All language subtitles for The Worlds Most Scenic Railway Journeys S04E01 1080p WEB DL H264 BTN_track3_[eng]

Escape with us on a breathtaking
voyage across some

of the world's great mountain
landscapes.

Whoa, look at this,
look at the valley.

As we travel across four continents,
and six mountain ranges...

..we discover how railways have
forged a path through

some of our planet's most
formidable terrain.

There's no way to slow
thousands of tonnes.

Battled against mighty
natural forces...

To do something like this
is...pretty amazing.

..and come face-to-face with ancient
civilisations.

Along the way we meet the people

who live and work along these
special railways...

Take a look at this heavenly light,
this is magical.

..to learn how they have conquered
some of the most inhospitable

and beautiful terrain known to man.

The treasure of nature is up.

In the mountains you have to go up,
lifts up your spirit.

This is no ordinary train journey.

This is a journey across the world's
most scenic mountains.

Mountains.

There are few geographical wonders
on Earth as impressive.

Or as spectacular.

With the birth of the modern
industrial era

a century and half ago,

and the rapid expansion of railways
across the world,

pioneers of this
new age saw mountains,

not as objects of beauty, instead as
barriers to progress.

Their vision was to connect

the planet's most inhospitable
geographies...

..to brand-new cities and ports.

This is the story of how
they tamed nature's giants...

..and conquered mountains by rail.

What better place to start
than on the roof of Europe,

the continent where railway
building began?

High in the Swiss Alps,
the Glacier Express,

a sturdy 2,300 horse power
electric locomotive

that travels from St Moritz
to Zermatt,

carries passengers along one of the

most scenic mountain routes
in the world.

The sites are so breathtaking
and just how massive

some of the mountains are,
and just...

Yeah, it's incredible.

But a century ago, none of these
idyllic views could be enjoyed

from the luxury of a train window.

When the railway builders set out
connect the country's remote

alpine valleys, they faced
the challenge of 291 bridges

and 91 tunnels across some Europe's
steepest terrain.

Those feats of engineering still
continue today.

So now ae are entering the tunnel,
the Albula Tunnel

and it's approximately 6km long.

Built over 100 years ago,

the Albula tunnel is nearing
the end of its useful life.

But rather than close
and refurbish it,

a new tunnel is being built
right next to it.

Jurgen is one of the tunnel
engineers in charge

of construction, which is expected
to be completed in 2022.

That's the old tunnel
and that's the new one.

We have a small curve.

Later on they will 30 metres apart.

But the two portals are very close.

Tunnelling is a major challenge.

It took two years to break through
from both ends of the new tunnel.

Nearly a quarter million cubic
metres of solid rock

were excavated before work
on the interior could begin.

The amount of water inside the
tunnel at this stage looks

alarming but this, apparently,
is normal.

You can have projects
which are completely dry,

but here water is a real problem.

Water is circulating in the rock

and we have the Grauwacke Zone

where a lot of water is circulating

and right now, we are
draining this water.

Eh!

The Men who built the old
Albula tunnel at the beginning

of the last century also battled
with water.

We basically encounter the same
quantity of water like they do.

When they built the tunnel
120 years ago

they had the problem that they
couldn't stop the water income

and it only stopped after
a couple of months.

Surprisingly, despite all
the advances in technology

in the past 100 years,
in the end, the new tunnel will

have taken about the same amount
of time to complete as the old one.

You had roughly 1,200 people
for the old tunnel

and now at this point of time
we have 70 people.

We're not much faster, we're not
much cheaper, but we are safer

and we are less people.

Tunnelling is a unique experience
also in the sense,

you excavate material
and it's like landing on the moon.

You excavate the material

and you're one of the first people
standing on that spot.

The new tunnel only takes five
minutes to travel through.

And at the far end,
it gives way to an even more

spectacular feat of engineering -
the Landwasser Viaduct.

Whoa! look at this,
look at the valley.

That's amazing.

Back of the viaduct, right?

This must be one of the greatest
railway journeys anywhere, yeah.

When the railway builders
finally completed the route

during the 1930s, they opened up
Switzerland's

magnificent valleys to the
whole world.

Rail travel transformed
towns like Brig,

that lie 181 miles along its route.

As flocks of passengers could enjoy

direct access to the heart of the
Alps, as never before.

Today people still follow in their
footsteps,

as they head off to hike and climb.

Mountain guide and passionate
climber, HansChristian, looks after

the nearby glacier,
a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The treasure of nature is up.

In the mountains you have to go up.

Lifts up your mind, lifts up
your spirit,

lifts even up your intellect.

HE CHUCKLES

Growing up here in the mountains
means growing up with the rocks.

The rocks are sisters and brothers,

we have to adapt to the rock,
he doesn't adapt himself to you.

I'm a climber and if you're once a
climber, you always stay a climber.

Maybe that's my passion.

It's hard to stay on a certain level

but once a week I still wanna go
climbing, I have to.

I have to otherwise my body says me
there is something with you.

Down here you can see
the Glacier Express

leading from St Moritz down to the
valley to Brig, Visp and to Zermatt.

Thanks to the Glacier Express
and the pioneers who tunnelled

their way through the Swiss Alps,
millions like Hans,

have enjoyed a century of travel to
some of Europe's highest mountains.

But far away, on the other
side of the world,

railways have had to contend with
more than just impossible terrain.

They've battled with some of the
mightiest natural forces on Earth.

You know, that's
a heck of a force in there.

Pretty amazing.

Our epic journey continues
in the mountains of New Zealand...

..where one of the world's most
glorious railways crosses miles and

miles of unspoiled wilderness, as it
follows the contours of the Earth.

The Tranzalpine line crosses the
South Island from coast-to-coast,

passing through the Southern Alps.

And the train is surrounded by
powerful, unseen forces

that lurk not above the railway...

..but below it.

Ben, a volcanologist
from Christchurch, has a unique way

of explaining these terrifying
dynamics.

Try and get it nice and flat.

Nice work.

So New Zealand,

the two tectonic plates are sliding
past each other.

It's that sliding passed that makes
the mountains grow.

and then this, you can imagine it's
just like the Alps

and you can see cracks moving across
the Canterbury Plains.

I notice that the land was
getting smaller

while the mountains are getting
bigger.

You're right. As the mountains grow,

the land is slightly compressed as
it folds and bends.

As the Alpine Fault continues to
squeeze the island, the cracks

even far from the fault forcefully
move, causing earthquakes.

CAR ALARM BLARES

At 4:35 on the 4th September, 2010

a massive earthquake hit
South Island.

The magnitude of these shock waves

reached a terrifying 7.1 on the
Richter Scale.

Directly along the
Tranzalpine route.

It's just that bend there. That.

Zac was working that day when he
came across the track bent as

if it was just rubber.

There's a bit of power.
That's nature, there.

When I first arrived out there,
I just shook my head.

The first two things,
it's our heaviest rail.

It was supported by our heaviest
type of sleeper

had good track formation around
the side.

And, just, you know...

..to do something like this
is pretty amazing.

The local engineer driver had parked
the train on the west side

and his story was that as he was
coming down he could feel the train

bouncing, moving, he thought it
was gonna come off and

it was wiggling like that.

He was driving when it
actually happened.

You know, that's a heck of a force
on there.

The stress to push that out, that's
just phenomenal.

Seismic tremors aren't the only
hazard for mountain railways.

Powerful forces are also at work
in the Canadian Rockies.

An enormous 80 tonne train,

powered by two 3,000 horse power
GP40-2 engines,

called the Rocky Mountaineer,
ploughs right through them.

And there are few trains seats in
the world

with mountain views like this.

Millions of years of erosion by wind

and ice have shaped these famous
limestone peaks.

The same erosion capable of stopping
a train in its tracks.

This is the narrowest point in the
Fraser River.

Just 31 metres across and its
current depth is about 150ft deep.

While building the
TransPacific Railway,

Canadian engineers faced a
unique problem.

The ice erosion that created
the mighty peaks of the Rockies,

also carved out vast,
U-shaped valleys.

With them are swirling,

dangerous rapids like Hell's Gate
on the Fraser River.

Because it's so deep, there's an

enormous volume of water passing
through it,

the equivalent of a volume of water
the size of the

Empire State Building going through
Hell's Gate every minute, twice.

As it is such a turbulent rapid,

Simon Fraser eloquently puts in his
journal that they had endured

so much, but for surely
we have entered the gates of Hell.

Today it takes expert
navigational skills,

jet engines and guts to get
anywhere near.

Adventurous tour guides
Renee and Jessie may be up

for the challenge but they also know
the risks.

Hell's Gate is just around the

corner but a lot of debris
in the water.

There's a lot of sticks and stuff
in the water. If we lose the pump,

we'll all be making it down
very easily.

If you guys are good, we'll turn
it around here.

The water gets pretty turbulent
and whirlpool-y.

You got you get sucked into the
whirlpool sideways

and it can be pretty dangerous.

When you get in there,

it's essentially a giant eddie
full of whirlpools, full of boils.

The water doesn't run in one
direction.

It's always spinning, going opposite
directions, causes the hazard.

It's not the best idea to be
going into that eddie today.

When the railway builders came
to the river over a century ago,

these treacherous rapids almost
brought construction of the line

to a standstill.

And the 19th century railway
builders had to somehow find a way

to get a rather oddly-named ship
through this deadly stretch.

There was a paddle wheeler that they
had come up here.

It was called the SS Skuzzy.

Navigating the SS Skuzzy through
Hell's Gate was certainly

a difficult job.

They had Chinese workers, between 50
and a 100 of each side of the banks,

with big ropes and they attached

them to the paddle wheeler and
basically were told,

"Heave-ho! Heave-ho!"

And they had to pull this paddle
wheeler up through the rapid.

You know, a bunch of guys fall in,

they grab the next five guys,
get on that rope, pull it through.

And when you go to Hell's Gate
you can still see the metal bolts,

the rings in the rock where the
lined those ropes through

and pulled that boat through.

The Skuzzy made it to the
other side.

the challenges to the pioneers
of Canada's 500-mile railway

through the Rockies didn't end here.

Long, winding descents down
mountain sides,

risked derailing any
train on its tracks.

The worst stretch of all was
known as the Big Hill.

It had an incredibly steep slope,

dropping 1,000 feet in just
ten miles.

The Big Hill was in many ways a
cut corner, money was conserved

by putting the trains down what was
an illegal grade, a 4.4% grade.

It would be a rather dangerous
situation to have all that

momentum heading down the hill

and the first train that ever
went down The Big Hill did

actually derail and the engineers
on board didn't make it either.

When it opened in 1884,

The Big Hill section was one of the
steepest railway lines around.

It was the scene of
many disastrous derailments,

as park ranger Sarah explains.

The Canadian Pacific Railway
lost steam trains,

they would also lose loads they
would lose grain transportation,

sometimes loss of life, whether
it was conductors or passengers.

They realised that just running
straight over and straight down into

a valley with no reprieve, there's
no way to slow thousands of tonnes.

They needed to come up with
a solution

and that solution was
the spiral tunnels.

They decided to cut two
circular tunnels deep into the side

of two mountains -
Cathedral Mountain and Mount Ogden.

This would allow trains to
spiral round

and descend safely at a much
more gentle grade.

Basically, the way they engineered,
they did bring in Swiss engineers

from Europe based on the same way

they built roads to ascend
as switchbacks through the Alps.

To build this, a thousand men,
horses, dynamite,

remove all the rubble and then lay
the track once its cleared.

On the 1st September 1909,
this pair of spiral tunnels opened,

at a cost of around $1.5 million.

The extra track effectively doubled
the length of the section,

reducing the steepness
of the gradient by half.

At the time it was pretty
cutting edge.

Um, people were still driving on
dirt roads, people were still

driving horse carriages,
the Ford T model engine

was basically, sort of, a new
phenomenon

so something like this
was a massive feat.

Right now, there's a CP rail train
that's coming into the upper tunnel.

It's going into the mountain, it's
going to be coming around spiralling

upon itself lower and then coming
out right there in the lower part.

And as it turns back on itself,
it's going to descend

so that makes it a whole lot safer,
a whole lot slower.

And what better way to see this
feat of engineering than by taking

a train right through them,

but this time we are going up
rather than down.

Now what's going to happen
is that we are going to head towards

Mount Ogden and as we get
closer to it you'll see

that 50 feet above the tunnel
that we go into, you'll actually

see the tracks that we'll be on,
because to quote my mother,

what we'll be doing is chucking
a U-ie inside of the mountain.

Can you see, by looking at the rail
car in front of us you can

probably see and imagine which way
the train is going to turn?

And we're just seeing quite
literally

the light at the end of the tunnel
but Cathedral Mountain was

on our right-hand side, Mount Steven
was directly behind us as we emerge

from this tunnel you'll see that
Cathedral Mountain is directly in

front of us and so rather incredibly

this train has performed a
three-quarter turn.

Having crossed some of the world's
greatest mountain ranges

and overcome cataclysmic events,
our journey next

turns south towards the Equator,
to descend into the bowels

of the Earth itself and one
of the deepest canyons of the world.

Our great mountain train journey

around the world continues
in Mexico.

Here the Chihuahua Pacifico railway,
known affectionately as El Chepe...

TRAIN HORN BLARES

..connects the country's northwest
interior to the Pacific coast.

And crosses the
Tarahumara mountains.

According to El Chepe's Rosalva,
building it was a formidable task.

The construction,
it took over 100 years.

We have over 200km
of mountains.

So it took years to construct it.

And finally, in 1940 the Mexican
government took over.

We had a revolution
in the middle of these 100 years

so it took ten years approximately
when they stopped constructing.

The Mexican railway's builders not
only had to contend with mountains,

but also with one of the biggest
gorges in the world.

Copper Canyon.

At 6,200 feet from rim to river,

it's the deepest canyon system
in North America.

Four times larger than
the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Local tour guide Gustavo first came
to this region over 25 years ago.

It is something like
24,000 square miles.

It is perhaps the largest system of
canyons in the world.

And right behind me,
this is the Urique Canyon.

The local indigenous people believe
these canyons were

created by the feet of giants.

The less poetic reality
is that these spectacular mountains

were formed from layers
of volcanic lava

and ash laid down around
40 million years ago.

And then years of tectonic

and volcanic phenomenon happened
to build up all this

beautiful landscape
of mountains and canyons.

Since then, river erosion has carved
this network of valleys into

what you see today.

So how did the railway builders
tackle the canyon?

In what must be one of the world's
most convoluted by-passes,

they constructed an extensive
network of tunnels and bridges

to carry El Chepe through and out
of Copper Canyon,

all the way to the coast.

In total, 86 tunnels,
some half a mile long...

..and 37 bridges.

Though not before stopping...

..right on the edge of one of its
highest points.

Divisadero, whose name means lookout
or viewpoint, is exactly that.

Perched at an altitude of 8,200 feet

it is known as Mexico's
most panoramic station.

And with this view, one can see why.

Apart from the station,
the only other things that exist

on this plateau are a small hotel...

..and a cable car.

Created to give a panoramic view of
the union of two canyons,

the Tararecua and the Urique,
it will take ten minutes to cross.

And if the cable car isn't exciting
enough for you...

Woo! Woo!

..at over one and a half miles in
length,

this is the longest zip
wire in the world.

SHE SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY

However, after that adrenaline
rush,

getting back will take
a little longer.

But the spectacular views more
than make up for it.

As El Chepe leaves behind the
deepest canyon in North America...

..our mountain railway journey
continues on the African continent.

When the railway first arrived here,
150 years ago,

the iron horse swept across
a wild frontier.

The routes often crossed mountain
ranges that were the sacred

homelands of local
indigenous peoples.

One of the most mysterious and
beautiful,

is the 600 mile long range in
South Africa.

Drakensburg Mountains.

Today, the Rovos Railway,
that runs from Pretoria to Durban,

passes right through them.

They were once home to an
enigmatic hunting and gathering

civilisation, known as the San.

Tantalising glimpses of their sacred
beliefs,

in the form of rock paintings,
lie high in their peaks.

Surprisingly, few people know
where the San rock art is located.

One of them is anthropology
professor, Jeremy Hollmann.

Right. Well, there we are.

Up there is the rock art site.

It's a bit of a scramble
the last bit, but it's worth it.

The spectacular surroundings were
an inspiration to ancient artists.

OK. We're here now.

Home of the best paintings
and the most wonderful eland

that you're going to see
in the Drakensberg.

The eland is the largest of all
antelopes.

As we walk along here
and you look to the rocks, you'll

see that there are paintings
dotted all over the surfaces here.

And then we come to a gem like this,
the dying eland,

the image that gave us
a breakthrough into understanding

bushman beliefs and their reasons
for making the rock paintings.

And what's really interesting
about this figure,

it's not completely human.

So what we're seeing here is
a twinning of human and eland.

And this is a central idea in
bushman religion.

Jeremy has been studying every
detail of these paintings

and the meaning behind them
for years.

Obviously, one of the things we want
to know when we look

at things like this is how old are
the paintings?

Some dating work has been carried
out in the mountains elsewhere,

we're getting dates of between 2,000
and 3,000 years before the present,

so they're pretty old.

There's no weathering that happens
here, there's no sun that comes on

the painting, there's no water and
that's why they've lasted so long.

And it's all out here in this
amazing landscape.

On the other side of the world,
in Norway, northern Europe,

the country's impressive mountains

are also steeped in mystery
and magic.

Here, railways have had contend,
not just to with physical giants,

but with spiritual ones.

Norway's tens of thousands of miles
of primeval forest have

inspired local folklore for
centuries

and imbued it with stories of
mythical beasts,

and wondrous beings.

It's not far from your thoughts
of trolls

and you can start to understand
the Nordic mythology,

with thunder god Thor and Odin

with one eye and the warrior
kind of philosophy.

The landscape is confirming
the culture, you know?

The people reflects the landscape,
in a way.

Norway's main line, that travels
from its capital Oslo to the

Arctic Circle, aboard an El-18
electric locomotive,

passes through much of this
mystical landscape.

The railway is even nicknamed
The Trail of the Trolls.

But it's only when you get off the
trains that you may get

a chance to meet one for yourself.

Today, Annette is taking a hike
in the troll-infested mountains

less than an hour from where
our train stops at Lillehammer,

the town that hosted
the 1994 winter Olympics.

I grew up in this area and I walked
since I was a little girl

I walk after work, just sorting

my mind out and relaxing,

listen to the birds and the
waterfalls.

Annette likes walking solo,
but she's by no means alone.

She's got some childhood friends
for company.

Here we have a typical Norwegian
troll stone where the trolls

will live underneath.

Different kinds of trolls, a wart
on the nose maybe on the side or

here or trees going out of the nose

and a lot of hair.

Some of them are good
and some of them are not and

they can't be seen in the daylight
because then they get stoned.

Nature is a big part of the
Norwegian history,

it has always been with us.

Not far from Annette
and her troll friends' hang-out,

is another reason to get off the
train at Lillehammer.

It smells tar, you know?

SHE SNIFFS
It's amazing.

Caroline is a big fan of old
Norwegian buildings.

And it's just as well.

When she's a not tour manager for a
black metal band,

she's a tour guide at the
Maihaugen Open-air Museum.

This smells like a sort of smoky...

It smells a little burnt, in a way,

but in a nice way.

Yeah, you can still smell it.

It's chock-full of original
medieval folk dwellings,

that have been collected from around
Norway and transplanted here.

All of them crafted from wood.

You could find trees
everywhere here,

so this was the biggest
resource we had.

Her Favourite is this
800-year-old church.

This construction is rather amazing.

This framework consisting of the
wooden columns,

and the joists on top and on the

bottom creating a frame with
wooden planks.

No nails, as you can see,

and if you wonder if this is a nail,
no, it's not, it's a piece of wood.

Solid as a rock.

So it's like an ancient module
system in a way,

it's brilliant, I think.

A bit like today's
Scandi flat-pack furniture.

Impressive, isn't it?

I think it's rather cool.

Look at the tower, look at the roof,
look at the dragon heads there.

Even though we are Christian
by the time they made this church,

it makes me think of the
Viking ships.

You can see some resemblance,
can't you?

Look at this.

This is where you could end up
if you worked on Sundays,

if you got pregnant without being
married, if you didn't respect

the Ten Commandments then you
could end up here as a punishment.

If a soldier raped a woman, he was
given a warning the first time

the second time he'd have to pay and
the third time he would end up here.

Now we are going inside the church
to have a peek.

When people came here in the
medieval times,

the women on one side,
the men on the other.

It was really, really dark and it
was cold, there were no heating.

Imagine when it's like 25 cold
degrees outside and you're

standing in church freezing your
butt off.

I'm not really a religious person,

but take a look at this heavenly
light, this is magical.

Norway's mountains are literally
spellbinding.

But on our glorious voyage there is
one last destination,

a peak so majestic that it's become
a global icon,

that will bring our journey

full circle to where it began,
on the roof of Europe.

We have finally reached
the top of our epic journey

around the world's great mountains.

On the roof of the world,
in Switzerland,

where our journey began.

The line has been a mecca for
mountain lovers since the days

the train first connected the
remote valleys of the Swiss Alps.

The last 50 miles of the route that
pass through the Matter Valley,

are its most dramatic.

This part of Switzerland is home to
an impressive 38 peaks

over 4,000 metres.

It's a quarter past five and after
eight hours of train journey,

the Glacier Express
pulls into Zermatt station.

But it's not the end of the line if
you really have a head for heights.

Overlooking the picturesque
town at the end of the Matter Valley

is the stunning Matterhorn.

And, enthusiastic hikers,

climbers and runners can get even
closer to this iconic mountain.

But this involves one more short
train journey on

the Gornergrat Railway.

Our Glacier Express attendant
Manuel

is a regular passenger on the
30 minute-long ride.

This railway is very special

because it is taking people up to
the mountain for 120 years.

The rack rail climbs an additional
1,400 metres with an exceptionally

steep 20% gradient.

It takes us to Gornergrat, Europe's
second highest train station,

for an even better view of the
Matterhorn.

For some, the peace and quiet up
here and the outstanding views of

one of the most majestic mountains
on Earth is a spiritual experience.

I love this place,
I love this view, I love to be here

because here I have my peace,

I have all the space I need, to be
like a bird, to be free.

Our global train adventure
across the world's great mountain

landscapes has taken us
to four continents.

To Switzerland where engineers tamed
Europe's bracing peaks

and New Zealand where the railroads
felt the full force of nature.

To Canada where the pioneers
negotiated impossible terrain...

..and Mexico where the trains
forged their way across one

of the deepest canyons on Earth.

Our voyage passed through mountains
that hold the secrets

of ancient civilisations in
South Africa

and mythical landscapes in Norway

before it returned to the
stunning heart of Europe.

Our mountain train
journey has been truly epic.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media