we can
39:00probably claim a first
39:01for moving a signal box
39:02in one piece.
39:10While the loop
39:11was a great success
39:12the Railway Children
39:14was to have an effect
39:15on preservation
39:15well beyond the Worth Valley.
39:20The film captured
39:21a seemingly lost world
39:23of steam
39:23a world for which
39:25the British public
39:25held a particular affection.
39:28It was a nostalgia
39:30that the preservation societies
39:31were quick to exploit.
39:35Some of these
39:36Preserved Railways
39:38which have got
39:38really quite clever
39:39marketing teams
39:40start to think about this
39:42and think
39:42well actually
39:42what are we selling here?
39:44We're selling
39:45a kind of symbol
39:46of the past.
39:47The best of the
39:48Preserved Railways
39:49recreate this past
39:50on their own stations.
39:52You'll be surrounded
39:53by enamel signs
39:55and often staff
39:56in wool
39:58sort of jacket uniform
39:59sometimes with a
40:00you know
40:01a flower in the
40:02buttonhole
40:03looking exactly like
40:04you might have looked
40:06where the Royal Train
40:07passing through your station
40:08in about 1950.
40:23You'll see the original tap
40:25and the stop tap cover
40:26still originally there
40:28that was not new put in
40:29that was still there
40:30when we built it
40:31saying GWR
40:32W for water.
40:37Volunteers began to fashion
40:38this world of the railway
40:39from a bygone era
40:40in minute detail.
40:43This is Malcolm Broadhurst
40:45at Beaudley Station
40:45on the Severn Valley Railway.
40:51It's only a gent's urinal
40:53but it is superb
40:54and it is recreating
40:55what was here.
40:56If we're going to try
40:57and bring the railway back
40:59to as it was
41:00you want to try
41:01and get it looking
41:01as it was.
41:05The restoration of the loo
41:06was just a part
41:07of the big jigsaw
41:08of the railway really
41:09when you look at
41:11the effort
41:12that was required
41:13to restore the line
41:14and the station
41:15and the rolling stock.
41:18It might have been
41:19just a loo
41:20but volunteer Phil
41:21Cheeseright
41:22thought it was worth
41:23filming.
41:26At that time
41:27I was filming
41:28trains along the line
41:30and other things
41:31it just happened
41:32that this was a
41:33project that happened
41:34to be going on
41:35at the time
41:35purely accidentally.
41:40They discovered the loo
41:41more than 250 miles away
41:44on a platform
41:44at Melrose Station
41:46in Scotland.
41:49When we got there
41:50we took the gutter off
41:51that was easy peasy
41:52just came off
41:52cut it down
41:54and then I think
41:55we tried sliding
41:56these up
41:57and a bit of hammering
41:58not too much heavy
42:00and of course
42:01it wouldn't dismantle
42:01and we thought
42:02oh my god
42:03what are we going to do?
42:08A blowtorch
42:09came in handy
42:09then came the
42:11logistical nightmare
42:11of getting it home.
42:14Luckily as we'd have it
42:16where it was situated
42:18there was a platform edge
42:19next door
42:21and we were able
42:22to just back the truck
42:23up to the platform edge
42:24and all we did then
42:25were lower the sections
42:26down onto the platform
42:27and just slid them in.
42:39I think we regarded ourselves
42:40as adventurers
42:42pioneers
42:44we didn't fund it
42:45from ticket sales
42:46we funded it ourselves
42:47we put our hands
42:48in our pockets
42:49and raised the cash
42:50that we needed
42:51to take the project on.
42:54One of the volunteers
42:55who helped rebuild it
42:56is the driver
42:57is the driver
42:57of the Santa special
42:58Paul Fathers.
43:02The reason I became involved
43:03is there wasn't a lot going on
43:05there was nothing on a Sunday
43:06apart from church
43:08and of course
43:08I was in the choir
43:09and did my bit
43:10but there was nothing much going on
43:12so being able to come here
43:14and help to restore the railway
43:15seemed a very sensible thing to do.
43:24Did I see you in red flares then Paul?
43:27Quite possibly yes
43:28it was fashionable at the time
43:31as was the haircut
43:34Paul was yelling
43:35a heart throb in those days
43:37you can see me
43:38in his John Travolta phase
43:40later on in the film.
43:58We invited the mayor of Beaudley
44:00to open it
44:02who congratulated us
44:03on providing Beaudley
44:04with the first urinal
44:06on this side of the river.
44:13I like the Matt idea
44:15to wipe your feet
44:16before you went in
44:17to the toilet.
44:27We wanted to recreate
44:28the railway
44:29as it would have been
44:30probably in the 1930s
44:311940s
44:32probably up to the 1950s
44:34so when people take the ride
44:36on the steam train
44:37they get to look at railway stations
44:40as they were probably
44:41in their heyday.
44:44By the time the urinal opened
44:46in 1975
44:47preservation societies
44:49were growing very quickly.
44:52They were all recreating
44:54a sense of the past
44:55with steam at its heart
44:57but they faced a big problem.
44:59Now that British Rail
45:00had scrapped all its engines
45:02where would they find
45:03the locomotives
45:04they needed to cope
45:05with a huge public appetite
45:06for steam?
45:21They would find engines
45:23in the most unlikely of places
45:25in a scrapyard
45:26in South Wales.
45:28It's where in 1971
45:30a group of volunteers
45:31from the Severn Valley
45:32found this great western locomotive
45:34number 2857.
45:41They raised the money
45:42bought the engine
45:43towed it back
45:44to the Severn Valley
45:45and have been working on it
45:47off and on
45:47ever since.
45:49I'm just having a struggle
45:50with this one
45:51screw here
45:52which I think
45:52has got to be a longer one.
45:55I've got it
45:55I've got it
45:56the wrong way around you.
45:57Yeah, it's
45:58sorry about that age.
46:01I'm going to talk to you.
46:02Yeah, well I'm
46:03trying not to breathe in.
46:04Oh right, okay.
46:06For me health
46:07it's very very fine dust
46:09it's the same
46:09as loft insulation
46:10and it can damage
46:12your lungs
46:12if you're not careful.
46:16One of the reasons
46:17why I got involved
46:18I could see
46:19all the other engines
46:20that were being preserved
46:21were express engines
46:23with names
46:24and I can remember these
46:25because I lived in
46:26Wolverhampton
46:27right next to the main line
46:28and I can remember these
46:29trundling up and down
46:30day in, day out
46:31and I didn't think
46:33that anybody was going
46:34to bother
46:35rescuing one of these
46:36so that's why
46:36I got involved.
46:38Have you not got
46:38a tape measure on here
46:40have you?
46:41No.
46:41It's a matter like that.
46:43Is it?
46:43Yeah.
46:43Right, I'll
46:45that's it.
46:45The man looking
46:46for the tape measure
46:46is Steve Whittaker.
46:49Steve took over
46:50the role of
46:50engineering team leader
46:52in 1980
46:53but his interest
46:54in steam engines
46:55goes back much further.
46:58When I was three
46:59my dad drew a train
47:01after tea one day
47:03and it was really good
47:04and lifelike
47:05and the next time
47:06the pencil
47:07and drawing paper
47:08came out
47:09before he even
47:11picked the pencil up
47:12it was
47:12Dad, will you draw me
47:13a train
47:14and it just somehow
47:15gets in your blood
47:16it's an infectious hobby.
47:19He would need
47:20all his enthusiasm
47:21and lots of know-how
47:23to restore 2857
47:24the job
47:26would be massive.
47:28Organising all
47:29the missing parts
47:30that had been
47:32taken off the engine
47:34which is very
47:35very difficult
47:37and complex
47:37drawings required
47:39patterns to make
47:40castings
47:40machining
47:41and all stuff
47:42that the average
47:44even railway enthusiast
47:46is not familiar
47:46with these parts
47:48so a great deal
47:49to learn.
47:532857
47:54was just one
47:55of more than
47:55200 steam engines
47:57rusting away
47:58in the Barry
47:59scrapyard.
48:01I can remember
48:02going down to
48:03Barry
48:04scrapyard
48:04and looking at it
48:06and I thought
48:07you're wasting
48:08your time
48:09it's an absolute
48:10load of
48:12scrap
48:12and nothing else.
48:15It was in
48:16poor condition
48:17having been
48:18left out in the
48:19open for many
48:19years
48:20but compared
48:21with many
48:21of the engines
48:22in the scrapyard
48:23this one
48:23was actually
48:24fairly complete.
48:27The scrapyard
48:28in Barry
48:29has a special
48:30place
48:30in the history
48:31of steam
48:31preservation
48:32in Britain
48:32It was one
48:34of many
48:34hired by
48:34British Rail
48:35to cut up
48:36thousands
48:36of redundant
48:37steam locomotives
48:39All the other
48:40scrapyards
48:40got on with
48:41the job
48:41but in Barry
48:42the owner
48:43Di Woodham
48:44hadn't got
48:45round to
48:45doing it
48:47Preservation
48:48societies
48:49like the
48:49Severn Valley
48:50headed for
48:50South Wales
48:52Colm Howell
48:53joined the party
48:55I used to
48:56do it in
48:56two hours
48:57from here
49:00We used to
49:01go down
49:01a little group
49:01of us
49:02which was
49:02great fun
49:03because you'd
49:03go to Wales
49:04and it was
49:05always lovely
49:05weather down
49:06there at
49:06Barry
49:11Lovely
49:11In the summer
49:12we used to
49:12go to Barry
49:13Island and
49:13have our chips
49:14and go round
49:15on the Big
49:16Dipper and
49:16everything
49:17Just good
49:18fun
49:20And of course
49:20you used to
49:21fool about
49:21getting your
49:22overalls on
49:23and pushing
49:23people over
49:24and all
49:24that sort
49:25of thing
49:25It was
49:26great fun
49:28The atmosphere
49:29at Barry
49:30was very special
49:31because there
49:31were other
49:32railways
49:33Keithley
49:33and Worth
49:33Valley
49:34Dart Valley
49:36Bluebell
49:36and other
49:37railways
49:38coming up
49:38all wanting
49:39to preserve
49:40another engine
49:41for another
49:42And you all
49:43sort of looked
49:43at each other
49:44and said
49:44I hope you're
49:44not going to
49:45touch my
49:45engine
49:46you know
49:47So you'd
49:47mark it up
49:48for preservation
49:52But we
49:53often pulled
49:54our work
49:54so that
49:55we could
49:55help each
49:56other to
49:56get our
49:56engines ready
49:57So we all
49:58set two
49:59on the
49:5928s
50:00bearings
50:02There's three
50:03of us
50:03sitting down
50:03there
50:04rather like
50:04milking a cow
50:05basically
50:06We're working
50:07away with
50:07this emery
50:08cloth
50:11You had to
50:12do it
50:12like this
50:12One started
50:13then the next
50:14one and then
50:14the next one
50:15It was all
50:16part of it
50:17It was just
50:17such fun
50:18It was a
50:22long
50:23uphill struggle
50:24rescuing
50:25the parts
50:25that all
50:26the other
50:27scrap men
50:28and other
50:29enthusiasts
50:29and collectors
50:31were ravaging
50:32trying to get
50:34everything that
50:34was valuable
50:35off the engine
50:35before it
50:36went missing
50:37And what
50:39about the
50:39chap who
50:39sold it
50:39to you?
50:40Die Wooden
50:41Well
50:42very interesting
50:43character
50:44We're all
50:45very thankful
50:46to him
50:46because having
50:47bought 236
50:49locos
50:50he then
50:51continued
50:51cutting up
50:52steel coal
50:54wagons
50:54for several
50:55years
50:56and all the
50:57engines were
50:57just left
50:58languishing
50:58in the yard
50:59which was
51:00great for
51:01preservationists
51:04He doesn't
51:05cut them up
51:05because he
51:06doesn't need
51:06to
51:06He's at the
51:07bottom end
51:08of the
51:08Welsh Valleys
51:09and they're
51:10getting rid
51:10of the
51:11little coal
51:12wagons
51:14and they're
51:14much easier
51:15to cut up
51:15than a steam
51:16locomotive
51:16which is
51:17quite complicated
51:18so he doesn't
51:19bother to
51:19cut them
51:19up
51:19he leaves
51:20them to
51:20one side
51:21it's kind
51:21of like
51:21his nest
51:22egg
51:22for when
51:22he retires
51:27Di Woodham
51:28died in 1994
51:32his sons
51:33Paul and
51:33John
51:33grew up
51:34around the
51:34scrapyard
51:39all this
51:40would be
51:40big piles
51:41of scrap
51:42and
51:42this was
51:43where
51:44everything
51:44took place
51:45the main
51:45part
51:46all the
51:47cranes
51:47would be
51:47working
51:48all the
51:48burners
51:49would be
51:49working
51:56these are
51:57photos of
51:58the wagon
51:58wheels
51:59the piles
52:00of them
52:00just shows
52:00you how
52:01many wagons
52:02that come
52:02through
52:03and I can
52:04remember
52:04the axles
52:06stacked on
52:07either side
52:07of the lines
52:08where all the
52:08wagons were
52:09cut up
52:10we just kept
52:11cutting and
52:11cutting and
52:12we didn't have
52:12time to
52:13cut up the
52:14steam engines
52:28it was a
52:29playground
52:29for
52:31all the
52:31kids
52:35my favourite
52:35game was
52:36to start
52:36at one end
52:37and see
52:38if I get
52:38from one end
52:39to the other
52:39without getting
52:40off them
52:41and I go
52:41up
52:42through the
52:42chimneys
52:43cross the
52:43top
52:43down
52:44and
52:45from one
52:45engine
52:46to the
52:46other
52:50as people
52:51realised
52:52they were
52:52here
52:52and more
52:53and more
52:54people
52:54came to
52:54visit
52:55then they
52:56suddenly
52:56realised
52:56these were
52:57the last
52:57and then
52:58somebody
52:59obviously
53:00said to
53:00him
53:01can we
53:02buy
53:02one
53:02of you
53:02yes
53:03and it
53:04just
53:04snowballed
53:05and snowballed
53:06in
53:08hindsight
53:08they were
53:10lucky
53:18you go
53:19away
53:19to
53:20these
53:20preservation
53:21societies
53:21and you
53:22see
53:22something
53:22that would
53:24never have
53:24been if it
53:25weren't for
53:25him
53:27but nothing
53:28happened
53:29overnight
53:31it took
53:31four years
53:32of hard
53:33fundraising
53:33before the
53:34group had
53:35raised
53:35the 5700
53:36pounds
53:3780,000 in
53:38today's
53:39prices
53:39they needed
53:40to buy
53:40the engine
53:45Bob Kite
53:46filmed the
53:46journey as it
53:47was towed
53:48to Beaudley
53:49it's arrived
53:50here August
53:51the 13th
53:52in 75
53:53we started
53:54replacing the
53:55copper pipes
53:56and making
53:56the gunmetal
53:58fittings
53:58that were
54:00missing
54:00and in
54:011979
54:02we steamed
54:03it
54:03just to see
54:04what it was
54:05like
54:06and then we
54:07found out
54:08why British
54:08Rail had
54:09withdrawn it
54:10it was an
54:10absolute
54:11bag of
54:11nails
54:12and
54:15they discovered
54:16a crack
54:17in the
54:17cylinder block
54:18it was a
54:19disaster
54:20that could
54:20have ruined
54:20eight years
54:21work on
54:22their dream
54:22project
54:23but Steve
54:24scarred the
54:25country
54:25and a year
54:26later
54:27found a
54:27replacement
54:27cylinder
54:28in a
54:29South Wales
54:29steelworks
54:31then four
54:32more years
54:33of hard
54:33graft
54:34started
54:35the whole
54:37locomotive
54:37was stripped
54:38and rebuilt
54:39to mainline
54:40condition
54:40in the
54:42elements
54:42out in
54:43the open
54:43it was
54:44even painted
54:45to completion
54:46out in
54:47the open
54:47at
54:49Beaudley
54:51incredible
54:51and here's
54:53the living proof
54:56anyone feeling
54:58strong
55:01the thing
55:02that's made
55:022857
55:03an unpopular
55:05old goods
55:05engine as it
55:06is
55:06a success
55:07is the
55:08tremendous
55:09guys that
55:10we've got
55:11a ramshackle
55:12team from
55:13all walks of
55:14life
55:14who work
55:15like
55:15Trojans
55:23if something
55:25wanted
55:25doing
55:25you know
55:26Steve would
55:27do it
55:28or get
55:28somebody else
55:29to do it
55:30which is the
55:30sort of chap
55:31that you want
55:33I mean
55:33I've done
55:34my fair share
55:35but I think
55:35I've taken
55:36him as a
55:37lead
55:37really
55:38if it wasn't
55:39for him
55:40we wouldn't
55:41have got
55:41anywhere
55:41I don't
55:42think
55:46I wouldn't
55:47swap it
55:47for anything
55:49you never
55:50get me to
55:50a football
55:51match
55:52too much
55:53railway
55:53engineering
55:54to be
55:55done
55:57mission
55:57accomplished
56:07Steve and
56:08Bob's story
56:09on the
56:09Severn Valley
56:10could be
56:10replicated
56:11right across
56:12the country
56:12these days
56:14all over
56:15Britain
56:15more than
56:16200 restored
56:17steam locomotives
56:18are running
56:18on more than
56:19100 preserved
56:20railway lines
56:21and they
56:22cover
56:22500 miles
56:24of track
56:31the achievement
56:32of the
56:32preserved
56:33railway
56:33movement
56:33is to
56:34go
56:34in a
56:36little
56:36over
56:3660
56:36years
56:37from
56:38nothing
56:39at all
56:39to having
56:40hundreds
56:40of
56:41railways
56:42thousands
56:43of volunteers
56:43hundreds
56:44of steam
56:44locomotives
56:45working
56:47and millions
56:48of visitors
56:49which means
56:50that
56:51they've
56:51become part
56:52of our
56:52day-to-day
56:53lives
56:54and that's
56:54a major
56:55achievement
56:59steam
57:06preservation
57:06touched a
57:07nerve
57:07with the
57:08nation
57:08it helped
57:09us rediscover
57:10a history
57:11we thought
57:11we'd lost
57:11and as well
57:13as being
57:13part of
57:14our heritage
57:14steam
57:15has become
57:16part of
57:17today's
57:17economy
57:24some
57:24societies
57:25have their
57:25own railway
57:26and carriage
57:27workshops
57:27they're
57:28even
57:29building
57:29steam
57:29engines
57:30from
57:30new
57:36but the
57:37backbone
57:38of the
57:38movement
57:38remains
57:39the
57:39thousands
57:40of
57:40volunteers
57:40who
57:41continue
57:41to turn
57:42out
57:42day
57:42after
57:43day
57:43week
57:44after
57:44week
57:45to ensure
57:46that the
57:46trains
57:47run
57:47on time
57:49they're even
57:50doing things
57:51like running
57:51Santa specials
57:52so that
57:53you know
57:54if you're a
57:54child of four
57:55these days
57:56you probably
57:57go to at least
57:58three preserved
57:59railways
57:59in the course
58:00of your
58:01childhood
58:02because they'll
58:03take you on a
58:03Santa special
58:04and that's
58:05something the
58:05railways
58:06invented
58:07and run
58:08and it's a
58:10big part of
58:10their income
58:11and it's
58:12probably one of
58:12the reasons
58:13why you no
58:13longer go to
58:14a department
58:14store to see
58:15Santa
58:15because he's
58:16on a steam
58:16train
58:17at a railway
58:18near you
59:01and it's
59:04You
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