All language subtitles for Inside.the.Factory.S07E10.Trains.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264_track3_[eng]

I loved trains as a kid, both riding
on them and playing with them.

But today we're not messing
around with little toys.

Oh, no, we're going extra large.

We're a nation of rail lovers,

in a typical week taking a whopping
30 million journeys across the UK

on 4,500 trains.

So, to find out how
everything's kept on track,

I've got access to a factory that
builds the ultimate model train.

Not many people get to see that.

It's a truly astonishing
feat of engineering.

Every month, across
this colossal site,

skilled teams carry out
40 miles of welding...

..tighten 60,000 bolts...

..and spray on
67,000 litres of paint.

I'm Gregg Wallace...

Mind the gap!

..and I'm being uplifted...

The train at platform seven is
having its sides put on.

..by the amazing
construction techniques

that transform metal into
a 187 tonne machine.

HE IMITATES TRAIN HORN

Meanwhile, Cherry Healey...

It's almost like
looking into a planet.

..is going underground to
reveal an extraordinary

tunnel-building machine.

The whole structure is vibrating.

And historian Ruth Goodman...

You just know you're on an
electric train, don't you?!

..is energised by the
history of electric trains.

Every week, 20 train
carriages roll off the end

of these incredible
production lines.

HORN WAILS

This is manufacturing
on a whole new scale.

Welcome to Inside the Factory XL.

This is the Alstom Factory in Derby.

They've been making
trains on this massive site

for over 140 years.

And I must admit,
I'm just a little bit excited

to see how they build a train.

Yes, a whole train!

Across the 84 acre site,

2,000 people work around the clock,

blending traditional
expertise with the latest

in train-building technology.

But it's not a quick job.

Each train takes up to
1,000 hours to complete.

Today, we follow production
of their latest model

for the Greater Anglia Rail Company,

the Class 720
Aventura Electric Train.

Highway To Hell by ACDC

The factory is fulfilling
an order for 133 of these

state-of-the-art 187 tonne
five carriage monsters.

Once complete, each train
could ferry more than

7,000 people a day
across East Anglia

at speeds of up to 100mph,

joining the 3,000
other electric trains

on Britain's vast rail network.

It all begins with
a super-sized delivery

on the biggest articulated
lorry I've ever seen.

Its trailer is loaded
with 24 metre long

aluminium panels,
weighing in at seven tonnes.

First up on the line is
logistics manager Leroy Joseph.

That is ludicrous!

Leroy, good morning.
Morning, Gregg.

What bit of the train is that?

That's the underframe.

What, the floor of it?

It's underneath the floor.
The floor sits on top.

So, basically, that is what the
rest of the train is built on.

Yes.

There are four crates
on the trailer,

each one weighs as
much as a small car

and contains the
exact amount of aluminium

for the underframe
of one train carriage.

Two overhead cranes, controlled
by highly skilled operators...

Whoa.

..lift the huge
weight off the lorry.

That is not easy, is it?

Whoa.

I'm really happy that
is on the floor.

Leroy, thank you very
much for your time.

Thank you for yours as well.
Thank you.

Our train is made up of
five carriages

capable of seating
a total of 490 people.

The three middle carriages include
a bike storage area and toilet,

and the two at either
end have drivers cabs.

The production process
for all five carriages

begins with the underframe

in the ginormous 180 metre long
welding shed...

Look at the size of it!

..where Alan Goss is
station manager.

Alan? Hi, Gregg.

This is vast, isn't it?

It is massive.

I've seen this come off,
but how do you build a train?

I mean, where do you even start?

So there's six pieces
of aluminium here.

We weld this together to
make one underframe.

Basically like a car chassis.

Yes. Right.

So, everything on that carriage
gets clamped or stuck to this.

Exactly right. It does.

Well, this is probably
the most important bit

of the whole carriage, then.
Very much so.

They use aluminium because
it's strong and light,

coming in at just a third
of the weight of steel.

You've hollowed it out here
into these little triangles.

You don't want a big plank.

You want something
that's lightweight,

so we've removed most
of the material inside

and created the webbing structure
to give it the strength.

The 300kg panels are hoisted
onto a 24 metre long bit of kit

called a jig, where 20 super strong
clamps hold them firmly together.

Ready for this...

..five metre high
mega machine to get to work.

This is our three-headed
auto welder.

Right. It welds four planks,
three joints,

at the same time.

Just sticking out here is
a piece of aluminium welding wire.

We put a current through this,
and it's about 15,000 degrees C.

It fuses and bonds
the two aluminium plates

and the wire at the same time
to create a super strong bond.

All melting together?

All melting together.

You know, I bake cakes,
and pies and roast joints,

that's as far as my
temperature gauge will go. Yeah.

A little bit hotter.

In fact, it's more
than 60 times hotter

than the hottest setting on my oven.

Right. Can we see it working?

Yes, Gregg.
Let's get some welding done.

With the push of a button...

..the auto welder fires into action.

This is an extraordinary machine.

I can feel the heat.

As it travels slowly along,

electricity is channelled down
the wire to the point of the weld,

where the metal and the wire melt
and fuse permanently together.

But as clever as this
incredible machine is,

it still relies on the human touch.

I've got a welding
operative watching the weld,

making sure that
there's no problems.

Because if you get that
weld in the wrong place,

that's going to seriously
damage that aluminium.

It will just scrap
the whole underframe.

Has that happened before?

No.

It has, hasn't it? No, Gregg.

Luckily for Alan, the huge
auto welder does its job perfectly.

And six more aluminium
stiffening panels are added,

this time by hand,

to complete the job,

creating an enormous 24 metre long
2.5 metre wide underframe.

The body of our train is
made mostly from aluminium.

But how do you produce aluminium?

Cherry is on an epic mission
to find out.

I've come to the foothills
of Ben Nevis in Scotland.

Not, perhaps, the first
place that comes to mind

when you think of metal works.

But in the UK, it's the only
place to smelt aluminium.

Nestled amongst this beautiful
scenery is the Lock Harbour smelter.

This 40 acre site produces 48,000
tonnes of the shiny metal every year

using a process called smelting.

To find out how they do it
on such an epic scale,

I'm meeting engineer James Tangney
at the factory's intake area,

where they've just taken
delivery of the key ingredient.

James. Hello. How are you?

Lovely to meet you.

What is in this
gigantically long train?

Aluminium oxide, which is the raw
material for producing aluminium.

And there is a sample.

Um, what, you mean
this pot of icing sugar?

Yes. THEY CHUCKLE

So, as we speak, it has been pumped
out of these trains into the silos.

Aluminium oxide is extracted

from a red coloured rock
called bauxite.

It's mined in countries
across the globe,

including Australia and China,

but can't be turned
straight into aluminium.

So it's first processed
into the fine white powder

using industrial chemicals
in specialist refineries...

..before arriving
at sites like this.

So there's some serious engineering
magic to turn this into aluminium.

Yes. Well, I'd like to see it.

Yeah, on we go, then.

Three of these
250 metre long trains deliver

nearly 2,000 tonnes of
aluminium oxide every week.

From the rail yard,

the fine white powder
is sent into one of two

300 metre long buildings
called cell rooms.

Holy Moley, James,
look at the size of this room!

Absolutely massive!

Yeah, and it contains
40 individual cells.

So this is where we
make the aluminium.

This is the heartbeat
of the whole place.

So inside each of these cells right
now, there is molten aluminium?

Yes. So it's a
continuous process, 24/7.

The aluminium oxide is
constantly fed via overhead cranes

at a rate of three tonnes a day into
each of the six metre wide cells.

Oh, my God. That's amazing.

You can feel the heat coming off.

It's a dangerous process.

The cells, heated by electricity,

operate at nearly
1,000 degrees Celsius,

and we're only able to get this
close because of our air fed masks.

Within these cells, the
electrolysis process happens.

I remember that from school science.

It's just a very fancy word
for putting electricity

through something to
separate our materials.

Aluminium oxide is made up
of both aluminium and oxygen.

The aim of the game is
to separate the two elements

using an electrical current.

As the aluminium oxide
is fed into the cell,

it's dissolved in a liquid solvent.

Electricity is fed
through the mixture

from a positively charged
electrode, called an anode,

near the top of the cell

to a negatively charged electrode,
called a cathode, at the bottom.

The oxygen is attracted to the anode
and the aluminium to the cathode.

The whole process uses as
much electricity as it takes

to power 10,000 homes.

To cope with its insatiable demand,

the factory has its own
hydroelectric power station,

using water from
the hills high above.

So where does the oxygen go,
and where does the metal go?

So the oxygen reacts with
the carbon in the anodes

to form carbon dioxide,
and that is captured.

The metal is heavier as
that sinks to the bottom.

Every 36 hours, the aluminium
that has sunk to the bottom

of each of the 40 cells is extracted
using a process called tapping.

Wow!

It's almost like
looking into a planet.

A 2.3 metre long
nozzle is lowered in...

Like an elephant's trunk.

That'll go down to just a few

centimetres off
the bottom of the cell.

..and two and a half tons
of 960 degrees Celsius

pure molten aluminium
is sucked out...

It's got a little red nose.

..before being tipped into
a transportation crucible.

That is absolutely amazing!

It looks like maple syrup. Right.

But obviously if you put
that on your pancakes,

you probably wouldn't
have a kitchen left.

The aluminium is driven
to the casting area,

where 42 tonnes of the liquid metal

rushes down a series
of concrete channels

towards three casting pits.

Running down it almost like a maze.

So there's three moulds there.

So the metal disperses evenly
between the three moulds,

and slowly, over 70 minutes,
the mode forms the final slab.

After cooling for
a further 30 minutes,

the aluminium emerges as
three metre long 13 tonne blocks.

That is a big slab of metal.

When you see the finished product,

especially when it comes
from that fine white powder,

that's really nice to see.

The finished slabs are ready
to be sent on for further production

across the UK and Europe.

This incredible metal is one
of the most important materials

of our modern age,

with millions of uses,
from kitchen foil

to modern passenger trains.

And what a mega process.

It's been an absolute blast,
or maybe I should say "smelt".

370 miles south at
the train factory in Derby,

our aluminium has been
welded by machines...

..and hands.

Construction of the underframe
for one carriage is now complete.

One of the factory's
75 individual cranes takes over,

before it's whisked
420 metres across the site...

..to be prepped for painting.

Meeting me in the blast
facility is Graham Welch.

Graham. Hi, Gregg.

There you go. Look at this.

Now it's in this dark, quiet room,

it really gives you
a sense of the scale.

It's mammoth.

Right, what are we doing in here?

We shot-blast the surface
to abrade it.

You rough it up?
We rough it up, yeah.

Otherwise, on this shiny surface,
the paint won't bond to it.

How do you do that?

This is the shot-blast media.

It's actually stainless steel.

But this is soft.
How does that rough up that?

Cos it's impacted
at massive pressure

through this robotic arm behind us,
if you'd like to pick that up.

Right. And we can
operate it manually

to demonstrate how it works.

Really? Right.
What have I got to do?

That's it.

Now pull the joystick towards you.

Ah!

Wow!

That's scary.

That is... Ha-ha!

Whoa.

The robot is capable of firing
500g a second

of the stainless steel pellets
against the aluminium

at speeds of up to 500mph.

Ah!

That was brilliant.

It's a little bit Star Wars,
isn't it? It is.

HE IMITATES MACHINE

Once we're safely
out of the chamber,

it's time to fire up the Death Star.

The robot arm
travels back and forth,

blasting the shiny metal,
roughing it up,

and leaving it perfectly
prepped for painting.

The underframe is probably the most
important part of our train carriage

because many other components
will be attached to it,

including the walls,
known as side panels.

Three panels, varying in length
from 4.3 to 9.3 metres,

are attached along either side.

Just like our underframe, the six
side panels have been shot-blasted

and are travelling
inside one of the factory's

seven 28 metre long paint booths.

First they're sprayed with a resin
based sealer to prevent corrosion,

then primed with
a liquid plastic coating

to ensure a smooth finish,

ready for the water-based
white top coat.

Oh, that's the side
panels of your train!

These are our side panels.

Is that just for me, or do you
honestly spray those by hand?

We do spray them manually, yes.

Why do you not put that
in front of a machine?

Because there's this low volume,
they're all painted manually.

You call these tons of metal
and all this engineering low volume?

Yes. Compared to automotive,
for instance.

Each train requires
780 litres of paint,

about 24 times more
than a typical car.

You're not going to let me
have a go at that, are you?

No, we've got a gun behind here
that you can have a look at.

You can control the amount of paint
and the amount of compressed air.

Are you frightened
that I'd mess it up?

There's a possibility.

And that's too expensive to mess up.

HE LAUGHS

It's not like slinging
a chocolate bar away, is it? No.

It takes two people just 40 minutes
to spray on two coats of white

and another 50 minutes for
the sections of black and grey

that form our trains unique livery.

33 hours after entering
the blast chamber,

six shiny side panels emerge.

The exact number needed
for one train carriage.

Now, that looks fantastic!

Now, that actually
looks like a train.

It does. It's a beautiful finish.

I am very surprised
you do it manually.

We've got guys working here
who have been here over 40 years,

who used to paint
these trains with a brush.

Brilliant. Who knows?

I might be sitting on
this carriage one day.

Mate, that was fabulous.

Our gleaming carriage walls
are now ready

for the next stage of production.

We are making an electric train,

which is cleaner, quieter,

and more environmentally
friendly than diesel.

But this technology
is surprisingly old.

Ruth is tunnelling into the
history of the electric train.

On a typical day, nearly
five million rail journeys

are made in the UK,

on a total of 4,500 trains

running on 20,000 miles of track.

But did you know that the world's
oldest surviving electric railway

is right here in the UK?

Today, more than a third of
our rail network is electrified.

Perhaps surprisingly, it was here
in the seaside town of Brighton

where this revolution began.

This is the Volks Electric Railway,

the electrifying grandfather

of the modern electric train.

In use since 1883,

it still runs along the seafront.

I'm meeting station manager
Phil Lucas

to learn how it all started.

Hello, Phil! Hi, Ruth.

My goodness. This is gorgeous.
Isn't it?

It's an extraordinary thing
to be still running.

Yeah. Would you like to come
on board and go for a ride?

Ooh, I'd love to. Come on, then.

I do like a railway.

BELL TRILLS

You just know you're on
an electric train, don't you?

Yeah. There's no denying.
It's got to whir, it builds up.

So how on earth did the first
electric railway in Britain

end up in Brighton?

Well, it's all because of
a gentleman called Magnus Volk.

This is him. Oh, very distinguished.

Yeah. Now, he lived in Brighton,

but he was fascinated from
a very early age by electricity.

In the 1870s, Volk was the first
person on the South Coast

to install electric lights
in his house

at a time when electricity
was barely in use anywhere.

Streets were lit by gas lamps,

and steam trains powered by coal.

But in Germany, an engineer
by the name of Werner von Siemens

had come up with
a brand-new kind of train.

First exhibited at the Berlin
Industrial Exposition in 1879,

his electric-powered prototype
was a huge success.

And it wasn't long before
it caught the attention of Volk.

He was fascinated by the technology
that Siemens was using.

Gosh, this little tiny engine.
Incredible, isn't it?

Siemens's revolutionary train
was propelled by a simple motor

powered by electricity
running through the rails,

much like many of today's trains.

It became the highlight of the show,

carrying more than 86,000
passengers in just four months.

Magnus thought, there's potential
here, and in 1883 he opened

the UK's first electric railway.

Oh, this must have been
really quite a shock.

People by that point had
had a generation of steam power,

and then suddenly,
I mean, there's no engine.

It's like black magic.
It's just this strange contraption.

I've actually got a quote... OK.
..from when we opened.

"People looked with alarm at
the idea of an electric railway.

"It was said that the end
of the world was coming.

"One minister in a place
of worship in Brighton

"advised his congregation
not to go near this latest

"invention of the devil."

Not everyone was scared of
this devilish contraption.

50 miles north in Victorian London,

the electric railway was
about to have a seismic impact

on the big smoke.

London Transport Museum's
Matt Brosnan picks up the story.

Matt, how lovely to see you.
Hello, Ruth. How are you?

So, um, when Volk's railway got
going, the London Underground

had already been in
existence for 20 years, hadn't it?

That's right, yeah. 1863 was
when the first segment opened.

It had been running successfully,
but used steam engines to power it.

You would often have situations

where people would be
slightly overcome by the fumes

and have to be escorted off the
trains because it was, you know,

so smoky and poorly ventilated.

The problems also
continued above ground.

The underground rail network
was expanding rapidly,

with 85 stations and 140 miles
of track laid by the end of 1884.

The way it was constructed
was really, really disruptive.

It used a method
called cut and cover,

basically digging a trench
in the ground, laying track,

building a brick archway over
the top, and then laying topsoil.

That must have been really popular.
The initial novelty had worn off.

So when it came to constructing
London's next new train line,

one rail company took a gamble
and decided to go electric...

..this time in deep
underground tube tunnels,

an idea that would never have been
possible with smoky steam engines.

In 1890, the world's first tube line
running electric trains was opened.

Now, this is an interesting
looking beast, isn't it?

It certainly is. It's
the very first electric train

that ever ran on
the London Underground.

That's really very quickly
following on from Volks.

You know, one of the reasons
why deep level tube lines

were actually possible
was because of this kind of

experimental technology.

The new trains ferried
passengers cleanly and speedily

across the capital.

The success of the first electric
line led to the construction

of a sprawling network,

much of which is now
the London Underground.

And it wasn't long before
the world followed suit,

with subways and metros
helping to transform cities

into global powerhouses.

It may seem a world away from
that quaint seaside railway,

but the technology
truly changed the world.

Humble cities became
giant metropolises.

And our own London Underground
carries millions of people per day.

Back in Derby...

The super sized scale
of our electric train

means everything takes time,

and it's a way off
carrying passengers yet.

We're already five days
into production...

..but the six side panels

for one of our carriages
have been spray painted,

and after travelling
through the shot-blaster,

so has the under frame.

So it's time for the parts
to be sent here...

..to this cavernous
22,000 square metre building,

which houses the two assembly
lines that build our train.

Stretching the length of one
and a half football pitches,

200 people work across
16 specialist teams,

putting together
the five separate carriages

that will form our train.

The unenviable task of
keeping everything on track

falls to Greg Moss.

Greg. Gregg! Am I allowed up?

You are. Right, go on,
talk me through this

because there is a lot happening.

So the first thing to say
is this is upside down.

So we build the train on
this stage the wrong way up.

Cos all of these parts here

are much, much, much
easier to fit downwards.

The seats are on the other side?

The seats are on the other
side, correct. Right, OK.

All right. What's next?

So, next, we're going
to fit the bolster.

What's a bolster?

This is the piece of kit that
attaches the train to the wheels.

Another of the factory's
powerful cranes makes short work

of hoisting the 615kg
bolster into place.

Sits firmly in
position on the train,

and then the wheels pivot around it.

The wheels fit on the bolster.

Correct, yes.

The wheels fit around that
sticky-up thing in the middle.

44 12 centimetre long
steel bolts attach a bolster

to each end of the underframe.

Two giant gantry cranes
capable of lifting 20 tonnes

carefully turn the whole
underframe the right way up,

and enough carpet to kit out
a small house is laid...

..before it's sent onto the
second halt on the assembly line,

where, for the first time,
I come face-to-face

with another vital part
of any train carriage.

Oh, the roof! Correct.

What's holding it up,
just that crane? Yeah.

Just a big yellow jib.

With this towering
supporting structure,

the largest part of
one of our train carriages

can finally be joined together.

The 7.8 tonne aluminium underframe,

made up of more than
1,000 different components,

the six side panels,

now with 18 double-glazed
toughened glass windows

and the vast 24 metre long

4.5 tonne roof

constructed in a similar
way to the underframe.

So we've got the roof,
we've got the ceiling.

That looks fantastic.

And the side panel's going on now.
Is that why we're here?

That's our next job.

Shall we, then? Yes, let's.

Each side panel
can weigh up to 860kg.

I don't want them
scratching my paintwork.

Look at that.
That's a very cool thing.

Oh, wow! It's coming out here.

It is. Ha-ha!

Isn't that an extraordinary thing?

I would never have imagined that.

Along the top and bottom
are 48 holes,

which must be perfectly aligned...

Wow!

..with fastenings on
the underframe and roof.

The train at platform seven
is having its sides put on.

What amazes me is how
precisely you can manoeuvre it

once it's been suspended.

It has to be absolutely exact.

Hydraulically-powered platforms
rise up from the factory floor,

giving the workforce access
to fix the huge panel in place.

How are they holding it in position?

So it's something called Huck bolts.

Got two parts to it.

That part goes over that part,

and there's a special machine
which pulls those together,

locks it in place, and it never
comes off the train ever again.

Well, I suppose
it's got to be secure.

It can't work lose.

Once it's there, it's there.

Huck bolts create
irreversible fixtures,

similar to rivets,

specially designed not to come
loose when the train vibrates.

What carriage is this?

That's the trailer car,
just has passengers on.

So that goes somewhere
in the middle, right?

Exactly in the middle, in fact.

Is that right, is that the middle
carriage? Very in the middle.

Exactly in the middle.
How about that?

I've got an eye for these things.

Over the next three hours,
five more side panels are craned in

and bolted on...

..and eight steel
structural supports

to add extra strength
around the door openings.

Then two huge sections
called intermedia ends

are attached to both ends,

which will allow passengers to
walk through this middle carriage.

With all five carriages
being worked on in parallel,

our train is really coming together.

Two of the five carriages
that make up our finished train

will have drivers' cabs
added to one end.

But these cabs aren't
made out of aluminium

like the rest of the train,

they're made of something
entirely different.

Cherry's finding out
how they start life.

Just a few hundred metres
from the train factory

is a firm called Datum.

Away from the welding

and bolt tightening of
the main assembly line,

this place is an oasis of calm.

You only get one chance to
make a great first impression.

So what does it take
to make a train look tiptop?

Well, it's a dedicated team
of skilled tradespeople

producing cabs 24 hours a day.

Showing me how to make
the perfect train visage

is managing director David Taylor.

David, hello. Nice to meet you.

I have never seen
anything like this.

Is this how the front of
a train starts its life?

It is indeed.

They look like huge jelly moulds.

The shell for every
one of our trains cabs

is painstakingly constructed by hand

inside one of the factory's
three reusable monster moulds.

So what are they doing?

Callum and Jamie here are
just applying the first layer

of glass reinforced plastic.

What is glass reinforced plastic?

This is a fibreglass material made
with phenolic resin infused in it.

Phenolic resin is
the plastic element

of what the glass
reinforced plastic is.

I would have thought that
the front of a train was metal.

A popular misconception,

but this material is a very
easy material to manipulate

into quite complicated shapes.

And it doesn't get
much more complicated

than the shape of our cab -

a sleek, curved structure designed
for its aerodynamics and aesthetics.

Why do you start with
that liquid plastic?

The only reason we start with that
is so that we get a smooth exterior

on the finished cab,
and that's good for painting.

Calum and Jamie quietly apply
two 0.1 millimetres thick coats

of plastic resin using
nylon bristle brushes.

Then the glass element of our glass
reinforced plastic cab is added,

which comes into the
factory as thin fibre sheets.

Little strands of glass
fibre that are all layered

in 360 degree format,
giving strength in all directions.

We'll then wet this out with resin.

We literally paint it
on to the fibreglass,

and the fibreglass will soak it up.

Is it a bit like
papier-mache at school?

It's quite like it, yes.

The combination of layered
individual glass strands

and plastic resin
produces an incredibly

strong finished structure.

I can see how this, layered,
could give some real strength.

Yeah. Put five or six layers on,

it'll give you a thickness of
around about six millimetres.

After all six layers of
glass fibre have been applied,

the mould glides into a huge oven

where it's baked at 85 degrees
Celsius for three hours.

Inside, the heat
penetrates the resin,

causing it to cure and harden.

Once it's out of the oven
and out of the mould,

the shape of our cab is revealed.

That's mind-blowing.

It's incredibly smooth.

They've just made
the front of a train.

There's not a hammer,
there's not a screw,

and one day, this will take
people all over the country.

Yes, correct.

But before it can be
attached to a carriage,

things get a bit noisier...

SAW WHIRS

..in the trimming room,

where a specialist team
uses heavy-duty machining tools

to cut out the side windows and
remove the rough and sharp edges.

There it is. It looks much neater.

So is that it?
Is that a perfect cab?

No, not yet.

Got any money on you?

All right. There we go. OK,
so we need to check and make sure

there's no voids in there.

So we literally... TAPPING

Tapping all the way.
You really do this? Yes.

And we're looking to hear
differences in the sound.

What happens if you didn't
bother doing the coin test?

Potentially, you could have
an undersurface defect showing,

which obviously we don't want.

So it might look
and feel a bit silly,

but it's really quite important.

It's a very
important part of the job.

Tap test passed...

..any small indents are filled...

..before the cab is sanded, creating
a smooth surface ready for painting.

Just like at the main factory,

it gets two coats of primer,
followed by gloss top coats.

The cab is then bolted
onto a steel frame which,

as well as extra strength,

provides fastenings ready to be
attached to its carriage.

Then lights are fitted...

There she is.

..and it's complete.

In all her glory.

It's gorgeous.

So you've got a super sleek cab
and even stronger steel frame.

Is that now ready for all the
bells and whistles that go inside?

This will go off.
They will fit the windscreen,

the cabs driver's desk, etc.

I'm never going to look at a train
in the same way again.

After 200 hours of calm
and painstaking layering,

sanding and painting,

the cab makes the short hop
to the main factory.

At our 84 acre cathedral
to train production...

..the first stop for the 1.7 tonne
glass reinforced plastic cabs

is the originally titled Cab Shop.

Here, a team of 24 installs
seven and a half miles of cabling

and 1,300 other components
which will allow the driver

to operate our train.

Project engineer
Holly Evans is at the helm.

Holly. Oh, hi, Gregg. Hello.

That is unmistakably
a front of a train.

What are you working on now?

We're fitting one of the most
important parts of the train, Gregg,

and that's the train horn.

And that's the... HE IMITATES TRAIN HORN

SHE IMITATES TRAIN HORN

Yours is better.

So the shorter one here is the
high tone, and that's a G flat.

The longer one is the low tone,
and that's a E flat.

It's to make it distinguishable
from a car horn, for example,

so that people know
when they hear the noise,

it's definitely a train.

Come on, what are we going to do?

My box there, yeah?
Yeah, that's your box there.

So lift it in.

Line up the hole. I'm in, I'm in.
You're in, you're in.

Each horn is attached
simply with a nut and bolt.

Oh, God.

Fiddly with gloves on. It is.

If you hold it,
I'll get it on quite far.

That's it. Teamwork,
teamwork, Holly.

Well, that's the theory, anyway.

If I get this wrong, and
it's only your one that works,

the train might only go... IMITATES TRAIN HORN

Well, then they'll know
it's Gregg's special train.

What actually powers these?

We've got an air supply that's
coming from inside the train

through these pipes,
comes out the front,

and that's what makes the noise.

HE IMITATES TRAIN HORN

SHE IMITATES TRAIN HORN

I'll get it eventually.

With our horns firmly in place,
a huge 1.8 by 1.7 metre

windscreen is craned in

and attached with 24 bolts,

while inside, the driver's
control panel is installed.

So here we are.
This is an almost finished cab.

It looks like a simulator.

There's a serious amount
of stuff going on in here.

Yeah, a lot of controls.

If I'm the train driver,
how do I actually start the train?

You grab hold of that handle,
pull that towards you,

and that's your accelerator.

And if you push it away from you,

that's like you brake.

I can even see where my horn blows.

Is it just like a myth that
there's a dead man's hand?

On this particular train,
we actually have a dead man's pedal.

So what happens? Does the
driver have to keep their foot

permanently on that pedal?

Yeah. So, the idea is that it knows
that the driver is still there,

still alive and still
operating the train.

It's pretty much the cab done.

I think I'm stuck down here.

The first of our train's two cabs
is fully fitted out.

So it's attached to
the front of the carriage

that will become
the front of our train...

..with eight large steel bolts.

That's the driver nice and warm.

But what about the passengers?

That's great, that's the doors.

As a passenger, that's probably
the one thing on the train

that I always use, right?

Yeah. This is what
we call the door leaf.

And these guys are very expertly

craning this into
position right now.

Each of the five
carriages on our train

has four pairs of passenger doors,

two on either side.

They're expertly guided into
place with pneumatic powered

glass suction cups,

bolted into position at the top

and attached to a guide rail
at the bottom.

These particular doors have
a rather ingenious safety feature.

This is what we call
a sliding plug door.

So they slide down the side
of the train to open and close.

But the final action of closing
is controlled by a door pillar,

which runs the full
height of the door

and twists at the last
moment to plug the door in

so it sits level with
the side of the train.

And the same action
that plugs that door in

also engages a locking
mechanism in the top of the door,

and that prevents it from opening
once the train's moving.

That's extraordinary, isn't it?

It is. It's an
extraordinary bit of kit.

Fitting all four sets
of these clever doors

takes four people 12 hours.

Elsewhere on the line,

more expert teams are busy
installing luggage racks

and USB charging points.

Our train is destined to run
on the Great Eastern Mainline

through East Anglia,
a route in use since 1862.

Now, it's rare that we build
a completely new railway,

but Cherry has special
access to just that.

To the west of London,
near the Chiltern Hills,

they're 18 months
into the construction

of the brand-new HS2 railway line.

This is one of Europe's
largest infrastructure projects.

Designed to ferry millions
of passengers every year.

And one of the biggest parts is
building two ten-mile long tunnels

straight through the hills
behind me.

But before I venture
inside the tunnel...

..I'm heading to the massive
on-site concrete plant...

..where they're constructing
the 4x2 metre slabs that will line

the tunnel,
preventing it from collapsing.

Production is overseen by manager
David Andrews.

David, lovely to meet you.
How are you doing?

You're making segments that are
going to go into the tunnel?

Yeah, that's correct.
Where do you begin?

The guys will move the mould
into the concreting chamber,

the automatic cover will come
across onto the mould,

and then the doors will shut,

they'll be ready to start
concreting.

Every day, 49 steel moulds travel
along a conveyor into a chamber

where they're filled...
Wahey! There we go!

..with 8.5 tonnes of concrete.

Why are they raking the top of it?

They just level it out,
scrape any excess off,

fill any grooves or holes,

and then when it comes through
to the next station, the robot

can give it the once-over. Robot?

A robot uses a steel plate spinning
at 177 revolutions a minute to buff

and polish the surface
of the concrete, making it

perfectly smooth.

Then the mould's passed
through a steam curing oven,

where they're baked at
45 degrees Celsius for six hours.

Whoa...!

They're all covered in a layer
of mist and moving

really, really slowly.

The heat and steam cause
a chemical reaction to take place

inside the concrete,
giving it unrivalled strength.

Once out of the oven, the now
hard, curved segments are lifted

from the moulds and sent outside...

Oh, my goodness me.

Look at this!

..to a whopping five acre
storage site.

They are as far as the eye can see.

This is an amazing sight.

This is how you build a tunnel.

But before you start, you kind
of need all these. You do, yeah.

Because you can't dig a tunnel
under the earth unless you've got

something to strengthen it.

Exactly.

Seven of these curved segments
make a single 10m wide tunnel ring.

Altogether, 112,000 will be used

to line the
two ten-mile long tunnels.

After sitting outside for 28 days
to fully dry and harden,

they are loaded onto a trailer
and sent deep into the hills.

And I'm following them...

This is deep.

Very, very deep.

..to this state-of-the-art
2,000 tonne tunnel boring machine,

affectionately known as Florence.

My guide to this giant is
engineer James Riley.

Welcome to Florence.
Well, James, she's a beauty.

What you're on at the moment
is the massive machine that's

building this amazing tunnel.

It does what it says on the tin.

One mile into the hills
and 30 metres below ground,

the tunnel-boring machine
is a 170-metre long behemoth.

The same length as
15 double decker buses.

Essentially a subterranean factory,

it operates 24/7 and features
everything from control rooms

and walkways to toilets
and even a canteen.

Floor is vibrating.

The whole structure is vibrating.

But the most important part
is right at the front.

That's the cutter head.

Behind that rotating piece of metal
is the ground we're excavating.

At the moment, we're rotating at
roughly one and a half revolutions

a minute, and that's cutting
the ground ahead of us.

This is one of the most

incredible things I've ever
seen in my life.

We are 30 metres below the earth,

and this is burrowing
through the soil.

It's a huge feat of engineering.

What is the tool that does the
digging? So, it's the cutter head,

it's a big rotating disc with
a number of tools mounted on it.

You've got cutter discs,
knives, buckets scraping away,

it's then powered by these ten green
motors mounted just in front of us.

The huge machine tears its way
through the chalk and flint

at a rate of just 15 metres a day,
creating a 10 metre wide tunnel.

I can't feel this machine moving,
but it is, very slightly.

I mean, we're moving,
it's only 45mm a minute,

so, you know, it's a snail's pace.

But it really is an ingenious snail.

The excavated soil and crushed rock
is mixed with water to create

a slurry, making it easier to pump
out of the tunnel to be used

to landscape other parts
of the construction site.

This is where the slurry is
taken away, out of the tunnel.

12 metres behind the cutting head,

the concrete segments
that will prevent the tunnel

from collapsing are installed.

So, James, this is a really
important part of making the tunnel.

This is the jigsaw puzzle
that puts the tunnel together.

So can you tell me what exactly
is going on? On the bottom

of the erector is the erector plate,
which is the vacuum which is sucking

each segment. It positions it,
and these big thrust cylinders

push it and hold it in place.

You can release the vacuum,
and then it goes back to the next

segment to pick the next one up
and do the same process again.

Each slab is guided into position
using a remote control.

Remarkably,
there's no need for bolts.

Once all seven pieces are in place,
the design of the ring means

it supports itself, along with up
to 180 tonnes of earth above it.

So I can see that you've completed
a ring already.

How many rings can you do in a day?

Roughly seven rings a day.

It's an incredible bit of kit.

You can just keep moving,
keep production going.

At this rate, Florence is expected
to take three years

to complete her
ten mile long journey.

Once finished, she'll have removed

a total of three million tonnes
of rock,

completing this epic
engineering project.

Back at the mega factory in Derby,

the doors and most of the interior

of the carriage that will become
the front of our five-car electric

train have been installed.
And it's come to a halt

at the penultimate stage
of the assembly line

for the fitting
of the electrical equipment

that will eventually get
this 187 tonne beast moving.

Testing manager Craig Pollard
has promised to explain

how it all works.

Craig. Hello, Gregg.
Now, help me out here.

This is an electric train.

So where does the electricity
come from?

The train is powered by
the 25,000 volt overhead wire.

Give me a comparison.

So your house, for example, when you
come to charge your mobile phone,

that's using 240 volts
and this is 25,000 volts.

That's coming from overhead cables.

Yeah, that's right. So one car in
every five that powers this train

is what we call a pantograph car.

The pantograph is what
goes up and makes contact

with the overhead wire
to pick up that voltage.

Is that like the bumper cars,
when the cables hit the sparky bit

at the top? Very similar,
but without the sparks.

A specialist team installs
the pantograph to the roof

of the fourth carriage.

It will channel the electricity
from the overhead cables

through wires running
along the train carriages

and towards the six tonne

cast-iron wheel sets
called bogies that sit

beneath the underframe.

Finally,

we've got some wheels.

What have I got on here, then?

We've got the motor, and
that's what drives the train.

How many of those
have we got on a train?

Cos that can't be the only one.

No, no, we've got five of these
across the whole train.

And they're the brakes?

We've got the pad that's actually
pressing against the face

of the wheel and
that's your friction brake system.

So what's the next stage
in our train, then?

So literally the next piece
we're ready to do is to move the car

down and lower it down
onto the bogies itself.

HORN HOOTS

That must mean something.
We got a load of flashing lights.

The factory's largest overhead
cranes spark into life...

Whoa.
..and carry our 28 tonne carriage...

It's a flying train.

..smoothly towards the bogies.

Extraordinary sight.

GREGG CHUCKLES

So happy it's moving away from me!

The steel bolsters I saw fitted
to the bottom of the underframe

must be lined up precisely
with holes in the centre

of the bogies.

If you get this wrong,
that will cause a lot of damage.

You can see it just
starting to pinch down now,

they're lowering it ever so slowly,
just edging in.

Ooh! The bogie starts to take
the weight of the car.

I thought taking a panna cotta
out of a mould was a risky business!

Look at that!

You cannot get that
a couple of inches wrong.

Are we docked? Yes, it looks
like it. Yeah, that's it.

Absolutely.

It has taken quite a while, but
we have finally got a shiny train

carriage on proper wheels.
That's it.

HE IMITATES TRAIN HORN

95 passenger seats are bolted in...

..and our carriage is ready to roll
off the end of the assembly line

to join the four others
that will form our train.

So we've got
the finished vehicle now.

We're just about to pull it out.
Onto this? Onto this.

This is a traverser.
I don't get it. Why put it on this?

We need to move the vehicle
left to right across the yard.

So to do that, we need to traverse
horizontally.

KLAXON BLARES Is it going to go now?

Is that it coming?
That's it.

A powerful winch
fires into action...

..and our 25 metre long carriage
glides on.

Listen, I'm used to watching
a train move, but not like this.

Look at that!

It's incredible, isn't it?
That is crazy!

Even sounds like the train coming!

Mind the gap!

Just like our train,

the traverser is powered
by overhead cables.

Amazing, isn't it?
That is fantastic.

Rails in the ground guide it across
the yard at a leisurely 2mph.

That's a train moving sideways.

Not many people get to see that.
Absolutely not, no,

that's truly inside
the factory, that is.

That's put an enormous smile
on my face.

I think that is just beautiful.

I'm lucky enough to see quite
a few factories, but honestly,

wow.

The assembly line produces 20
of these carriages every week...

..before they're coupled up and
sent to the factory's final stop -

the test track.

That's a very impressive sight.

Brand spanking new, gleaming,
it's just out the wrapper.

I want a minute to take it in,
you know.

I don't suppose we're
allowed inside, are we?

Yeah, go on, then.

All aboard!

Holly's doors, these are.

Come on.

There's seating for 490 passengers,
with standing for 203.

It's got that new car smell
about it, hasn't it?

Do you know, I know these trains,

these are the trains I ride,
I know 'em.

Fully air-conditioned vehicle.

Can I go down to the cab?
Take a seat into the driver's.

No way. Go on.

Yes!

Yeah!

This is very cool.
Do you want to have a drive?

Seriously?!

Drive the train?! Yeah.

Have a go!
Do you know what you're doing?

I think I do, cos I was
in the cab with Holly.

Now, before we go off,
don't forget to sound the horn.

HORN HOOTS

GREGG LAUGHS

Right, right, right, steady.

Then, if I move this back now, this
is going to start moving, right?

Correct. VERY gently. No way.

Get out of here!
I'm driving a train!

I am driving the train!

Craig, don't go anywhere.

Ahhhh!

Bring it back a bit. Bit more.

No, no, no, no, no, no,
I don't want to go any faster!

A little bit faster. No!

You're only doing 10mph.

Get out of here!

Though this train
is capable of 100mph,

with just a mile of test track...

Just going to slow it down a bit,
I'm getting a bit scared.

..I think I'll stick to under 40.

I love this.

Mate!

This is incredible.

Now it's on me to bring
all 187 tonnes...

Start applying the brakes.

..to a standstill.

That's pretty good.

That was one of the most amazing
things I have ever done.

I'm glad you've enjoyed it.

That was absolutely brilliant.

HORN HOOTS

This service may be terminating
here, but our train's real journey

is only just beginning.

From the factory in Derby,

it travels 147 miles south
to a depot in Wembley,

north London, for testing.

Once complete, it'll ferry people
all over Essex,

Cambridgeshire,

Suffolk and Hertfordshire,

and into London's Liverpool Street
Station and back.

Each train will travel
up to 132,000 miles every year,

transporting up to
7,500 people a day.

I've loved watching this thing
being built, but as great

as it's been, learning about
the miles of welding and seeing

the mighty cranes,
the real highlight...?

Come on! What do you think?

Getting to drive a train!

Now, who can say they've done that?

That was amazing.