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I watched this series with my mom. Later, when I started travelling, it was always by Eurolines from Victoria Coach Station. Destination for me often Munich. A thrilling journey, if not as glamorous.

53:25 “Dinosaurs grazing. Beasts from the mythology of railways.” Only in 80s BBC productions do you find such poetic and theatrical narration in a documentary.

I had this episode and the South Africa on vhs tape growing up and it's not much of an exaggeration to say I watched them hundreds of times! Thank You for posting!

I was in Hungary in 2022, they still use that little announcement tune at train stations to get people's attention. When I heard it I knew I had heard it before on this programme!

Exellent😊

Does anyone know where in Hungary those steam trains were running?

This is probably my favourite episode from this superb series - which has never been bettered - each episode is perfectly crafted and made to very high standards. Eric Robsons intelligent and well informed commentary together with the photography and Herbert Chappell's jazzy score strike the perfect mix.

50 years on there's a similar non tourist/non museum operation still going with steam trains in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Tuzla area.

Oh, what have we lost? Civilised rail travel across Europe mean the provision of a quality Restaurant Car; not a trolley-dolly dispensing plastic sandwiches. Thank you for uploading this excellent BBC production.

My twelfth birthday!

I was on this train. I believe I used to work with you ! Best regards. Vic Sams National Operations Standards Manager (retired)

I remember travelling Switzerland and Austria by train in the 80s. It brought back memories. Thank you.

Great video Dean.

Great film I remember trying to watch this on a UHF channel on public television. Cinematography very good....poor taste in music though.

Funnily Chris Lohner actually ended up doing the announcements for 40 more years, and she will be the voice of ÖBB for years to come - albeit somewhat more artificial sounding - in digitally "rearrangable" form. Even the voice messages in the driver's cabs of the locomotives were done by her!

Hard to believe it's nearly forty years since I watched the glamorous Transalpin and heard the perfectly matched 'powering on' accompanying music of the programme... which I've hummed every now and then ever since! Thank you for uploading - as others have said, only segments seemed to be available before. Watching the waiters serving lunch - with panache, freshly cooked onboard, it seems to me things have gone backward when the 'best' available nowadays are microwaved snacks on disposable plates! As for Swiss connections: Many years ago I remember asking at the ticket office in Interlaken if it may perhaps be possible to take a train to A, a boat to B, a cable car to C, a chairlift to D - and a Postbus back to A on a single ticket......"Of course" came the reply.......and naturally every journey connected within minutes to the next. Oh - how good it would be to have the Swiss organising public transport in the UK!

You can’t beat a bit of cine action. Thoroughly enjoyed this. I noticed a busy Swindon works too. I was there there yesterday in its guise as a shopping centre!

Nice work love it

I used to drink with the charge hand shown there around 1:10 in the Hand & Flower when I was working for BR and lived behind Olympia in Sinclair Road. We did use Motorail in the 70's from Olympia to the far north of Scotland but every year it was a nightmare including one night a shunter getting crushed between the car flats and the coaches shuffling, it was said the coaches moved only a few inches but the kinetic force of so many tons just a few inches ended the poor mans life and for us it became an even worse situation as my father was the ranking BR man on site and me mum brother and I were whisked to Euston by taxi where BR had arranged for us passengers to be taken to Inverness in a sleeper whilst the drivers had to stay with the stuck train. To be fair BR paid for us to stay in the station hotel in Inverness but didn't see my father for three days and he was in a ferocious mood all that holiday despite getting his three days paid back in extra leave plus paid for being on duty as well. I think we used Motorail for a couple years more but the last year they took our car off at Stirling when it was due to be unloaded at Fort William and we had to wait a whole day and night for it to come up on the next nights Motorail, that was the train where some poor folks saw their cars loaded on a Penzance or Falmouth Motorail and there was a huge furore by angry car owners.

This was also shown on 12th October 1983 at 18.30. 39 years ago from right now. lol 😀

Unique among Great Railway Journeys episodes in that the host traveller appears at the beginning, but not again for the rest of the episode, only giving narration. Story is one Bill Grundy was meant to present this episode but had a mishap in Switzerland on a preliminary trip and had to return home. He was host of BBC's tea time Today show til it was canceled in early 1977.

They still run the VRB steam train on weekends in September or October. Pioneer railway in Budapest still going strong. Everything else "modernised", I guess better than "discontinued".

I was born in 1983 and my dad had this taped off the tv, one of my earliest memories was watching this and I often wondered when he taped it, so 1986. I could vividly remember certain scenes in it such as the scrapyard at the end. It got taped over some time in the late 80s and I never seen it again for years but could always remember it. Along with other episodes in the series.

The 1980 Transalpin seems modern even to todays standards.

An excellent film with the push to electric cars and the range issues I wonder if there is a need for this type of service again. Cheers Kev

Has anyone got the Ben Okri one where he goes from London to Arcadia in Greece. It's my favourite along with Michael palins.

You might not have needed 'a dash around Paris'as some of the trains carriages use to be shunted around the Paris peripheral loop line linking the main stations.

Zurich to Vienna is brilliant :)

Thanks for posting this! This is my favourite episode too. I especially enjoy the part about Le Cisalpin. I used to love those Mistral 69 carriages. I consider myself privileged to have been able to use them on several occasions between Amsterdam and Antwerp on the Etoile du Nord. My dad and I would sometimes go on special train trips for the sole purpose of riding on the Mistral 69 carriages. Beautiful and timeless design.

Great footage and a reminder of the motorail workings that regularly crossed the network during the summer timetable, and the bonus of hydraulic haulage in the West Country, wonderful 👍👍👍😎

Just thought of something: when these were made, steam on BR had only been gone for 12 years. Must have felt much different to see steam in the wild compared to me, who never did.

Brilliant, thanks for uploading

And forty years on, the only trains still running are the ones that were already museum pieces. Everything else has been reequipped or discontinued aside from the TGVs at the end. The Cisalpin whose future he pondered was effectively gone three years later.

Thank you so much posting this complete version. The only versions I've been able to find previously have bits missing or is a poor quality cine film strip from the Internet Archive. This was my favourite episode too. I know Herbert Chappell's music isn't to everyone's taste, but I love it. This episode was originally going to be presented by Bill Grundy, but according to Eric Robson's autobiography he "apparently [fell] down the neck of a whisky bottle, in Zurich" and the footage which had been shot was repurposed with Robson doing the narration and linking. I think what we got is much better than if Grundy had been involved. I find it frustrating that all of Series 2 of 'Great Railway Journeys' from 1994 is on iPlayer, but not Series 1.

Great video Dean, brings back memories of travelling on some of these routes.

I saw a few clips on archive British diesel and electric traction vol 2 vhs the coaches are usually at the front behind the loco followed by the motorail wagons

Life was fast enough then ,manageable ,but now ,hell with a pandemic to boot !pasties on the beach at Dawlish,tea from the cafe shop on the beach head ,white china cups ,teapot tray milk ,hot water etc ,where’s that all gone..?

3 like friend^_^✨ thanks for sharing~😍

Western😀

What was the Class 44 at around the 4 minute mark?

I wouldn't want to be in an air conditioned Mk2 if the loco was a 47/3.

We used to take the motorail from Kensington Olympia to St Austell in the 70s and early 80s. Until the year they abolished the formerly wonderful breakfast and there was a sign saying at the terminal saying "Collect your tray meals here". I can honestly say leaving to go on holiday on the motorail was the most exciting event as a young boy!

Fantastic!!

This is brilliant. GWR trains in the 1970s! Keep it coming!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if some heritage society recreated a motorail train. They wre just amazing.

What a wonderful film ESPN the footage of kensington olympia. Brought back childhood memories of a motorail holiday to Perth. I can vividly recall waiting in the lounge at Olympia ...it was really exciting for a 6 year old! Thanks.

A lost world, thanks for sharing

Great catch. Liked and subbed.

We could hear Deltics and HSTs through Newark from down the road

I remember regularly seeing motorail trains at Dawlish in the 1970s... Fond memories...