Some 150 years ago, our Victorian forebears
built a railway system that was the envy of the world.
TRAIN WHISTLE BLARES
But one corner of this sceptred isle thwarted their tenacious,
pioneering spirit.
The Highlands of Scotland.
A beautiful...
..harsh...
..unforgiving landscape...
..totally unsuited to the train.
That is, until now.
TRAIN WHISTLE BLARES
I'm Dick Strawbridge, and in honour of our Victorian ancestors,
I've set myself the challenge of achieving, in miniature,
what they could not.
Is that beautiful or what?!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Building a railway line 70-plus miles through the Great Glen of
Scotland. Scale it up, that's half the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Do a lock there.
After three days, we've 13 miles of track on the ground,
thanks to my team of volunteer engineers and railway modellers.
All we've had for years is people saying, "You're anoraks," right?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, steady, we're going.
And the train has embarked on its trans-Caledonian journey.
That is our track, boys and girls.
I'm building the biggest model railway in the world, man!
That is fantastic. I'm so proud.
HE LAUGHS
But with miles still to travel...
Take control of your string.
..and miles still to build...
What do you think the main issues are with it?
It's massive. ..the challenge is steep...
It's beautiful, isn't it?
..and the gradients to come, even steeper...
This is actually a whole pile of engineering work.
..for the biggest little railway...
Whoa.
..in the world.
You can't film us cos we're breaking the law.
We've got a lot of water going over our boat here.
Ooh! Right.
This is within the first hour with the first team for the first bit.
We know it's better.
Silver Lady is ten minutes into her epic journey across Scotland.
Do you know what? Oh!
Keeping her upright is proving trickier than I anticipated.
Whoa! Right.
But where the track is straight and true,
she puffs along without any problem.
We are actually grown-ups, don't let this confuse you.
Fantastic, all smiles.
This is amazing.
How long have you been into trains, Gary?
All my life, 50 years.
What got you into model trains?
When I was about five, my dad bought a toy train set,
and ever since then.
Shall we see how fast it'll go? Yes. Here we go.
She's not hanging around!
Inverness, Inverness!
I want to make four miles this afternoon.
It might not sound like much, but
that's 76 miles in scale terms.
We are actually making good time.
This is very positive, but it's the easy bit.
At every step, we face many of the same challenges as the Victorians
did, albeit in miniature.
In 1899, they started building a line on the same route,
which would shorten the time for trains to travel between Glasgow and
Inverness. But they were slowed by
the harsh terrain,
only to see a rival railway,
routed via Aviemore,
render the line unnecessary.
Construction stopped
just beyond Fort Augustus.
All that's been preserved is this museum piece at Invergarry.
Am I right in thinking it's a resting Hornsby 88DS?
It's the same one that they had at British Gypsym at Ruddington,
I believe.
The rest of the line is now a path for cyclists and walkers,
but for a brief time at least,
my team of track-laying navvies are bringing it back to life.
It's the first time we're actually laying track on the track bed of an
actual railway. It's a wonderful thing, though.
It's like we're putting the railway back.
Can you imagine, right, where we're standing now,
you'd have a massive steam engine, wood, steel, coal, fire,
just puffing up here next to that?
It would have looked absolutely unbelievable.
It would look quality, and that's what it's all about.
We can go back and Google it later, have a good look at it.
Now, I've definitely got to go back and I've got to read up on it,
and I've got to, you know, do my research more.
That's what you do, you come somewhere like this and you think,
"Oh, right, I wonder what it used to look like." Then you go and buy the
book and then build a model railway about it.
I know it's a weird thing to be really happy about,
but I feel like my life is a little bit more complete.
After 15 minutes, we've covered a quarter of a mile.
It's time to take on water, fuel and a new crew.
I'm just about to hand this over to you, Gary. Doesn't look like you're going to hand it over!
I feel like a dad with his children,
who he buys them a present and won't let them touch it.
Gary has now got the helm here.
With the train under Gary's steady influence,
I can look ahead to the day's big obstacle.
At the one-mile point,
the Biggest Little Railway, the BLR,
is interrupted by a railway line on
a bridge we can't build across,
quickly followed by a busy main road
on another bridge.
We've no choice but to make use of the water.
We're going to go into the water not very far from here. Into the water? Yes.
Aren't we staying on the water?
That was Freudian. That was a bit of a mistake.
I'm going to have a quick peak. Catch you later, mate.
The plan is to transfer Silver Lady to a model ferry,
cruise under the bridges and into a lock.
When the lock is filled with water,
Silver Lady can be brought back onto dry land to continue.
What could possibly go wrong?
Don't fall the other way, that's for sure.
Well done. Well done.
Well done. Let's see what Team B have given us.
Three days ago, I ask Charlie's team to build us a derrick,
a crane that can lower the ferry into the canal.
That's going to be awfully swingy.
Three days on, and we've encountered a confusing array of bits.
I hope they can explain how they work.
Is Charlie there? Yeah.
Go ahead, man. Do you remember when you were actually building the
system to get in and out of the water? Yes! How does it work?
Can I pass you over to Nick?
He was the one who actually built it.
Is that Nick? It is, yeah. Your ferry docks at the side of the jetty.
You shove the cradle underneath the ferry,
you lift the boat and the cradle out.
You lift the boat and the cradle out of the water?
The train goes up ramp onto ferry
that is now sat on the crane on the little jetty. Use the derrick
to dump the lot back in the water.
And when I say dump, I mean carefully lower.
I hope it works. Good luck.
You hope it works. OK, thanks very much.
Bye now. Cheers, bye-bye.
Oh, God, I hope it works. I know!
THEY LAUGH
We'd best get this train on its way, because it's a bit choppy out there.
Excuse me being a bit abrupt with this,
I just want it out of my life very quickly.
The fundamental flaw is,
the cradle floats to get it under the water so that the boat can
sail away is somewhat problematic.
We need two rocks, one at each end, cos this needs to sink.
If this does not sink, the boat will not sail away.
There we go. Right.
This side?
Right, here we go. Raise, up we come.
OK.
Is anybody else worried about this?
We're sliding out over the water. We're sliding out of the water.
Take control of your string.
In the water, nice and steady, nice and steady.
Let's get the frame away.
The frame is there, sinking.
The frame is sinking.
And, ladies and gentlemen, we are heading along.
Wow, that is a bit wobbly.
Here we go.
If you scale up everything, the little waves and stuff,
it's a lumpy old sea.
And if you scale up Silver Lady's trip to the lock,
150 metres becomes nearly 3km.
No, no, no.
Oh, no! Miss those.
Oh, no. Slightly dented my boat.
We're away.
The canal path ends here,
so I have to leave the ferry out of sight for a moment.
I don't run, I'm too old for this.
And sprint beyond the two bridges and back onto the canal side.
Right.
Come forward.
Come on.
I'm adrift.
There's no control. After going out of radio signal range,
I've lost contact
and can't reset it.
I need a stick.
About eight feet long.
There's no radio link.
OK. Right.
We're still using the track, Dick.
Yeah.
Come to Dickie.
VOICEOVER: With the radio signal gone,
all I can do is prod the ferry towards the lock.
Right into the middle.
This isn't part of the plan.
Silver Lady is now at the mercy of the currents that are being created
by the rush in of thousands of gallons of water.
Where is the fishing reel and the line?
It's in the box. We're going to use some fishing line,
hook the boat and keep it in position.
Oh, look at that.
Now, it's all about getting the water level up,
so we can actually get the boat onto our cradle again.
The water level here...
I'm looking at the gauge at the front taking a line across.
I reckon about a foot below that top stone.
Along there.
While we face an anxious wait as the lock slowly fills,
25 miles away is another watery barrier to the BLR's progress.
Claire's gone ahead to survey the scene.
Our train is going to have to make it across Aberchalder falls.
When there's a lot of water coming down, the locks upstream fill up.
This whole area fills with water, as everything tries to balance out.
Even one centimetre to our little tiny train is going to be game over
at this point.
Certain death to that engine,
so we are going to have to come up with a solution that will lift it up
and get it across.
That's the responsibility of Claire's special build team.
What do you think the main issues are with it?
It's massive, I think.
The biggest one, it's 60 metres wide.
Potential problem is water flow.
So you've got to control not only the track, but it's the water.
Yeah. Potential water flow. What's your solution?
If the supports were just solid case ons,
applied tower that you can put ballast in...
And then put your beam for the track.
And then you span the beam along the track. Span the beam along the top.
Exactly that. That's a viaduct, isn't it?
WHISTLE BLOWS
Viaducts are a type of bridge made of multiple small spans,
and the Victorians built hundreds of them.
In fact, wherever you see a brick in a railway arch,
the chances are a Victorian navvy put it there.
At the time, human labour was cheap and so was life.
There were no unions, no hard hats and no health and safety guidelines.
Fatalities were commonplace.
The Riverhead viaduct in North Yorkshire
claimed the lives of 100 navvies.
It spans 400 metres, meaning a man died for every four metres built.
Done anything like this before?
I would say no, pretty much.
I've built model stuff before, but...
not quite this sort of size.
Neither has anybody else.
The longest permanent model railway in the world is Miniature Wonderland
in Hamburg, and its bridges are no more than a couple of metres long.
So the BLR's viaduct will be by some distance the longest ever built.
It will raise the track about 45 centimetres above the water
on a sturdy plywood base.
The arches will allow any water to flow in between.
Done. Done. The thing I'm most worried about with this build is the
weather changing. I have faith that if it stays like this,
it will be absolutely fine.
But if it starts to rain and the river starts to rise,
which they do really, really quickly, then, I'm sorry,
this plywood solution will not do it.
Will. Hello.
Look at this. The flood.
Watch your feet, mate. Get that life jacket on.
This is impressive.
Amongst the track teams, health and safety is being taken seriously.
All stand on one side, rather than people on two sides.
So we can get past Dick. Very seriously indeed.
From what I've seen of this team, they are team British Rail.
We're working next to a canal and we are working on territory that is
considered to be a road, so we do need absolutely everything on today.
Health and safety is always a thing that has to come first.
OK, swing round, swing round, swing round.
This is as anoraky as it gets.
Full hi-vis, life jackets. I mean...
They've just walked over a bridge. You don't need a life jacket to walk
over a bridge.
This would not be a problem if the track were being laid correctly.
You know you've got no expansion joints.
Sorry? You know you've got no expansion joints.
Like all railways, we need expansion joints every 100 metres
to allow the track to grow or shrink
without buckling when the temperature changes.
Erm... We'll deal with that after lunch.
We're not dealing with that now. We'll deal with that after lunch.
We're going to have Mark and Rod coming along here...
So tell them, as they're coming up, to pop expansion joints in.
Don't keep double backing on yourself, yeah?
Right now, they're finishing what they're doing,
and then they're having lunch, because it's one o'clock,
and my main concern right now is to make sure my team members eat their
lunch and are safe to continue working.
Some of my team members have had extremely little sleep.
And they are concerned about whether they are going to be safe to
continue working using power tools and quad bikes.
There we are. I said it. I'm going to go and have my lunch.
Thank you.
I've never met anyone like that in my life before.
Team C members, is anyone with a radio next to lunch, over?
ON RADIO: Paul, this is Andy.
I'm with lunch. Lunch is able to stay here for one hour.
Please stop worrying, lunch is ready for everyone. Over and out.
Andy, thank you very much for that. I'm relieved to hear that.
You are a star, thank you.
Over. Out. Whatever.
A few miles behind, Team A also have problems.
But not of their own making.
There is no other quad working,
so it's 1.2 miles straight from here to where we finish.
Their quad bike towing all their track has broken down.
They've no choice but to lug all of it by hand.
That actually might just work.
It would be a damn side better than handballing it.
Who owns the place?
WHISTLE BLOWS
18-year-old Cameron is a problem solver by nature.
I restore the full-size ones of these, amongst many other things.
And I've been interested in steam all my life.
Yeah, it started as a bit of a hobby.
And turned into work, really.
And that's what's resulted in me owning my own business
in heritage restoration.
My mum took me everywhere.
The traction engine rallies, the events
at the East Lancashire Railway, she took me to all of them.
So it was fantastic.
It was quite good for my mum to be involved in that, really.
Yeah. Good years of my life.
Really enjoyed them.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's had an impact, definitely.
Over the last few years, I've had to grow up - no question about it.
So I've spent a lot of my life with the older generation.
With my grandparents. And all their knowledge,
I've absorbed and I'm very lucky to have that, very lucky.
Hiya. Hey. Yeah,
I'm Cameron from the Biggest Little Railway in the World project,
and we spotted your little trolley.
Is there any chance in the world we could borrow it just to...?
Of course you can. Oh, you are an absolute angel.
Ditch this. Drop that there.
Thank you so much. And we'll return it...
We'll return it in pristine condition.
Whose idea was that? Yay! Go on, Cameron.
Proper job, this.
HE LAUGHS
Look at this now. This is off, this.
This is just the kind of improvisation we're going to need
to keep us on track. So to speak.
Yeah.
Are you doing it sort of, like, progressively...?
Oh, no, we're laying all the way.
We've done 18 miles so far.
18 miles!
Nearly twice the old world record for a model railway line,
and it's still growing.
Don't let me slow you down. Oh, no, we're quite happy to be slowed down.
We're quite happy. Oh, yeah. Right.
Keep it rolling.
It's good when we can multitask and it doesn't take any time.
All you do is that...
See? You squeeze the female...
Yeah. You can't do it any quicker.
I have put quite a lot of it together.
Oh, off again. It's not running anywhere near as smoothly at my end
of the line.
I don't want that water going in, do you?
No, but hopefully the water coming in will keep it away
by the same token.
Oh, man!
Whoa!
There's a whirlpool there.
Ease yourself forward. We've got a lot of water
going over our boat here. This is actually feeling a bit heavier,
I'll be completely honest with you.
This lock can't fill quick enough for me now. No, no.
Look at that water coming over that deck.
It's getting heavy. Let it go.
Yeah, yeah. Right.
Erm...
Can we cut the water for a moment?
I'm worried about the amount of water slopping in there,
cos we haven't got a sealed deck.
Can we get that in the water, please?
Can we get it in the water? We need to get it in the water.
Now. That's what I'm worried about.
Here we go. We've got water in her.
Sink in front, sink in front, sink, sink, sink, lower,
please, in the water. Ease your way down.
Now, walk it towards me, so I can get the nose in there.
Walk it towards me before we lose it.
Let it in the water lower.
Slide along a little. Just slide along...
Slide it along.
Slide it along. We've still got the engine.
We've got to keep the engine on it.
I want it just to get underneath the nose.
Let it go under the nose.
Let it sink away. Let it sink away. You're on my right.
Let it sink away. We're going to get it.
I'm caught on the boat.
Let the front go down. Let the front go down.
Oh, it's gone. Lift up the front,
lift up the front, lift up the front!
We've got to keep the engine on it. We've got to keep steady...
The lock keeper has offered to go to Silver Lady's rescue.
OK. Tell me when you get a handle on, sir.
Oh!
Can you get it on the cradle? It's quite heavy. Right.
Pull it again.
Up you come.
Right.
All the way.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you.
APPLAUSE
Good effort. Thank you very much. Without everybody pulling together,
we'd have been at the bottom of the lock.
And that's it, dead. History.
So we just about survived.
We've got a couple of little scratches.
The paintwork may need some work on it.
Yeah.
It's going to be looking very different at the end of this journey.
Miles ahead of us,
the track teams have no knowledge of Silver Lady's
traumatic, aquatic adventure.
Oh, it's so cute. I didn't see the carriage. Yeah.
Did you see the carriage? Paul made one of those. Did he?
They're still sharing her pristine departure photos.
Oh, they made a little station for it, did they?
Oh, that's our fence. Yeah, that's our fence!
Oh. See the little station? Oh!
Each individual section becomes a part of you.
It's amazing in a way how much you get attached to it.
And the first bit of the railway has been laid by the A Team.
Well, what can I say?
You know?
Team A are in RAF fighter training territory.
This is our lucky day, isn't it, really? Come on.
And proof that the best things really do come in threes...
..a piper emerges from his caravan
to give an impromptu performance for the tired navvies.
Right, what tune do you want? Highland Cathedral.
Here, come here, you.
PIPES PLAY
Thank you, sir! It's a tune in many memories, that one, so, yeah,
no, it's fantastic to hear it out in the Scottish Highlands.
No, it's great.
Yeah, it touches a spot.
That particular... You know, that particular tune.
What made you request it, then?
What was it? What's the particular memory it holds?
Oh, it holds something great...
You know, great and dear, so, no, it's...
Yeah, it was nice. Like I said, it's nice to hear it out in the open.
The last time I heard that played on the bagpipes was actually
at my mum's funeral, and she was piped into the church.
So, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So whenever I get the chance,
and that's been the first chance in six years...
So, yeah.
Yeah. Very sad.
Yeah.
And what better place to hear it, you know?
It's great. It really is.
Water on the weir. Water on the weir.
Well, do you want to put that on here?
I've built a couple of things with one of these.
I helped a mate build a garden railway with one.
These are good pieces of kit, definitely.
There you go.
Help if we could plug it in, yeah?
Will, give us a hand, here.
The special builds team have cut most of the parts that they need for the viaduct.
All right, OK? It's like Ikea furniture right now.
Hopefully by the time it comes,
it all comes together, it'll be a thing of beauty.
Yeah, it's an authentic British railway bridge
now there's graffiti on it.
You can see the rain coming down the valley.
Throw your wet weather gear on before you get completely drenched.
Not a big deal. Stops at your skin, doesn't it?
A hive of activity.
How has it gone? Oh, we're getting there.
Well, this is module number one and we are learning a lot about
how it needs to go together... Yeah.
..and the few little niggles that we're having at the moment.
They're building the viaduct in interlocking sections,
which should give the structure extra rigidity
if the weir is in flood when the train goes across it.
So going that way? Going this way.
What do you think, Will?
Come in. Like a glove, that, isn't it?
It sounds really daft but I've got sun cream in my eye and it's making me cry.
You are planning to put all these sections in.
We could be standing in water. One at a time, yeah.
We've got wellies. That looks pretty flat, doesn't it, really?
That is almost...
perfectly level.
We need to give ourselves a round of applause.
APPLAUSE
I'm really... I'm feeling quite proud of myself.
That is a good end to the day. For the team.
The day hasn't ended just yet.
We'll see what the damage is.
I believe it's...
..been swimming.
Had a little dip.
Oh, surprising.
We seem to have got away with that one.
All the servos are working. All the electrics are OK.
I'll leave this to dry out, give it a good once-over tomorrow morning,
and we should be good to go...
..carry on the journey.
Silver Lady might only have travelled a mile so far,
but the track teams are beginning to make excellent progress.
There are 25 miles of continuous track on the ground,
and by the end of the day we could reach the halfway point.
A Team, what I need, Laurence, is I need you to get on the ground,
get them laid, get off the ground and away, yeah?
Laurence's A Team are working on the rest of the old
Invergarry Fort Augustus railway line.
Team B are just ahead of them.
B Team along the canal. Two miles. Life jackets.
D Team, you've got the canal, and you're coming through town
to the start of the hilly area.
Jenny's D Team will have to negotiate Fort Augustus
before meeting Paul and Team C.
They're starting at the point the Victorians stopped.
From here onwards, the BLR is in virgin territory.
Paul, you are going to do for me half a mile.
Oh. You lucky... Do you want to swap, Charlie?
Whenever somebody gets given half a mile, everybody should go...
HE SUCKS HIS TEETH It's a really chunky, hard section.
We're starting to get up the hills.
There's some very interesting engineering solutions they've got to come up with.
I have every confidence that we'll be able to crack this out,
definitely by the end of the day, and, who knows,
maybe we'll get it done before the end of the day.
So let's get onto the bus and get moving as quickly as possible.
Oh, yeah, the boat with the train on sank, though. That was, erm...
What? Capsized, train fell to the bottom.
They did manage to fish it out.
Apparently it hasn't suffered any lasting damage and it should be
back up and running today.
What a nice day, Joe. It's beautiful, isn't it?
I want Silver Lady to make up for yesterday's losses and travel a full
eight miles today, to get us back on schedule for reaching Inverness.
I've returned to the scene of yesterday's near catastrophe to restart the journey.
No, it will have been lit since the last one.
Chris hasn't brought it to us without lighting it.
Correct?
Look.
Right. Slightly awkward but I want to take the body off.
OK. How long is it going to take?
Tool box, body off, give me about 20 minutes.
20 minutes. Because I can.
Right, OK. I'll bring my tools and we'll do it here. OK.
Has it been lit, Chris?
Has it been lit since it's been in the water?
No. No? Go get your kit, you.
I did not realise that, because that should have been done.
OK, you learn from that.
Right, for people who don't get to see the inside of a steam engine,
this is quite good for it.
Not that Chris is feeling the pressure at all.
Seeing the engine reduced to its mechanical parts
brings home just how tiny it is.
A machine that in four days' time we'll be asking to get up this monster.
A 100m ascent in the Inchnacardoch Forest.
Let's call it Inch Mountain.
Get your mountain goat legs on today, it's a steep one.
We're making a section of railway which I believe is
about the hilliest that's been attempted so far,
and that poses new and exciting challenges for us.
I think this breaks the mould for, you know,
the purity of the proper railway.
And it is still a proper railway.
You know, it's adapted to meet the challenge.
It's a bit much getting up here.
Fortunately, Hadrian's on hand to help the team figure out how to do it.
The route may be steeper than a steam locomotive can cope with.
Erm... So I think what we need to do is think of solutions to that.
The locomotive is quite happy at 12 degrees.
OK? Yeah. How steep do you reckon it was, Pip?
Well, it's greater than 12 degrees at the steepest bit.
That means Silver Lady has no chance of ascending this part of the line unaided.
We need probably seven winches to winch it up,
keeping the track straight, cos you can only winch on a straight.
The track that we've done now, or we're looking at,
it's still a bit wiggly but it can be straightened up and everything.
You know how quickly you went up there with that track? Yeah.
You've only got to do it again, and you've got half your answer.
A possible solution is a counterbalanced railway,
like the Bowes Line built by George Stephenson,
famed inventor of The Rocket.
It operated from 1826 until 1974,
transporting coal from Durham to Jarrow on the Tyne.
The coal-laden wagons at the top of the hill were connected via
a cable and pulley to empty ones at the bottom.
The weight of the descending train would help the empty one to ascend.
It works the same as a set of scales.
Where Inch Mountain exceeds 12 degrees,
Paul should lay his track in parallel and plan to insert pulleys.
To act as the counterbalance, we're going to send for a sister loco.
As Silver Lady starts to climb,
she'll be connected via a pulley and string to her descending sister,
helping her to conquer Inch Mountain.
Where the path narrows and makes sudden changes of direction,
the team should insert turntables.
NEWSREEL: It's hard work swinging a giant engine on a turntable...
Well, if it was good enough for the Flying Scotsman...
Having done its good turn for the day,
it's ready for another 400-mile dash to the North.
This is a whole pile of engineering work, OK?
And I am looking for cream.
So we're going to need some people as the survey team, who are able
to assess how many turntables we're going to need.
I think we might make you walk right to the top several times.
But on the way down, we'll just use me as a counterbalance...
THEY ALL LAUGH
Paul has chosen Pip to lead the survey of the hill.
So that's now at 14.
This would be absolutely perfect for a classic North Wales quarry incline, right? Yeah.
Over.
I've just lost some electrical tape and I'm going to go catch it.
I'll reply in a second. Over.
No problem. Thanks. Well, that's a beautiful demonstration
of how steep this slope is.
At each change of direction, the team has left a gap in the track.
OK, cool. We've got quite a lot of turntables that need to be done.
Currently we're at four and we're only really a quarter of the way up
the hill at the moment, over.
OK... Over.
At least six.
Right, so we could even start building turntables whenever...
I mean, we are talking six degrees' change left or right, really.
That's good enough.
Down she goes and up she comes.
Yeah. Very good.
Silver Lady is still stuck at the very first turntable.
When we came off the boat, we had to reverse off,
hence we've got a turntable.
But it looks like we're finally going to see the back of it.
I think Inverness could be moving through tectonic plate movement.
We may never get there.
CHEERING
Whoa. OK, that obstacle is officially finished.
We have to, have to pick up speed.
If I got eight or ten miles out of it today, I'd be very, very happy.
Fort Augustus is the midpoint of the Great Glen Way.
They all ask you the same question.
"What's that? What's that? What's that?"
Apart from one man, who said, "Is that for the new traffic lights?"
The flat canal path is now behind the track teams.
Ahead are 35 miles of villages, hills and woods.
Or for our railway read urban sprawl, mountains, and forests.
Today's little issue is we've got a flat tyre.
It's a bad time for the quad bikes to start playing up.
Switch it off, we'll try something else.
There's no oil in the clutch.
There should be oil up to the level, and there's absolutely nothing.
That's not how we look after engines.
And Silver Lady's progress is being slowed by her carriage,
which is all too easily derailed by the wind.
Little things like this, they all add up.
What do you think of what's happening here?
Playing men. Men playing.
He had one when he was a child.
As a young boy, yes, I had one.
What kind of feeling does it give you?
Playing. Beautiful. To be younger!
So, you're exactly at the two-mile mark for today?
Ah...
So, we've only got eight to do.
But she's just warmed up, so we're good.
By taping some heavy bolts to the bottom of the carriage,
Joe is hoping to weight it on to the tracks.
Right, you're going to have to keep your eyes
peeled on the track as you go. Yeah. Yeah.
The axle box just came off.
I don't know if we've got any replacements for that.
Unless it's got a carriage, it's just a loco.
Yeah.
There we go.
With the carriage heading for the repair yard,
Silver Lady can go to notch eight.
That's "full steam ahead" in railway speak.
We knew it was coming along at some point,
so we've been keeping an eye out for it.
Oh, good luck, boys.
But trying to make up time soon becomes the least of our worries.
YELLING
OK. I'm OK.
Don't forget a spotter.
We need a spotter to mark the boats, because they'll hit it.
That's the train team's quad!
Boat! Obstacle in water!
YELLING
Maybe it will help us rescue it.
Yeah. Did you go into the water with it, or did you come off?
I managed to get off before it hit the rocks.
He's lucky. It could have gone really, really bad for him.
Well, we've got a paramedic coming out to you.
Very close call. Very lucky.
Well, we've got a bit of a problem down here.
The quad bike has gone in the canal.
The throttle got locked in reverse,
it went down the bank,
straight into the canal. Is he injured?
There's a cut to his finger and a mark on his head that I'd
quite like the paramedic to have a look at.
But he was wearing a helmet, obviously.
When it comes to quads, from our five, there's one working now.
Fortunately, Dave, the quad driver, has suffered no more than a scratch.
If anybody said, "Oh, we're going to have a bit of a disaster today,"
an aquatic quad would not have been something that would
even cross my mind.
I was quite happy making plans for making sure we keep
our distances up.
Instead, we are really down on our mechanical equipment.
We need our luck to change.
Oh, that is amazing!
Thank you so much.
I've rummaged in four sheds, I've been the boat people,
I've been offered every sort of oil but that one.
And then I just saw them...
They gave me a lift back as well!
Thanks to the combined efforts of Molly and Cameron,
one quad at least is back on the road.
I think he's brilliant.
And I'm so glad we've got him, because,
to have these skills when things like this happen...
You can see it there, see.
And he looks like Tom Cruise, so it's a cross between
Tom Cruise and Fred Dibnah.
He'd be a nice son to have, yes.
That's critical, isn't it?
And Molly, I'm going to adopt Molly as well,
because I think she's great as well.
I'd want to see more on the ground by now,
because this has to be right.
Yeah? Absolutely. Because it can't not be done.
Yeah. We can crack on.
Yeah. Thank you.
At Inch Mountain, things are progressing slowly.
Some of Team D have been pulled in to help Paul catch up.
Did you have your night-light on cos you thought it was going
to be a long day? I have it on because the battery's run out,
and people keep reminding me it's on my head. Oh, right.
And now every time somebody reminds me it's on my head, I think,
"I need to get the battery changed". Ah.
Otherwise, I'll forget till this evening.
All right, OK.
This is quite nice, isn't it?
Yes, it's beautiful.
Given that the train finds it hard to stay upright on the flat...
..I've come to see for myself how we plan to overcome
this particular challenge.
Tell me why there would be a gap between those two.
Well, I have no idea why there is a gap in-between those two,
because what I would've done is make that a straight line right up to the
top to the plateau.
The team has left a gap for a turntable.
The building of these is the main reason they're behind.
But counterbalance railways can work perfectly well in gentle curves
like this one.
Push them together, and pretend they were never separate,
and they'll never spot it. Yeah?
Right, Adrian, you ready?
Right, they'll never know. That looks better already, doesn't it?
What about the rest of the track?
That's another turntable.
And...
That's another turntable.
All removed.
Hi, Adrian, how are you doing?
I'm good. Good.
I've just removed four of your turntables that weren't needed.
Right.
Of the nine turntables, Adrian removed all but two.
Your problem is in your surveying and guidance.
Can I have a pencil, please?
It's not worth blame, is it? There's no blame game.
If you thought there was something wrong with it, you should have said,
"Hang on a minute, why are we doing that many?"
We've done an incredible amount of useless work, really.
IMITATES CRYING
The survey team didn't have a decent understanding of what was required
to make this design work.
Can you get it finished into half an hour?
Erm... Yes, Dick. Let's practise, let's practise.
Say, "Yes, Dick," a couple of times. I'm going to ask you a question.
Yes, Dick. Yes, Dick. Yes, Dick.
Do you reckon you can get it finished in half an hour?
No, Dick. Argh!
Good man. That means...
That's a "Yes, Dick".
Done, it's started getting wet.
All the rainwater has just gone in my pants.
At least somebody's having a good day.
I think it looks good. I'm pretty proud of it.
The viaduct is just about ready for our train to cross
in a few days' time.
Fits like a glove. It's mint. Honestly, that's quality, that.
It's got to be the longest model railway viaduct
in the world.
The whole experience of being here, in the living conditions,
similar to what the navvies have had...
I'm getting a feel for it now, how much they suffered.
They would have done it all by hammer, nail, picks and shovels,
and it just really brings it home how hard they worked to achieve
such magnificent railways in this country.
Well done. Well done, bud. Sorry!
Oh, here we go. Round of applause,
water under the bridge for the first time.
Right, tired now, want to go home.
We have actually caught up.
What we've done is we have managed to make up the extra miles,
and when the teams join together this last section,
that means what we wanted to do by this day is done.
Whoops!
However...
I'm sort of saying to myself here,
"What's going to happen with this train?"
There we go.
That's all right.
The train didn't start well. It slowed us down.
We have only got 4.5 miles out of it today.
That sort of rate is going to take us the best part of two weeks
to get to the end.
And we don't have two weeks.
Next time...
..the navvies let off some steam...
It's going to be a hard day of just slogging with a hangover, I think.
..but quickly regret it.
How are you feeling? I think wet would understate it.
Our engineers have to somehow bridge a canyon...
Piece of cake.
This is the bit that's a bit tricky.
Our train is going all by itself into the void.
..and the Silver Lady faces a first special build.
Who's going to get it if it drops?
Have we got a solution, team?
We are not going to get into Inverness.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media