(narrator) Beneath soaring mountains and through deep glens, over towering viaducts, across historic bridges, and along shimmering shorelines, Britain's railways travel the landscape like no other.

For the teams protecting the network... (James Morrison) We've got a breathtaking landscape and the trains out our shore window.

There's nowhere I'd rather be working.

This is stunning.

(narrator) ...for the volunteers preserving our steam heritage... (woman) It's a unique thing.

You know, it's not just, you know, press a button and it goes.

(narrator) ..and for the engineers safeguarding the track... (man) My patch of railway probably has the best views in Britain.

Rain, hail, or shine, you're gonna get a cracking view of something, somewhere.

(narrator) ...the dramatic landscape and spectacular views are part of the joy of working on Britain's scenic railways.

(man) Absolutely beautiful.

Probably the world's most beautiful railway.

This is gorgeous.

That view is outstanding.

(train chuffing) (uplifting music) ♪ (train whistle blowing) ♪ (train chuffing) (train whistle blowing) (spirited music) (narrator) Britain is home to over a hundred heritage railways that celebrate a bygone era of steam.

(train whistle blowing) The chance to ride on a steam train, to experience the sights, the sounds, and the smells is something that still resonates deep within us.

♪ In the heart of the Lake District, the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway evokes a golden age of Victorian travel.

♪ For 150 years, passengers were transported by steam trains through majestic scenery to enjoy a steamboat cruise around Lake Windermere.

♪ Mike Maher has devoted his working life to preserving steam travel along this 3.5-mile stretch of track.

(Mike Maher) Yeah, this is nice.

I get my 14,000 to 15,000 steps in a day courtesy of just generally doing what I do at the railway, wandering about and doing.

(narrator) Mike spent his childhood playing on steam trains, but it only became part of the family tradition when his father, Austin, and his Uncle Charles took a ride on a local steam service.

(Mike Maher) My old fella and Charles were very keen city men.

So he had a footplate ride up here and filmed it in its entirety.

♪ (narrator) That footplate ride from Blackpool to Lakeside in the late summer of 1965 changed the course of the Maher family's lives.

By the time 3.5 miles of the old line was reopened in 1973, Austin Maher was the new owner and chairman of the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway.

The new family business meant that Mike grew up around the railway, and in time, he started to play a role in the day-to-day running as the railway became a star attraction for visitors to the Lake District.

(Mike Maher) We're very lucky.

It was operated by lots of volunteers, drivers, firemen, guards.

I honestly don't know how we did it in those days because it certainly seems to take a lot more staff now to do what we do than it did then, but we're doing the same job.

(narrator) Just 3.5 miles long, Mike's family railway isn't one of the UK's longest heritage lines, but it is one of the busiest, carrying up to 250,000 passengers a year.

And operating 12 services a day requires a steady supply of volunteer train crews, so Mike is hoping to add a new driver to the roster.

(Tom Rotherham) There's a lot of pride involved in doing the job amongst the lads and making sure they clean.

It reflects on you if the engine is dirty and a mess and what have you.

It's because you haven't cleaned it.

You've not looked after it and everything.

(narrator) Tom Rotherham has been a steam train volunteer and fireman for over 20 years.

But, now, he's hoping to be passed out as a qualified driver.

(Tom Rotherham) It's not a five-minute job.

Everybody wants to be the engine driver, but you can't start at the top.

You've got to start at the bottom and work your way up as you go, I think, and learn to respect the engine and respect your other crew members and everything, and pick their brains and learn their knowledge off them.

'Bout to do a week of driver training and hopefully do my exam on Wednesday and get passed out.

But we'll see, fingers crossed.

(narrator) Tom has got an old friend helping him prepare for his driver assessment.

-Really sorry.

-Mike Gale lives in Aviemore where he's a volunteer driver on the Strathspey Railway.

(Mike Gale) I like playing with big toys, and you don't get much bigger than a steam engine, do ya?

It's like a moving, living beast.

You can see the steam, and it's like a fire-breathing dragon.

(whooshing) (uplifting music) (narrator) The Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway holds a special place in Mike's heart, so he returns every summer to help out as a driver.

(Mike Gale) I love this railway.

It's an absolutely beautiful line.

It is unique to be run just by a family.

I think that's one of the reasons why I like helping out because it's a family-run business.

You know, they need a hand, and they've been mates for a very long time now, so that's, you know, that's part of the draw as well.

(violin music) (narrator) Tom is driving locomotive number 2996 called Victor, a workhorse of the Welsh steel industry in the 1950s.

The track runs along parts of the old Furness branch line which for almost a hundred years transported coal to power the Windermere steamers.

Today, Victor's cargo is tourists who flock to this pretty corner of the Lake District to enjoy a stately train ride and a genteel cruise around Lake Windermere.

(melancholy music) Crossing clear on my side.

(Mike Gale) Crossing is clear this side, Tom, lovely.

(train whistle blowing) (narrator) Tom's driving ambitions started when he took a break away from the railway.

(Tom Rotherham) I came about volunteering about five, six years ago, maybe seven.

I enjoy doing it and get a buzz out of it, a thrill.

It's the craft, we like people like Michael and the friends you've made over the years.

It's been an ambition since I first started the railway to progress to a driver.

I think that's a progression.

"Oh, look at me, driving my big engine."

(laughing) (train chuffing) ♪ (Mike Gale) A bonny view, that.

-It's nice, isn't it?

-Yeah.

(narrator) Tom will be able to relax and enjoy the views once he's passed his driver assessment.

♪ (soft music) The spectacular landscape of Scotland's railway provides a safe haven for an array of wildlife tucked away in all corners of the country.

But managing where ecology meets the railway is a constant challenge.

(whooshing) Recently, engineer Tom Podger and ecologist James Morrison responded to a flooded culvert after beavers built a dam deep inside.

(James Morrison) So, there's a beaver dam that's in about a meter from the entrance of this culvert, and it's approximately three to four meters thick.

Beavers are nature's engineers.

They're fantastic at what they do.

Their dams are very successful.

You just have to look at the amount of water we have here.

♪ (narrator) Passenger safety trumps beaver engineering, so the dam was cleared and access to the culvert was closed off to the beavers.

♪ Today, Tom and James are back in Perthshire, but it's not beavers that are causing concern this time.

(Tom Podger) Yeah, you can see certainly where they've been digging.

These are our badger setts, how deep are these?

(James Morrison) I mean, they can extend about 20 meters either side of where you see an entrance like this.

(Tom Podger) These ones closer to the track... (James Morrison) Closer to the track appear to be less uniform which would suggest there's possibly some collapse going on.

♪ (whooshing) (narrator) There are already signs that the network of badger tunnels is undermining the track along this busy section of the Highland Main Line.

(Tom Podger) So when we get these voids or sinkholes in the track, we'll lose the ballast, and the ballast is a really important element because that's what holds the sleepers and the rail in place.

(melancholy music) (narrator) Badgers live in setts of between four and six adults.

They can burrow over a hundred meters, weakening the railway embankment.

(Tom Podger) Um, a lot of activity by the looks of it.

(James Morrison) There's 24 holes in this small area.

It's a difficult one, this.

We have lots of badger setts on the railway.

We don't often run into these kind of problems.

We can normally live side by side with them, but they just appear to have found a weak spot on this embankment a little bit close to the track.

(whooshing) ♪ (narrator) The badger is now a protected species, so James has to carefully consider the best way to move the badgers on.

Fortunately, about 50 meters in either direction of this sett, there are annex setts that are used by the same clan of badgers that live here.

Um, that's the obvious place to try and displace 'em to.

(narrator) But it's breeding season, and recent footage reveals this is now a family home.

So the badgers will be safely moved to their new setts later in the year.

♪ (majestic music) ♪ The geology that shaped Britain's railways challenged Victorian engineers to bore through mountains, span rivers, cross valleys, and ford estuaries.

The pinnacle of their achievements in the 19th century remains both an icon and an essential part of Scotland's transport infrastructure: the Forth Bridge.

♪ (Jon) Smashing.

(soft music) (narrator) Stretching over a mile and a half across the Firth of Forth, this spectacular bridge created an unbroken East Coast railway route from London to Aberdeen.

(Jon) I've been working more or less constantly on this bridge for about the past 21 years, and I never take it for granted.

(narrator) Today, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is an emblem of Scotland and careful measures are taken to preserve its every detail.

(Jon) We're going out to have a look at the lighthouse built in the late 1800s.

It belongs to Network Rail.

So, having surveyed it, there's been some outline plans to do renovations.

(narrator) The tiny island of Inchgarvie lies beneath one of the bridge's cantilevers.

Its history includes times when it was used as a fort, a prison, a First World War gun emplacement, and in 1886, a lighthouse was built on the island.

♪ (Jon) What we're actually looking for is to see the condition that this structure is in and what we might need to do to bring it back to its former state when it was originally built.

The main tube of the structure is in very good condition considering its age.

But the walkway around it, it's full of holes.

It wouldn't support a person's weight.

Its past is something that's really iconic, and if it was refurbished to its original standard, fantastic.

(narrator) Inchgarvie Island has another important historic significance.

(Jon) The structure the lighthouse actually stands on was the original-- beginnings of the original Forth Railway Bridge.

It goes as far as that, and the designer, Thomas Bouch, had built the Tay Railway Bridge a few years previously.

And when the Tay Railway Bridge collapsed in the disaster, they stopped work on this.

(narrator) During a violent storm in the winter of 1879, the Tay Bridge collapsed as a train passed over it, killing all 75 passengers on board.

After the disaster, the job of designing the Forth Bridge was taken away from Thomas Bouch and given to John Fowler and Benjamin Baker, the engineers behind the London Underground.

A 131-year-old bridge requires regular maintenance, so Jon will report back after his inspection of the Inchgarvie Lighthouse as part of the ongoing preservation effort.

(Jon) The maintenance of this bridge is principally to keep it safe for trains traveling over, passengers, and people passing by underneath the bridge in case bits of debris are falling off it and what have you.

But even if this bridge wasn't used as a railway, it's world-renowned.

It needs to be looked after.

(energetic music) ♪ It's always nice to look at the bridge from the water, and on a day like this, it's an absolute pleasure.

It really is.

♪ (uplifting music) ♪ (narrator) From busy cities to rural communities... 24,000 trains cross Britain every day.

♪ They travel some 10,000 miles, but the rail network is continually growing as new track is laid and old sections of the line are brought back to life.

♪ (guitar music) ♪ On the northern edge of Dartmoor in Devon lies sleepy Okehampton Station.

Stepping onto the platform is like traveling back in time.

♪ (Tom Baxter) There we go, put the pretty bit on the outside.

There we go.

Well, we're just deploying the barrows to make it look as if they're waiting for the next train.

It's sort of setting the scene really as if it was the 1950s, which is the image we're trying to recreate.

♪ (narrator) Little has changed here since the last main line service left the station 50 years ago, from the vintage ticket booth to the hand-painted signs.

♪ (Sue) I think that will be nice, but then people can see it, can't they, 'cause it is a proper post office barrow and then that's a proper post office sack, I think, isn't it?

There's a mouse just come out of the bag.

(Tom Baxter) I think he might have been living in the post office sack.

(upbeat music) (narrator) It's a far cry from the days when Okehampton Station was at the heart of the English Riviera Railway.

At the peak of services through Okehampton in the 1950s, there were 12 trains a day in each direction and even more on summer Saturdays.

Tom and Sue Baxter grew up locally, and their contribution to the preservation effort here at Okehampton was recognized recently.

Their dog, Rosie, has become an almost permanent fixture.

(Sue) It's just a station with a very nice ambience of its own.

After all, it's 150 years old now, so we're just a short moment in time the custodians just making sure it's there for the future.

(narrator) And it's all change at Okehampton Station.

Work has begun on reopening the line for passenger services to Exeter under a government-funded Restoring Your Railway scheme.

Still ten rails short.

(Becky) When is it coming?

Do you know?

(honking) (narrator) But engineering a new track is a complicated process.

(Becky) We can't just plunk a train down.

We do have to relay huge sections of brand-new track to be able to take the capacity.

(hissing) Just here, we're actually doing some welding with some track.

We've got signaling works.

There's telecoms masts that are being installed, station's works, structures strengthening, the replacement of bridges, timbers, things like that.

There's all different entities that go into this big project.

(narrator) The new Dartmoor Line will run from Okehampton at the northern tip of Dartmoor National Park via Crediton to Exeter, where it will connect with main line routes on to the rest of the UK.

Things have certainly changed since this track was last laid by hundreds of railway workers in 1871.

(whirring) 24,000 concrete sleepers have been ferried in by rail.

♪ Precision machinery has laid and spaced them in position.

Eleven miles of steel track have been clamped into place.

And 29,000 tons of ballast has been poured to secure the track.

(Becky) We've installed 11 miles of track within four weeks.

We believe it's one of the fastest on record within Network Rail.

There's a huge amount of planning, huge amount of logistics before they can actually lay the track.

So, it's really satisfying.

(hissing) (narrator) The Dartmoor Line will provide a crucial link for holidaymakers who can currently only access the area by car.

(Jason) It's not just the people commuting from Okehampton to Exeter.

You can get on a train from London Paddington, and three hours later, say you'll be back in-- you'll be in the moors in Dartmoor walking through and looking at the scenery.

(spirited music) ♪ (train whistle blowing) ♪ See you later, boys.

♪ (narrator) In the heart of the Lake District is one of Britain's busiest steam railways.

Keeping the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway alive has been a lifelong passion for owner Mike Maher.

Mike's father reopened this stretch of railway in the early '70s, and steam has been in Mike's blood since he was a boy.

(Mike Maher) The chuff, the steam, the smoke, the heat, the smell of hot oil and general warmth, and it just--yeah, they are special piece of kit and that's why they're so loved.

(narrator) The railway remains a family business.

While Mike takes care of his life-sized train set, his wife, Karen, has cooked up new ventures.

(Karen) So here are my freshly baked scones.

We bake scones every morning at Haverthwaite.

We do four different afternoon teas either for independent travelers or group travel.

Probably not MasterChef standard, but hey-ho.

(narrator) Making the most of its local association with author Beatrix Potter and working with Lake Windermere boat cruises, Karen has broken new boundaries in attracting visitors to the railway.

(Karen) Five years ago, we decided that we were going to go for the international market.

So I've been very lucky that in the low seasons I've been to Japan, I've been to China promoting the railway.

And the Lake District is a steam train journey, a boat journey on Lake Windermere, and then we do combined with The World of Beatrix Potter as well.

So when we go away to shows, we sell a package that we call Rail, Sails, and Tails.

(soft music) (narrator) The line runs from Haverthwaite and carries almost a quarter of a million passengers a year via Newby Bridge to Lakeside at the southern end of Lake Windermere.

As in Victorian times, passengers disembark and it's all aboard for the traditional lake cruise.

Have a good boat trip.

(narrator) The boats are no longer steam-powered, but it remains a serene way to travel along England's largest natural lake.

(Paul) It's the greatest office window in the world.

Uh, I don't think many other people in any other different type of job would get a view like this every single day.

You've got the beautiful scenery.

You've got everything.

You've got mountains, lakes, valleys, hills, whatever you want to do.

Well, the Tern was built in 1891, making her 130 years old.

I believe it's the fourth oldest passenger boat in the world.

(narrator) At Lakeside Station, Tom is preparing for the return trip on board the 1950s freight locomotive Victor.

(hissing) There's the brakes I've disconnected so the engine can't move now.

And I'll put the shackle on so it doesn't hang down and smack the equipment in the track.

And the last one you always do is here, the engine one.

To stop it moving, and then I'll get out the other side again.

(narrator) The railway needs a steady supply of volunteer crew to work the busy summer schedule.

So Tom is being put through his paces before his driver assessment by Mike Gale.

(Mike Gale) The main focus is to try and get Thomas through his driving ticket.

So, Tom's been, you know, driving on and off for years, but he's on training, should we say so.

We'd like to get him passed out.

So there's a little bit of pressure on me.

If he's not ready and he fails, well, you know, it could reflect on me as well.

(narrator) Mike's love of steam began here 25 years ago, so he's seen how this family railway business has prospered over the years.

(uplifting music) (Mike Gale) Mike and Karen got together some, what, 30-odd years ago.

They've became a really formidable team and they transformed the railway.

If his dad, Austin, and Charles were alive today, they'd look back and be-- they'd be really proud of what they've achieved, you know?

(train chuffing) ♪ (narrator) At Haverthwaite Station, they need to take on water.

It's a chance for Mike to set a final practice challenge ahead of Tom's driver assessment tomorrow.

(Mike Gale) That's nice, Tom.

And if you stop right at the water tower, we'll be perfect there, buddy.

Try my best.

♪ (Mike Gale) So, that was ideal, I asked Tom to stop at the water tower, and we've just stopped bang on at the water tower.

And that's really well done, Tom, that.

Very good, mate.

♪ (piano music) (narrator) Scotland's rail network stretches from the Lowlands and the borders through Highland glens and mountain passes and hugs the shoreline along the coast.

It's a beautiful landscape teeming with wildlife.

Maintaining the railway while protecting this habitat is a constant battle.

(Sean) Now I know there's a site that you want to look at -around about here.

-Yeah, Kintilloch and it's just south of (indistinct).

(Sean) Fantastic.

We're gonna see if we can see the beavers -that are round there.

-Yeah.

(narrator) Today at Cumbernauld Airport, ecologist James Morrison and aerial survey specialist Sean Leahy are checking on the wildlife along some of Scotland's busiest lines.

(Sean) The zoom capability in the camera means we can stand off and be away and look at wildlife and see how they interact with the railway.

♪ All clear, buddy.

♪ We will do probably 400 miles today in probably five hours.

♪ (James Morrison) The big challenge of being on the railway, trying to undertake ecology surveys.

It sits with the size of the estate.

I mean, look around us, it's massive.

We cover 2,500 miles.

(narrator) James and Sean are following the Highland Main Line.

This route passes the Tay Estuary, where a growing beaver population has moved in alongside the railway.

(James Morrison) There's a number of beavers on this stretch in the water, and some of them have set up home and a little (indistinct) next to the railway and we're gonna have a look at that and see if there's any evidence of burrowing or fallen trees.

(Sean) James, if you look on the screen, there's a few trees down just there.

(James Morrison) Yeah.

That looks like it could be beavers.

The main body of the Tay is there, but there's a little stream, that canal that the beavers have made.

(narrator) Beavers were reintroduced to Scotland in 2009, and their numbers are growing.

(James Morrison) We don't necessarily mind that they're there.

What we need to know is we need to be kind of monitoring the track to make sure that there's no slipping.

We'll also be monitoring the vegetation around there to make sure they're not working away on any significantly large trees that could fall and land on the network.

(soft music) (narrator) The West Highland Line runs through the open expanse of the Highlands as it journeys north.

(James Morrison) Quite a unique experience for an ecologist to get up in a helicopter and do surveys.

The size of the challenge is very well illustrated from the air today.

We're getting through the network at some speed.

Get to see the size and the scale of that and the topography that exists through there.

It's all very challenging and varied.

There's a lot going on besides the railway.

We're approaching (inaudible) at the moment and we're headed west on the Kyle Line.

And the further west we go, the more woodland (indistinct).

We're gonna be swinging around towards a loch very shortly and beside that loch, there's a osprey nest, and we're gonna be flying quite a distance away from it, but the camera footage that we're gonna get from the helicopter, the range on that is tremendous.

We should be a way peck out of the nest atop of the power line.

(soft majestic music) (Sean) There's the nest.

(James Morrison) Wow.

-Look at that.

-Yeah.

(James Morrison) That's a healthy-looking brood they've got there.

Excellent.

(Sean) There we go.

(narrator) Once, just a single pair of osprey survived in Scotland.

Now there are over 250 breeding pairs.

Every effort is made to protect this iconic species.

(Sean) Show you how far away we are.

There we go.

(James Morrison) We've had to manage our work, in a sensitive fashion to not disturb these birds previously.

But several miles of vegetation management to do on this line and it passed this area.

And we just--we left a kilometer and a half either side of that structure that they're on and we just didn't do that area while they were nested.

Just give them peace, keep out of their way, and come back when it's appropriate.

They're very, very sensitive, and they're a rare bird as well, so they needed all the help that they can get.

♪ So they're doing well, they're thriving.

That's good to see.

(narrator) Scotland's railway travels through some of Britain's most awe-inspiring locations.

Today's aerial survey will help protect and preserve the ecology living in these wild and remote places.

(James Morrison) We've got a breathtaking landscape and the trains out our shore window.

When you're on it, you get to see outside and take all this in.

This is us transitioning from freshwater to the sea here in Loch Earn.

(soft music) There's nowhere I'd rather be working.

This is stunning.

The more remote you get, the more wildlife you're going to encounter.

I think that's why I like working up this way.

-What a view.

-Yep.

♪ (piano music) ♪ (narrator) In the heart of Mid Devon, sleepy Okehampton Station is coming back to life.

Work is underway to reopen the Dartmoor Line between Okehampton and Exeter.

From the mid-1920s to the mid-'60s, the Atlantic Coast Express steamed out of London Waterloo, carrying excited holidaymakers to Okehampton and on to the coasts of Devon and Cornwall.

♪ Today, the only survive out of Devon's steam era is carriage number 13, an observation car that now forms part of the Dartmouth Heritage Railway.

(Richard) Look at the brasswork.

You have to paint those up.

(narrator) Boarding today is Richard Westlake, a lifelong railwayman, and Michael Ireland, who campaigned to bring the railway back to Okehampton.

(Richard) Just imagine the heyday when people used to come on.

They were sitting in luxury.

They'd be looked after.

There's a champagne bar, so you could have champagne and all your sandwiches and look out.

And just imagine going down, oh, to North Devon.

-Yes.

-Magnificent views.

It would be absolutely wonderful.

This was really the glory days of the railway.

(whistle blowing, shouting) (narrator) Richard and Michael are reliving those heady days when steam trains ran through Okehampton Station... ♪ ...as they travel through seven miles of Devon's beautiful coastal landscape.

♪ -Oh, and there's a 75.

-Oh my God.

(Richard) Seventy-five standard, that's a wonderful engine.

(narrator) The railway was in Richard's blood.

He followed in his father's footsteps.

(Richard) This is 1947, and this is Okehampton.

That is the Plymouth portion, and that one is in the patch door bay.

And you can see the people there on the platform.

(narrator) Richard was at Okehampton Station to see the last passenger service leave back in 1972.

(train chuffing) (Richard) At that last train, there were hundreds of people there.

And my father and I stood there, and everybody disappeared, and we were completely on our own.

And it suddenly dawned on us that the last train ever, we thought, had gone.

And my father and I, we were completely silent.

(violin music) When the service reopens again, I'm sure that my father will be looking down and saying, "It's back."

(train whistle blowing) (Dr. Michael Ireland) The opening of Okehampton will be a kind of template for--for others who want to open lines, and this, I think, hopefully will be the first of many reopenings.

When the first train arrives, it'll be a moment that we've waited for for many years.

Be a sense of pride, but a sense of achievement for all of us.

(narrator) Back at Okehampton, the new Dartmoor Line is nearly ready to carry its first passengers for 50 years.

(Sue) It is like Sleeping Beauty being reawakened, yes.

I mean, once you get all that vibrancy of passengers coming back and enjoying, and meeting friends off the train, and waving friends goodbye as they go, you know, that's when she'll come alive again, won't she?

♪ (upbeat music) ♪ (narrator) The Forth Bridge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an emblem of Scotland, so careful measures are taken to preserve its unique character.

Today, logistics manager Jon MacDonald is heading to North Queensferry where work is underway to repaint the northern approach to the bridge.

(Jon) That's an encapsulation over what is Span 12, and that encapsulation is there because the work going on inside it is to prepare and paint the bridge.

(narrator) Costing three million pounds to build in 1890, the bridge was a milestone in engineering and design.

A hundred and 31 years later, it's standing strong but needs constant upkeep.

(Jon) We've got quite a few people working up there right now.

They're working at a minimum of 120 feet up in the air.

They're doing jobs that are potentially quite dangerous.

(narrator) Simon Tait has been scaling the bridge as part of the rope access team.

(Simon) When I was at school, I started rock climbing.

So I left school and ended up working a climbing wall.

And at that point, I just realized that I love being up high.

Often, we get to go to places that many, many other people will never go to.

(narrator) Wearing a harness and safely clipped on, Simon gets to work.

(Simon) It does come naturally once you get used to it, but, yeah, you have good balance...

I'm in quite a comfortable stance.

I'm able to have my hands off without holding on and freaking out.

Obviously, if you've got vertigo, or something like that mate, might not be your gig.

(melancholy music) (narrator) Today, meticulous planning goes into the preparations.

Over 30 miles of scaffolding poles have been erected around the bridge piers.

With the platforms and tower in place, a specialist team of rope access engineers maneuver aluminum rods to secure the platforms together.

(Jim) It's a very old structure.

We're putting a lot of scaffold, a lot of weight, a lot of loadings into the structure, so we need to make sure that all of those are correct.

Just the amount of effort that goes in.

When you're 40 meters up in the air, to put hundreds of tons worth of scaffold in place has been very challenging.

(soft music) (narrator) Today, the final pieces of scaffolding rods are being carefully swung into position.

(Simon) All the steel work has got to get connected to the bridge, which is what-- we've already done that.

And now what we're doing is connecting the two steel-- that's the steel on either side of the bridge, we're connecting them together using turnbuckles, and it just basically connects the two beams together so they can work in unison when the weight is getting transferred onto them.

They're about 15 kilograms, so it's not a one-man job putting these on.

It's pretty difficult.

(Jim) I'm okay with heights, but overall, yeah, I'm pretty comfortable, and I'm sure the guys, well, certainly the scaffolders are pretty okay with that.

(uplifting music) (narrator) The sea air whistling through the bridge means it's vulnerable to corrosion.

Painting it to the standard needed is a three-step process.

Grit blasting removes the old paint and dirt.

Then, a base coat of primer is added before the characteristic red paint is applied.

(Jim) This is Span 12.

It went through the blasting process, it went through the priming, and it's currently going through the glass flake application, which is the intermediate coat.

So the top coat is Forth Rail Bridge Red.

It's got its own unique code number.

All you need to mention to the supplier is Forth Rail Bridge Red and they'll know what you're talking about.

(William) All the rivets, all the welds, all the angles, all the boxes have been coated before we spray the final coat application of red.

The reason why we need to strike all the welds and the rivets is so that when we're spraying them, we don't miss nothing and every inch coated so nothing corrodes, nothing begs back at it.

We'll be in here for the next fortnight stray coating.

(whooshing) (rumbling) And that's your train track just above.

I love a challenge, and--but I like working on this 'cause this is--this is a famous bridge, you know?

So we're gonna do a good job for it.

(majestic music) (Jon) Working on this bridge for the past 20 years, it is actually quite a privilege.

When you come to work and you have a specific task to do, you're not really thinking how magnificent the thing is because you're just doing a specific job, but now and again, you can stand back and take a look and think, "What a privilege to be on this thing."

♪ (soft piano music) ♪ (narrator) The Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway is very much a family affair.

Owner Mike Maher picked up the torch from his father, Austin, over 50 years ago.

(Mike Maher) I've had a bit of practice, but I have to say, I mean... ♪ ...I reached the dizzy heights of management.

I don't tend to do this as often as I would probably like to.

(narrator) Together with his wife, Karen, they have preserved the steam traditions of the Lake District.

(Karen) Without my Mike, the railway wouldn't be what it is today 'cause, you know, his dedication, his commitment.

Even on his day off he comes in.

And he just knows everything.

(narrator) The railway is home to the world's last two surviving Fairburn locomotives.

Built in the 1950s, the Fairburns are a star attraction for steam enthusiasts and are part of the Maher family tradition.

(Mike Maher) This is mine and my wife's locomotive.

We were given it as a wedding present in 1987.

"Gift in consideration of marriage" it said on the paperwork.

So, that was very nice of my old fella to give us this.

(spirited music) ♪ I always like a whistle here, you'll get an echo.

(train whistle blowing) (narrator) In the busy summer months, Mike needs all the drivers he can muster, so today, his son, James, is helping out.

(James Maher) Spent six years on that side of the cab and then got promoted onto this side.

Spent time in the kitchen and the booking office, and then, eventually, Mom got fed up with us and she put us onto here instead.

My mom was very insistent.

"You're welcome to work here, but we want you to go and broaden your horizons as well."

So, we've always come back in the holidays.

We love coming back then.

But I'm a teacher, and the other two work in sport.

We were encouraged to go to other places.

But it is great coming back, a completely different feel to it.

(soft piano music) (narrator) Like many heritage railways, Lakeside and Haverthwaite relies on its volunteers to keep running.

So the pressure is on as Tom prepares for his driver assessment.

(melancholy music) He must drive the train flawlessly with passengers on board while being monitored by an inspector who's joined him on the footplate.

(inspector) What time does it go, this train?

(Tom Rotherham) Twenty seconds, five past one it's due to go.

(narrator) If he passes, he will be a fully fledged steam locomotive driver.

(inspector) Do we have a signal from the lantern on the front?

♪ (narrator) After a round trip down to Lakeside and back, the verdict is in.

(Mike Maher) Well, Thomas, the time has come.

You actually made it.

-Well done, mate.

-Thank you very much for all your efforts.

Look at that.

I even put it in a plastic envelope so you didn't put your greasy piggies all over it.

-Perfect.

-There you go, Tom.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much, indeed, and well done.

(narrator) Tom's success is good news for the railway, too.

Mike will now add him to the roster to work regular turns here at Lakeside and Haverthwaite.

♪ (soft piano music) ♪ Managing the wildlife that lives alongside the railway requires constant attention.

In Perthshire, a culvert under the railway had become blocked after beavers built a dam inside.

(James Morrison) It's no surprise that this has happened.

This is fantastic habitat.

If I was a beaver, I would live here.

(narrator) The dam was cleared and the flood risk alleviated.

Today, engineer Tom Podger and ecologist James Morrison are checking on steps taken to prevent any further blockage.

(Tom Podger) So all we've done is a really simple solution of putting a meshed fence, essentially, against the headwater of the culvert and putting a pipe through that.

And that pipe allows the beavers and otters and other wildlife to transit through our culvert.

(soft music) (narrator) But they have no idea if their plan has been taken up by the local residents.

Motion-triggered cameras have been rigged to record any wildlife activity.

James is keen to see what they have captured.

(James Morrison) If we get no footage of the animals using the culvert, then it would indicate perhaps that they're... they're either going over the line, which is what we're trying to avoid, or they're just confining themselves to this upper half where the best habitat is.

I'd like to think that the efforts we made, we're gonna have some footage here.

♪ Wow.

Something up here and here.

Can see the eyes.

♪ (narrator) It's good news.

The footage shows that the beavers seem happy with the new arrangement.

Even the local otters are getting in on the act.

♪ (James Morrison) It means that we can see this population grow and the work that we've done hasn't had a detrimental impact on this family group.

They've been able to just kind of move slightly upstream and carry on about their business.

You don't have to look very far to see that the beavers haven't been too inconvenienced.

They're still here, they're still doing their thing.

(Tom Podger) Where we know there is other beaver activity around some of our railway culverts, we can deploy this solution knowing now that it works.

And if that stops the beavers crossing the railway, then it's a win for us because it's cheap, it's quick, it's easy, and it stops the beavers getting into danger.

♪ (James Morrison) The beavers have moved, they've built a dam, and they're coexisting with us.

This isn't a massive issue.

Very, very pleased that this has worked out the way it has.

♪ (uplifting music) ♪ (bright music)