All language subtitles for The Worlds Most Scenic Railway Journeys S03E04 1080p WEB DL H264 BTN_track3_[eng]

Escape with us on a journey back
in time through the Lake District

and Yorkshire Dales...

..aboard a luxury
Heritage train, the Northern Belle.

It's designed to give people
a taste of how it used to be.

It's a romantic voyage pulled
by the original 1930s steam train

the Princess Elizabeth where
passengers get to enjoy a

grand tour of rural north-west
England,

passing the timeless ancient

landscapes of Cumbria and
Yorkshire...

What I'm doing when I move my sheep
is the same work that somebody

was doing three, four, 5,000
years ago.

That's pretty amazing.

..secret living forests...

If I jump, it's going to run up my
leg!

..to witness the true glory of
history.

We'll meet the people who live
and work along this special railway.

Who strive to keep the great
romantic era of rail travel alive.

Well, when you're going through the
Yorkshire Dales,

you're going through God's own
country. And it's wonderful.

This is no ordinary railway journey.

This is one of the most scenic
railway journeys in the world,

the Lakes and Dales.

England's rural north-west,

spanning Lancashire...

..Cumbria and Yorkshire.

This spectacular region
of the country

is famed for its patchwork of fields
and green pastures,

it's hillwalking and it's
ever-changing weather.

Sometimes with all four seasons
in one day.

To carry us through it,

a very special train...

..now backing into a rain-soaked
Preston Station.

..to collect passengers for
a grand tour of rural England.

This magnificent locomotive
is the Princess Elizabeth...

..one of the finest
steam engines in the world.

Coupled up with the Northern Belle

and its 13 stylish
Pullman carriages.

No-one is more proud of her than
train manager Thomas.

Any time we can take a steam engine
out, it's a fantastic day for us.

It's absolutely wonderful to use,

especially the Princess Elizabeth
engine.

It really brings out
the opulence of what rail travel

used to be like.

At the dirty end of the train,
old-timer Chris

is getting Lizzie ready.

The driver's job is to get
the train to its destination

safely and on time.

A 10:13 am, our, luxurious
day out begins.

A train ride voted one of
the world's ten greatest journeys

of all time.

The first leg of our 200-mile eight
hour grand tour takes us north

into Cumbria and the Lake District

to stop at the historic city
of Carlisle. Our train then swings

south onto the historic
Settle and Carlisle line,

through the
Yorkshire Dales National Park,

passing Dent, England's highest
station, before finally crossing

the famous Ribblehead Viaduct
towards Settle

and back to where our tour started,
at Preston.

As our train shoots majestically

north along
the West Coast Main Line...

WHISTLE BLOWS

..passengers indulge in the first
silver service offering of the day.

We've gone for a special breakfast
today, which is a full English

breakfast, and we've also
got a smoked salmon option.

After that, we're going to
have our sweets, our pastries,

our cakes, our loaves.

And then, after that,
another glass of champagne.

Luxury is what the Northern Belle
is all about.

Each of the redesigned Pullman
carriages has been named

and decorated in honour of
famous stately homes,

including Chatsworth,

Harlech

and the Duart.

It was actually the Queen Mother's
favourite carriage.

Legend has it that the Queen Mother
sat just here

and that was her favourite
spot in the car.

And it's affectionately
named after Duart Castle.

And the Queen Mother was fond
of wildlife of Scotland, England

and Wales, and they're portrayed
on the ceiling above us.

According to Heritage Railway
manager James, the Belle not only

captures the romance of royalty, but
also the glamour of 1930s travel.

The style was of opulence.

It was the golden era of travel.
And that's not just rail travel,

that's the early era of air travel

and certainly the great liners...

..the Queens and what have you.

And I think this sort of travel
was a more cultured and much

more comfortable way of travel.

This is certainly a luxury train
and it's designed to give people

a taste of how it used to be

and reflect the style of the era.

After travelling through windswept
Lancashire, the clouds momentarily

part and the Northern Belle
glides past the famous

Lake District National Park.

Less than five miles from
the tracks, an ancient landscape

where old-fashioned farming
traditions still linger.

Here!

Good dogs. That's it,
you've got them.

Bunch up.
HE WHISTLES

Bunch up.
HE WHISTLES

Bunch up.

On a quest to maintain that link
with the past is Lakes farmer James.

My family have been here
for 600-plus years.

When I look at this landscape,
I know it.

We're written all over it
and it's written right through us

like a stick of Blackpool rock
when you crack it.

One, two, three, four, five...

The values of the people here
reflect this landscape.

Good lassies.
HE WHISTLES

I mean, Wordsworth said this
250-odd years ago - there's things

about this landscape that shapes
a particular kind of people.

Decades earlier, James inherited
a small family farmstead

that his grandfather had once kept
in its time-honoured way, much

like the generations before him.

My earliest memories of like
following my grandfather round,

he had a sheepdog called Ben.
He did everything on foot,

and he spent a lot of time
walking on his land.

And, although it was technically
working,

and he would spend his time
watching the barn owls

in the barn beneath us.

And he would look under the fences
like the one we're standing next to

and he would see like
three red hairs on the bottom

and he'd say, "That's where the fox
comes through every morning."

Come.

Years later, the farm modernised,

losing many of its traditional
features.

But then James realised
his grandfather

might have been onto something
and set about returning

it to its original state.

He restored woodlands...

..and peat bogs.

Opened up an ancient river...

..and introduced traditional

Herdwick sheep.

The genetics go back to the
Viking period.

HE SHOUTS COMMANDS

And we think that some of their
genetics go back way further to

ancient British sheep,
so it's a distinct possibility that

the work I'm doing
when I move my sheep

is the same look that somebody was
doing

three, four, 5,000 years ago,
which is a remarkable thing.

The rewilding of the land
had an extraordinary effect

on the natural biodiversity,

but it also improved the farmland,

allowing his livestock to thrive.

Now, when you walk through our
fields, there are masses of insects

and butterflies and moths.
We're seeing voles and frogs

and toads everywhere.

And then we're seeing the next
layer up in the food system,

which is the barn owls, the herons,
the kestrels. And there's clovers

and other beautiful flowers, sort
of rarer flowers. Round about 100

different species, stuff that was
there in the past that's vanished.

James believes the explosion
of biodiversity on his farm

stems from these ancient farming
practises that work in tune

with nature itself.

Local knowledge passed down here
in the Lakes for generations.

This is my home.

If I spend every single day
for the rest of my life

in this place, I would die
with no regrets.

What more does a person need?

Next, our train continues
on through the beautiful

Lake District and then crosses
over into Yorkshire

and England's historic heartland.

Well, when you're going through
the Yorkshire Dales, you're going

through God's own country.
And it's wonderful.

We're two hours into one
of the world's most scenic

railway journeys, a grand tour of
rural north-west England

aboard the Northern Belle.

Obviously, the landscapes are
beautiful and it's not like

something that you see from a car
because you keep getting whiffs

of the steam going past
and it's just beautiful.

One minute, you're looking
through the window and you just

realise that, you think,
"Why has the view disappeared?"

And then you realise
that it's the steam from the train.

The next leg of our journey takes us
north for another 80 miles

through the Lake District...

..to then stop at the historic
city of Carlisle.

Steam locomotive 6201,

the Princess Elizabeth,

is the undoubted star of the trip.

It's almost the nearest
you have a machine to being alive.

There's a lot of affection
for this locomotive.

People like the noise, the sound.

We still refer to trains as
chuff-chuffs.

Built in 1934 to carry
passengers from London to Glasgow...

HORN TOOTS

..by 1936, Lizzie had set the world
record for the longest and fastest

nonstop run to Scotland.

Making the 411-mile journey
in just under six hours.

Today, we're going at a slightly
more luxurious pace...

..as we pull into Carlisle station.

As passengers alight to explore
Cumbria's provincial capital,

some head to the city's most famous
historic landmark, just a short walk

from the station...

BELL TOLLS

..Carlisle's Gothic Cathedral.

Built in 1122, it's a masterpiece
of medieval architecture

that predates
the railway by almost 1,000 years.

SINGING WITH ORGAN

Though as Canon Michael knows,
God and trains don't always

go hand-in-hand.

Our relationship with the railway
and the station

is quite chequered, really.

It's only about eight minutes' walk
away.

And when it was all being developed,
the dean at the time,

Dean Francis Close, didn't like
trains on Sundays and he didn't

like the noise of the trains
passing either.

He used to get very annoyed,
so he complained.

And one of the funny stories
is, the train drivers learnt

of this and actually blew
their whistle every time

they passed his house, the deanery.

WHISTLE BLOWS

But the Cathedral's turbulent
history began 500 years earlier

when King Henry VIII broke
away from the Catholic papacy

in Rome and looted the
monastic community based here.

All that remains of it today
is the dining hall.

While they were eating,

this is where they would read

to the monks, various either
the Bible

or various religious works.

BELL TOLLS

With no money, the
Cathedral fell into disrepair

and the west wing collapsed.

Then it suffered more damage
when stonework was stolen

from the nave during the
English Civil War.

But even after all this destruction,

you can see glimpses of how it used
to be

in the magnificent 51-foot-high
east wing stained glass window.

SOLEMN SINGING

It's one of the finest examples
of what we call

the flowing Gothic style.

This is one of the largest
in England.

There's also an incredible ceiling.

One of the themes of the cathedral
is that everybody's special,

everybody's unique.

And here we have stars.
Even though there's thousands,

there's one panel which has a star
missing to make it different,

to say how special people are.

So to actually work here,
it's like living history,

because the history is continued.
And there's so many untold stories

of what happened here that I'm
still discovering after 12 years.

While we've been
visiting the cathedral...

..Lizzie is being repositioned
for our return...

..ready for the next
leg of the journey south,

through the Yorkshire Dales.

It's a demanding task.

All steam locomotives
are temperamental.

They're like women -
you've got to treat them right.

Because if you don't treat them
right, they'll soon let you down.

STEAM HISSES

She's making a noise now.

Meanwhile, stranger
happenings are afoot.

In a hidden underworld that lies
40ft beneath the station known only

to a few, like local tour guide
John.

This isn't some fantasy scene
from a Jack the Ripper movie set.

It's the Undercroft - an abandoned
Victorian arcade that once

was teeming with noisy coal and
mail carts,

and even elephants when a visiting
circus was based there.

These were dark times,

and some say the sounds still
linger.

This place has long been known
as being haunted.

Several ghosts roam the station.

On occasions, you can hear the sound
of breaking glass.

Within the dark labyrinth...

..lies an abandoned canteen
once used by train staff.

But it's in the old Victorian
butcher's cold store

where the grisliest stories look.

In May 1915, bodies from a horrific
train crash that took place

at Quintinshill during the First
World War were stored here.

Possibly some of the stories
of ghosts emanate from these walls.

You do feel that this place is a bit
creepy

and it sends shivers down your back.

High above this chamber of
horrors...

..our train is finally ready
for the next leg.

Well, when you're going through
the Yorkshire Dales,

you're going through
God's own country.

And it's wonderful to see
all seasons and all aspects

of life. You see the change
in the landscape. One week

it could be snow, in the summer
it's nice and warm.

You see the farmers doing
all their job on the land.

You're in Yorkshire, and I'm a
Yorkshireman.

The Northern Belle now travels south
along the Settle and Carlisle line,

passing through Kirkby Stephen
and the sweeping Yorkshire Dales.

The line doesn't so much
go through the heart

as go over the roof of England,

and it was an extremely difficult
line to build.

It took seven and a half years
of manual labour, which resulted

in a fairly stunning line
which is usually the highlight

of the journey.

Fortunately for those on board,
lunch is accompanied

with stunning views.

On the menu today, a trio of salmon,

for starters, followed by

beef Wellington

and that old English
favourite, spiced apple crumble.

It can be difficult to serve on a
moving train at times, especially

when you're going 90mph
on the Main Line. As staff members,

we do get a bit of an internal
gyroscope and you do get used

to sort of walking with a bit
of a wider gait.

People come dressed beautifully
for the day and the nightmare

would be spilling tea or coffee
on them straight away -

that would be the hardest
part of our job.

There you go, madam. Thank you.
You're welcome.

With table views to die for,

glorious England unfolds.

50 miles ahead, Kirkby Stephen
station,

where time seems
to have stood still.

Since Victorian times, some
things have never changed.

Like late trains.

But as clock historian
Michael knows,

at least the Victorians had a good
excuse.

They had the problem of local time

and railway time.

Stations used to
put notices up -

"Do arrive ten minutes early
because you may miss the train."

The time of day
varied across the country.

It was out by an additional
four minutes for every degree

of longitude east or west
from London.

Here in Kirkby Stephen, midday would
have come around ten minutes later.

Time became important.

So they developed railway time.

With the use of telegraph signals,

their stations and railways
all had the same time,

and this was adopted in the 1840s

and it took another 20-odd years

before the whole country
came into line

and railway time was then
Greenwich Mean Time.

Michael's great-great-grandfather,
William Potts, got the job of making

over 1,600 public clocks
up and down the country...

..with 15 on the Settle and Carlisle
line alone, just like this one here.

They're everywhere,
and isn't that wonderful?

Finally, in that great tradition
of railway time, our train passes

through Kirkby Stephen
a little late.

Ladies and gentlemen...

..unfortunately, we're running
approximately 20 minutes late.

I do apologise for any inconvenience
this may cause. Thank you.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Without so much as the wrong kind of
autumn leaf on the line,

The Northern Belle continues
its journey south...

..to enter the Yorkshire Dales
National Park

and some of the most breathtaking
scenery found anywhere in the world.

We're halfway through one
of the most scenic railway journeys

in the world...

..aboard the Northern Belle.

..as it makes its grand tour
of north-western England.

It's very attractive scenery.

It's generally unspoilt.

You see lots of small farms, sheep.

And you've got some high summits.

Our train continues on through
the Yorkshire Dales, passing

Dent, England's highest station,

before crossing Blea Moor

and the famous Ribblehead Viaduct.

I think one of the most
special things about the Belle

is where we go and what we see.

We get access to areas of
the country that aren't

seen by everybody.

Mile after mile of
rural pastures roll by.

Some of which include ancient
woodland,

the ideal habitat for native
species.

Within these secret forest
sanctuaries...

..live some of Britain's rarest
animals.

The most elusive is so tiny
and quick it's almost invisible.

Come on.
SHE CLICKS HER TONGUE

Come on, little 'uns.

Come on.

Unless you are Julie,
the squirrel whisperer.

There you are.

Come on over, then.

Come on.

They are really, really flighty.

Little gymnasts in the trees.

It's like a flash of red lightning
between the branches,

so it's difficult sometimes
to see them.

Hello again. Hello again.

Don't you stand on my feet.

Here's some more nice feed for you.

Try that one. Going to bury it?

They've got beautiful coats. They go
from red to brown to grey to rust

to orange - they basically follow
the colours of the rainbow.

There's one at my feet at the
moment,

and if I jump it's going to run
up my leg!

Always hungry, always busy.

Red squirrels are native
to the British Isles, having lived

here since the last Ice Age
over 10,000 years ago.

But in recent decades, the arrival
of the grey squirrel and habitat

loss have threatened their survival.

Conservationists like Julie are
helping the population to recover.

A lot of the natural food
isn't there for the squirrels.

So we supplementary feed them
basically to try and do some

squirrel counts, to record
the behaviour, to record the range

and to just ensure that
they are healthy.

After 30 years' work, Julie
and her fellow conservationists

have stabilised the population.

There are now estimated
to be around 300,000 red squirrels

in the country, and they're making
a comeback.

We've helped those squirrels to
survive and thrive

and now increase the range.

My all-time dream is for everybody
to experience red squirrels

in their natural habitat,
which is where we want them to be.

Five hours into our journey, our
train ascends towards the highest

point on England's Main Line.

At 1,150ft, Dent station.

It marks the starting point
of a dramatic new landscape carved

out by glaciers and erosion...

..which the railway builders

tunnelled through at Blea Moor,

where the line runs 500ft
underground.

After travelling for a mile
and a half along the line's longest

tunnel, the route emerges
onto the famous Ribblehead Viaduct.

1,300ft long, 100ft high
and 24 arches wide, it's considered

to be one of the great Victorian
landmarks of Northern England.

But behind its glory hides
a forgotten chapter of history.

Of the migrant labourers who worked
on the railway known as the navvies.

Local historian Sarah
has been uncovering their story.

Nowadays, in the 21st century,
we have these romantic notions

of these navvies who built this
fantastic viaduct up at Ribblehead,

but the reality was far worse.

Navvies did have a tough life beyond
what we could possibly imagine

in this day and age.

They had to dig ten tonnes a day and
the average age

of death of the navvies
was about 30.

A surprising number of the navvies
died from being crushed

between wagons.

Some of the deaths were linked
just to absolute exhaustion.

If you weren't hardy, you would not
survive, and many didn't.

215 navvies and their families are
buried here

at Chapel-le-Dale church
that lies near the Viaduct.

Some would have lived with
their families

in temporary construction camps
close to the Viaduct.

But what surprised Sarah
when she began researching

about their lives in 19th century
journals and local newspapers

is the bad press they received.

They would read these reports
in the paper

and then that would be the basis

of, "Oh, well, we don't want the
navvies living round here.

"You know what they say about

"the navvies - they're always in
trouble."

But obviously, newspapers then,
as now, wanted to sell papers

and may well have embellished
a couple of stories just to make

it particularly interesting.

In fact, one of the navvies that
died

actually was singing at a concert to
raise money for the lifeboat fund

just a couple of months
before he was killed by a crane.

So he was obviously making
a good contribution to life

in the town.

It's such a shame that, at the time,
so few people acknowledged

and understood the significance
and importance

of what they were doing
and made sacrifices themselves

just so that we can enjoy
this fantastic scenery today

from the railway.

150 years on, Ribblehead
still has its admirers.

Careful - it looks a bit slippy
here.

A mere deluge won't stop
passionate train enthusiasts

Steve and Daniel heading out today.

I think this is as good a spot as
any.

Yeah, that'll do.

They'll be nice.

Finding the best - or should we say
driest - seat in the house

requires some optimism.

Not the ideal weather for cameras,
but hey-oh.

Why do I do this?
THEY LAUGH

That's what my missus says.

While Daniel opts to
photograph the train,

Steve prefers to video it.

Yeah, that'll do.

Having as a boy fallen in love with
the sound of steam

when his father worked
as a signalman.

Nothing more fantastic than seeing
a steam engine going over

this viaduct, working hard, you
know?

The sound is incredible.

You can't beat it, even in
weather like this.

We get a bad rep.

People call us train spotters,
but we're not train spotters,

we're enthusiasts.
My wife thinks I'm a bit mad, yeah.

Especially when she knows I'm out in
this weather,

but you can't beat it.

I mean, you'll always have a
good chat

with somebody who's next to you
on the line.

It's just a bit of
a band of brothers, really.

What time does the tea trolley come?
Yeah, you'll be lucky.

Most of my mates think I'm the mad
one of the bunch.

I've never been described as the
sane one - we'll put it that way.

I mean, admittedly, I'm sure a lot
of people wouldn't rather be here.

But, you know, you've got to do
what you've got to do, haven't you?

It's a day out.

And for our intrepid band
of brothers, braving out even

the harshest rain is worth it

just for a glimpse of Lizzie.

Meanwhile, lounging in comfort
on the Belle's plush

upholstered seats, rain is the
perfect

accompaniment to a glass
of champagne.

If it's raining outside,
it doesn't really matter

and you can still see the scenery.

There's a certain amount
of satisfaction, I think,

being inside a nice, comfy,
warm carriage when it's

chucking it down outside.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Ahead, at the Viaduct,
no bog is too deep

for a train enthusiast pro.

People call it atmospheric,
but I just call it wet!

Poetic way of describing it

being unpleasant, isn't it?
Yeah, definitely, yeah.

WHISTLE BLOWS

There's some smoke.

Just trying to keep the rain off.

Fortunately, there's a good watering
hole for our train enthusiasts

to dry out in just below
the Viaduct.

While above our luxury train,
the Northern Belle,

makes the final push...

..onwards towards Settle and some
of England's finest views.

It's the final leg of our 200-mile
train journey through north-western

England aboard the Northern Belle.

After six hours of travel,
the sunshine has returned

and it's time for afternoon tea.

We get the pleasure of seeing
the Great British countryside,

and it's beautiful.

We meet a lot of interesting
people, we've got a good team

and we all work well together.

The customers absolutely cheer us
up.

It's like they're coming into our
home. They make our day.

The scenery has been beautiful,

the experience is, obviously,
it's just one of a lifetime.

It's lovely.

The last stretch of our journey
passes through some of the finest

landscapes in the country...

..and the picturesque Settle.

Come on.

For local outdoor expert Jonathan,
the views close to this railway town

hold ancient secrets of epic
proportions.

The Settle-Carlisle line almost
tells a story of England.

There are so many
different geological features that

encapsulate the area.

From station to station, each is
like a separate episode

of the story.

The story began 200 million years
ago when the distinctive limestone

outcrops that surround our
train route were once the floor

of a vast tropical ocean.

Then it got heaved up to become
mountains that in turn were

exposed to the raw elements.

The carbon of the rock and the acid
of the rain gradually erode

into big divots of the rock

called grikes, which is a local
name. And the grikes

are the gaps where the water is
eroded down to the bed below.

Even from the train window,
this erosion is visible.

And, as John knows, this exposure
to the natural elements is precisely

what makes this area so spectacular.

It's the way the white rock glistens
and glows in the late sunlight.

And the Settle-Carlisle railway
passes through this landscape

and you can see geology
and history coming alive

in this absolutely unique area.

Once past Settle, the
Northern Belle makes its final push

back to Preston...

..where our journey began
eight hours earlier.

It's always lovely when we get
to wave goodbye to all the people

on the platform. We've had
family members, friends

that are waving us goodbye.

It's not an everyday occurrence
that you get to ride on a luxury

steam-pulled steam train,

so it's always wonderful to be able
to wave everybody goodbye.

On our epic 200-mile tour
of north-western England...

WHISTLE BLOWS

..we have travelled through
the magnificent Lake District...

..experienced the past like never
before, discovered the wonders

that lie along the line

and basked in the glory of the
stunning Yorkshire Dales.

And all
aboard the Northern Belle,

the grand duchess of luxury steam
trains.

Our plush grand tour through
England's green pastures

has been the experience
of a lifetime.