Great British Railway Journeys (2010) s04e20 Episode Script
Exmouth to Newton Abbot
1 In 1840, one man transformed travel In the British Isles.
His name was George Bradshaw and his railway guides Inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.
Stop by stop, he told them where to travel, what to see and where to stay.
Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys across the length and breadth of these Isles to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
I'm now completing my journey from London to Newton Abbot and I've arrived alongside the coastal beauty of what Bradshaw's would call south Devonshire.
This was the scene of some of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's greatest railway engineering successes and worst failures.
And both his triumphs and disasters proved his genius.
Today I'll take to the sea with the heroes of the RNLI - Couple of big waves coming now.
- There we go.
Whoa! At the moment it feels a bit like, I imagine, a jockey in the Grand National.
We're going up and down and over the fences.
I'll visit a stormy coastal railway When the waves hit this section, the plumes of water go right over the top of the footbridge of the station.
and have a close, personal encounter with a boyhood hero.
This is exciting.
Is this genuinely a section of Brunel's pipe? It is, indeed, yes.
Using my "Bradshaw's Guide", I'm following the tracks of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, master engineer of the Great Western Railway.
I started at Paddington Station, a monumental success, and I'll finish In Newton Abbot In Devon, the scene of one of his biggest disappointments.
The last leg of my journey begins In Exmouth, detours to Sidmouth, then crosses the Exe Estuary to Starcross, on to Dawlish and, finally, Newton Abbot.
My Bradshaw's says, "We have all the romantic allurements of the watering places of the west, where we may find a fund of illimitable enjoyment in the rich bouquet that nature has spread before us on the freshening shores of Devon.
" The Victorians could be pompous and verbose, but their appreciation of the beauties of Devon was sincere.
I'm on a line known locally as The Avocet, where a locomotive first steamed the ten miles from Exeter to my first destination, Exmouth, In 1861.
Once a small fishing village, Exmouth grew Into an Important port, from which Sir Walter Raleigh launched many of his voyages.
The town became a very popular tourist destination during the Georgian period and Its two-mile-long promenade shows that It's remained so ever since.
Oh, I do love to be beside the seaside Already Intoxicated by sea air.
Bradshaw's tells me that Exmouth has, "in its immediate neighbourhood, a valley sheltered on all sides from the winds, and capable of affording a genial retreat.
" "Exmouth is a decidedly healthy place.
" But the sea also brings its dangers, and Exmouth has had a lifeboat station for more than 200 years.
Over the course of two centuries, lifeboats have saved the lives of over 139,000 people off the coasts of Britain.
They first patrolled the waters around South Shields In 1790.
Exmouth has had one since 1803, and half a century later the station joined The Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
Tim Mock Is a full-time mechanic and coxswain.
Tim, you've had a lifeboat at Exmouth going all the way back to 1803.
Yes, that's correct, yes.
A privately run lifeboat in those days.
And those lifeboats in those days, how would they have been powered? Well, that was pulling and sailing boats, that's rowing and sails only.
What do you think of that? Very, very hard work.
I've had a go at it in one of the old boats and just found it impossible.
How they ever managed to row for hours and hours on end, I really admire them for that.
Standing on the former slipway is a reminder that you could be called out at any time today.
(Tim) That's a possibility.
I mean south-easterly winds here means the sea is quite rough.
Although it's a nice sunny day, small boats can get in trouble at any time.
Do people of Exmouth feel a connection with their lifeboat? - Definitely, yes.
- Are they supportive? Very much so.
The lifeboat's always been a big part of the community and for our side of things, we need the community to operate the service.
And going back to Victorian times, the bigger boats were launched by hand only, so you'd need 40 or 50 men and women to pull the boat down here and out into the water.
I see your present station is 1903, so you're just post Victorian.
A connection between lifeboats and railways? Most definitely.
Boats would have been delivered by the railways.
Spare parts and, in latter years, tractors and heavier bits of equipment would all come by rail.
Sir William Hillary founded The National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck In 1824.
Today, almost 5,000 volunteers crew lifeboats and I've been Invited aboard the Exmouth all-weather lifeboat for a scheduled training exercise.
Luckily the Royal National Lifeboat Institution shares my taste in bright coloured clothes.
Well, I have once before been out with the RNLI, but that was in a small inflatable.
This is a completely different kettle of fish.
This is a very substantial boat.
At the helm today Is former Royal Marine, deputy coxswain Scott Ranft.
Well, it's quite surprising that on a warm and sunny day, there's quite a swell out here.
We've got a force five wind heading from an easterly direction, so it does pick up, especially in this channel as we come out through, it picks up because it's quite shallow.
- A couple of big waves coming now.
- There we go.
Whoa! At the moment It feels a bit like, I imagine, a jockey in the Grand National.
We're going up and down and over the fences.
That's right.
Roger Jackson, a crewmember for the last 14 years, has taken the helm.
I've heard he was recently honoured for leading a particularly hazardous rescue, manoeuvring the station's Inshore lifeboat to retrieve four young men from very rough seas.
We had to get them one by one.
Climb and climb, thumping surf over the top.
Go back round and go in again, four times.
(Michael) What state were they in? Hypothermic, really cold, really, really shocked and extremely pleased to see us.
They were very lucky lads.
And you were given the bronze medal for gallantry? That's right, yes, last week I actually went to London and the Duke of Gloucester awarded it to me.
It was a very proud moment for myself of course, but also for Exmouth lifeboat station as well.
I'd love to see it.
(Roger) That's the actual medal.
As you can see, that is Sir William Hillary, the founder of the RNLI.
- (Michael) Wonderful.
- (Roger) Like to have a drive? I'd love to have a drive, thank you very much indeed.
- Come through.
- OK.
I've quite often been asked to take control of a steam engine.
I think I feel more control of this than I do when it's a locomotive.
(Roger) How's that, Michael? Well, it's just a great honour to be steering this vessel next to a hero.
I don't know about that.
I'm travelling by road to my next destination.
Sidmouth didn't have a railway when my guide was written and the line that opened In the 1870s fell to the Beeching Cuts of the 1960s.
I'm Intrigued to know why railway-less Sidmouth, which my "Bradshaw's" describes as "nestled at the bottom of a valley, between lofty hills 500ft high", was deemed Important enough for an entry covering almost a whole page.
This range of cliffs, according to my guidebook, has been the theatre of convulsions or landslips, one commencing on Christmas Day 1839, whereby 45 acres of arable land were lost.
The beach is now fenced off to the public, so landslips are not a thing of the past and this so-called Jurassic Coast is of interest to geologists today.
Sidmouth's cliffs are particularly Important, because they occasionally yield fossils of rare prehistoric amphibians and reptiles.
Earth Science Manager Richard Edmonds Is responsible for protecting this World Heritage site.
- Richard, hello.
- Nice to meet you.
So, for centuries, these cliffs have been tumbling down? Well, that's right.
They're actually 230 million years old, but the natural recession rate is about perhaps five metres a century.
But my Bradshaw's tells me that on one occasion there was a landslip where 45 acres of farming land were lost, so that has been going on a long time? Landslides are a different process.
Landslides tend to be enormous, great sort of rending of the earth.
What we're seeing here is more cliff falls caused by the sea undercutting the base of the cliffs.
In the 19th century, did they take steps to slow down the erosion? What happened to start with, Sidmouth was built on the back of a vast shingle spit.
It was a very healthy beach.
The waves could hit the beach and be soaked up, the energy, but in the 1830s they started to, after big storms, started to construct sea defences and those have become bigger and bigger.
In the 1920s, a great gale breached the sea wall and wrought havoc on much of Sidmouth's esplanade, so the town built a new higher wall at the then hefty cost of £100,000.
But In Bradshaw's day, railway builders weren't put off by high seas and eroding cliffs.
I believe the Victorians tried to put a railway here? Yes, that's right.
The plan was to build a harbour on the western side of Sidmouth at Chit Rocks and use Salcombe stone, which comes from a village just a couple of miles this way.
The plan was apparently to quarry the stone and then transport it in a tunnel running parallel to the back of the cliff.
(Michael) What happened? The railway engine didn't fit in the tunnel and the company went bust.
- That can't be true, can it? - It is.
So they got as far as making the tunnel? That's right, you can still see it sticking out of the cliff, but what's happened is the erosion has come through and actually eaten away at the tunnel.
The entrance was here at Pennington Point and in the last 20 years the cliffs have receded and it's been lost.
(Michael) So the tunnel added to the difficulties of the cliff.
Well, it's done its damage, yes.
The cliff has got to the point where it reached the tunnel and suddenly there's this increase in erosion.
That's likely to be one of the reasons why we've had this very marked increase in erosion over the last years.
But now the tunnel's gone and the sea is coming back into the solid geology, we should see it slow down.
Richard, thank you very much, I must slip away.
Bye-bye.
Back to Exmouth now to take not a train, but a short boat ride that will deliver me to the exact spot I'm aiming for.
(announcement) OK, everyone, welcome on the ferry to Starcross.
I'm on the ferry, crossing the mouth of the River Exe to Starcross, a small place, with a big chunk of railway history.
And I think I can see a relic of it coming into view now.
The final three destinations of my journey all played a pivotal role In Isambard Kingdom Brunel's greatest railway failure, his Atmospheric Railway, where trains were not pulled by steam locomotive, but forced forward by atmospheric pressure running through a pipe on the track.
Starcross Is first.
This is a pumping station that was used on Brunel's Atmospheric Railway.
There's a pub dedicated to the history of that line and after a long day I've earned myself a drink there.
- Good evening.
- Good evening.
- Could I have a half a lager, please? - You sure can.
I see you're The Atmospheric Railway.
Quite an admirer of Brunel, are you? I sure am.
One of the greatest engineers we've ever had.
Why are you such an admirer? Well, it just wasn't one particular item, was it? I mean he built bridges, tunnels, boats.
He was just an all-round great engineer.
Well, then the toast is Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
After a day's travelling, It's a night cap and early to bed for me.
As a boy, I marvelled at the life of Brunel.
Even though the Atmospheric Railway was ultimately a failure, I'm keen to find out more about It.
At my next destination, Dawlish, the line had a station.
I'm on the Exeter to Paignton branch line this morning.
Before trains reached the south Devon coast, Brunel's challenge was to lay track over very hilly and sharply curving terrain.
The trains are now powered by diesel, but the route Is almost the same as In Bradshaw's day.
The result Is one of the most thrilling stretches of track In England.
My Bradshaw's is understandably excited about this part of the journey: "The magnificent scenery which opens on each side as we proceed.
" "There is scarcely a mile traversed which does not unfold some peculiar picturesque charm or new feature of its own to make the eye dazzled and drunk with beauty.
" For me, there's the additional interest that we're travelling on tracks that were once part of Brunel's doomed Atmospheric Railway.
In 1044, King Edward the Confessor granted the parish of Dawlish to his chancellor and chaplain Leofric.
Salt making, fishing and agriculture were the town's mainstay until the 18th-century penchant for taking the sea air and bathing attracted the aristocratic set.
But when the South Devon Railway arrived In the 1840s, the town was open to everyone.
Here at Dawlish, the station is built between the beach and the town, making this one of the most dramatic stretches of railway in England and that's not just because of the views from the trains.
In 1844, Brunel started building a sea wall to protect the line standing just a few yards from the foaming brine, but the elements were unkind to his coastal railway.
Heavy rain would cause rock falls, breaching Its defences, and even now the salty sea spray that billows up and over on rough days can effect the operation of the railway.
John Wilkinson has lived here all his life.
- John, hello.
- Morning, Michael.
There's a bit of spray coming over the wall, but I've been on trains and seen it far worse.
How bad does it get? It gets very bad.
On a bad day you wouldn't possibly be able to walk along this wall.
When the waves hit this section, the plumes of water go high in the air and get blown over onto Marine Parade.
And just to give you some idea of the height, the actual plumes of water go right over the top of the footbridge of the station.
And what effect does that have on the functioning of the railway? It does have effect on some of the train services because when the plumes of water go high in the air, it actually lands on the top of the trains and gets into the exhaust and into the electronic system on the top.
And, historically, it's interrupted services from time to time? It has indeed, but when you consider the length of time it's been here, I think the interruptions are not too serious and any form of transport is subject to adverse weather.
It's one of the great rides in England.
I think so, yes.
Got to be in the top ten.
(Michael) A green tea, please.
Where would you rank this amongst English train journeys? - (server) Number one.
- It's a beautiful piece of coastline.
(server) It is.
Gorgeous.
Certainly the most picturesque, most exciting railway line in the country.
You've got one of the best views of a railway anywhere in Britain.
- Do you like watching trains go by? - We do, yeah.
Hello.
Have you been here before? Yes.
I used to come down here when I was a baby.
Did you come on the train? - No, not on the train.
- That's a pity.
- (woman) We used to wave at the trains.
- So you've brought your kids here now.
- My kids are here now.
- Are they waving at the trains? (woman) They love seeing trains go past.
(Michael) Do you know who built this line? I don't know who built this railway line, actually, no.
- Isambard - Kingdom Brunel.
And my son is named Noah Isambard after Brunel.
Wow, you are admirers of Brunel.
Yes, I'm an engineer.
I think his work was fantastic.
Such a pleasure to talk to you, thank you.
Bye-bye.
Enjoy your day.
With its track skirting the shore and with the sea pounding its platforms and its footbridge, there's no doubt that Dawlish is Brunelish.
(blows whistle) The last nine miles of my current journey Is an exciting quarter-of-an-hour ride along the coastal line that Brunel built for his hapless Atmospheric Railway.
Because even though the technology failed, the route has remained In use for over 150 years.
In the past, my Bradshaw's Guide has directed me towards places described as the Switzerland or the Athens or the Paris of the British Isles.
Now I'm headed for Newton Abbot, dubbed "the Swindon of the South West".
In Bradshaw's day the station was called Newton Junction.
What became the southwest's Victorian rail hub was, In the 17th century, the small market town of Newton Abbots, an unlikely spot to shape the history of Britain.
Felicity Cole Is the town museum's curator.
I think we've come across something mentioned in my Bradshaw's, regarding the declaration that was made when William of Orange landed in Britain in 1688.
Tell me about that.
Well, William of Orange made his declaration or his intent to become King of England in 1688, so a very politically charged moment.
There were 30,000 troops that came through the town that day and extraordinary scene of things like Finlanders dressed in bearskins and Spanish mercenaries with damascene armour, but hundreds of them processing through the town.
So, presumably, anybody that said, "We don't want that", would have got fairly well squashed by the army.
(Michael) Fundamentally, this was a Protestant rebellion against a Catholic king, so that's why it says here, "William III, Prince of Orange, the glorious defender of the Protestant religion.
" (Felicity) Indeed.
I've come in pursuit of the town's railway history.
- May we have a look at that, please? - Absolutely.
In 1892, the Great Western Railway built a new engine shed, workshops, locomotive bays and a factory fashioned on their Swindon works.
The expansion In Newton Abbot meant that workers needed to be housed, and whole streets were built for the purpose.
(Felicity) Here we are in a street that is really full of railway houses and where the railwaymen would have lived.
And here is David Grylls, one of those railwaymen that lived in the area.
- Hello, David.
- Pleased to meet you.
- Were these all occupied by railwaymen? - More or less, yes.
There were at one time, I suppose, 39 railwaymen in this one street.
And that ranged from wheel tappers to guards, goods guards, passenger guards, enginemen, boilermen and people who worked in the factory, so there was quite an extensive mix right the way throughout all these terraces.
Did Newton Abbot deserve the title of the Swindon of the South West? It indeed did, it was little Swindon without a doubt.
I can remember when I first started as a young lad, there were at least somewhere in the region of a thousand plus men employed at Newton Abbot.
We boasted at one time nine working platforms and the main platform was at least a quarter of a mile long.
And during the busy season, we would entertain something in the region of 350 trains in one weekend.
What was your job? I was a passenger coach shunter.
Rather a dirty job, wet, miserable, and if you notice on most coaching stock, all the drain pipes run down onto the back of the poor shunter, who's in the middle coupling coaches up.
So I used to get very wet, very dirty, but the money was good.
- They sound like good old days.
- They were indeed good old days.
I confess to going to work as a small lad where I wore a peaked hat.
I polished the peak and I also polished the buttons on the front of my jacket.
I was so proud to be a railman.
GWR.
God's Wonderful Railway.
I'm very proud to have met you, David.
Thank you so very much indeed.
All the best.
Bye-bye.
It was Brunel's Atmospheric Railway that first ran to Newton Abbot.
Patented In 1839 by Samuel Clegg and the Samuda Brothers, the system that ran on atmospheric pressure was first employed on a Dublin line In 1844, where Brunel Investigated It and became convinced that It was viable and even preferable to steam power.
I'm hoping to find out more at Felicity's museum.
So, Felicity, can you explain to me how the Atmospheric Railway worked? The first question I could ask you is, what do you notice about this model? No locomotive and obviously a large pipe running down the centre of the track.
(Felicity) And we've also got a pumping house or engine house here.
So what the pumping station is actually doing is evacuating the air in front of the carriage in the pipe, and then pressure is building up in the pipe behind the carriage, which pushes the whole thing along.
So, you have a train that doesn't produce any smoke or any steam.
Not very much noise, I imagine? It's extraordinary.
The passengers that travelled on it loved it and used to comment that it was swift, silent and smokeless.
So despite all the things that did go wrong with it, people were very sad when it went.
The Atmospheric Railway caused great controversy.
Brunel's rival, Robert Stevenson, claimed that the atmospheric system would be expensive and less reliable compared to the steam locomotive that he'd helped to Invent.
Brunel refused to heed Stevenson's prophetic warning.
This is exciting.
Is this genuinely a section of Brunel's pipe? (Felicity) It is indeed, yes.
The piston would be travelling along inside this pipe, which had been evacuated of air by the pumping house and as a leather flap attached here was raised, the air would come in behind the piston, creating the atmospheric pressure to push the carriage forward.
Then the problem would be the flap had to return to its place and make a seal, ready for the next train.
Although the technology had advantages, It faced two major problems.
Its air pipes corroded In the salty sea air and animal fat had to be manually applied to stop the leather seals from cracking.
Local legend has It that rats ate through the seals and caused the line's closure.
But It was actually the cost of upkeep, which, after eight months, finally did for It.
Undaunted, Brunel went on to engineer the ship SS Great Eastern, Paddington Station and the magnificent Royal Albert Bridge In Cornwall, before he died at the age of just 53.
Well, his qualities certainly made him my boyhood hero and he's the hero of many people today who remember the fantastic achievements of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Indeed.
My railways journey from London Paddington to Newton Abbot has taken me past some of southern England's most beautiful buildings and finest views.
My guidebook has opened my eyes to key events and sights in our island history.
Where George Bradshaw has guided my tracks, Isambard Kingdom Brunel built the tracks.
Standing here above his Great Western Railway, I seriously doubt whether a finer civil engineer ever existed.
On my next journey, my Bradshaw's would lead me across the Irish Sea, tracing 19th-century tracks from Kerry to Galway, landscapes shot to fame by Queen Victoria.
If it's good for the royal family, it's good for everyone.
I'll visit the Irish National Stud and find myself bucked The horse is going very fast now.
Absolutely exhausted.
and hear Irish history, preserved In song.
There's a land far away Well done, Michael.
His name was George Bradshaw and his railway guides Inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks.
Stop by stop, he told them where to travel, what to see and where to stay.
Now, 170 years later, I'm making a series of journeys across the length and breadth of these Isles to see what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
I'm now completing my journey from London to Newton Abbot and I've arrived alongside the coastal beauty of what Bradshaw's would call south Devonshire.
This was the scene of some of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's greatest railway engineering successes and worst failures.
And both his triumphs and disasters proved his genius.
Today I'll take to the sea with the heroes of the RNLI - Couple of big waves coming now.
- There we go.
Whoa! At the moment it feels a bit like, I imagine, a jockey in the Grand National.
We're going up and down and over the fences.
I'll visit a stormy coastal railway When the waves hit this section, the plumes of water go right over the top of the footbridge of the station.
and have a close, personal encounter with a boyhood hero.
This is exciting.
Is this genuinely a section of Brunel's pipe? It is, indeed, yes.
Using my "Bradshaw's Guide", I'm following the tracks of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, master engineer of the Great Western Railway.
I started at Paddington Station, a monumental success, and I'll finish In Newton Abbot In Devon, the scene of one of his biggest disappointments.
The last leg of my journey begins In Exmouth, detours to Sidmouth, then crosses the Exe Estuary to Starcross, on to Dawlish and, finally, Newton Abbot.
My Bradshaw's says, "We have all the romantic allurements of the watering places of the west, where we may find a fund of illimitable enjoyment in the rich bouquet that nature has spread before us on the freshening shores of Devon.
" The Victorians could be pompous and verbose, but their appreciation of the beauties of Devon was sincere.
I'm on a line known locally as The Avocet, where a locomotive first steamed the ten miles from Exeter to my first destination, Exmouth, In 1861.
Once a small fishing village, Exmouth grew Into an Important port, from which Sir Walter Raleigh launched many of his voyages.
The town became a very popular tourist destination during the Georgian period and Its two-mile-long promenade shows that It's remained so ever since.
Oh, I do love to be beside the seaside Already Intoxicated by sea air.
Bradshaw's tells me that Exmouth has, "in its immediate neighbourhood, a valley sheltered on all sides from the winds, and capable of affording a genial retreat.
" "Exmouth is a decidedly healthy place.
" But the sea also brings its dangers, and Exmouth has had a lifeboat station for more than 200 years.
Over the course of two centuries, lifeboats have saved the lives of over 139,000 people off the coasts of Britain.
They first patrolled the waters around South Shields In 1790.
Exmouth has had one since 1803, and half a century later the station joined The Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
Tim Mock Is a full-time mechanic and coxswain.
Tim, you've had a lifeboat at Exmouth going all the way back to 1803.
Yes, that's correct, yes.
A privately run lifeboat in those days.
And those lifeboats in those days, how would they have been powered? Well, that was pulling and sailing boats, that's rowing and sails only.
What do you think of that? Very, very hard work.
I've had a go at it in one of the old boats and just found it impossible.
How they ever managed to row for hours and hours on end, I really admire them for that.
Standing on the former slipway is a reminder that you could be called out at any time today.
(Tim) That's a possibility.
I mean south-easterly winds here means the sea is quite rough.
Although it's a nice sunny day, small boats can get in trouble at any time.
Do people of Exmouth feel a connection with their lifeboat? - Definitely, yes.
- Are they supportive? Very much so.
The lifeboat's always been a big part of the community and for our side of things, we need the community to operate the service.
And going back to Victorian times, the bigger boats were launched by hand only, so you'd need 40 or 50 men and women to pull the boat down here and out into the water.
I see your present station is 1903, so you're just post Victorian.
A connection between lifeboats and railways? Most definitely.
Boats would have been delivered by the railways.
Spare parts and, in latter years, tractors and heavier bits of equipment would all come by rail.
Sir William Hillary founded The National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck In 1824.
Today, almost 5,000 volunteers crew lifeboats and I've been Invited aboard the Exmouth all-weather lifeboat for a scheduled training exercise.
Luckily the Royal National Lifeboat Institution shares my taste in bright coloured clothes.
Well, I have once before been out with the RNLI, but that was in a small inflatable.
This is a completely different kettle of fish.
This is a very substantial boat.
At the helm today Is former Royal Marine, deputy coxswain Scott Ranft.
Well, it's quite surprising that on a warm and sunny day, there's quite a swell out here.
We've got a force five wind heading from an easterly direction, so it does pick up, especially in this channel as we come out through, it picks up because it's quite shallow.
- A couple of big waves coming now.
- There we go.
Whoa! At the moment It feels a bit like, I imagine, a jockey in the Grand National.
We're going up and down and over the fences.
That's right.
Roger Jackson, a crewmember for the last 14 years, has taken the helm.
I've heard he was recently honoured for leading a particularly hazardous rescue, manoeuvring the station's Inshore lifeboat to retrieve four young men from very rough seas.
We had to get them one by one.
Climb and climb, thumping surf over the top.
Go back round and go in again, four times.
(Michael) What state were they in? Hypothermic, really cold, really, really shocked and extremely pleased to see us.
They were very lucky lads.
And you were given the bronze medal for gallantry? That's right, yes, last week I actually went to London and the Duke of Gloucester awarded it to me.
It was a very proud moment for myself of course, but also for Exmouth lifeboat station as well.
I'd love to see it.
(Roger) That's the actual medal.
As you can see, that is Sir William Hillary, the founder of the RNLI.
- (Michael) Wonderful.
- (Roger) Like to have a drive? I'd love to have a drive, thank you very much indeed.
- Come through.
- OK.
I've quite often been asked to take control of a steam engine.
I think I feel more control of this than I do when it's a locomotive.
(Roger) How's that, Michael? Well, it's just a great honour to be steering this vessel next to a hero.
I don't know about that.
I'm travelling by road to my next destination.
Sidmouth didn't have a railway when my guide was written and the line that opened In the 1870s fell to the Beeching Cuts of the 1960s.
I'm Intrigued to know why railway-less Sidmouth, which my "Bradshaw's" describes as "nestled at the bottom of a valley, between lofty hills 500ft high", was deemed Important enough for an entry covering almost a whole page.
This range of cliffs, according to my guidebook, has been the theatre of convulsions or landslips, one commencing on Christmas Day 1839, whereby 45 acres of arable land were lost.
The beach is now fenced off to the public, so landslips are not a thing of the past and this so-called Jurassic Coast is of interest to geologists today.
Sidmouth's cliffs are particularly Important, because they occasionally yield fossils of rare prehistoric amphibians and reptiles.
Earth Science Manager Richard Edmonds Is responsible for protecting this World Heritage site.
- Richard, hello.
- Nice to meet you.
So, for centuries, these cliffs have been tumbling down? Well, that's right.
They're actually 230 million years old, but the natural recession rate is about perhaps five metres a century.
But my Bradshaw's tells me that on one occasion there was a landslip where 45 acres of farming land were lost, so that has been going on a long time? Landslides are a different process.
Landslides tend to be enormous, great sort of rending of the earth.
What we're seeing here is more cliff falls caused by the sea undercutting the base of the cliffs.
In the 19th century, did they take steps to slow down the erosion? What happened to start with, Sidmouth was built on the back of a vast shingle spit.
It was a very healthy beach.
The waves could hit the beach and be soaked up, the energy, but in the 1830s they started to, after big storms, started to construct sea defences and those have become bigger and bigger.
In the 1920s, a great gale breached the sea wall and wrought havoc on much of Sidmouth's esplanade, so the town built a new higher wall at the then hefty cost of £100,000.
But In Bradshaw's day, railway builders weren't put off by high seas and eroding cliffs.
I believe the Victorians tried to put a railway here? Yes, that's right.
The plan was to build a harbour on the western side of Sidmouth at Chit Rocks and use Salcombe stone, which comes from a village just a couple of miles this way.
The plan was apparently to quarry the stone and then transport it in a tunnel running parallel to the back of the cliff.
(Michael) What happened? The railway engine didn't fit in the tunnel and the company went bust.
- That can't be true, can it? - It is.
So they got as far as making the tunnel? That's right, you can still see it sticking out of the cliff, but what's happened is the erosion has come through and actually eaten away at the tunnel.
The entrance was here at Pennington Point and in the last 20 years the cliffs have receded and it's been lost.
(Michael) So the tunnel added to the difficulties of the cliff.
Well, it's done its damage, yes.
The cliff has got to the point where it reached the tunnel and suddenly there's this increase in erosion.
That's likely to be one of the reasons why we've had this very marked increase in erosion over the last years.
But now the tunnel's gone and the sea is coming back into the solid geology, we should see it slow down.
Richard, thank you very much, I must slip away.
Bye-bye.
Back to Exmouth now to take not a train, but a short boat ride that will deliver me to the exact spot I'm aiming for.
(announcement) OK, everyone, welcome on the ferry to Starcross.
I'm on the ferry, crossing the mouth of the River Exe to Starcross, a small place, with a big chunk of railway history.
And I think I can see a relic of it coming into view now.
The final three destinations of my journey all played a pivotal role In Isambard Kingdom Brunel's greatest railway failure, his Atmospheric Railway, where trains were not pulled by steam locomotive, but forced forward by atmospheric pressure running through a pipe on the track.
Starcross Is first.
This is a pumping station that was used on Brunel's Atmospheric Railway.
There's a pub dedicated to the history of that line and after a long day I've earned myself a drink there.
- Good evening.
- Good evening.
- Could I have a half a lager, please? - You sure can.
I see you're The Atmospheric Railway.
Quite an admirer of Brunel, are you? I sure am.
One of the greatest engineers we've ever had.
Why are you such an admirer? Well, it just wasn't one particular item, was it? I mean he built bridges, tunnels, boats.
He was just an all-round great engineer.
Well, then the toast is Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
After a day's travelling, It's a night cap and early to bed for me.
As a boy, I marvelled at the life of Brunel.
Even though the Atmospheric Railway was ultimately a failure, I'm keen to find out more about It.
At my next destination, Dawlish, the line had a station.
I'm on the Exeter to Paignton branch line this morning.
Before trains reached the south Devon coast, Brunel's challenge was to lay track over very hilly and sharply curving terrain.
The trains are now powered by diesel, but the route Is almost the same as In Bradshaw's day.
The result Is one of the most thrilling stretches of track In England.
My Bradshaw's is understandably excited about this part of the journey: "The magnificent scenery which opens on each side as we proceed.
" "There is scarcely a mile traversed which does not unfold some peculiar picturesque charm or new feature of its own to make the eye dazzled and drunk with beauty.
" For me, there's the additional interest that we're travelling on tracks that were once part of Brunel's doomed Atmospheric Railway.
In 1044, King Edward the Confessor granted the parish of Dawlish to his chancellor and chaplain Leofric.
Salt making, fishing and agriculture were the town's mainstay until the 18th-century penchant for taking the sea air and bathing attracted the aristocratic set.
But when the South Devon Railway arrived In the 1840s, the town was open to everyone.
Here at Dawlish, the station is built between the beach and the town, making this one of the most dramatic stretches of railway in England and that's not just because of the views from the trains.
In 1844, Brunel started building a sea wall to protect the line standing just a few yards from the foaming brine, but the elements were unkind to his coastal railway.
Heavy rain would cause rock falls, breaching Its defences, and even now the salty sea spray that billows up and over on rough days can effect the operation of the railway.
John Wilkinson has lived here all his life.
- John, hello.
- Morning, Michael.
There's a bit of spray coming over the wall, but I've been on trains and seen it far worse.
How bad does it get? It gets very bad.
On a bad day you wouldn't possibly be able to walk along this wall.
When the waves hit this section, the plumes of water go high in the air and get blown over onto Marine Parade.
And just to give you some idea of the height, the actual plumes of water go right over the top of the footbridge of the station.
And what effect does that have on the functioning of the railway? It does have effect on some of the train services because when the plumes of water go high in the air, it actually lands on the top of the trains and gets into the exhaust and into the electronic system on the top.
And, historically, it's interrupted services from time to time? It has indeed, but when you consider the length of time it's been here, I think the interruptions are not too serious and any form of transport is subject to adverse weather.
It's one of the great rides in England.
I think so, yes.
Got to be in the top ten.
(Michael) A green tea, please.
Where would you rank this amongst English train journeys? - (server) Number one.
- It's a beautiful piece of coastline.
(server) It is.
Gorgeous.
Certainly the most picturesque, most exciting railway line in the country.
You've got one of the best views of a railway anywhere in Britain.
- Do you like watching trains go by? - We do, yeah.
Hello.
Have you been here before? Yes.
I used to come down here when I was a baby.
Did you come on the train? - No, not on the train.
- That's a pity.
- (woman) We used to wave at the trains.
- So you've brought your kids here now.
- My kids are here now.
- Are they waving at the trains? (woman) They love seeing trains go past.
(Michael) Do you know who built this line? I don't know who built this railway line, actually, no.
- Isambard - Kingdom Brunel.
And my son is named Noah Isambard after Brunel.
Wow, you are admirers of Brunel.
Yes, I'm an engineer.
I think his work was fantastic.
Such a pleasure to talk to you, thank you.
Bye-bye.
Enjoy your day.
With its track skirting the shore and with the sea pounding its platforms and its footbridge, there's no doubt that Dawlish is Brunelish.
(blows whistle) The last nine miles of my current journey Is an exciting quarter-of-an-hour ride along the coastal line that Brunel built for his hapless Atmospheric Railway.
Because even though the technology failed, the route has remained In use for over 150 years.
In the past, my Bradshaw's Guide has directed me towards places described as the Switzerland or the Athens or the Paris of the British Isles.
Now I'm headed for Newton Abbot, dubbed "the Swindon of the South West".
In Bradshaw's day the station was called Newton Junction.
What became the southwest's Victorian rail hub was, In the 17th century, the small market town of Newton Abbots, an unlikely spot to shape the history of Britain.
Felicity Cole Is the town museum's curator.
I think we've come across something mentioned in my Bradshaw's, regarding the declaration that was made when William of Orange landed in Britain in 1688.
Tell me about that.
Well, William of Orange made his declaration or his intent to become King of England in 1688, so a very politically charged moment.
There were 30,000 troops that came through the town that day and extraordinary scene of things like Finlanders dressed in bearskins and Spanish mercenaries with damascene armour, but hundreds of them processing through the town.
So, presumably, anybody that said, "We don't want that", would have got fairly well squashed by the army.
(Michael) Fundamentally, this was a Protestant rebellion against a Catholic king, so that's why it says here, "William III, Prince of Orange, the glorious defender of the Protestant religion.
" (Felicity) Indeed.
I've come in pursuit of the town's railway history.
- May we have a look at that, please? - Absolutely.
In 1892, the Great Western Railway built a new engine shed, workshops, locomotive bays and a factory fashioned on their Swindon works.
The expansion In Newton Abbot meant that workers needed to be housed, and whole streets were built for the purpose.
(Felicity) Here we are in a street that is really full of railway houses and where the railwaymen would have lived.
And here is David Grylls, one of those railwaymen that lived in the area.
- Hello, David.
- Pleased to meet you.
- Were these all occupied by railwaymen? - More or less, yes.
There were at one time, I suppose, 39 railwaymen in this one street.
And that ranged from wheel tappers to guards, goods guards, passenger guards, enginemen, boilermen and people who worked in the factory, so there was quite an extensive mix right the way throughout all these terraces.
Did Newton Abbot deserve the title of the Swindon of the South West? It indeed did, it was little Swindon without a doubt.
I can remember when I first started as a young lad, there were at least somewhere in the region of a thousand plus men employed at Newton Abbot.
We boasted at one time nine working platforms and the main platform was at least a quarter of a mile long.
And during the busy season, we would entertain something in the region of 350 trains in one weekend.
What was your job? I was a passenger coach shunter.
Rather a dirty job, wet, miserable, and if you notice on most coaching stock, all the drain pipes run down onto the back of the poor shunter, who's in the middle coupling coaches up.
So I used to get very wet, very dirty, but the money was good.
- They sound like good old days.
- They were indeed good old days.
I confess to going to work as a small lad where I wore a peaked hat.
I polished the peak and I also polished the buttons on the front of my jacket.
I was so proud to be a railman.
GWR.
God's Wonderful Railway.
I'm very proud to have met you, David.
Thank you so very much indeed.
All the best.
Bye-bye.
It was Brunel's Atmospheric Railway that first ran to Newton Abbot.
Patented In 1839 by Samuel Clegg and the Samuda Brothers, the system that ran on atmospheric pressure was first employed on a Dublin line In 1844, where Brunel Investigated It and became convinced that It was viable and even preferable to steam power.
I'm hoping to find out more at Felicity's museum.
So, Felicity, can you explain to me how the Atmospheric Railway worked? The first question I could ask you is, what do you notice about this model? No locomotive and obviously a large pipe running down the centre of the track.
(Felicity) And we've also got a pumping house or engine house here.
So what the pumping station is actually doing is evacuating the air in front of the carriage in the pipe, and then pressure is building up in the pipe behind the carriage, which pushes the whole thing along.
So, you have a train that doesn't produce any smoke or any steam.
Not very much noise, I imagine? It's extraordinary.
The passengers that travelled on it loved it and used to comment that it was swift, silent and smokeless.
So despite all the things that did go wrong with it, people were very sad when it went.
The Atmospheric Railway caused great controversy.
Brunel's rival, Robert Stevenson, claimed that the atmospheric system would be expensive and less reliable compared to the steam locomotive that he'd helped to Invent.
Brunel refused to heed Stevenson's prophetic warning.
This is exciting.
Is this genuinely a section of Brunel's pipe? (Felicity) It is indeed, yes.
The piston would be travelling along inside this pipe, which had been evacuated of air by the pumping house and as a leather flap attached here was raised, the air would come in behind the piston, creating the atmospheric pressure to push the carriage forward.
Then the problem would be the flap had to return to its place and make a seal, ready for the next train.
Although the technology had advantages, It faced two major problems.
Its air pipes corroded In the salty sea air and animal fat had to be manually applied to stop the leather seals from cracking.
Local legend has It that rats ate through the seals and caused the line's closure.
But It was actually the cost of upkeep, which, after eight months, finally did for It.
Undaunted, Brunel went on to engineer the ship SS Great Eastern, Paddington Station and the magnificent Royal Albert Bridge In Cornwall, before he died at the age of just 53.
Well, his qualities certainly made him my boyhood hero and he's the hero of many people today who remember the fantastic achievements of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Indeed.
My railways journey from London Paddington to Newton Abbot has taken me past some of southern England's most beautiful buildings and finest views.
My guidebook has opened my eyes to key events and sights in our island history.
Where George Bradshaw has guided my tracks, Isambard Kingdom Brunel built the tracks.
Standing here above his Great Western Railway, I seriously doubt whether a finer civil engineer ever existed.
On my next journey, my Bradshaw's would lead me across the Irish Sea, tracing 19th-century tracks from Kerry to Galway, landscapes shot to fame by Queen Victoria.
If it's good for the royal family, it's good for everyone.
I'll visit the Irish National Stud and find myself bucked The horse is going very fast now.
Absolutely exhausted.
and hear Irish history, preserved In song.
There's a land far away Well done, Michael.