All language subtitles for The Worlds Most Scenic Railway Journeys S04E02 1080p WEB DL H264 BTN_track3_[eng]

Europe's magnificent coast.

This glorious frontier where
land meets sea...

..contains some of the continent's
most cherished landscapes.

But a century and a half ago,

many of these coastlines were
forgotten or underdeveloped

until the arrival of the railway
during the 19th century,

when the Victorians
expanded steam locomotion,

and, for the first time,

connected towns and cities to the
country's rich shores.

This run is one of the
most beautiful lines

that you will ever be on.

Railways that triumphed
in Victorian Britain...

..spread right across Europe...

..transforming its vast coastline...

..leaving behind vast landmarks
on a scale the world had never seen.

The longest span ever constructed.

Pinnacle of Victorian engineering.

And bringing wave after
wave of passengers...

..along the twists and turns of
Europe's 41,000 miles of coast.

A legacy that survives to this day.

This is my mistress, this is.

At least she knows where I am
when I'm doing this.

This is the story of how railways
reshaped Europe's coastline.

The Cambrian Line,

a railway that runs along the
beautiful coastline of Wales.

150 years ago, the
Victorians used it to bring people

and products to Welsh shores.

According to archaeologist Graham,

the Welsh coast had long been
ripe for development.

This line starts in
the early 19th century.

There are a lot of small railways
throughout North Wales

which amalgamate to become
the Cambrian Railway

and these lines were
primarily for exporting slate,

getting slate from
the quarries to the coast

to be exported into England
and to other parts of the world.

Welsh slate was highly valued as
far back as Roman times.

But it was the Victorian house
building boom that inspired

the Welsh to move the slate by
rail to cope with the demand.

The original 80-mile-long stretch,

that was built to
shuttle in people and supplies,

still exists today.

At Cardigan Bay, you can
still see a landmark the Victorians

left behind, as they set out to
connect town to coast.

This is the famous Barmouth Viaduct.

It's now 152 years old.

My late father, he worked
on the viaduct before me.

I did, I spent 20 years on this
viaduct in all sorts of weathers,

and believe me, on a late Saturday
night - early Sunday morning

when there's an east wind
coming down the river,

doesn't matter how
well you're wrapped up,

it's like a knife, the wind can be.

Anyway come and see my baby.

This is what it's all about.

The viaduct has a swing bridge,

which used to open to allow
large boats to pass through.

And Trevor was one of the railway
men tasked with its operation.

We would take out four
little lengths of rail,

one on each end here and
the same on the opposite side.

We would get a key from the
signal box in Barmouth,

which protected the railway line so
there was no trains come

and we put the key in here,

unlocked it and we
could pull the two levers forward.

Cos the levers pull the bolts out
to allow the viaduct to turn.

And this is where you'd
have your handles,

three or four men, one here,
one there on the other side.

And that's how the whole viaduct,

or the whole span turned round,
that way.

Opening it was straightforward,

but closing it could
sometimes take a lot longer.

The problem being in the middle of
the summer, once you'd opened it,

the heat built up,
the metal expanded

and you could never close
it immediately.

If it was a very hot day you may
be there several hours

and they'd be a welder chafing
off a little bit here and there

so you could get the bridge closed.

If I can remember as a youngster,
we only used to have the one

train on a Sunday, used to come
in first thing in the morning

and stay in Barmouth so
the bridge could be opened

and the train would come back
out at six o'clock at night.

But in a very hot day
the train never came back

out of Barmouth cos you
couldn't close the bridge again.

Barmouth pier is now a
much-loved local landmark.

A lasting reminder of Victorian
enterprise along the coast.

But on the Cambrian Line, as you
pull in at Porthmadog...

..you discover what powered the
great railway expansion

across country and coast...

..the steam engine.

These narrow-gauge routes are run by
a whole army of steam enthusiasts.

Steve is the fireman today in charge
of getting this engine ready to go.

I love the team work, the people.

It's a group of people coming
together from all walks of life,

working together in
a passion that they love.

All the hard graft is
done at Boston Lodge,

the oldest such engineering
works in the world.

These mighty
time-honoured locomotives

can burn up to a tonne
of coal an hour

depending on speed
and the gradient of the track.

They take around two hours to light
from cold to operating pressure...

..a labour of love from a community
of passionate volunteers,

including retired
hospital medic Richard.

When I was a kid,

I just dreamt of going on the foot
plate once of a steam engine

and here I am doing this and every
time I come, I get a huge thrill.

There's nothing to beat it.

Paul is a retired college lecturer.

He's been escaping
here for almost 50 years.

I don't do this all the time.

I do this two or three days a
month, something like that.

When I can escape from my
wife and do it.

And what does your wife
think about that?

You'll have to cut that bit out.

If you like, this
is my mistress, this is.

At least she knows where I am
when I'm doing this.

On this glorious trip
back in time,

you can enjoy a taste of
old-fashioned first-class
Welsh service.

A still cold water. Still water.

And Welsh rarebit.

Welsh rarebit.

As it comes sir, with onions?

The Victorian railway is
a scene lost in time...

..filled with beauty and
nostalgia...

..and was so well made that
parts of it...

..are still in use today...

..where the Cambrian Line ends..

..in Shrewsbury.

Jamie is a signalman who
revels in the fact that

he's still using the
old technology.

BELL RINGS

I love the fact that you're
sort of dealing with stuff

that's happening right
in front of you.

You're dealing with
mechanical signals,

mechanical points,
watching the trains go past.

It's not all happening
on the computer screen.

But ingenious signal boxes
were just the start.

When the Victorians
expanded the rail routes

across the whole of Britain
and out towards the coastline,

they also created wonders of
engineering on a colossal scale...

..the likes of which
the world had never seen.

The biggest bridge ever constructed,

the longest span ever constructed
so an absolute feat of engineering.

Our journey continues
along Britain's coastline.

A century and a half ago,
the Victorians set out to connect

it to the country's towns and
cities.

And this meant building a new
infrastructure on a massive scale.

Nowhere is this more evident
than in Scotland,

where engineering
was taken to another level,

with repercussions that were
felt across the globe.

The story begins in Fife,

a magnificent peninsula

hemmed in between the
River Tay and the North Sea.

During the 1880s
Scotland's Highland Line,

that ran from
Inverness to Edinburgh,

terminated here in a small
coastal town called Burntisland.

Victorian engineers came up with
a surprising invention

to get across it, as investigated
by local historian, Ian.

I'm holding the
Ordnance Survey County Series map

from about 1854

and I'm standing
on the exact spot

where the railway line ends,

and it was here that a
very clever Victorian engineer

called Thomas Bouch
invented the flying bridge.

It was really a bit like
a drawbridge

where the trains would be run down,
and the goods wagons would be

run down onto this bridge, and then
it would be adjusted to the deck

of the boat and the goods wagons
would be loaded on from there.

This was the world's first
roll-on, roll-off ferry.

It was very, very clever.

But the Victorians were about
to get even cleverer and,

in doing so,
alter the course of world history.

During the 1880s, they began
planning the construction

of a superstructure so spectacular
that it would dwarf all others...

..and become a landmark that would
come to define Scotland itself...

..the Forth Railway Bridge.

Ian was born close to
this steel colossus.

He's now its senior manager.

Obviously the Forth Bridge

was definitely the pinnacle of
Victorian engineering.

Biggest bridge ever constructed,

longest span ever constructed,

over a water course which is 135
feet deep, at its deepest point.

So an absolute feat of engineering.

The bridge was the biggest
engineering experiment of its day.

Until then, the world's
great superstructures,

like the Eiffel Tower,
were made of iron,

but the bridge's joint architect
John Fowler chose steel instead.

Using 54,000 tonnes of
this superior metal

bolted together with over six
million rivets,

he oversaw the construction of a
bridge

that spanned a mile and a half.

This particular feature about the
bridge is a favourite of mine.

Erm...what this does
is really show us

the first cantilever in
its full splendour,

going from quite narrow
to very broad, very sturdy.

The bridge is an A shape, which
makes it very, very strong.

After six years in the making,

the longest cantilever bridge ever
built was opened in 1890.

It was dubbed the eighth greatest
wonder of the world.

The bridge is as much a thrill to me

even today as it was on day one
when I first came here.

One question we've often
thought about is

what gender is the bridge?

There is no question,
this is a lady.

It's a very proud lady.

Similar to a ship, that majesty on
the river, on the water.

Definitely a she.

Almost 200 trains cross
the Forth Bridge each day.

Over 70,000 a year.

A testament to the success
of Britain's Victorian engineers.

Back in Wales on the Cambrian Line,
the infrastructure they created

not only transformed towns and
villages close to the line itself...

..but the wider coastal landscape...

..affecting even the
remotest farmer.

David is the third generation
of his family to farm this land.

Taid is grandfather in Welsh,

so Taid came here in 1926,

the year of the General Strike,

and then they stayed
on here till 1957

when my mum and dad took over.

Taid, he farmed with horses
so he didn't have a tractor.

But he'd use the train.

A lot of livestock
from this area was moved by train,

cattle and sheep.

They're all organic.

Here's the bull, here,
his name is Glyn.

He's very calm which is
a good thing in a bull.

They've all got names.

Linvey, George, George is
far more vicious than any other

cows here so we
give her plenty of space.

And if I want to move them,
I'd call them,

I just do it a couple of times,

I'm sure this has been used since
ancient times.

I'd say, "Boy, boop, boop
boop."

And they'd follow.

They think I'm joking now
because they're happy here.

I love the estuary,
it changes colour

and it changes shape every day,
every hour, every minute.

The train's arrived, enigmatic
the way it hugs the estuary there.

Somebody had the vision to
build that line

and it's not an easy place to build,
there's five tunnels along this
piece.

It goes through the golf course as
well and there's a friend of mine

playing golf and he hits the ball
- BANG - and hits the train.

The train driver stops to
remonstrate and my friend
shouts back at him,

"If you'd been on time, we
wouldn't have hit you."

True story.

My grandfather, Taid, if he could
hear the train at Dovey Junction,

it would mean that the wind
was up in the east

and it would be one of the factors
he'd use to decide whether he was
going to cut hay or not.

My father the same.

The Cambrian Line transformed
the working patterns

of farmers and local communities...

..and threw them a lifeline to the
rapidly modernising world.

But as more and more trains
plied the British coastline,

the railways would transform it in
another surprising way

and leave a legacy still found today

across the length and breadth
of Europe's coastline.

It's beautiful.
And I love the beach.

Railways transformed Britain's
coastline during the 19th century

as the industrious
Victorians set out to

modernise its shores with
their ever-growing rail network.

But trains that once brought
raw materials

and workers would next bring a whole
new breed of passenger

by the bucket-load -

the sea-side holiday-maker.

The legacy still lives on today
in the charming Victorian coastal

resort of Aberdovey, in Wales.

There's nine of us.

There's my mum.

When my children
were young, Mum and I used to

bring them every year, we used
to come and stay in a caravan here.

So now that we've got grandchildren
and Mum's great grandchildren,

we decided to carry on the tradition
and bring the new ones along.

The water is the clearest water I've
swum in in ages, it's beautiful.

And I love the beach and now I've
got over the fear of them,

I'm really loving
the jelly fish as well.

Thanks to the railways,

many of Britain's coastlines were
revamped into holiday destinations.

It was a fashion that would spread
right across Europe...

..all the way to the rugged
Atlantic coast of Northern Spain.

When the railway first reached these
shores during the 19th century,

it opened up the coastal economy,

allowing fishermen to get their
canned sardines to faraway markets.

But years later, coastal communities

would haul in an even more
lucrative catch...

..with the arrival of the tourist.

Today, the 250-metre-long
El Transcantabrico

crosses 600 miles of northern Spain,

bringing thousands of visitors
to the coastline each year.

On board, passengers soak up
stunning panoramas...

..as the train glides through the
Cantabrian Mountains...

..and picturesque Basque Country.

But for many, the highlight is
the Atlantic coastline...

..where they can step off the train
and sample some of the region's

rather fishy heritage in Candas.

We don't fish more sardines, no.

But the history of Candas
is in the sea

so we need to maintain
our traditions.

The Festival of the Sardine
started in 1970

as a celebration of small fish.

The highlight of the day is
the sardine cooking competition.

Seven local restaurants
go head-to-head,

all hoping to win the coveted
Golden Sardine award.

Alain, the local doctor,

has been running the festival
for the past five years.

We have the biggest chef from
Asturias and today from the

South of Spain, from Malaga, who
comes here to bring this award...

..this fish award, the
sardines award.

And it is a pleasure for me to
organise every year, this festival.

These days, all the sardines
come from Portugal.

But the cooking competition is
still a big deal.

Local restaurateur Marcos
is one the judges.

We want fresh fish, we want
texture, yummy, not so fat,

and the exactly point of salt
and the presentation obviously.

The judges begin working their way
round the competitors' stalls.

It's very difficult because each
fish is different.

Sometimes it's quite difficult with
a judge because, you know,

after seven sardines, step by step,
sometimes you are full of sardine.

Whilst a traditional Asturian dance
band entertains the crowd,

the judges make their
final deliberations.

It's not easy to know who is
better than another.

But the jury has got a blind
test and I don't know,

I don't usually eat
sardines, you know.

I eat other fish but not sardines,

so I don't know, I don't
know really.

Everyone is waiting with
bated breath.

In a few minutes, we
tell the winner of the contest.

But first, there are prizes for
this year's runners up.

Entrega el premio, la
vicepresidenta...

Soon there is only one
golden sardine left.

..de la cincuenta edicion del
Festival de la Sardina de Candas -

Restaurante Casa Repinaldo de
Candas!

CHEERING

Sardina de Oro, entrega el premio

Amelia Fernandez,
la alcadesa de Carreno.

And the winner is Angel.

But it's not really a surprise.

Angel always seems win.

In the last ten years, eight times,
the best sardina of Candas.

So, nothing FISHY there, then.

The El Transcantabrico follows
the Atlantic shoreline...

..carrying thousands
of passengers each year

along more than 300 breathtaking
miles from Asturias...

..to Galicia.

That's the Eo river

which is the natural border
between Asturias and Galicia.

On that side is Asturias,
now we are already in Galicia.

TANNOY RINGS
Here we go, here we go.

ANNOUNCEMENT:
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

In a few moments, we will
arrive in Ribadeo.

We've arrived at this
ordinary-looking station

on the coast of Spain's most
westerly region

to see something extraordinary.

Galicia is famed for having some of
the finest beaches in the world.

But very few people outside of
Spain know about this one.

Here, the constant battering
of the powerful Atlantic waves

has created an
astonishing natural wonder,

but only a lucky few get to see it.

It's only revealed for a few
hours at time at low tide.

This is Galicia's hidden
geological gem...

..the breathtaking
Cathedrals' Beach -

a dramatic series of caves

and arches that stretch almost
half a mile along the coast.

BAGPIPER PLAYS

And for the last ten years,
Galician Piper Albano

has been providing a Celtic
soundtrack for sightseers here.

The name of this
instrument is gaita.

OK, it's like a bagpipe in English.

Bagpipes been the Galician
national instrument

since the 13th century, but,
as Albano has learnt,

the traditional piper's outfit
wasn't really designed for the
beach.

The worse thing is the sun,
I'm really hot.

For centuries, this area was
known only to the locals,

they called it
the Place of the Holy Waters.

But when Spanish guide books
in the 1970s started featuring it,

and renamed it Cathedrals beach,

it led to a bit of confusion.

There were people who phoned

to the tourist information office
to ask what about,

"What time is the mass?"

There's no mass in this beach.

It's not a cathedral made for
a group of priests.

Because it's made by nature.

But the caves and arches aren't
the only natural wonder

that are revealed by the low tide.

There's a rare local
delicacy that grows here

and Mayor Fernando know just
where to find them.

OK, I'm going to show to you,

we are going to go through
one of the two most

important and famous arches here
in the Cathedrals Beach.

The barnacles is a strange animal

who lives in this part
of the rocks.

We can see there are a lot
of barnacles.

These are percebes, otherwise
known as edible gooseneck barnacles.

It's an animal that's
very expensive.

You can buy 1kg of barnacles and it
costs about 60 euros per kilo.

A very special gift you can
offer to your guest,

a kilogram of boiled barnacles.

It's absolutely banned to
collect...to catch them to eat

except for the authorised people.

For us, it's forbidden

but I can catch one, just one.

This one.

But the flavour, mm,

it smells and tastes
like the best of the sea.

The flavour is absolutely amazing.

Thanks to railways,

coastlines that were once
unknown local backwaters

have become thriving holiday
destinations.

But there are some countries where
running a railway all the way to the
coast has been a formidable task.

In Finland, the Baltic coastline,
and much of the country,

completely freeze over each winter.

Travellers rely on the railway's
powerful Sr2 locomotives

with their double-decker passenger
coaches to make the long

journey north from the country's
capital, Helsinki, to Lapland.

It's a route that passes vast
forests and frozen lakes.

To keep the trains running,
Finnish engineers regularly clear

the lines with snowploughs specially
adapted to travel on the tracks...

..opening up the Baltic coastline
to the intrepid tourist.

When our train arrives at Kemi,

the shipping port that
lies at the top of the Baltic Sea,

passengers get to experience

a traditional cultural
feature of the frozen north.

This castle, it is
made from sea water.

There is about six million
litres of water in this castle.

The giant SnowCastle
is, in fact, a supersized version

of the traditional Lapland igloo,
made here for centuries.

We need minus seven degrees

so we can take the water
from the sea just nearby

and take it with the pumps and
- BOOSH -

with the pressure we can make the
mountain of snow.

The buildings, that can be as large
as 20,000 square metres,

are then created by spraying the
snow over enormous inflatable
bubbles.

And we are putting the
snow on the top of the forms

and then we wait a little bit
and then we take the forms off.

For example, this one, it has
been a very, very big ball

and it was full of air.

And then they are putting
the snow on the top

and after the snow is hard,
they are just - PIEU -

taking the air off and
take the ball off

and we get a castle shape like this.

The SnowCastle even has its
very own snow chapel.

This place we are now,
it is our small church.

And every year here in SnowCastle,
many couples are getting married.

That means that your
heart is very warm,

if you are getting married here.

Whether it's in the
bedroom or the bar,

each wall has been decorated with
imaginative ice carvings.

And every carving, they have some
meaning which they are carving

and this one here, it is
a tree of life,

which is connecting all
the people all over the world

because it is in our mythology
here in Finland, it is in Viking's,

it is in the Bible and it is in
China and India and everywhere.

Everything here is either made
from snow or carved out of ice,

including the drinking cups.

Once the visitors have left, keeping
the castle snow white,

even after a split coffee, involves
a lot more than a quick wipe-down.

But like all good things,

the snow castle will
eventually come to an end,

and in this case when the weather
warms up around mid April.

And what is best of the SnowCastle

is that all the snow you
can see is recycled.

So when the summer is coming
we have to crush this one

and we are putting it back to sea

and then next year we are
taking it back.

After Kemi, the Finnish train leaves
the coast and heads inland.

But our journey continues even
further north

towards the Arctic Circle to
Norway where tourists can now access

some of the most beautiful
and remote coastlines on Earth.

It's quite open, rugged...

..and it's like it's opening its
arms to you and saying,

"Welcome home, buddy.
We missed you."

After a century of expansion,
railways now reach almost all

significant parts of
Europe's coastline.

Millions now use the train to
access the treasures

found along these beautiful shores.

Today, there are few limits to where
these passengers can travel by rail.

In Norway, travellers use
the Nordland Line to explore

the remotest parts of
Europe's far north.

Welcome to the Arctic.
HE CHUCKLES

ANNOUNCEMENT: The train is now
680m above sea level.

The route runs from Trondheim,
in the middle of the country,

to the Arctic.

This 453-mile-long route, with
293 bridges and 154 tunnels...

..stretches across one of the most
unspoilt regions of Norway.

It's special for the tourists.

They like to drive on this line.

They like to see out the windows,

see how much beautiful
country we have.

And it's also the best
line in Norway.

Once past 66 degrees north,
the train enters

one of the remotest parts of an
already sparsely populated country.

This is just on a different
level altogether.

You come here for a holiday, you
don't get crowded out with people.

And you get to see the views,

and you haven't got all
the tourists in your way.

This is well worth exploring,

the northern part, I mean, it's
exceeded our expectations

because we thought it would be quite
good, but I mean,

it's spectacular scenery.

And it's, like, miles after mile.

30 miles south of the
end of the line

is a village, population 1,500.

It's quite open, rugged

and it's like it's opening its
arms to you and saying,

"Welcome home, buddy.
We missed you."

This is a small place, Valnesfjord,

mostly famous for its delicious
carrots because of the climate,

there are very little insects,
very little sickness.

The good people of Valnesfjord are
pretty pleased with their carrots.

And as they only see an
hour of daylight in mid-winter,

it's no wonder they spend a
lot of time celebrating something

that helps them see in the dark.

Valnesfjord was featured
on a Norwegian news show

when an effigy resembling a
carrot mysteriously sprung up

on a roundabout overnight,

putting the village
firmly on the map.

But it's possible their passion
had turned into fixation

by the time they launched
their carrot-themed thermals.

Local photographer Rune Nilsen has
made a career from this landscape

since he arrived 23 years ago.

The moment you pass the Arctic
Circle, the sky's bluer,

the sea is clearer,
the sun sparkles even more.

But this is just for starters.

Leaving the carrot village behind,

the train continues towards
its final destination.

There are long stretches where the
train goes along the fjord,

literally six feet from the ocean,

so you can almost hear the waves.

The railroad is integrated into
the nature, into the terrain.

ANNOUNCEMENT: On behalf of Vy,
thanks for travelling with us.

Final stop Boda.

The train is on schedule.

And here we are, at the end
of the line in Bodo,

the gateway to unrivalled,
endless, Arctic beauty.

And a five-minute-walk and
you are straight into the woods.

It's dramatic, you've got this vast
ocean, these steep mountains

an alpine sea landscape.

Because the mountains around here
are coming straight up from the
ocean.

That makes this coast so special.

As always, it's the light that
gives character to this landscape.

It can be flat, boring,
and half an hour later,

it explodes in colour and
contrast.

You can photograph the same
mountain 200 times

and get 200 distinctly
different pictures.

Here, each summer,
for six entire weeks,

the sun never dips
below the horizon.

The best light is around midnight

and you've got this golden flare
and golden quality to the light.

Because photography is
kind of writing with light,

you're trying to tell a story and
you have to understand the light,

you have to let it grasp the
landscape and you have to be there.

Good light comes with
a tempo of a snail

and it evaporates like a lightning,
it's gone.

This is what we're
waiting for during winter.

When the snow gales chase
you through the streets

like an angry polar bear snapping
at your ankles

and you slam the door shut
and light the fire,

brew a cup of tea and you
dream of this.

This is the end goal and
now finally you're here.

On our coastal voyage around
Europe...

..we have seen how the Victorians
connected country...

..to coast.

Defining it with brand-new
architectural wonders.

How railways have transformed
economies and local culture...

..bringing millions of visitors
to their beautiful shores.

And how Railways haven't just
shaped Europe's coasts.

For many, they define them.

And provide gateways to some of the
most majestic landscapes on Earth.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media