Some 150 years ago,
our Victoria forbearers
built a railway system that was the envy of the world.
TRAIN WHISTLES
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 WHISTLES
VOICEOVER: 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? CROWD CHEERS
Building a railway line
70-plus miles through the great glen of Scotland.
That is our track, boys and girls. CROWD WHOOPS
After eight days...
The amount of times I've walked up and down Cardiac Hill
I would hate to tell you today.
..the railway's grown to 50 miles.
The downhill engine is attached!
And includes innovative engineering...
Look at that, beauteous.
..and spectacular spans...
Ah, just look at that.
..thanks to my army of volunteers and railway modellers.
And amazingly, I've now discovered a new fact,
midges still fly in the rain.
HORN BLARES
VOICEOVER: But the loco Silver Lady is lagging way behind schedule...
This terrain is positively evil.
..and faces a day that will make...
Come on, we can really pump this up the track, Inverness.
..or break... Whoa!
..the volunteers... Right, this is a mess.
..as they attempt to complete...
Why are you not listening? I am.
..the Biggest Little Railway...
Nobody else in the world is doing, or will do, something like this.
Yeah. They'll see this programme and just go, no, it's too mental.
..in the world.
Inverness, Inverness!
HORN TOOTS
So, I've done a recce and the trek seems to be OK.
This whole section's pretty flat.
What's the pressure reading? Uh, 15 I'd say. Yeah.
It's five minutes past midnight
somewhere in the highlands of Scotland.
I'm starting to lose my eyesight, a bit of contact. There's four bits.
Silver Lady has been running for an exhausting 16 hours.
CHEERING AND WHISTLING
Home-straight now. We're nearly there, guys.
And stop there!
CHEERING AND WHISTLING
Cracking effort team, cracking effort, well done.
VOICEOVER: We've had our best day so far, clocking up ten miles.
But the volunteers are shattered
and we remain eight-and-a-half-miles behind schedule.
It's time to take stock in the cold light of a highland morning.
I've got a problem because this is about 20-and-a-half miles
from Fort William but our total is 70-plus.
The steam train is coming off, it's got high centre of gravity.
It's getting an absolute hammering.
The steam train needs to be serviced,
make sure you stop regularly, get the gas and oil in.
Everybody wants to be in Inverness in three-and-a-half days' time.
That's 51 miles away.
To achieve that, the loco needs
to double the daily mileage it's managed so far.
I have to, have to, have to find a way of getting more miles in a day.
See if we can go steam all the way.
Sadly, I think the answer's probably no.
Most of the volunteers are here to see
a steam engine arrive in Inverness.
But, for the good of the whole project,
I think it's time for the age of steam to pass.
Reluctantly, I've decided to replace Silver Lady
with Little John, a battery-powered loco
modelled on a diesel shunting engine.
Is this that? That's it? Reverse.
VOICEOVER: Simon is first at the controls.
There we go.
When you stop quickly it will jump off. Yeah, just learnt that. OK.
I like steam. That what's needed. Yeah, steam's best, obviously.
Little John faces an epic day.
After half-a-mile, he'll cross the 60-metre Aberchalder Viaduct...
..followed by the town of Fort Augustus at the tip of Loch Ness.
Next comes a 25-metre curved trestle bridge, over Inchnacardoch Canyon...
..immediately followed by Inch Mountain...
..which we will scale in our specially-engineered
counter-balanced railway.
From the top, we'll face nine savage miles through the pine forest
ending at the foot of Mount Invermoriston.
A 175-metre ascent
that we'll have to overcome with our winch system.
If we cover all 13 miles, we can still get to Inverness in time.
Fall short, we might as well pack up and go home.
Right.
It's not quite as impressive, I don't think.
Although slower than Silver Lady,
Little John does not need to stop for fuel and oil
so we can be on the move the whole time.
His biggest challenge is endearing himself to the navvies.
Because he's got a lower centre of gravity,
it will take corners better.
So, it's better in that respect,
but it's not as impressive, is it, really?
Yeah, that's flat out. We can probably go twice as fast
as that easily, can't we, with the steam?
And it's slowing down on any slight gradient as well.
We could find steam is maybe quicker.
It should have been steam. It should have been steam, yeah.
We're all a bit disappointed at the moment
we're having to play diesel in.
That's the price of progress.
TV ARCHIVE: British Railway's enormous modernisation scheme
goes full-steam ahead.
Just like Silver Lady,
full-size steam engines require constant maintenance.
In its 1954 modernisation plan,
British Railways took the momentous decision to melt them down
and build diesel and electric locos.
TV ARCHIVE: Easily driven, easily and quickly maintained,
the diesel nowadays has overwhelming advantages
over the steam locomotive.
But, rushed into production, many of the early British diesels
were unreliable and won few admirers.
While the public's fascination and fondness for steam
seems only to have grown.
What are you thinking about the, uh, the new train?
It's a bit different, isn't it?
I'm a bit disappointed. You've got a major feature coming up here
and I thought we might be crossing it with a steam engine.
The feature Andy's referring to is a bridge he helped build.
All the rain water's just gone in my pants.
This viaduct over Aberchalder Weir.
Scaled up, it's nearly one-and-a-half kilometres long.
It's a glorious bridge, we've really worked hard to get that bridge
and then we're going to run a diesel across it.
It's all right for a test train
but it should be a steam engine for this bit.
It doesn't look as good, does it? Not as impressive, no.
It's not as picturesque.
It's a lovely, smooth bit of track, it's how the track should be.
This is the first time I've seen this bridge and it's amazing.
It's incredible, incredible what these guys have built
in the short time they've had.
I want one in my garden!
I was admiring the viaduct, not the bridge.
Ha-ha! Yeah. Here we go.
VOICEOVER: I'm heading to the other side of Fort Augustus,
site of the next engineering solution,
leaving the train team to keep Little John on schedule.
Yeah.
Right. See you in a bit. Right.
So, uh, what's happening now?
Uh, Cameron and Simon are going to walk ahead
and get steam up on the loco.
And, once it's in steam and ready to roll,
we're going to knock this one out of service
and then bring the steam into play.
Which we should have done from the start, this is just stupid
And this is going flat now.
If anyone should know about locos, it's Andy.
All the stations are named after records.
We've got Amarillo over there, Up The Junction there,
Echo Beach,
Rio in the background.
I play trains when I can
but there's more things to life than playing trains.
Some people just get consumed by the hobby
and they just don't have time for anything else.
Andy's not like that at all!
TRAIN WHISTLES
# Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand...
This is a piece of magic.
She's nearly 100 years old and still going perfectly well.
Andy's a fireman on the Severn Valley Heritage Railway.
# And when she shines She really shows you all she can. #
And Monday to Friday, he operates Intercities out of Birmingham.
Can it sometimes be a scary job?
Yeah, we're doing 110mph now
and that's not going to give you a lot of time to stop
if you were to see anything.
ALARM BEEPS
That was a pigeon, ha!
There's not much chance of Little John troubling the wildlife.
BOTH CHUCKLE
Thank you. Nice to meet you. Brilliant.
Ah, here we go.
In fact, if Andy's plan works, Little John's troubles are over.
Check the gauge. Yeah.
The lady's back...
..with a bang.
Whoa! BLEEP!
For Silver Lady to be viable,
the time we spend refuelling and servicing must come down.
Water.
Andy might just be the person to do it.
We very, very quickly realised that we could run the steam engine
far quicker than the battery diesel.
And I'm in absolute awe of these guys,
these are steam engineers
and they're really putting their skills into practice now.
I started engine cleaning when I was 14
and then at 21 I got made up to full fireman
and then at 27 I was asked if I'd like to go on the driving course.
The years of experience you go through,
knowing what sound the engine makes, even listening to this one,
there's variance of sounds coming out of the chimney
and from that you can say, oh, it's running out of oil now.
Cam! Just off, put ten in, please.
Just years of experience
and all steam locomotives are generally the same,
it's just, on this, the scale just comes down.
But the principles are the same
and we're treating it like a mainline loco.
We've got Cameron who's the fireman.
We've got Simon who's the driver.
I'm acting as traction inspector guiding everybody
and just saying, do this and do that.
Slow, slow, slow. Regulator off.
Guys, I've got a bit of news for you.
What's that? You've done two miles in one hour.
THEY LAUGH
Now you're talking!
If we maintain this pace, we have a chance of reaching Inverness.
Far ahead of us, the track teams are doing all they can
to make the dream reality.
They're 20 miles from the city.
Can I join onto this one?
The end's in sight.
The end's in sight? I don't even know what day we're on.
I'm lost what day it is.
And we've just got to keep on going till we hit the end.
RUMBLING TRAFFIC
Didn't realise the lorries were going to be quite so big and noisy.
As they approach it, I'm more concerned about them staying safe.
Let's start fishplating, let's start moving, everybody.
Our section of track today is all being laid on road.
It's an extremely busy road as you can see from
this whopping great big bus that's just darted straight past behind me.
Be aware, white car entering, going uphill.
Did you turn it off then?
WALKIE-TALKIE BEEPS
Be aware, white car in section going uphill, over.
These screws are rubbish.
It's horrible up there, then you get past the field
and it turns into this mad Lord of the Rings, Middle Earth forest.
It's just savage in there. There's midges, like, it's horrible.
I'm looking forward to finishing early,
going off to Nessieland and getting myself an ice cream.
Sooner we're done, sooner we can go to Nessieland.
Woo!
TRAFFIC ROARS
It's just after 11am.
We've reached Fort Augustus.
Really ecstatic, I think, is the word,
if that's even a word. Yeah, it is.
Silver Lady had drawn quite a crowd.
Hello! Hello!
I was the one who wanted to ditch steam power.
Oh, he's wonderful! Where's it come from? Fort William?
Brilliant.
But it appears I was wrong.
What we're doing, is we're making the best speed possible
and the steam is faster than the little electric locomotive.
And it looks good, ha!
And everybody loves it.
BAGPIPES PLAY
Four miles down, only ten to go.
It's quite an odd experience all round.
But like a good weird, like a British weird, so it's sort of fine.
BAGPIPES DRONE
You flew along today.
Without a shadow of a doubt, that's the best time
we've seen made at all, so congratulations for that.
Now what I need, no pressure, Andy, but from here on in,
I think we've got the next ten miles before you see traffic again.
Ten miles. Lovely. We can get that done.
Most of those ten miles involve going up or down.
But first we have to go across...
..this.
The curving trestle bridge built to span an impassable rocky stream.
Careful guys, this...they're pretty slippy.
It might look elegant now,
but it was far from straightforward to build.
You should have put the chainsaw in the suitcase.
The bridge is 24 metres long. Scaled up, it would be twice the length
of the longest curve trestle bridge ever built,
the Goat Canyon Trestle in California.
The railway helped link San Diego to El Centro.
Regarded as an extravagant folly,
it was nicknamed The Impossible Railway
because of the deep canyons and gorges along the route.
Sound familiar?
I really, really hope
it comes round and just all the way round, nice and smooth.
Really, really nervous right now.
Probably more nervous than my steam driving exam.
The whole world's watching this.
Not just the traction inspector.
Not just the traction inspector with a pen.
Ready?
Woo! Woo! Hey hey!
Doesn't that look fantastic?
Good man.
Cracking job, amazing.
Stick with it, stick with it, stick with it till it gets to the end.
DICK WHISTLES
Well done, that's dry land! Well done.
Phew.
It didn't fall off, which was quite surprising.
What do you...?
I am absolutely chuffed to bits right now.
That looked absolutely brilliant.
I really like this build. I like the way that the section of timber we
used is relatively small and yet, together, it gave a huge amount of
strength and you end up with this very elegant structure
snaking through the river.
CHRIS: Superb.
We've got a good team of lads running this loco today,
they're both experienced engine drivers.
It's really paying off. We need this now to get to Inverness,
this is what's going to count.
With two of the day's big engineering builds out of our way,
Claire's gone ahead to scout the final build site.
Presumably the line's coming down this bit here?
Yeah, coming down the right-hand side of the path.
I'll be the train, and then this has been flagged up as the problem area.
They're not wrong, are they?
It's five metres from the path at the bottom
to the canal tow path at the top,
so a very special piece of engineering will be required
to get around this problem.
So you've got a curve on an incline,
in a very short space, with not much round us.
That's not an incline, that's a vertical drop almost, isn't it?
It's a bit steep, isn't it?
Joe calls in the rest of the guys to work out a plan.
Real-life solution or model railway solution?
Possibly use, erm, some kind of spiral helix, something like that.
Well, they actually use that in real life as well, don't they?
Ffestiniog... Yeah, yeah. Ffestiniog has a loop. ..has a loop.
Running through the heart of Snowdonia in Wales,
the Ffestiniog railway was built in 1833 to carry slate to the coastal
town of Porthmadog.
Now a heritage railway run for tourists,
it boasts Britain's only spiral formation.
Its one loop rising 35 metres.
However, in the world of model railways, the sky's the limit.
I guess we need to find out how tightly we can wind that train.
What you could achieve on a straight gradient,
you can't do that on a curve.
So if it's 12% on straight,
you'd have to drop it to about eight or nine? You need to drop it, yeah.
You ready?
The guys are intending to lay track to the bottom of the stairs.
The helix loops will start here, spiralling five metres into the air,
that's 90 metres in scale terms,
where a bridge will link it to the canal tow path.
To me. Right.
Did you get some packing under it then and start raising the track?
Building a helix is fiendishly complicated,
Silver Lady makes it doubly so.
If the radius of the loops is too tight,
her fixed wheels will derail her.
I love a production line.
This is the big difference between working at home in
the shed, where you have to do everything yourself,
and actually being a part of a team.
With the loop radius set as tight as they dare,
efforts turn to building the supports.
Each is made by sandwiching two pieces of plywood together
and sliding it over battens in the ground.
Each support is raised a little from its neighbour,
like a spiral staircase.
It does look like it. If we...
Just need one guy with a figure in his head.
But the uneven ground presents them with a problem.
Just to build, like, a kitchen unit, you'd build it on the floor,
wouldn't you? And then you'd start plumbing off the floor to
get it level. But, unfortunately, with this having contours all over
the place, we've got to work from a different approach.
That's all right.
That approach appears to be trial and error.
This is the most critical bit of the build. Get this bit right for the
first turn and everything else will just fall into place above, so we
need to spend a lot of time just doing this one
and then it'll just rattle up.
OFF-SCREEN: Are you hoping to get this finished today?
Yeah, definitely. It has to be.
Yeah, yeah, no, this will be done by today,
and then we can go and help everyone else.
Drill that way and then come back.
With such a complex structure and a top-heavy loco
that doesn't like going around bends, there's a lot to get right.
Talking of which...
..Silver Lady has arrived at the bottom of Inch Mountain.
The gas gone? OK, right, let's let this have a few minutes.
Gas, please.
For her, the 100m hill will be like climbing Mount Snowdon...
..twice.
I want you to attach that to the front of the engine.
Yep. You go all the way up there.
Yep. Around the pulley...
Yep. ..on your...on the turntable.
Yep. And the next engine will go at the top,
you connect to that. Yep.
And you steam the one up and the other one down.
Sounds like fun. Sounds like fun without the work.
Right, so let's do it. OK.
I hope it'll work.
The plan is for a sister loco to be connected
via a pulley and a piece of string to Silver Lady.
As the sister loco starts to descend,
she'll help Silver Lady ascend.
It's a system used in mountain railways all over the world.
Every problem we have,
through the 150 years of the railway being out there,
they've had the same problems. Slate quarries, where you've got a full,
sort of, train coming down pulling an empty one up,
everything has got its place because we're not facing new problems,
we're just facing little problems that seem huge.
The downhill engine is attached!
They're coming in to steam. Ready?
Tickety boo.
Dead slow! Dead slow!
Look at that, beauteous.
We're coming up,
we're past the point we were, we're moving.
Made it to the top, well done! Magic.
I'm very surprised at this, to be honest.
I thought it would literally just be everything on its side.
OFF-SCREEN: Happy, H?
Yeah, very happy, yeah, yeah.
That's quite rewarding, actually.
That's pretty impressive, isn't it?
Proper jobber. Proper jobber.
Three down, one to go.
DICK: Good luck, chaps. Keep smiling.
But before we get there,
we have to cover mile upon mile of this.
Get used to that view, it looks all the same for ever.
We're done before lunch. Done by lunch.
Team C have completed their section,
but Nessie Land is off the agenda.
Beautiful. Thank you, everyone,
for what has probably been our most spectacularly quick and effective
day yet and for doing that in amazing time.
And, of course, having done that,
they would like a few of us to join Team D.
Um, but they've just seen my ankles and, uh, I need to see a medic.
That's because Team D's leader, Jenny,
has succumbed to a swollen ankle,
and the rest of her team is in the middle of the forest
above Loch Ness,
some of the toughest terrain on the entire route.
Hi, Paul. If you need tools let me know.
Mark has assumed the role of overall leader.
For this kind of task we've got a lot of moving pieces, you know,
I really don't want to be getting all the tools,
that's why I'm kind of deliberately holding a radio, uh,
and not picking up a screwdriver.
I'll tell Pip and Mags they're going to be working back on this section.
OK, thank you. OK, brilliant, thank you very much.
A role he seems to relish.
And for the avoidance of doubt, I'm in charge of this group,
of this whole thing. Yep.
So you're my deputy for the purposes of this afternoon. Right.
You can control your, your guy, you've got a...
You've still got that responsibility but for, for, for the,
my accountability is all of this, so you've gotta deliver that.
So, uh, yes, all of this and I'm project manager
for this bit effectively. Yep. OK.
So in terms of command of control, I am accountable for this whole bit,
OK, so, Paul is essentially my deputy now and he will be
responsible for this bit going back to where our rail is.
So, you're still kind of working for Paul, kind of, sort of.
We have a supreme commander this afternoon.
Paul's been demoted. Oh. It's interesting when you come to help,
you become, like, sublevel.
Indeed. You think you should come in at, like,
consultant level, experts paid more, but no, you come in at the bottom
and... Come in as track runts basically. Yeah.
Come and grunt along and get stuff done and get shouted at.
Oh, it's pre-fishplated and you've got full length fishplates, too,
you lucky people.
Yeah, I like to think of it as a melange,
so were like team... Ooh. Good word choice.
Yeah, we're Team CD this afternoon.
No, we're not Team Seedy.
CD as in a CD you play, not seedy...
Oh, as in seedy kind of people.
No, no.
And this isn't a road so I can do that, swing all the way round
and won't get flattened by an articulated lorry.
Thanks to the track team's determination,
over 50 miles of railway has been laid.
Team A are laying through the village Drumnadrochit...
Let me open the door for you, chaps.
..right past a garage full of vintage cars.
Oh, my God, wow! That is amazing.
HE LAUGHS
1954 Alvis Grey Lady.
Bugsy Malone.
Buick.
Model-T brass metals.
Ohhh. Wow!
SHE LAUGHS
For once, Lawrence is speechless.
That is gorgeous.
Cosworth rally car.
Oh!
Love the bucket seats,
full harnesses as well.
How excited is Simon, Colin?
Ah, he's very excited, yeah.
There you go. Yeah, there you go.
Ohhh. There you go.
So you know we're talking about nerds, right?
I'm like, in car heaven right now.
Simon's a car nerd. Yeah.
Do you understand these guys' sort of obsession with trains and
model railways and...?
Um, yes. But of course it's not an obsession,
it's just a enthusiastic hobby.
This is called the 1902 Oldsmobile.
I wouldn't have known that, that's beautiful.
And now you've gotta turn round and see this, look at this.
Now that is old.
The family that bought this, their mode of transport al,
almost certainly would have been the horse and cart before this,
and you can imagine what a difference it made to their life.
So cool. Oh, my God.
GEARS CHURNING
I love it, I so love it.
I mean, I don't like cars, but that's pretty cool.
Hop up. You're joking? No, no, we're...
I'm not going to let you drive,
but I'm going to take you for a ride. No, no, right.
LAUGHTER You're going to take me for a ride?
You're kidding.
It might not look like much.
It's like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, isn't it?
But this Oldsmobile marks one of the most important milestones
in transport history.
It sounded almost like a small tank engine.
Yeah, like a train. Yeah.
More like a threat to the train.
Nice smell of them.
The model R Curve Dash
was the first car to be made on an assembly line.
It came to Britain in 1902
while the line to Fort Augustus was still being built.
1902 - it is a fully qualified vintage vehicle.
It's not a vintage, it's a veteran.
Oh, it's a veteran. It's a veteran, yep.
ALL: Oooh...
There is, there is a difference.
I'm sorry to pull you up on that.
You pull me mate, you pull me.
But actually it's a veteran, yes.
Get out the way of the veteran car.
As road transport increased through the 20th century,
all of Britain's railways, not just this one, felt the pinch.
RECORDING: Yes, it looks as if it ought to be profitable, doesn't it?
By 1961, BR was losing £300,000 a day.
That's six million in today's money.
Enter a certain Dr Richard Beeching.
The railways, for many years now, have been losing traffic
to the private car, to the bus and to the lorry.
STEAM ENGINE BLARES
After starting the rail network,
he discovered that one third of it carried just 1% of passengers.
As a result of all this - the Railways Board proposes that
many services should be withdrawn
and many hundreds of stations and depots be closed.
He recommended that 6,000 miles of mainly rural branch lines
be closed, as well as over 2,000 stations.
Partly because he assumed that car owners would drive to the nearest
main station and continue their journey by train.
History proved otherwise.
Bit stinky here.
The fumes, being by the road.
We're used to being in the woods and, and being out with nature and
enjoying the birds and the bees and it's like,
"Oh actually, this is actually a bit disgusting along here."
Oh, my God.
If the Victorians made it through with their train,
you'd see fewer coaches, you'd have, you'd have people in nice, um,
luxury carriages going by every half an hour in big groups.
Ah, bum.
I thought I'd bring you some motivation, lads.
Colonel Dick has come to keep an eye on the situation.
See, he's not looking very happy.
Actually, I'm impressed with what I'm seeing.
Cut that off so that's out the way, so you got a clean exit point, yeah?
Yep.
The teams' worked really hard,
we've still got to put the track through the helix, but currently
we're considering how we manage the incline out of the helix
up to the canal tow path, looking at reusing the truss bridge.
Now that is resourceful.
With time running short, Joe is suggesting that
the truss bridge they built across the Lagan Locks
become an exit ramp, linking the top of the helix to the canal path.
INDISTINCT SPEAKING
Oh, it's fine. It's close enough, innit?
Right, get a screw in there now.
It'll come together in the last minute,
probably.
Everything is now moving at a terrific pace...
You've got a puddle here. Oh, right.
..even Silver Lady.
By 3pm, she's covered eight miles.
Now it's changeover time for the crews.
Have you got a system going? Yeah.
If you time it, and you can run it for 45 minutes,
then do an oil. OK.
OK? And the same with the water -
you just put a bit in each time.
Can we get going? Yeah, yeah. Let's get going now.
But with the clock against us,
some of the new train team are in no mood to hang around.
Come on, let's go.
No more meetings, right, see you later guys, thanks a lot.
Were you given any advice from the previous team?
Yeah, they were trying to, trying to just give us the benefit
of their experience, so yeah.
What was their advice? I'm not that sure like, mate,
I was just concentrating on getting on with the job.
And was there nothing about water changes?
You know, are you telling me there was something about water changes?
Concentrate, guys.
I'm concerned about the next crew taking it on.
Martin is a wonderful guy, but sometimes his ego is like "Yeah,
"I know what I'm doing", and it's like, yeah, I don't think you do.
But that's not being nasty.
I mean, I've, I've spent 21 years on the footplate.
Andy's learnt his skills because in the face of modernisation and
Beeching cuts, a dedicated group of people protected
Britain's steam heritage.
What started as the heritage railway movement,
has become a big part of Britain's tourist industry.
Partly because you can double the price of a train ticket
if you put a steam engine at the front.
When you step onto the footplate, the driver is the boss.
A FRIENDLY HORN HONKS
He's the boss because he's done the years of service from being a lad
and going through all the different stages.
And it's the years of experience that will give you your knowledge.
"That's a good sound, that's a bad sound,"
and when you take an engine out mainline and it's something like
Tornado, Flying Scotsman - if it needs water you put water into it,
if it needs coal you put coal in it.
That's your pride and joy and you've got to look after it,
and I don't think they're going to look after that as like,
the way we have today.
Whoa!
I had it so slick earlier.
I mean, they've gone from here to what, 200 yards and they've...
Not even, 100 yards and they've stopped
because something's gone wrong.
Gently, gently!
Oh! Oi!
It's come off the track again.
Right, this is a mess.
It's a potential bomb.
The water goes out of it and the heat starts to undo the,
the silver solder - it's a pressure vessel, it's going to go bang.
I feel a bit frustrated now actually cos I wanted to walk with them
and I've just been told to clear off.
So, I'm just really concerned.
Mind there's a gap there, slow down, slow down.
Oh, no! Slow down.
I think the official term for that is a ford.
We're two hours 20 in,
and we've done 2.3 miles.
Um, it's not what the team back at camp want us to do,
but we're... Given the terrain that we've just been over,
I'm pretty chuffed with how we're doing.
Chuffed, ha. That's quite good, isn't it?
Yeah, we're doing all right,
but we keep forgetting to look at the view.
Silver Lady is beginning the hilly 20 miles
that follow the north shore of Loch Ness.
Oil, water, let's go. OK.
So, you do the gas, guy in front does the oil.
I'm suggesting get Dakota driving.
Dakota, can you drive?
Of course I can. Yeah? Great. It would be a pleasure.
Mark has decided a change of driver might help them catch up.
What do you normally drive?
Normally, I have my OO locomotives,
which have none of this mechanical engineering at all.
So, what experience have you got from operating live steam?
Just, uh, up and down really, on a seven three quarter gauge.
My friends built a Flying Scotsman locomotive.
I've had no experience of live steam, um, only until...
I've actually had experience of driving what we've got here.
The Lady. The Lady.
She has actually, touch wood... Oh.
Always touch wood.
..not fallen off this bit of track.
Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly!
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I've got it, now.
She's doing all right.
The La... Oh.
Every time we say she's doing OK, she takes a fall.
Just don't say it. OK.
The hare and the tortoise, remember that.
It's coming so fast. This is the fast train to Inverness!
All right, we've got to... Whoa! Watch it.
What's the old adage? "More haste, less speed"?
Whoa! Come on, Dakota, please.
You've gotta focus, my boy.
It's not cool that these guys are having to say so much,
"Slow down, take it easy, dude."
Yeah, I know. Is it? No. So, why are you not listening?
I am listening. You're not, because they keep having to say it.
If you were listening, it wouldn't keep happening, dude. OK.
We're going to have, going to have to take you off this.
We're going to give you next stop because... Yeah.
..we're not getting the progress we want. OK, all right.
With Florence at the controls,
Silver Lady resumes a more constant speed.
I could do this all day.
We're still 42 miles from Inverness.
The team look like they're going to have another long night.
We're about one mile an hour-ish.
Not making the mileage that we want to, but, uh...
And of course, it's using a lot of fuel going up the hills, as well.
Hello! Oh, hello, Claire. Hi, Claire.
You've moved on a pace, look at that!
Claire's come to check in with the special build team,
just outside Inverness.
Oh, that's incredible. Is it strong enough?
Chris was standing on it when he was screwing the rest of it in.
All right. And how's that track going in?
It's a little bit of a faff, but going in it does.
Looks good. He's the man. He is, he is. Yeah.
It works well, doesn't it, you lot? Yeah.
I hope people find it inspirational, and go away and make their own.
We've staggered the joints, as well.
We don't want our flanges jumping.
Don't want jumping flanges, mate. No. No, nobody likes that.
Uh, so, we need to do some stiffening.
Um, now that we've got this up,
that's probably a two-man job, isn't it?
Above your head there. Oh, here. Right, OK.
That's right, and now it's there. There we are. All right.
The amount of effort the guys have put in, absolutely brilliant.
They've been sharing their ideas,
cos we've done very little track.
Never mind, uh, ford helixes of 30...almost 30 metres.
It's not looking too shabby.
I mean, it's not going to win any precision engineering awards,
but then again, it was made outside in the rain in Scotland
out of no-mil ply and battening.
So...
it's not bad for that, is it?
But I'm worried that we might not get to use the helix at all.
Everything depends on the loco making up the miles.
And I can no longer hide the fact
that this crazy project is at the point of unravelling.
Our plan for the end of day nine was to get here.
And the blue is where the track is.
It's still hard miles to get into Inverness,
but the train has to catch us up, OK?
We are right at the edge of whether or not we will get to Inverness.
I'm not lying with you.
And we're trying to find every way possible to do that.
Consequently, we're going to be up early in the morning.
We're going to do the early morning,
the late night, and then through the night.
You have to just know, we're at the stage now
where it's make-or-break, really.
The tracks are not quite engaged.
What's the most important thing?
Getting that train to Inverness.
Otherwise, the whole project hasn't been worth it, at all.
Right, come on. Twigs on the line.
Possibly go around there. Let's go. Where's the brush?
We're all a team. You know, the last thing you want to be
remembered for is not completing the challenge that was set.
The challenge facing the train team tonight,
is to climb Mount Invermoriston.
At a torturous 175 metres,
it's the equivalent of the Jungfraujoch station in Switzerland,
the highest in the world.
EVERYONE SAYS GOODBYE TO EACH OTHER
And the midges are out, as well.
Right, come on then, guys. Let's go.
It's just getting it on the gauge.
Pressure.
Is she a bit temperamental, The Silver Lady?
Oh, yes.
She's very temperamental.
I mean, after the amount of pressure we've put on her, wouldn't you be?
I'm surprised she's not sulking constantly.
But sure enough, Mount Invermoriston soon gets the better of her.
Fortunately, the team who had laid this section,
left behind a secret weapon.
There you go, look at that.
It's a quality product.
Winches, or cable railways,
have been used to haul wagons up steep inclines for about 200 years.
They work by connecting the wagons or carriages to a winding drum,
which is turned by a stationary engine.
Steam locos are not usually moved this way,
but with a 25-degree gradient to climb, we've no alternative.
Unfortunately, this string is black,
so, please, no-one trip over the string.
A piece of string is tied to the winch wheel.
The other end is tied to the loco.
Guys, I really need it to be slack for the moment, please.
Yeah, let him tie it on first, Mark.
It'll just be like a gentle turn.
And it'll just be just enough,
to take the tension from this and give it that extra little help.
One, two, three.
We'll have to take it really slowly.
Is it working?
Yeah, we're going, we're going, we're going. Whoa!
She really wants to get up this hill.
Hey, she's not the only one.
This is working, this is working.
It's slowly coming up, yeah.
TEAM CHATS AND LAUGHS
The great thing is
nobody else in the world is doing or will do something like this.
Yeah, they'll see this programme and just go,
"Nah, it's too mental."
Right, brilliant. Well done, guys.
Let's get the next stage sorted.
Because the hill is so long,
and the winch can only hold so much string,
the team are tackling it in stages.
This is a steep hill just to walk, isn't it?
It is a steep hill just to walk.
That's it guys, come on.
That's it, keep going, keep going.
The need to crunch the miles to Inverness
is taking a toll on Dakota.
The time now is midnight.
It'll take another hour and a half, at least.
So, we'll be looking at two o'clock in the morning.
Two o'clock this morning will be 12 hours.
Two to two. Ten... Ten hours. Ten hours?
12... 12 hours?
That's too much.
We're all flagging, to be honest with you,
cos it's mentally demanding, as well as physically.
Is this what you envisioned when you signed up to this project?
Absolutely. Getting down on your hands and knees,
and getting your hands dirty at one o'clock in the morning.
On hands and knees with aching backs,
the team finally make it to their checkpoint -
the official halfway point of the line.
ALL: Woo!
Yay! Go, team!
This is not for the faint-hearted.
This is not for people who give up.
This is for people who want to achieve this,
and it is something amazing and special.
And, yeah, I don't mind the extra effort, the pain -
cos it's all going to be worth it.
What a day.
It's hard enough to walk up,
let alone trying to get an engine up it.
It doesn't rain...
Fabulous.
..it pours.
Couldn't be better.
And as Inverness gets tantalisingly close...
I have no idea where we are.
..The Biggest Little Railway...
Oh, oh, oh. Easy, easy, easy.
..faces its biggest challenge yet.
It's tense.
Oh, BLEEP.
That's not good, is it?
Sorry, Dick.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media