- 1 hour ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:01Trains. I've always loved them. Big, small, steam, diesel.
00:07Where did that love come from?
00:09When I was six years old, I stood on this very spot.
00:13And what I saw that day, I'd never forgotten.
00:16It made me the envy of every boy in school.
00:19Because coming across that bridge was a train.
00:22And that train was being driven by my dad.
00:26Ever since then, I've always wanted to get the view he had.
00:30The one that no-one else gets. The driver's view.
00:35So I'm off on a train lover's odyssey.
00:41Riding the footplates of Britain and Europe.
00:45Oh, that's great.
00:47When you were growing up, did you always want to be an engine driver?
00:50Yes, it's a dream when I was a child.
00:54Some will be huge.
00:56Oh, some of that went in.
00:58Others a little more modest.
01:00I'll meet some wonderful people
01:02dedicated to this majestic form of transport.
01:09Already I'm beginning to feel like a train driver.
01:12And have fun off the train too,
01:14along some of the world's most beautiful lines.
01:17Well, I wasn't expecting to be doing this.
01:19Join me for a ride with a viewpoint that only an engine driver gets.
01:33This time, I'm chuffing off to Switzerland.
01:36Puffing my way up to the source of the mighty road.
01:41Searching for Sherlock Holmes.
01:43Will you be there?
01:45Climbing the eiger from the inside.
01:49And troubling the livestock with an iconic instrument.
02:02My journey begins in St Moritz, in the far south-west of Switzerland.
02:07It's one of the world's most famous winter sports resorts.
02:12And its success was fuelled by the arrival of the railway in 1904.
02:21Oh, now, my expert train knowledge tells me that this could be the Glacier Express.
02:28I wonder which end the driver's at.
02:31It's either going to be that end or that end.
02:34I think it's that end.
02:41No, I was wrong, it's this way.
02:44It's one of the most luxurious trains in the world.
02:48With its panoramic carriages, incredible catering and breathtaking views.
02:54What do you think, Paul?
02:55Yeah, it looks wonderful, doesn't it?
02:57Clearly the observation car. Very nice.
03:01Sharing his cab with me is driver Stefan Zaug.
03:05Ah, hello, Stefan. Hello.
03:07Hello, I'm Paul. How are you? Are you all right?
03:09Very good.
03:10My Swiss railway odyssey will take me first from San Maritz to Andermann.
03:15There I'll say goodbye to the Glacier Express and join the Fur Capace railway.
03:21Chugging up to a real glacier and the source of the River Rhone.
03:25And on to Meiringen in the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes.
03:29Then it's off to my journey's end.
03:33Jungfraujoch, the highest station in Europe.
03:42At 8.39 sharp, these are the Swiss railways after all, it's time to set off on the slow and
03:49steady run to Andermann.
03:53In the summer, the Glacier Express runs up to three times a day, carrying around 150 passengers the 180 miles
04:01between San Maritz and Zermatt.
04:04Its carriages are pulled by powerful electric locomotives.
04:08But with an average speed of only 24 miles per hour, it's known as the slowest express train in the
04:14world.
04:25Stefan, did you, when you were growing up, did you always want to be an engine driver?
04:29Yes, it's a dream when I was a child to become an engine driver.
04:34All my friends wanted to become astronauts or police officers, I wanted to become a train driver.
04:41Do you still find it exciting to be driving this route? Because it has become very commonplace, very usual for
04:47you?
04:47Well, it's common, as I've been living here for six or seven years now, but it's still a very fascinating
04:53route.
04:54Sitting in the cockpit, you can see a lot of animals.
04:58Yes, yes.
04:59Three weeks ago I saw a bear.
05:00A bear, really?
05:02Yes, I saw a bear.
05:10This is the best view of all, isn't it, on the train? Being at the front here?
05:15Well, I basically only know that view.
05:19Because trains aren't very good at gradients, engineers built the original line as flat as possible,
05:26which meant going through a lot of mountains rather than over them.
05:30And here we go into...
05:35Well, that's exciting.
05:38At three miles, this, the Albugla Tunnel, is the longest on the original line.
05:46These lights are very pretty along here.
05:49Sort of like Christmas.
05:53My father used to drive an underground train on the London Underground.
05:57Mostly in tunnels, but I sat once at the front.
06:00I think it's exciting going into the tunnel and just a little light at the end and then coming through.
06:08Oh, lovely, and the sun's still shining. How beautiful.
06:16While the best view may be at the front, this train's USP is luxury.
06:20And that's down in the back.
06:24So I'm going to take a quick break from riding with Stefan to see what all the fuss is about.
06:29A glass of champagne, please.
06:34My dad's passengers never got this kind of service between Edgware Road and Wimbledon.
06:40Ah, lovely. Thank you so much.
06:43But, of course, I won't be drinking this because I've still got a bit more filming to do today and
06:46I don't want to spell that.
06:48Oh, that was a mistake. Cheers.
06:55In contrast to the job that my dad did, when you go into the tunnel, it doesn't matter what the
06:59seasons are like outside.
07:01Everything is the same every day.
07:03But here, of course, with the ever-changing seasons and the ever-changing landscape,
07:07I don't think you could ever get tired of taking this journey as a driver because it's just always different,
07:16isn't it?
07:20To deal with nearly 5,000 vertical feet of climbs and descents along the route,
07:26the line goes through a series of spirals, corkscrewing its way through the landscape.
07:37I'm not sure if it's the champagne or the twists and turns, but I'm ready for a sit-down.
07:46I'm Paul, by the way, and you are...?
07:48I'm Trish.
07:49Trish, hello, Trish, hello.
07:50And you are...?
07:50I'm Mick.
07:51Mick, and you are...?
07:52Fran. Fran.
07:53Now, I understand that you're on an important mission, so what are you doing here?
07:56We planned, it was New Year's Eve, we came up with this plan to do the Glacier Express to celebrate
08:03Mick's 70th birthday.
08:04And my husband was there, and he said, oh, yes, definitely, we're up for that.
08:10Sadly, my husband died at the end of 2023.
08:13Oh, dear.
08:14And we promised him that we'd take him with us.
08:18Yes.
08:19So we've got a little...
08:21He's here!
08:22He's in my suitcase over there.
08:24He's in our suitcase?
08:25Yes.
08:25What sort of form is he in?
08:27A Ziploc flag.
08:28Yes.
08:29In a Tupperware container.
08:31With...
08:31It is ashes.
08:32Yes, good, good, good.
08:33Put it around it to make sure he doesn't leak.
08:36Yes, indeed.
08:37You can't escape until we let him out.
08:39No.
08:40And what's his name?
08:41Cloney.
08:42Have you got a destination to scatter the ashes, a place...?
08:45Well, we've done a bit of thinking about it.
08:48We were planning to put him out of the window.
08:53Really?
08:54Well, you must have emphasized here, it's the ashes we're talking about.
08:57Yes.
08:59And we worked out that that wasn't possible.
09:01No, that's not possible.
09:02So...
09:03So he's coming to Zermatt with us.
09:06In all circumstances, there is never a time with love.
09:09There isn't very important.
09:11Absolutely.
09:12The best of times, the worst of times, it's essential, really.
09:15It is.
09:15And there's always a slight element of farce, even around some really sad occasions.
09:20Yes, yes.
09:21May I propose a toast, then, to Tony and the Glasser Express?
09:24He certainly joined in on it.
09:26Well, here we are, then, to Tony.
09:28Tony.
09:29Fantastic.
09:31And to sobriety.
09:32Yeah.
09:34For some of us.
09:41Just behind these trees, you'll see there's the most beautiful waterfall.
09:44And the fact that we're traveling at a fairly sedate speed at the moment,
09:47means you can just sort of take in the detail of it.
09:50You may just see people whizzing past on the road to Spanoas,
09:53doing about 70 miles an hour.
09:55We're probably doing about 25, 30 at the moment.
09:58And that just gives you the chances to observe nature
10:01and observe something like that beautiful waterfall tumbling down the mountain.
10:19You can tell that we're going up at a gradient now by the way that knife is moving. Look at
10:23that.
10:26Even that one wearing magnetic trousers.
10:30Having had a glimpse of the driver's eye view up front,
10:34I'm ready for an experience the driver never gets.
10:38Gourmet dining with one of the greatest views in the world.
10:51Oh, that's lovely. That's very good.
10:55Carrots, rice, chicken curry.
10:58This is one of the best meals I've ever had on a train.
11:01Very, very good. Excellent, in fact.
11:09Looks like there's a bit of hill coming up, so...
11:16And because the train is on a gradient,
11:19as you can see, the glass is still moving,
11:21but it's carefully, very carefully slanted in the right direction
11:25so there's no spinach.
11:31But before I disembark, there's an opportunity for one more personal railway first.
11:43This is the first train I've ever been on that has a visitor's book.
11:46What a fantastic journey, beautiful scenery and views.
11:49Thanks, Karen, Sarah and Mandy from the UK.
11:53OK. So I shall put...
11:56I agree.
11:58Signed.
11:59Paul.
12:00No.
12:02There we are.
12:07Our arrival in Andermatt is my cue to say goodbye to Stefan and the Glacier Express
12:12and get ready for a railway experience as far removed from this one as it's possible to get.
12:31THIRD
12:31Having lived like a king on the Glacier Express,
12:34it's time for a very different railway experience.
12:39At Andermatt, the Glasser Express tunnels its way onwards.
12:45And whilst I like a good tunnel, I prefer a good view.
12:50So I'm joining the old line that climbs up over the Furke Pass,
12:55and that means taking a train from the golden era of the railways.
13:07Look at this magnificent steam engine behind me here.
13:10It's 100 years old, it was running as a train in Vietnam,
13:14it was retired there and brought back here in a rather rusty, horrible state,
13:18and it's been completely refurbed.
13:23Somebody once said that steam engines are the closest that mankind's ever got
13:28to building something that's alive,
13:30and when you see the steam emerging from it and hear the hiss,
13:33then you do feel as if it is some kind of prehistoric creature.
13:39Locomotive number 704 was built in 1923.
13:46It's one of nine locos that originally steamed up and down
13:50the southern mountains of Vietnam.
13:53It weighs 65 tonnes and can pull another 75 tonnes of carriages and passengers.
14:00Just looking at the size of this machine,
14:02it's when you're...
14:03You see them in museums,
14:05but when you see it sort of up close like this and ready to go,
14:08you get a real sense of the power of it.
14:13There's the smell of it as well, the smell of the coal.
14:15It's really evocative, isn't it, of steam engines.
14:21800 volunteers devote their lives to keeping the line open,
14:25and my guide and tutor for the day is one of them,
14:29Maurice Schaffner.
14:32And you're in charge of driving this beautiful machine?
14:34Exactly.
14:35I'm a bit worried about your clothes.
14:37Not fashionable?
14:38No.
14:40They are very beautiful, but look at them.
14:43I see, yes, OK.
14:44So I need to get changed?
14:45Yeah, I'll have a jacket for you.
14:47Oh, OK.
14:49Follow me.
14:51I love the smell of that coal.
14:54Train's about to set off,
14:55but they've suggested that I ride in the carriage for the first bit
14:58because it's going through a tunnel and I might get super dirty.
15:00So once we've been through the tunnel, I'll be joining them up front.
15:03And we literally are just about to go, so I'd better get on.
15:10I'm not sure that I've won their confidence yet.
15:14It might have been the shirt.
15:17Would something with stripes be better?
15:37Once a steward with Swissair, volunteer engineer Jörg Drittenbass
15:42now spends his working day firmly on two rails.
15:46Hello, Paul.
15:47Oh, hello.
15:48How are you?
15:48You're George.
15:49Take a seat.
15:51Sure.
15:52Tell me, how long have you worked on this line?
15:55For roughly 15 years.
15:57Ah, really?
15:58All our people that work with the train, they love that smell.
16:03Yes.
16:03That subtle aroma of diesel and steam and coal.
16:09Yes.
16:09If you had to put that in little bottles and the lady was behind you,
16:13their ears.
16:14Yes.
16:14All man hands will be at your feet.
16:17And that'll be probably the front row.
16:20And I suppose if we think about it,
16:22when the steam engine was first invented,
16:24it must have seemed miraculous to people.
16:26Absolutely.
16:27How come you can water, coal?
16:30Yeah.
16:30That's all it needed.
16:31And you have probably powers that have never been imagined.
16:35Yes.
16:35And that's also a change.
16:40Using steam power to drag trains up mountains is one thing,
16:43but doing so in winter is another challenge entirely.
16:48And that's where this comes in, the damp Schnee Schloider,
16:52or steam snowblower, if you must insist on the English translation.
17:03Known as the R12, it was built in 1913 and took 18 years to restore
17:08when it was pulled out of storage in 2002.
17:14To get the line reopened,
17:16it was blasting through the last of this year's snow only a few weeks ago.
17:30And it's not the only ingenious bit of technology on the Furka pass line.
17:39Due to damage by repeated avalanches,
17:42the original bridge over the Steffenbach River was replaced by this.
17:49One of the world's only collapsible bridges.
17:54Each autumn, it's folded up for the winter,
17:56then unfolded the following spring, when the avalanche risk is gone.
18:00A bit like a giant picnic table.
18:07It's a strange thought, riding over it and 140 tonnes of train,
18:11but it does the job admirably.
18:23At Gletsch Station, we've climbed to nearly 6,000 feet above sea level.
18:29And with the arguments over my shirt finally resolved,
18:32the volunteers let me get my hands dirty with a crucial job.
18:37We're on a turntable,
18:38so I think we're going to turn this huge engine round,
18:40me and George, together.
18:41Come here.
18:42Come here, OK?
18:43OK.
18:44Here we go.
18:49Once it gets going, there's almost no waiting.
18:52Yes, that's right.
18:53Once you get started, it's not too bad.
18:55So we're...
18:56Which one is it? The first one or the second one?
18:58The second.
18:58Second one, OK.
19:04The 65-tonne locomotive has to be turned,
19:08so that the driver's cab always points downhill.
19:13If this locomotive would go downhill with the front ahead,
19:19all the water would rush to the front.
19:22Oh.
19:22There will be no water over the heating source,
19:25and it could actually explode if it happened.
19:29Right, so that's...
19:29So that's why we have to turn it around.
19:31Yes.
19:31So they always had a good amount of water over the boiler.
19:36Right, yes.
19:37That was an extraordinary explanation, wasn't it?
19:39I thought perhaps it was just a sort of like a, you know,
19:41it looks better or whatever.
19:43I couldn't quite figure out why they were doing it,
19:45but as he explained,
19:47potentially the engine, if it carried on going the way it was going,
19:50it would...
19:50It would be a serious accident.
19:54With the cab facing the right way and water pooling over the firebox,
19:58it's time to begin our descent.
20:02It's a delicate and noisy process
20:04that requires a piece of railway technology common in Switzerland.
20:11Yes, we've just joined the rack and pinion system now,
20:15which is going to help us go down this very steep incline.
20:19If we weren't on this rack and pinion, this would be quite dangerous.
20:25Rack and pinion locomotives use a powered cogwheel
20:28to engage with a toothed central rail
20:30to both pull the train uphill
20:32and to stop it rolling back down.
20:36The system enables trains to safely climb steep gradients
20:39where conventional trains would struggle.
20:43Mainline railways usually aim for a gradient of 1% or less.
20:48That's about three foot drop in every 100 yards of line.
20:52The steepest stretch of mainline in the UK,
20:55the Licky Incline, south of Birmingham,
20:58has a gradient of 2.65%.
21:01But this descent is 13%
21:04and requires the rack and pinion system to navigate safely.
21:17gravity might be doing a lot of the work to get us downhill,
21:22but there's still an awful lot for me to do on the foot plate.
21:35That shovel's heavy just as it is before you put the coal in it,
21:37so I'll let you have that back.
21:39I don't think you're going to employ me somehow,
21:41but thank you for the experience.
21:43That was extraordinary.
21:45Oh, wonderful. See you again.
21:47See you again.
21:50That was great fun being on the front of a steam locomotive.
21:53It was a bit hot and dirty,
21:54but I'm glad to be back in my normal clothes now,
21:56my very fashionable, iconic clothes.
21:58And we're going to be heading up to the Belvedere Hotel,
22:01which is that building right at the top up there.
22:03And the Hotel Belvedere itself was very famous 100 years ago,
22:07but the reason for that fame has shrunk considerably since then.
22:14High above the Furke pass line is the Rhône Glacier,
22:18source of one of Europe's mightiest rivers.
22:22And the Belvedere Hotel was once
22:24one of Switzerland's biggest tourist attractions, but no longer.
22:31I'm meeting Philippe Carlen, the current owner
22:34and the man who made the decision to close the hotel in 2015.
22:38Oh, hello.
22:40Hello.
22:40You must be Philippe.
22:41Nice to meet you.
22:48So here is the entrance from the Hotel Belvedere.
22:51Uh-huh.
22:51And you see on the right side here the nice old pictures.
22:56So what sort of...
22:58Coming with horses here.
22:59Yes.
22:59Background you see the glacier.
23:02Right, yes.
23:02The huge glacier, our own glacier.
23:03So what sort of year would this picture be, do you think?
23:07What sort of vintage, what sort of 18, 19?
23:10Maybe in 1903, 1904.
23:13Right, OK.
23:14This would be the reason why people came here,
23:16was because of this magnificent...
23:17Because it was perhaps the nearest glacier in the world.
23:20Yes.
23:21Ah.
23:21Yes.
23:24The Belvedere was built in 1890
23:26to capitalise on its grandstand view of the Rhône Glacier.
23:31The opening of the Furke-Oberraup railway and the Glacier Express in 1930 led to a boom in the hotel's
23:38popularity.
23:40But in the last few decades, that all changed.
23:45So everything we're seeing there is rock.
23:47That was once glacier, yes?
23:48It was.
23:49Everything was glacier.
23:50All the valley here.
23:52So where is the glacier now, then?
23:53Where is it shrunk to?
23:55Well, now it's three kilometres more or less on the right side.
24:00From here you can't anymore see it.
24:03Right.
24:06I'm told that if I head down this track, I can get up close and personal with the shrinking glacier.
24:15The nearer we get to the glacier, the colder the wind is.
24:23Oh, hello.
24:30It's a combination of eerie and sort of like a kind of ice-covered building site.
24:40It doesn't feel particularly permanent.
24:45Waiting for me in this frozen grotto is director of the Swiss Glacier monitoring network, Matthias Haas.
24:52We can look into the eyes and see these beautiful air bubbles and also this layering within the ice.
25:02Oh, yes.
25:02These are layers that have been formed high up in the mountains by the compaction of snow.
25:07And then the ice has been transported down by the ice flow.
25:10So every layer corresponds to one year of snowfall.
25:17Isn't that wonderful?
25:19Yeah, and touch the ice because I think it's really beautiful to see this melting surface.
25:27Yes.
25:28But we can also really see straight through the ice.
25:31Yes.
25:34I was up at the Belvedere Hotel a little earlier and 1923 you could look out the window and the
25:40glacier was right there.
25:41And now you have to walk 15 minutes to get here.
25:44The glaciers in the Alps are really disappearing. Many have already disappeared.
25:49They started to retreat about 170 years ago.
25:53Uh-huh.
25:53But the speed wasn't so big in the first place.
25:57But in the last decades, so especially since two or three years, we are seeing a huge retreat with massive
26:04losses.
26:05Is it possible to say how much of the ice is melting every year of this glacier?
26:09Yes.
26:09How much is it retreating?
26:10At the moment we are losing about eight metres in height.
26:14Right.
26:15Every year.
26:16Every year.
26:16And just in the last ten days since I've been here the last time, we lost one metre.
26:21That's quite frightening, isn't it really?
26:23That's really frightening and incredibly fast.
26:26Yes.
26:27Switzerland would not be the Switzerland that people remembered.
26:31It would be a completely different experience.
26:33No ice.
26:35No snow.
26:38I sincerely hope that we can stabilise the climate and therefore we can save at least some of the glaciers.
26:46This is my hope that my grandchildren could maybe still see some ice.
26:56That's quite an eye-opener, wasn't it?
26:57Losing a metre of glacier in the last ten days.
27:01That's three metres a month.
27:03I mean, look at it now.
27:04It's absolutely beautiful.
27:05And what he says about the tourism of Switzerland being defected.
27:08I mean, people come here for the glaciers and the snow and the ice.
27:12There it is.
27:14Take a good look.
27:16Because it's disappearing fast.
27:30I'm halfway through my driver's eye view of some of Switzerland's most amazing trains.
27:37I've left behind the heady scent of steam and coal of the Furka Pass railway and crossed into the Bernese
27:44Oberland.
27:45I'm following the route of the Ara River as it winds its way towards my next stop, the tiny town
27:52of Myrigan.
27:56The next line I get to play driver on opened in 1899.
28:01It was built partly to satisfy the boost in tourism inspired by a short story released six years earlier, in
28:09December of 1893.
28:12It takes passengers to the location of one of the most famous death scenes in literature.
28:18The Reichenbach Falls, where Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty engaged in mortal combat.
28:27I'm meeting driver Rudy Salterman, who's been working on the line for the last 13 years.
28:33Rudy?
28:34Yes.
28:35Hello, I'm Paul. Hello.
28:37How old is the...
28:40It's 126 years old.
28:42Oh, right. Yes.
28:43And how many passengers can it take?
28:45We have 24 passengers.
28:48OK, should we have a look at the driver's compartment?
28:51Yes.
28:52Compartment?
28:52You can drive and...
28:53And I can drive as well?
28:54Yes, you can.
28:55Oh, this is fantastic.
28:57First I have to undergo a rigorous training course.
29:00OK.
29:01You can stick.
29:03So...
29:03OK.
29:04And turn it this way?
29:06Yes.
29:06OK.
29:07And now it's ready, huh?
29:08Right.
29:09OK, that's clear.
29:10Yes.
29:11And you can push this...
29:13Press that one.
29:13Yes.
29:14A switch and a button.
29:16OK.
29:17Is that it?
29:17Good.
29:18So...
29:18You are safe.
29:20Yes, yes.
29:21Very good.
29:22Yeah.
29:23Excellent.
29:27The Reichenbach Falls Railway only operates for six months of the year,
29:31carrying passengers up and down the perilously steep mountainside.
29:40How high does this go?
29:42We go 843.
29:47Meters?
29:48Yes.
29:49Yeah.
29:49Because I'm...
29:51I'm not very good with heights.
29:54Are the carriages coming towards us now?
29:57Yeah.
29:59At times, the gradient reaches 61%, and this means a funicular railway is the only viable
30:06engineering solution.
30:08Two counterbalanced carriages are both connected to the same cable, so as one comes down, the
30:14other one is pulled up.
30:19It's not good for me.
30:20In terms of heights, I should just sort of look straight ahead and just keep my eyes on
30:26the...
30:27Directly in front of me, rather than looking down.
30:29Yes.
30:29If...
30:30I think...
30:31Well, we're more than halfway across, which is good.
30:35You might notice how tightly I am gripping the side of this.
30:39Oh, no, I think the worst of it is over.
30:42Oh, that's good.
30:43I didn't...
30:43Didn't look down at all.
30:45No.
30:45No.
30:47We are top of that.
30:50I'm glad he didn't do that while we were crossing the bridge.
30:53Yes.
30:56Note to self, must we search flattest countries in the world for series two.
31:03Thank you so much.
31:04Yes, I enjoyed the majority of that.
31:08Yes.
31:10Safe journey back.
31:12OK.
31:12Bye.
31:17From here, it's only a short walk to the falls, and the view that inspired Arthur Conan Doyle
31:23to kill off Sherlock Holmes.
31:27Well, until we brought him back again eight years later.
31:32I suppose probably the most famous murder site in all of detective fiction.
31:38The star on the rock up there indicates where the fatal wrestling match took place.
31:46Conan Doyle, being a medical professional, should have realised that you can't really kill off a fictional character.
31:51And maybe he gave himself a get out clause as well by having Holmes tumble down into the water here.
31:57A dead body riddled full of bullet holes, you can't argue with that.
32:00But something that goes missing, and you can't find a body, well, there's always a possibility that they might, as
32:06it were, return from the dead.
32:09Not that he ever was dead, because he was a fictional character, as I've proven to explain.
32:21Back down in the town, a group of Sherlock Holmes obsessives have built a shrine to their hero.
32:32Hello, I'm Michael.
32:33Welcome to the Sherlock Holmes Museum in Myringham. Come on in.
32:36OK, fantastic.
32:39For hundreds of years, Myringham was really only famous as the birthplace of the meringue.
32:44Until 1893, when Arthur Conan Doyle came here on holiday and chose it as the venue for Holmes' demise.
32:53The tourist boom it created lives on, driven in part by the work of Holmes' obsessive, Michael Mear.
33:02Ah, this is the most famous illustration in all of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
33:06Isn't it?
33:07Indeed it is.
33:09The death of Sherlock Holmes.
33:11Oh.
33:13Oh, what's it?
33:15Step into the world of Sherlock Holmes.
33:19Oh.
33:20It's immediately got an atmosphere, hasn't it?
33:22This is beautiful.
33:24Thank you, well then, we've done it right.
33:26You certainly have, this is great.
33:32Everything in this room, presumably, has a reference in one of the stories.
33:38Absolutely.
33:39You have the violin over there, and I can just see behind you there the Persian slipper filled with tobacco.
33:47The people who created it went through all the stories and the original illustrations and put together a list of
33:54all items that we would expect to find in 221B Baker Street.
33:59Michael, when did you first become a fan of Sherlock Holmes?
34:02As a schoolboy.
34:04I was reading detective stories and then I read the Sherlock Holmes story that happens in Switzerland, the final problem.
34:12Oh yes.
34:12I think, like yourself, you lose yourself in the stories, the fog-bound London, the handsome cabs, the illustrious client
34:21that turns up wearing a mask or the person that comes in and says,
34:25Mr Holmes, I have the most extraordinary story to tell you, and you're gripped right from the beginning, aren't you?
34:31Absolutely.
34:31Absolutely.
34:32That's what makes Sherlock Holmes stories special.
34:35And how do you feel about Conan Doyle's reluctance to embrace the Sherlock Holmes success?
34:42Perhaps it was overshadowing some of his other fictional work.
34:46Well, we have to keep in mind that it took too much time for him, too much effort and too
34:51much energy to write these Sherlock Holmes stories.
34:54And he thought he could write better things, so they decided to get rid of him.
34:59People were horrified, weren't they, when they learned that Sherlock Holmes had apparently been killed off.
35:03There are anecdotes of people wandering in London with mourning bands.
35:10Yes.
35:10And a lot of people cancelling their subscriptions for the Strand magazine where the stories first appeared.
35:17He killed him off, but not quite, because the body falling into the waterfall is never found.
35:23Of course he wanted to get rid of Sherlock Holmes.
35:26Mm-hm.
35:26On the other hand, he had his return already planned when he killed him off at the Reichenbach Falls.
35:32The waterfall, of course, is a simile for eternity.
35:36Oh, was he suggesting that Holmes can't die by placing the scene of the supposed death at a waterfall?
35:43I think he had in mind to find a method that would make the final problem not final.
35:51Yes.
35:52Now I'm wondering, where's Mrs Hudson with a tea and crumpets?
35:55Well, I'm wondering too.
35:59Is it five o'clock yet?
36:01It's always five o'clock here in 1895.
36:05It's always time for tea and crumpets.
36:12That was a rare joy and privilege to sit in Sherlock Holmes's sitting room.
36:16It was like meeting an old friend for the first time, if that makes sense.
36:19And I'm very glad that Conan Doyle brought Sherlock Holmes back, because it would be a sad world if he
36:26didn't exist.
36:38It's time to begin the final leg of my driver's eye view of some of Switzerland's most amazing trains.
36:45It promises to be a memorable climb up and through one of Europe's most famous mountains.
36:51Thank you very much.
36:53Thank you very much.
36:53Now, that incomprehensible public announcement is probably telling me that I'm on the first of two trains that's going to
37:00take me up to the Jungfrau station.
37:02Yeah, I'm telling them now.
37:03Which is the highest station in Europe, and that's where we're heading for.
37:06Next stop?
37:08Wengen.
37:08Yes, next stop is Wengen.
37:10Yes, and the next stop is Wengen.
37:12That's right.
37:13Wengen.
37:13Yeah, I've said that.
37:14So that's where we're heading.
37:17The first leg is on the Wengen-Alp railway, which will take me on a steady climb to Kleiner Scheideck
37:24in the shadow of the Eiger.
37:27That's where I'll pick up the Jungfrau railway, which powers its way through the middle of the mighty Eiger as
37:32it climbs the Jungfrauljock, the highest station in Europe.
37:38Nearly two million people ride the Wengen-Alp railway every year, but it's far more than just a tourist route.
37:48It serves villages that have no road connection to the rest of Switzerland, meaning this railway is a vital lifeline
37:55for bringing supplies to these Alpine communities.
38:05At the moment, as you can see, the view is mainly of trees, but as I look ahead, I think
38:10I can see that we're just going to get rising above the tree line as we head around this corner
38:15and glimpse the top of the mountain there, which I think is where we're heading for.
38:20And it looks a bit cold up there.
38:27Time for a quick dad moment as I get a chance to ride up front.
38:32I'm now in the driver's cabin. I'm not allowed to talk to the driver, and we're not allowed to film
38:38him either, but I can assure you we do have one. He is there.
38:43Otherwise, it's a bit more nerve-wrapping than it actually is.
38:46Out to the right there, the mountain that we're heading for, and you can just glimpse a building at the
38:52top, which is Europe's highest station.
38:57The climb to Kleiner Scheidek is relentless, with a vertical ascent of 4,000 feet and gradients as high as
39:0618%.
39:10At 12 miles end to end, this is the longest rack and pinion railway in the world.
39:20At Kleiner Scheidek, it's time to make my very last change of trains to the Jungfrau railway.
39:30This is the train that's going to take me to Europe's highest railway station at three and a half thousand
39:35metres.
39:36I'm going to be able to get in with the driver, and we'll be going through a tunnel that's about
39:40seven and a half kilometres long,
39:41which takes us through the middle of the Eiger.
39:47This train is one of 16 a day that makes the five and a half mile climb to the Jungfrau
39:52railway station.
39:53In total, more than a million passengers ride this engineering marvel every year.
40:00We've been given permission to be in this very privileged position of being in the driver's company
40:04on the strict understanding that we do not speak to him, so we will not speak to him.
40:15As you can see, we're moving through the landscape at the moment, which is sort of green grass and looks
40:19lovely,
40:19but as I look ahead, I can see that the grass will be disappearing soon as we get into the
40:23much harsher atmosphere of the mountain itself.
40:28I'm not quite sure how this train's going to get up there.
40:31It's on the rack and pinion system, but it still seems a long way up.
40:35I suppose we'll just see how steep it goes.
40:41Like the Wengenalp railway, the Jungfrau railway is rack and pinion for its whole length.
40:47The line climbs four and a half thousand feet vertically in only five and a half miles of track,
40:54an ascent so steep that for most of the journey will only reach eight miles per hour.
41:03The first mile or so of the climb is out in the open, giving me one last opportunity to soak
41:10up the majesty of the landscape before we burrow into the Eiger.
41:21This is the best view of all from the driver's cabin.
41:23It makes travelling through the tunnel rather excited, rather than just being at the side and just seeing loads of
41:28grey wall going past you.
41:29Here you can see where you're going, it's rather well lit, and it's quite surprising how fast we're going and
41:35also how steep we're travelling.
41:40Speaking of views, the next station, Icemere, was built solely for the view.
41:47Every train that passes through waits here for five minutes, so that every passenger has an opportunity to see it.
41:55Wow. Yes, I think you can definitely call that an ice view. That's extraordinary. Look at that down there.
42:03I'm normally not very good with heights, but this is solid enough that I feel pretty secure.
42:09I don't think there's any way I can get out there.
42:14It cost so much money to build the railway as far as Icemere that from 1905 to 1912 construction stopped
42:22and this was the end of the line.
42:25Eventually enough money was raised to restart construction and extend the line one stop higher.
42:37I've left the driver's cabin now to come and see where the passengers are and just to sort of marvel
42:44at this extraordinary engineering fleet.
42:46We are travelling through a mountain, a tunnel that's seven and a half kilometres long.
42:53It took many, many years to build, mainly by hand. They used dynamite, but pickaxes, drills, carrying all the sort
43:03of spoil out of the mountain back down to ground level.
43:08An extraordinary engineering achievement.
43:10Perhaps when it was first suggested, maybe some people thought it was a little bit mad.
43:15How can you build a tunnel through a mountain and then put a railway in that tunnel?
43:32Oh, here we are, Europe's highest station. This is Jungfrau Jok.
43:40As the sign says, we're at the top of Europe, although there is another 30 metres of ice above us,
43:47so there must be somewhere else we can go which is even higher, so let's see if we can find
43:51that.
43:54My route to the outside world takes me through the Ice Palace,
43:58a series of tunnels and halls dug out of the Alesh Glacier by hand in the 1930s.
44:05I'm nervous about walking. I mean, we are walking on ice.
44:08It doesn't feel too...it doesn't feel too slippery,
44:11but I'm hesitating to walk too quickly because you could take a nasty tumble on this.
44:23It's chilly in here, a constant minus three degrees.
44:32It's like something out of a science fiction movie.
44:36Or a James Bond underground villain there.
44:41I'm not sure what sort of animal this is. He's encased in ice.
44:44Maybe it's something prehistoric. He's got a sort of squirrel sort of tail,
44:47but a sort of crocodile head.
44:49But clearly hazelnuts were his main diet.
44:52And it's a shame that he just got...he got trapped in there maybe millions of years ago.
45:01As the corridors wind on, I'm beginning to understand how he got trapped in here.
45:07I wonder if he'll share his hazelnuts.
45:14Finally, is that a glimpse of daylight?
45:20Here we are at the top. I've reached my final destination.
45:23I'm not very good with height, so I'll try and get rid of the rather panicked look on my face.
45:28Hello.
45:29I'm not wearing the right clothes. Everybody else is dressed for winter.
45:32I'm still dressed for the beach.
45:34But nevertheless, I have enjoyed my visit here in Switzerland.
45:37I've travelled thousands of metres up and down this magnificent country, all by train.
45:42I've met some beautiful people. It's a shame we haven't got a particularly blue sky behind us today.
45:47But I think you'll agree that the scenery is still breathtaking.
45:51Rather like all of my trip through this wonderful country, Switzerland.
46:00Now, it's a little known legal requirement that every film about Switzerland
46:04must contain at least one reference to cuckoo clocks, toblerones or alpine horns.
46:10Somehow we've managed to get to the end of the film without one,
46:12so before I go, I'm told I can't leave Switzerland without trying this.
46:34Oh, it takes a lot of puff.
46:36Yeah.
46:37I think that's me done.
46:38Can you play two at the same time?
46:43Well, the train thing continues on more for now,
46:46with a reassuringly glamorous look at the golden age of the Orient Express.
46:50Here on Channel 4, it's a return ticket for besties Maggie and Eddie.
46:53Only one of them's got a brand new bestie.
46:56A new series of comedy, Big Mood, arrives at ten.
46:59But next, all aboard Alex Horne for this week's Taskmaster.
47:03At that time,...
47:06The end of the hour is on the train and conveniently
47:09Yes, thanks for listening.
47:10The end of this week.
Comments