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Beeching was an employee of the true villain tory mp Earnest Marples. Who had a vested interest in motorways and road building projects. In the end he did a flit from the uk to avoid the HMRC tax demand and became a tax exile in Monaco. Nothing changes

It was terrible how Railways were treated by Government after 1979. Thatcher and her clan hated railways, and their Unions. But she was proved to be massively wrong, when traffic used the S & C line, when wires were down on the WCML.

Settle to Carlisle line remains open, and thriving in 2024, with Blear Moor signal box still manned 24/7 365 days a year...... Trains passing over Ribble Head viaduct are now restricted to 30 mph, in order to preserve the integrity of the viaduct.

Fantastic watching this again, this line is a national monument alongside of Hadrian's Wall and Durham Cathedral; it should go on and on...

The west highlander is for 1988

That's a beautiful haunting song, in Gaelic I presume, at around 23:00

Just the sound of this program is wonderful. My grandad recorded 1 episode of this series for me back in the 90's and I found it fascinating. Think it helped kick off my passion for railways at the age of 4

Wonder where Barry Smith and the other people in this film are now some 34 years on?

Of all the episodes. This one is by far the most poignant. Anthony Smith's narration was and remains sublime, and the comments he makes upon the state of transport at the time, and questions around how we preserve our industrial heritage are near-prophetic. But what perhaps makes this episode so striking is the way that it ends. Class 58s on a merry-go-round train at a coal-fired power station, all three practically extinct now. Just as that was the modern way then, like so many railway practices, it has all but disappeared into the shrouds of time, with only writing, drawings and photographs left to show that this method of transport and power-generation existed where they once did. The folk tune (and theme for the programme) "Bare Necessities" plays in the background while the Class 58 slowly pulls its wagons as they drop their coal loads into the conveyers for stockpiling. For me, this is incredibly evocative, almost like a subtle visual metaphor harking back to the earliest days of the railway, where horses hauled coal along waggonways down to the canal wharves, where the coal was dropped down chutes into barges below. Those 58s, just as those horses; strong, slowly-moving beasts of burden, working day-in-day-out.

☝️ *Promo SM*

The Kyle line is much prettier.

Mac,alpine didn't build the viaduct !!!!!!, it was the unsung worker,s !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Amazing. Makes me wish I'd moved to the Isle of Man

So glad to see this series available once more.

Watched this as a 13 year old. Watching this as if I watched it yesterday. Still amazing to see.

Anyone know the song that starts at 22:56 ?

Britain's pride and glory of the railway kind, across the hilly backbone spine of northern England. Each time I travel the route I spy something different which I missed previously, so much varying variety of scenery and sights to view, is quite remarkable to think of the great effort put in to create it, that we may ride its route in comfort and style, most of us who don't even bat an eyelid whilst travelling its length. Truly one of the best of British victorian engineering feats.

Gosh… Gordon Kobish, my old Wellesbourne PE teacher from half a century ago. Almost absolutely wonderful!

6:00, Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’ never worked on the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

Great days, trouble is there are other forces trying to take England away from us.

Bet that Lyme Regis branch line was pleasant to ride on, Lyme Regis is a beautiful place.

So many of the staff in this film have sadly now passed away but, and this is important they passed the knowledge of how to keep it going on to me and others R.I.P John, Jack, Colin, Brian, Bob, Tony

'Overheating world': he foresaw global warming and climate change.

Love the occasional dry humour of the writer/narrator.

The brewery loco is particularly ingenious.

A quality, time-honored service.

Lyme Regis Branch similar to the Titfield Thunderbolt.

@ 18:09: That's someone else's voice, not Barry's.

It is just sad that there are no Inter-City services on this main line. Leeds and Carlisle are cities, after all. According to British Rail, Inter-City trains have to serve London.

Living Settle so pleased that this line is still open and busy. God send to us locals.

Interesting to see the at the time brand new Wessex unit at Woking 150. Now all withdrawn

Opening title sequence with that music so sad and wistful.

Excellent.

What a wonderful program. Most excellent!

It’s not often I congratulate myself about anything, but at the age of 38 I VHS’d all editions of this programme, including this one, and am I glad I did? I still have the tapes, and they are valuable additions to my old VHS library, as they would be to any guy who was weaned on steam.

Ironic the modern views are now history. Class 58s delivering uk mined coal to a power station

For those who are interested the Blea Moor signalman’s house is up for sale. It needs a LOT of work doing to it. Water has to be tankered up, electricity from windmill and generator, cooking with Calor Gas, heating with multi fuel stove, no vehicular access unless you pay the farmer £125.00 per year and then only with a 4 x 4. Yorkshire 3 Peaks trail comes right past the front door and is always very, very busy with hikers. Yours for £250,000.00 March 2023.

A steam locomotive is at its best when it's working hard uphill With a long heavy train behind it

English cannot get out of their past, eh? That is both helpful and hurting. Societal and Economic Modernization needs some form of detachment from the past.

Excellent film the S&C is certainly the most beautiful in England remaining but the Midland line now gone in the Peaks was the most beautiful of all.

Is this not now the North Yorkshire moors heritage line?

whot make,s you obsolete !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, them do !!!!!!!!!!!.

Excellent, I loved this series, I happened to be in Oban once and explored the area. Mallaig is worth the trip. But try the "Oban prawns"

haha, those ticket prices..

So the Peak District railway as envisioned never came to pass? Looking at the Peak site there's only two stations Matlock & Darley Dale, which is sad, it's stunning up that way as you can see from the video footage.

Who else found this video through looking at the port line section of the southern locomotive limited site?

As a member of 34092 "City of Wells" support crew at the time, may I reply to Barry Smith's comments about the locomotive's non-appearance at Salisbury on the first weekend of the "Blackmore Vale" steam workings when the BBC were filming this programme. Following its appearance at Woking 150 the locomotive returned to Marylebone to work "South Yorkshireman" trips to Sheffield and return. On one of these trips the departure from Sheffield was delayed and the fire having been built up, the boiler achieved its maximum working pressure of 250 psi and began to lift its safety valves. With no dampers in the firebox, Bulleid declaring that he'd designed a boiler to produce steam and saw no reason to install dampers to inhibit this, the BR fireman had little alternative but to quieten the boiler by injecting more and more cool feed water into it. Unfortunately on the climb out of Sheffield, the water in the overfilled boiler surged backwards resulting in the locomotive "picking up the water", which reached the cylinders, resulting in the shattering of the piston rings in the middle cylinder. After three weekends of work to remove the piston and replace the piston rings as well as some other necessary repairs using little more than hand tools in less than ideal conditions in the DMU stabling depot at Rossmore Road outside Marylebone Station, and with the assistance of members of the Bluebell Railway's Bulleid group, 34092 was pronounced fit to run again on the Main Line, and we travelled overnight down the Sou'Western to Salisbury for the second weekend of the schedule. Once there 34092 worked the majority of the trains to Yeovil Junction, including a filming run on the bi-directionally signalled double track section of the line into Yeovil Junction with invited photographers travelling parallel to the train aboard the Network Southeast's inspection saloon hauled by a Class 33 diesel. I had the privilege of being the owners' representative on the footplate for the non-stop run between Yeovil Junction and Salisbury to mark 21 years since the end of Southern steam during which we achieved 85 mph before having to ease for Wilton Junction outside Salisbury. Sadly instead of being grateful that we still have steam running on the main line at all, some "enthusiasts" seem to think that steam locomotives can just be taken out of their boxes and run, like a model railway, and fail to appreciate the amount of labour, and sometimes personal sacrifice, that dedicated groups of volunteers put in to ensure that our "steam heritage" is maintained.

My Uncle and Aunt!

Does anyone know the name of the song played around 15.00 with all the views of the water flowing?

I simply love trains. Best means of transport - comfortable and least damage to the environment. It's got rhythm and vitality, yes. These people ought to appreciate the infrastructure which is already there. This is a beautiful documentary.