A Train Journey Through Scotland’s Magnificent Highlands | World’s Most Beautiful Railway

A Train Journey Through Scotland’s Magnificent Highlands | World’s Most Beautiful Railway

[Music] beneath vast mountains across open murland and alongside shimmering locks Scotland’s Railways travel a landscape like no other from coastal towns to historic cities trains bring passengers to to some of Britain’s most iconic landmarks for the crews on board the trains if you do get a couple of minutes it’s good just have a we look out for the engineers safeguarding the track We No No Illusion you at the top of this thing it’s scary and for the volunteers keeping Scotland steam Heritage alive it’s a unique thing you know it’s not just you know press the button and it goes it’s part of the joy of working on the world’s most beautiful [Music] Railway this time it’s action stations when a landslide threatens the west highland line we’re battling with nature we can’t stop these lands happening but we can try to better predict when they may happen jumping for joy it’s a long way down from the fourth bridge and a treasured steam locomotive bids a fun farewell to Scotland’s Railway number n is like myself it’s getting old and you can go on so long that you can’t go on forever Waverly station Edinburgh for the past 15 years Waverly has stood at the heart of this historic City Bridging the Gap between edinburgh’s old medieval side and the new town each day 70,000 Travelers pass through this station the next chain at platform one will be the 830 service 2 Glasgow Central and during rush hour over 250 trains come and go to every corner of the UK but today one particular service is turning more than a few heads the union of South Africa built in 1937 and the only member of the A4 class of Street streamline steam locomotives still fully operational the return of this iconic train back to Waverly has drawn quite a crowd of Spectators and passengers lucky enough to have a ticket for today’s Journey it’s the uh Nostalgia for me of being on a a steam train again you sit there and smoke sort of WS behind you uh takes me back to my childhood today This Magnificent machine known as number nine to steam enthusiasts will Journey north crossing the fourth Bridge following Scotland’s East coastal line to Aberdine before winding her way back to Edinburgh shortly after [Music] sunset for the 230 passengers on board the trip delivers a unique perspective on the passing landscape I’m going at this pace which is much slower than going on the usual trains that we travel on you can take account of the the countryside and just the everything it’s just really lovely of course the fourth bridge I mean who would argue with coming over the fourth Bridge it’s an experience isn’t it number nine has been crossing the famous Fourth Bridge for nearly a century for much of its life it ran this line every day and in 1964 it hauled The Last Passenger steam train from King’s cross but today’s trip is tinged with sadness because later this year number n is set to retire and is bidding farewell to the lines and landmarks it’s called home for the past 80 years you only have to look out of the window at the number of people who follow this to realize is that this is actually a very special occasion and it’s a very special thing to to be part of but not everyone on board is getting the chance to drink in the views the save page and I’m going to heat up the mushrooms get ready to save them got Hager on today it’s usually black one but CU we’re in Scotland ha it’s just fast qu soon we’ve been together about 11 years not a partnership that’s how you drill out now which they love the egg like that perfect ex really the service on board today’s farewell journey is all part of the experience but it’s a Relentless schedule for the hospitality why do we do it well we get a buzz out of it it’s uh how trained used to be so this is probably a labor of love this job a labor of love too for the proud owner of number nine 8-year-old F native John Cameron the steam men are a little fraternity of their own there’s there’s very few of us left now but what we lack in quantity we make up for in quality is that right Steve a sheep farmer by trade John’s lifelong passion has always always been the railway as a teenager he rode the foot plate of his local steam trains but John is no mere passenger of number n as chairman of Scott rail in the 1980s he earned his Spurs as a worthy member of the steam crew fraternity I did my driver’s course as it were and got passed out as a driver I have to tell you though most of the the track inspectors who were passing me out were guys that I I had appointed as chairman of Scott so I was quite confident I would pass John bought the engine for £45,000 in 1966 when the Beloved steam locomotives were being phased out in favor of diesel this rare footage shows how John kept her running on his sheep farm offering weekend trips along a 2-mile stretch of disused freight track [Music] for over three decades number n has been running special Charters back on the [Music] mainline oh we have to run to the timetable and we were booked to stand here for I think about 10 minutes to let a following train pass us the engine talks to you so you listen and you do what the engine asks you and it’ll normally perform for you Steve’s being modest he’s a good driver naturally and I I’ve know what when he’s driving number nine I’m quite relaxed but it takes more than just a driver to get a steam train going this is the main man this is the fireman you’ll have to cut the next bit the driver’s gone for a pee worst thing could happen is if you don’t have enough water and it’s not happy when that happens I agree with the fireman there when the water disappears from the bottom of the glass then you start to worry in fact you start to pray running out of water is every fireman’s nightmare pressure in the boiler will build causing the engine to explode the next scheduled water stop is not until lunchtime at Aberdine fingers crossed they make it that far [Music] back at Waverly the morning Rush is over and the crowds of commuters have dispersed but customer service assistant Maggie is still feeling the heat it is very warm in the station today there’s um there’s not a lot of wind we’re constantly looking at our uh phones now waiting on an email to come through to allow us to take off our ties um because that’s the as soon as it reaches the temperature of like 20 de we are currently sitting at 19° it’s there but just not quite for us to receive that email letting us know that we can take our ties off of the 20 platforms here at Waverly one holds a unique place in Maggie’s affections platform 19 very very special uh moment for me it’s where I actually met my other half I was actually checking tickets on this platform and I Mok him for another passenger so I was totally in his own asking for to check the tickets and Along Came this gentleman and later discovered when I looked up that he was actually the conductor for the train that was departing over 700 conductors currently work on Scot Rael services but there’s a lot more to the job than checking tickets training conductor Melanie has just departed Waverly with her instructor Rebecca so you get given this every morning and this is your your duty for the day right so next stop is es bank and we are department at 943 I think we’re running about a minute late already s bank we’re going to be on the left side and there’s no signal no signal no signal right perfect conductor training takes up to 6 months as well as an encyclopedic knowledge of the network conductors must be well versed in safety procedures so once the train stops activate the doors open step off so what I’m doing now is I’m just checking that everybody’s um lighted from the train and join the train care you know safely carefully I’m not going to trap anybody in the door there’s no signal so don’t need to worry about that blow my whistle to let everybody know we’re about to dispatch we’re ready to go jump back on close this door I’m going to let the driver know that we’re ready to go Rebecca and Melanie are making the 55-minute journey south from Waverly to Tweed Bank better known as the borders Railway first opened in 1849 the line fell victim to the beaching cup and was closed in 1969 but following a long and determined campaign it reopened in 2015 at a cost of nearly £300 million becoming the UK’s longest new Railway to be built in over 100 years I like being out and about and meeting people in previous jobs I never really got to speak to many people and interact so this is why I wanted to come and do work for Scott Rail and and interact more with people [Music] at Tweed bank it’s all change before the return journey to wly make sure that everything’s [Music] clear which means it’s melan’s moment in the spotlight good morning ladies and gentlemen welcome aboard the 1029 service to Edinburgh wav to arrive in Edinburgh at 1024 could all passengers just please take a few minutes off their time to read over the safety notices that are located throughout this train once again this is the 1029 service to Edinburgh wavely next stop Galla Shields want to know what your only thing was that you m up what you said you again to be really at 10:29 but it’s 1024 but it’s 11:24 but as in that another well to be fair you that was only 6 minutes ago I you saying to her don’t look at me she makes me like not look at IR and if I look at she’s like I made a mistake that’s your fault you looked at me I’ve still got all my notes for my announcements just cuz I’m not really confident at doing it I’ve got I put my telephone voice on for it so even with all the stresses of her training there’s still time to enjoy one of the perks of the job it’s nice to get out and and see a bit of soon and I must admit I really do quite like the Tweet Bank line it’s absolutely lovely and just if you do get a couple of minutes which is not all the time it’s good just to have a we look out and and see all the Lambs especially at this time of year and stuff it is it’s lovely melan’s training is coming to an end signal new call signal in a week she’ll be examined as part of her final assessment a try and come across as really confident everything but inside I’m mean not thinking about it I do get really really nervous and so certainly on the day that it all happens and everything I I’ll not be able to eat anything or [Music] anything I think that’s an interesting thing this one piece will make 52 layers watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription [Music] required the west highland line regularly voted the most Scenic Railway Journey on the planet and with good reason stretching from Glasgow to Fort William and onto the tiny Port of Malik it winds its way through a wild and ancient [Music] terrain but a hidden danger lurks within the rugged Splendor of this [Music] landscape it was here in January 2018 that a huge land slip sent a thousand tons of rock and mud tumbling onto the line low it struck overnight and the following morning at 7:00 a.m. an approaching two-car passenger train traveling in near Darkness failed to spot the obstruction in time and was derailed fortunately no one on board was H Network rail Engineers Tom and Stewart are are visiting the site to check on measures designed to prevent further damage so the boat Journey’s taken us less than a minute to cross that allows us to move the number of people that we need on site safely and quickly it means we don’t have to put uh Road rail vehicle onto the track and it means we don’t have to affect the normal timetable of the trains the 2018 land slip occurred between Glenn finnen and larlet on the west highland Line This is the channel That it carved out when it failed which went all the way down to track level the small catchment fence was no match for the landslide that’s what the landslide did to the lightwe cat F so Tom and his team are installing a new improved barrier it will be the largest in Britain and the first of its kind in Scotland 11 steel columns each set into a reinforced concrete block in the hillside will support an 80 M long sheet of industrial strength wire designed to catch Boulders as big as washing machines these are drilled in to the slope and the anchor latched around that and that takes any of the force if a landslide were to happen is designed to stop the same forces a double-decker bus rolling down that hill before it reaches the track this line it was built purely to connect the town of Malik to Fort William connecting the two communities is really what Railways do and it’s a fantastic job to be able to continue that and keep people’s connections and transport options going as part of their investigation Stewart’s team of Geotech Engineers have studied the conditions that triggered the 2018 event [Music] we had a lot of snow cover which was followed by a very rapid thaw so we had negative temperatures and overnight basically went into positive figures on top of that we had significant rainfall and ultimately the slap just got too saturated and it failed predicting when a landslide will occur is near impossible but for experts like Stuart the landscape offers Clues as to where the next one may strike you can see that the the ground is wet here following what has been a dry period of weather um so there’s obviously there’s there’s ground water here and our concern for this this place in particular is that because the scar is potentially opened up at the back it allows the water to to penetrate the surface uh create a what we call a slip plane and it’s that top layer which then can slide uh resulting in a land slip when complete the barrier will Preserve and protect this vulnerable stretch of line but Stuart’s job is far from finished this is just one slope out of a huge area in Scotland about 40% of this line has a slope above it which is in excess of 100 m so that presents some challenges it it it it means that that 40% are more likely than other areas of the network to fail and have a land slope such as this to get a clearer view of the challenge they’re facing Stuart will have to take to the skies it’s lunchtime at edur Waverly but for training conductor Melanie food is the last thing on our mind so today I’m doing a traction assessment on the 170 which is behind us and also I have my written and oral rules questions today so this should be if all going well well my last day in training the first part of the test takes place on a scheduled service with paying passengers how you feeling about your assess nervous really really don’t be nervous be nervous the route they’re traveling is along the five Circle a 56-minute journey from Waverly to Glenn Rus her examiner today Andrew spent 5 years as a conductor before Rising the ranks to Scott rail’s conductor team manager at Edinburgh Waverly you need to be a paper person we need to have a a calm nature and but be able to be authorative just in case you are in any sort of emergency situation or a difficult situation where you need to take take control right so just after so we’ve got North Queensville so it’s the second stop so if you jump off there okay you’re absolutely F so I suppose when you’re out doing an assessment it’s you’re on a a live train so you never know what you can you can come up against things happen all the time that’s a lot more involved than just checking and selling tickets good morning good that’s lovely thank you very much so far so good thank you cheers melan’s reached the end of her Journey at glenroth is sure everybody’s off Y no problem this is the 1129 from wav and the next stop is King Horn thank you telephone voicey good telephone voice one definitely yeah well done good clear announcement right doing an announcement like that will become second nature once you’ve been doing the job for a couple of [Music] weeks it is going well and I’m getting there and I was aake really early this morning thinking about all the different things that I need to remember hopefully everything goes all well today be a good night sleep tonight melan’s coping well under the pressure of our final assessment and there’s some welcome rest bite as the train crosses a familiar land Mark you’re never tired of coming across the bridges and especially a day like this we picked an absolute perfect day and it’s [Music] lovely one of my favorite things is a conductor is always coming coming across the fourth Bridge always like to get you’ve got your tickets done you [Music] never but as the train pulls into Waverly attention turns to the final part of our assessment the written exam ready let’s do this the paper features 200 questions on the railway rules fortunately for the sake of Melanie’s nerves Andrew can deliver the results almost immediately well done you that’s you you’ve passed your your Railway rules exam you’re we a fully fledged conductor that’s brilliant I’m really pleased to thank you well done thank you thanks oh thank [Laughter] goodness the 80-year-old grzly A4 locomotive Union of South Africa known to her fans as number nine is halfway through a farewell tour of the UK having departed Edinburgh at 9:15 this morning she’s winding her way 130 M North and is due into Aberdine shortly after 1: p.m. for owner John Cameron number n’s farewell tour is Bittersweet although a farmer by trade he’s dedicated a lifetime to his first love of steam come here come here oh there you go he’s even built his own signal box at his home in F it was I suppose every Young Person’s dream was to experience you Railways and steep locomotives even in those early days I decided that sometime I was going to have a steep locomotive when she first entered service number nine bore a plaque featuring a Golden Spring Bo but by the time John purchased her in 1966 the plaque had mysteriously disappeared at the time when I asked about it nobody knew where it was and then 20 years later it it appeared at one of the Railway Ana auctions I think perhaps uh other members that were present at the auction recognized the old fight here so uh there was no bidding against me and the auctioneer proudly announced that um the springb plaque was going back to where it belonged and I reminded him that the price I just paid for this was about 3/4 of what I paid for the locomotive in the first [Music] place since restoring number n to her former glory John and his magnificent machine have been invited to transport many distinguished guests maybe the highlight of these special occasion was the reopening of the bord Railway as far as tweet bank and of course our Our Guest Our Guest for the day was our Majesty the queen and the Royal Train was required to be taken from Edinburgh down to TW bank and number nine was of course the locomotive that was appointed to haul it I’ve now owned number nine longer than um British Ro half so there you go perhaps that shows my age mind [Music] [Applause] [Music] you it’s amazing you know there’s been School classes out been people in fields people in towns all waving and happy to see it you know and you just feel you’re part of that I’m waving back cuz I’m so happy [Music] having arrived in Aberdine Union of South Africa has drunk her way through 5,000 gallons of water and is Running on Empty it’s like a giant ketle a steam locomotive and it goes through an awful lot of water in the process CU you’re constantly losing it as Steam up the chimney in their ha the a4s could survive the entire 4 108 mile Journey from London to Edinburgh without the need for a pit stop a feat that’s no longer possible the trouble nowadays is because locomotives don’t do big long stop runs they’re stopping and starting all the time and you go through oil water and coal quite quickly because of all the stopping the crew are volunteers United by a shared passion for Steam and a desire to preserve Britain’s engineering history it’s EX in its Heritage which we all love as well it takes us all over the country and we love each other’s company as well and we don’t get paid a penny number Nine’s not just here to take on water and coal before heading back to Edinburgh she needs to be turned but 167 ton steam locomotive can’t exactly do a three-point turn was coupled off it’s going down the far away line there onto the table they’ll turn it and by that time we’ll be facing the right direction an eager crowd has gathered to watch this historic moment but the turntable being used has never turned a locco as big and as heavy as an A4 before only time will tell it’s up to the job heading out of Endra Waverly on the line North to Aberdine you’ll cross one of the most staggering engineering achievements of the 19th century the fourth Bridge nearly 2 and 1/2 km from end to end and made from 53,000 tons of steel it took 7 years to complete a true emblem of Scotland and UNESCO world heritage site its graceful image has been printed on everything from souvenir teils to 20 notes but it’s her towering height that’s brought people flocking to the bridge [Music] today I’m afraid we probably take the bridge a bit for granted it’s a beautiful piece of engineering I think the word is Iconic very iconic yeah hundreds of Daring fundraisers have gathered for a rare chance to absil this national [Applause] landmark among them Amy and Rogan from Aber children’s charity I’m quite scared yeah looking at it now I think we’ve been quite Cal and collected up until now but yeah it’s quite a height and we’ve seen the trains going over and yeah so it’ll be a challenge once you’re standing underneath it it’s a lot bigger than you see on the Telly but um I’m really looking forward to doing it as well and you know raising money for our charity is spurring us [Music] on over 1100 fundraisers appsale from the bridge every year to raise money for Scottish Charities descending and eye watering 165 ft from the steel platform to the soft Sandy Beach below it’s so in the mind yeah that’s stop telling myself I’ll be telling myself that as I’m stepping off I’ve been on top of the road bridge before been on top of the rail bridge but I’ve not actually abses off it so it’ll be a first for me for one person AB sailing today scaling the 300 plus steps to the top will be a challenge in itself Debbie Matthew is raising money for chest heart and stroke Scotland I had a stroke three years ago so this is special for me this is my third year anniversary challenge um I’ve still got no feeling in my foot so the first challenge is the stairs and then the ab sale itself so it’s huge for me today and chest T stroke have been amazing and I want to give them something back um so yeah bit emotional now rooting for Debbie our husband Johnny and their son Finley they’d be quite nervous past me week week and a half I think they’re really pleased they’re really proud of me what I’m doing and I don’t think they can quite believe either yet and I’ve pledged to raise £1,000 and I’ve smashed it so um once the harnesses that’s pretty good and helmets are on the color suits you it’s showtime roll up roll up let’s do this okay guys let’s [Applause] go from a slightly giddy 165 ft above the fourth wow the views are breathtaking oh wow look and a view up here is amazing meanwhile Debbie’s nearly conquered her first hurdle of the day I’m almost at the top so that’s huge for me me I’m really excited and this has been a huge challenge for me and this was my first thing I wanted to do so and I’ve just about done it the faster it goes the faster you go you cannot go ready yeah Joy thank you so [Music] much 200 trains Thunder across this bridge every 24 hours and there’s no let up in the schedule today [Music] we did it we just jumed off that oh that was just amazing the adrenaline rush is just [Music] [Applause] like each year the app sealers raise more than £400,000 for [Music] charity that’s quite High you look down it’s Debbie’s turn to take the plunge you can do it Debbie [Music] [Applause] it took over 4 and a half thousand men 7 years to build this Bridge a landmark that stood firm since 1890 Debbie’s managed to conquer it in just 90 seconds when I was up there actually about to to jump off a train did go over and it was a bit rattly you can hear it really really loud actually and and the ropes start to move and you’re starting to jiggle about so yeah that’s looking up and seeing the train and there we go one now I just can’t imagine coming off there myself you know it’s just so Cloud over you know it’s amazing like I probably wouldn’t do it um but yeah I’m very proud of her [Music] from busy cities to rural communities 2,300 trains crisscross Scotland every day connecting passengers to 359 stations around the country they travel a network of some 2,800 km car a path through spectacular but often hostile [Music] environments at cumber Airport network rail engineer Stuart Jameson is getting ready to take to the skies with aial cameraman sha lehy once we finish there back into Oben refuel come back to cold I actually get to fly in the what I consider the most beautiful part of the British Isles um the west highland line it should be on everybody’s bucket list to come and see don’t go on to cruise don’t do anything like that come and see the railways of Scotland because you’ll never ever forget it it is one of the greatest things you’ll ever do but the west highland line is under constant threat from the very landscape upon which it sits Stuart is part of network rails Geotech team nice responsible for detecting potential landslides like the incident at Lil which derailed a train in 2018 so the mission today is to go out and use the the helicopter and the aerial imagery we can capture today h to get a really good perspective of the big natural [Music] hillsides a 3-hour journey by car the helicopter flight to loil will take just 20 minutes and the views aren’t bad [Music] either it doesn’t take long head north from helb before you start getting into the mountains well I do have to pinch myself every now and again to remind myself I’m actually being paid to do this because I just have to look out the window ahead of me this is raw nature at its very best it is just a beautiful part of the [Music] world built in the final years of the 19th century the malag line is a Triumph of Victorian engineering the 40m stretch features 11 tunnels barded through solid bedroom plus six spectacular concrete Vons including the iconic curving 1200 fot span at Glenn Finn that is the jackaby steam train going across the glenfin and Viaduct or the Harry Potter Bridge uh as it’s known it is a a majestic site um it really does help to renew the Nostalgia and the Romance of the railways a steam train running through this scenery is is probably the epitome of of rail [Music] travel so we’re heading up to lill on the Malik line we’re going to get some great aerial uh overview of the site just see exactly what’s happened this is the the main land up event in 2018 which caus the derailment what we’re looking at now is the um prevention works that’s going on so the concrete supports are in but what what we can do is we can look right out and look right up the mountain to where the problems are we can see where the scarring is at the top we see the scarring on the other side and we can see if there’s any fult lines beginning to appear the benefit of the aerial survey is we can just check in on these sites we know they failed in the past we’re looking for any deterioration around about the scarring and we’re looking for any new scars fortunately today’s survey has revealed no immediate threats to the line but for Stuart and his team the challenge of safeguarding Scotland’s Railways continues the thing you need to realize here we’re battling with nature we can’t stop these landslips happening but we can try to better predict when they may happen and uh imposing control measures to stop trains ciding with [Music] Dey [Music] on the Malik stretch of the West Highland line at the shores of Lil it’s a big day for project manager Tom Network rail Geotech Engineers Alistar and Stewart have come to check on Tom’s 80 M long Landslide barrier that’s been boled to the hillside Stuart and Alistar are having a look because ultimately it’s their ass that they’re going to take on in the future the good news for Tom is that in the two weeks since his last visit progress has been Swift all 11 posts have been erected and 80% of the mesh is up it is what we hoped for it may look visually up close but in the context of the of the environment when you get a little bit further away it Blends in quite nicely the detailing looks fantastic the guys have done a really good job it’s it’s the only barrier of its kind in Scotland and Tom’s confident it’ll handle whatever Mother Nature throws at it in the future you see these these rings they’re essentially the suspension so when a land slip happens that barrier flexes out flexes back again and and catches it much like the suspension in your car and those Rings allow the wire to set essentially extend out and then the ring brings it back for those who’ve been involved in its construction this week sees the culmination of more than 18 months hard work it’s really nice to see something like this be constructed you get a bit of a buzz from working on Emergency Response jobs and this part of the network is the most beautiful it’s it’s my favorite part I was really excited to work on the mle line and it’s just so picturesque I love it what we’re doing here is safety critical uh we are ensuring the safe passage of trains through these beautiful landscapes and we’re very happy with the w [Music] t the 167 ton steam locomotive Union of South Africa is an Aberdine about to be rotated 180° so she can make one final return journey to Edinburgh a locomotive to go forwards or backwards and there’s no issues mechanically with that but for safey re safety reasons they prefer to have the funnel at the front and the driver looking forwards and if you look at the tender you’ll see why because the back of the tender is often piled up with coal so actual visibility going backwards tender first is very limited the fairy hill turntable first built in 1906 has only recently reopened having been refurbished at a cost of almost £1 100,000 ready there they go it was originally powered by a vacuum motor but the motor hasn’t yet been fixed so today they’ve replaced horsepower with Manpower with this icon of steam set to retire from service its a sight owner John Cameron is unlikely to witness again going well huh considering it’s manow back to couple on the coach and then uh back to reconnect with the [Music] train it’s 5:00 and having reconnected with its 10 carriages and 230 passengers number nine is winding its way back to Edinburgh Waverly and dinner is served it’s F state with Yorkshire pudding with a nice rich uh hand fried gravy the gravy [Music] Dr hey it’s been a long day has been really very enjoyable all the passengers and guests are happy aren’t they so no day done as the sun sets number nine bids a final farewell to the rugged Landscapes and quaint Villages it served for the best part of a century I’m looking it this way I guess number nine is like myself it’s getting old and you can go on so long but you can’t go on forever so we’ll go out together [Music]

Beneath vast mountains, across open moorland, and alongside shimmering locks, Scotland’s Railways travel a landscape like no other. From coastal towns to historic cities, trains bring passengers to some of Britain’s most iconic landmarks. This time, a treasured steam locomotive makes its last journey. The Union of South Africa was built in 1937 and the only member of the A4 class of street streamline steam locomotives still fully operational. This magnificent machine known as number nine to steam enthusiasts, will depart Edinburgh and journey north crossing the fourth bridge ,following Scotland’s East coastal line to Aberdeen before winding her way back to Edinburgh shortly after sunset.

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