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

For the teams protecting the network... (man) 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... (Jane) 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 crackin' 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 chugging) ♪ (whistling) ♪ (train chugging) (peppy music) (whistling) (narrator) For over 100 years steam trains traveled along the River Spey, carrying passengers and whiskey through a region that is home to over half of Scotland's whiskey distilleries.

Today's steam on Speyside lives on at the Strathspey Railway, which runs three services a day through the heart of the Cairngorms National Park.

(hissing) -23.

-Thanks Al.

-19 green.

-Thank you.

(whistling) ♪ (narrator) Driver Mike and fireman Alan are taking Locomotive 828 on the 10-mile journey between Aviemoor and Broomhill.

So we got the Cairngorms, the Cairngorms Massif if you like.

Absolutely stunning view.

Such a unique backdrop.

Gorgeous.

The sun is out, I mean, it's great.

What a--what a job, never get bored of it.

It's just the best job in the world really.

Love it.

(whirring) (hissing) (narrator) At Boat of Garten Mike and Alan stop to take on water.

(hissing) Today's run has seen a return to form for the 122-year-old locomotive, which has been a bit temperamental lately.

(Mike) She's steaming actually quite well.

Last week she was just being a real pain, but seems to be on it.

Maybe it's just Alan's amazing firing.

But yeah, she's, uh-- she's doing really well actually at the moment, so fingers crossed.

We have to stop every time we go in that direction to fill it with water.

One thing we don't wanna run out of is water.

So we generally do-- we--about 800 gallons, so we'll be here 5 to 10 minutes while we fill up the tender and then that's it, we can go.

This is a water gauge, but it's known as "Mr. McIntosh's walking stick."

So we don't know how much water's in the tender when we're traveling along, but if you wanna check, you turn this and depending on how many holes have got water coming out, you know how much water is in the tender.

Absolutely brilliant.

Full, half full, or panic.

(chuckling) (cheerful music) (narrator) While the veteran 828 heads off down the line, back at the locomotive shed there's a new kid on the block.

Locomotive 5025 is no stranger to the Strathspey Railway.

It ran here after the line opened in 1978, but was withdrawn from service in 1993 when it seemed destined for the scrapyard.

But now it's back following a 10-year, half-a-million-pound rebuild that has been a labor of love for shed foreman Nathan Lightowler.

(Nathan) Now this first about 2010 first time I seen her.

She was in a what looked a not bad condition.

It was still all painted black, still fully assembled.

But at the time it was never I truly thought how bad a condition she would be in.

Restoration took around about 10 years, but heavily at it for 8.

(pleasant music) (narrator) 5025 first entered service on the Highland Main Line shortly after being built in 1934.

It was one of the last steam locomotives to be withdrawn by British Rail in 1968 when it was purchased by the embryonic Strathspey Railway by heritage railway pioneer Ted Watkinson.

♪ So it's appropriate that the Watkinson Trust has been behind the major refurbishment.

♪ (Nathan) The frames were heavily corroded, so we cut nine feet off the front.

In the process of that we also found the cylinders were in terrible condition, full of cracks, lot of corrosion.

So she's got two new cylinders, a front frame section, a back frame section, all new running plates, new smokebox, new boiler plotting, new cab, half a new boiler, new tender tank, new tender frames, all the tires on the wheels turn, a tremendous amount of axlebox work, pins, bushings, nuts, bolts, and about 2--2,500 rivets.

So here she is today.

The only that are original on her are these wayshaft bearings.

(narrator) After years hidden away in the Strathspey Sheds, 5025 is being run in in preparation for re-entering service.

And today, Nathan is calling up, ready for some driver training.

(Nathan) Whole idea of the training aspect is really that, you know, the loco gets more miles put on it, the people who are gonna operate her get more familiar with it.

It also means that if something does go wrong, they get the experience of a fault.

So thankfully there hasn't been any so far.

(narrator) After working three round trips, 828 returns to the sheds for a well-earned rest.

But Mike strayed back onto the footplate of 5025 to join Nathan for some driver training.

(chugging) (uplifting music) (Nathan) The driver training is a-- is an initial exercise for people just to give them the sort of formality to help them through.

It's a lot like lending your car to somebody, except you're with them, so you're a bit like, "Ah."

You're all tight.

(rattling) (Mike) Probably a lot better on a space rocket, your senses are going crazy.

You're not only looking at what's going on, you're feeling for what's going on, you're smelling, you're hearing.

All your senses are just going absolutely bonkers, and, uh, yeah, it's a real-- Feels amazing actually.

She just wants to go.

I'm just holding her back all the time.

They said be quite happy doing 80.

(whistle blowing) 80, gonna probably do 90 miles per hour, you know, cheers, Nathan.

(rattling) (Nathan) Only dust.

All right, still red.

(whirring) (Mike) Yeah, it's a good test of the brakes, Nathan.

At least we know she stops, which is really good.

Any--anybody can make it go, but can anybody make it stop?

That's the important thing.

That was a really good test for that.

(narrator) Driver testing is over for today, but when you spend eight years rebuilding a steam locomotive you're entitled to bring it home.

(Nathan) She's absolutely superb.

She rides lovely, runs well.

To have her doing what she's doing today is just unbelievable.

And, uh, half a million pounds later, you know, eight or nine years' hard work produces this.

You know, this is as close as we'll ever get to building an engine, so it's a great sense of achievement.

(whimsical music) (whistle blowing) It's one of these moments in life that, you know, I'm sure it only happens two or three times.

Some people will never get it and this is one of them.

(chugging) ♪ (Mike) Yeah, clear on my side, mate.

(whistling) ♪ Gonna take in a bag of bolts, Like in a (inaudible) set And a rusty one at that.

With bits all over the place, you don't know what's doing.

I'm putting it back together, putting new bits on it is basically--Nathan's basically rebuilt the engine.

It's an amazing achievement that not just Nathan, but the rest of the team that Strathspey has done here.

It's pretty outstanding really.

And now all they're gonna do is hand it over to me so I can wear it out for the next 10 years.

♪ (chugging) (soft piano music) ♪ (narrator) The sheer slopes and mountainous terrain of Scotland's railway pose a constant threat to the track below.

Containing the impact of climate change in this vast landscape is an engineering challenge.

Barriers are installed to protect the line from rockfall.

(man) It's designed to stop the same force as a double-decker bus rolling down that hill before it reaches the track.

♪ (narrator) And drainage channels are dug to prevent the tracks flooding.

(man) This location is in a stunning part of the world, but the topography around it means that we've got hectares and hectares of land all shedding water towards the railway.

(contemplative music) ♪ (narrator) Today at Cumbernauld Airport aerial survey specialist Sean Leahy is part of a new weekly initiative to monitor the impact of climate change on Scotland's railways.

(Sean) We've started to see more extreme weather events, mainly rainfall.

And normally it would rain for a week, now we get a week's rain in a day and sometimes even in an hour.

Water is one of the enemies of the railway and it can cause a major incident.

♪ Still clear, my friend.

(whirring) (narrator) Every week the air operations team fly the same flight path up the East Coast Main Line to Aberdeen and along the Highland Main Line to Perth, looking for changes in land use that might affect the railway.

(Sean) I've got a million-pound camera on the front, however, it's no replacement for the MK-1 Eyeball.

So what I'm looking for really is freshly ploughed fields, uh, especially if they're sloping towards the track.

So check it, man, can we put an orbit in on this field?

(man) Yep.

(Sean) The site we're orbiting around now is the outer hillside.

So this is where the farmer had ploughed his field, had ploughed it correctly, however, the furrows headed towards the railway.

In 10 minutes we had an hour's worth of rain.

That overtopped the mitigation that had been put in and blocked the line.

You can see that there's missing and that's because the seed got washed away.

A train actually made contact with the debris and it caused the train to come to a halt, and then the line ended up blocked.

This incident actually triggered us to go out and start looking at ploughed fields, because whilst the slope isn't that much, but it was the force of water in an extreme weather event.

(whirring) Right, so as you can see below us now, we got an ideal illustration of one of Scotland's major exports apart from whiskey, which is wood.

Now trees are really good for the railway in some ways.

Especially when you look out the window now, you see a beautiful pine forest right there.

That's on a nice slope headed towards the railway, but what that's doing is, that's sucking up all the water, all the groundwater, any overspill or anything like that.

As we go on a little bit further, you'll see deforestation, where the trees have been cut down.

Ready--they will be replanted, but these have been harvested.

That water is like a sheet of glass, it's got nowhere to go.

The water is not being taken away by anything, so once (inaudible) fully waterlogged, that water's gonna end up on one place and that place is the railway at the bottom of the embankment.

So whilst it is very important that we do manage our woodlands, complete deforestation really doesn't do us any good.

(narrator) Faced with a rise in the frequency of severe weather events, Sean's weekly aerial survey seems to spot problems before they arise and avoid the delays and cancellations that happen when they do.

(Sean) So this is, uh--a zoomer from London North Eastern Railway.

A train like that, it's running between the two big oil cities, Dundee and Aberdeen.

That's the importance of this line.

The railways in Scotland are not just a commuter railway.

They're the lifeblood of most people.

The railways, especially in Scotland, start to close down to extreme weather events.

Um, it affects not only the safety.

It affects commercial aspects of people's lives.

(pleasant music) ♪ -Can you turn us in, please?

-Yeah.

♪ (narrator) When weather events cause flooding or landslips that put the line at risk, Sean will take photographs, capturing the latest developments.

♪ Even though the engineers have been to site.

They haven't seen it from the sky.

It also helps as a visual reference for myself and the other observers, because when we transit this line again next week we'll be able to refer back to these photos and see if there's any change.

So there we go.

(narrator) Monitoring the railway through aerial surveys will not prevent the extreme weather events caused by climate change, but it will help spot the warning signs that threaten the line, and it's a job that Sean is very happy to do.

(Sean) Just look out the window, I mean, I get to fly around the most beautiful parts of the United Kingdom.

Scotland is probably my favorite.

We get to see the railway from a very unique perspective.

It's breathtaking.

♪ (uplifting music) (narrator) The spectacular West Highland Line has been voted the world's most beautiful railway, and its star turn is the Jacobite Steam Train, which travels the 41 miles between Fort William and Mallaig.

♪ Ever since the Hogwarts Express first steamed across the Glenfinnan Viaduct, tourists from all over the world have descended on this corner of the Highlands to ride the Jacobite.

(whistle blowing) One of today's passengers is no stranger to steam railways.

(Jane) Steam's in my blood, so whether I'm working or whether it's for pleasure, it doesn't really matter.

(whistling) (narrator) Professional photographer and mother of two, Jane Emsley, is a volunteer fireman at the Strathspey Railway.

♪ (Jane) I'm trying to work my way up, firing bigger and bigger engines as I go.

Um, yeah, this would be the icing on the cake if I ever got to work on a line like this.

(narrator) Jane started volunteering at heritage railways in her teens, and today she's come to meet up with an old friend.

♪ It wasn't the Lancashire Fusilier when I used to know this engine.

This engine used to be at the East Lancashire Railway when I used to work there some 25-ish years ago.

Um, so yeah, it's really nice to see this out and be kinda reunited with it.

(hissing) Hiya, how you doing?

(narrator) And there's familiar faces on the footplate, too.

(Jane) Got your plaque.

When did you put that on?

(indistinct remarks) That's brilliant.

(narrator) Today's driver, Ian Riley, is the owner of Locomotive 45407 and was part of the East Lancashire Railway when Jane first started volunteering.

(indistinct remarks) (chuckling) -Having a fry up.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, too right.

-Yeah.

(clattering) (Jane) My cheeks are aching 'cause I can't stop smiling, it's so nice.

It's nice that it's this engine, and, uh, yeah, sun's starting to come out.

It's just--yeah, it's a lovely day.

Looking forward to getting on the train.

(indistinct remarks) (whistling) (narrator) The Jacobite steam service runs two trips a day back and forth between Fort William and Mallaig.

It's back-breaking the work for the firemen, who shovel around three-and-a-half tons of coal on each round trip.

But today Jane can put her feet up and enjoy the journey.

(wondrous music) (Jane) There's a part of me that's getting itchy feet, like, I really wanna be on that side, but yeah, it's quite nice just to sit back and, uh--and watch the scenery go by and just listen to the sounds, and yeah, listen to the engine working.

It's amazing.

And then when you get the echo coming back 'cause it's bouncing off the hills it's fantastic.

(whistling) (clattering) And every now and then keep getting that little waft of smell through the window.

Gives my heart a little bit of a flutter.

(laughing) If you could bottle smells, I'd wear that as a perfume.

(chuckling) I would.

You could sell it, I'd buy it.

(chuckling) (whimsical music) (narrator) Skirting the shores of Loch Eil and still climbing, the Jacobite approaches a signature moment on its journey along the West Highland Line.

(Jane) Here we go.

(indistinct intercom remarks) It's absolutely stunning.

(indistinct intercom remarks) I don't think there's anywhere else in the world that has--that has got this.

♪ (narrator) Rising above the River Finnan and overlooking the waters of Loch Eil is the majestic 1,200-foot curve of the Glenfinnan Viaduct.

(chugging) (Jane) It actually brings tears to my eyes.

I think it's absolutely phenomenal.

And there's always absolutely tons of people taking photos.

♪ Ah, that was amazing.

I'm not crying, honest.

(chuckling) ♪ (narrator) At Glenfinnan the Jacobite stops to allow passengers to stretch their legs before continuing their journey.

But the Jacobite isn't the only visitor to Glenfinnan Station today.

(Neil) 2,000, 21, 22, 23.

(narrator) Neil Booth is a railwayana collector and auctioneer who has a passion for the railways and a keen eye for railway memorabilia.

Bid is out to the back, we could sell it to the gentleman in the front row for 2,500.

No further interest?

(narrator) Neil's railwayana business takes him all over the UK.

He's come to Glenfinnan Station to meet lifelong railwayman Lachey McNeil, who is a familiar face along this stretch of the West Highland Line.

Lachey is a linchpin of the Jacobite maintenance team.

He's been keeping trains running out of Fort William for over 50 years, stretching back to the old Fort William Station, which was demolished in the mid '70s.

Today, he's come to show Neil a part of the Highland's railway heritage he acquired many years ago.

(Neil) Very pleased to meet you, Lachey.

-Hi, how do you do?

-Could you tell me a little bit more about the totem, how you acquired it?

(Lachey) Acquired, well, a way back a bit.

'74, time when the station was shut, and yeah, the manager was-- told me to take a few down.

-He was a very lucky man.

-And to keep one for myself, so I was told to take down, I took 'em down, kept one for myself.

It's been in my loft since '74.

(Neil) Wow, so it's never been seen the light of day.

-Never been seen since.

-Wow.

What a fabulous find that was.

(narrator) Railway totems of the classic enameled signs introduced by the newly nationalized British Railways in 1948.

They are what most people associate with railwayana collecting.

Divided into six distinctive colors, each region had its own color scheme, from the chocolate and cream of the western region to the pastoral light blue of the Scottish.

(Neil) To find them in this condition, ex-station condition we'd class that in, we wouldn't touch that at all.

We'd actually put that to market in that condition.

-Well, just as it stands, huh?

-Just as it stands.

Even though it's got the rust around the top and the bottom, its origin on the back.

(narrator) Following railway closures in the 1960s, most of these signs were unceremoniously scrapped.

Anybody want that for 500?

-Five.

-Nowadays when they do surface at auction, prices range from 250 pounds to many thousands for very rare or sought-after destinations.

(Neil) It's in the market for seven for you.

Beautiful condition, okay.

756 for 700 pounds.

I mean, today value-wise, very very sought after.

Obviously Fort William under the, uh-- under the umbrella of Ben Nevis.

-Aye, aye.

-Desirable location.

Value-wise in that condition we could be looking at anything between 3 to 5,000 pounds.

-Thousands?

-Thousands, yes, 3 to--3 to 5,000 pounds.

(Lachey) If I'd known that, I'd have taken the rest of them.

(Neil) I would've been behind ya helpin' ya.

You got a fabulous sign there.

Um, very, very rare to find in that condition.

What's give you the reason for letting it go now?

(Lachey) Well, my daughter's out in Australia, so I thought, "Well, it would help -for any airfare."

-Certainly, well, I'm gonna be so pleased to sell this for you.

There'll be people queueing to try and buy that.

(narrator) The old Fort William Station stood on the banks of Loch Linnhe for 81 years.

(pleasant music) Before the station and train depot closed, Lachey managed to save something else from the scrap heap.

(Lachey) This one here, that used to be a--on a tank cart.

It was at the--in the old depot.

-Uh-huh.

-And then it was gonna wait -to get scrapped.

-Wow.

(Lachey) So I took the plate off of it.

(Neil) That's worth getting your hands dirty on because that's quite a rare patent.

Nice oval casting.

Very, very ornate.

Of course the Staffordshire knot as well, Phoenix Works, Stoke-on-Trent.

That's a rare design.

So we need to try and, um, bolster this airfare a little bit more now, don't we?

Value-wise, I mean, you still got the original bolt in as well, the condition as it's just been removed.

I would say you gotta be looking at 200 to 300 pounds just for that plate alone.

-For that plate, uh-huh.

-For that particular plate in that condition.

That was very fortuitous that you should've taken that off because someone's gonna enjoy that once that goes under the hammer.

(Lachey) Like I said, it was just going for scrap, -the vehicle on that one.

-This is what happens, so much is gone, and unbelievably the rarity of these plates, and then they surface again like you brought me this one today.

Superb example.

(narrator) Lachey will be hoping that his Fort William totem and Staffordshire plate fetch a pretty penny when Neil puts them up for auction.

(peppy music) (chugging) Heading north from Glenfinnan, the Jacobite follows the West Highland Line on its journey towards Mallaig.

(Jane) You're really in the heart of the Highlands here.

Not only has it got a railway going through it, it's got a steam engine that runs on the railway, and I just don't think you can get any-- any better than that.

(narrator) As a volunteer fireman at the Strathspey Railway, working a turn on the Jacobite footplate remains an ambition for Jane as she builds on her steam experience.

(Jane) It's a big adventure for me.

I'm not in any rush to become a driver or anything like that.

Any of the lines that I work at, I just like to fire.

There's just something about being the one that is responsible for creating that power so that the driver can do his job.

I don't think anything really comes close to that.

And when you're really on it and everything's going well it's just such a tremendous feeling that is so hard to beat.

(atmospheric music) ♪ (chugging) (soft guitar music) (narrator) Close to the border between Cumbria and North Yorkshire, spanning a glacial valley in the Yorkshire Dales National Park is one of Britain's most recognizable railway landmarks: The Ribblehead Viaduct.

♪ Looming over 2,000 feet above is Ingleborough, one of Yorkshire's three mighty peaks.

♪ Landscape photographer Wendy McDonald works for the national park and is a regular visitor.

(Wendy) The whole fun of landscape photography is hunting for that shot, and somewhere like this, there's not one composition, there's many.

It changes all the time, so the light changes, the seasons change.

You just never know sort of what you're gonna get.

This is quite a good spot.

I've got the wild thyme, the ferns that are in the grikes of the limestone, and also I've got the viaduct in all of its beauty.

(narrator) Built in 1874 and spanning 400 meters across the valley, the viaduct's 24 arches carry up to 10 scheduled services a day along this signature stretch of the Settle-to-Carlisle Line, which is a hotspot for steam train specials.

(Wendy) Trying to get a sort of sense of the landscape here.

So I don't normally ever take pictures of manmade structures, but it kind of fits with the environment.

♪ A lot of people say the people walk into a photograph and that's why often you're trying to put something in the foreground, so you're walking someone through a photograph.

And so I--I'm hoping what I'm sort of getting here is this gorgeous limestone with that lovely, frilly ferns, and then your eye sort of travels up to the viaduct in the distance.

♪ (upbeat guitar music) (narrator) To get a different perspective, Wendy has enlisted the help of her husband Keith, who flies his own light aircraft.

(Wendy) It's something that we do together.

He's doing what he loves doing, I'm doing what I love doing up in the air.

(Keith) You know, to fly your own airplane with your wife onboard as well, both of you getting the opportunity to do your hobbies, it's been great.

♪ Okay.

(whirring) (Wendy) If you take a picture of Ribblehead from an airplane, you're gonna get something that's unique.

You do see stuff in a very different way.

♪ (Keith) I've sort of come to gauge if there's going to be a good picture there because Wendy gets excited, she becomes animated.

♪ (Wendy) The light today is actually not bad.

I like it when it's cloudy, but with a bit of sunlight so you sort of get that dappled sunlight onto the earth below.

(camera snapping) We're all very used to seeing photographs of Ribblehead on the ground, so it's nice to get something a bit un-- a bit more unusual.

♪ (birds chirping) (peppy music) ♪ (narrator) Running through the Cairngorms National Park, the Strathspey Railway carries passengers on board vintage carriages pulled by preserved steam locomotives.

♪ At the Aviemoor Train Sheds work is nearing completion to restore a long lost locomotive back to the Strathspey fleet.

♪ Engine 5025 is Britain's oldest surviving Black Five, and after a 28-year absence, has been lovingly rebuilt by shed foreman Nathan Lightowler and the Strathspey team.

(rattling) Following successful track testing, 5025 is being painted in readiness for a launch event in a couple of weeks' time.

(Murray) Over the years I've been painting locomotives and carriages, uh, you really get to find out how they're built and how they're constructed by all the prep work, going into all the nooks and crannies, and it's interesting.

You know, despite it being a tedious job, it pays off in the end when you actually see the locomotive out running and hauling the trains along the railway.

People say, "Oh, couldn't you paint it a different color than black?"

But you've got to remember this is a Black Five and they were all painted black.

Uh, that was just the mores to their times.

But you know, you need to ring the changes as well.

You know, so it's, uh-- so a little of this is maybe perhaps more austere.

It's not all just black, you know, there is the bright red lining out to pinstriping which will really weft it.

(narrator) Murray's association with the Strathspey Railway stretches back many years to the days when 5025 was still running.

(Murray) I was here the day 28 years ago, the day before it came out of service, with another truck behind it.

So, and I thought to myself, "Well, I wonder, I wonder when this engine will run again."

You know, here we are 28 years later.

(soft piano music) (narrator) Murray's paint job will restore 5025 to the same condition as the day it rolled out of the Vulcan Foundry on the 27th of August, 1934.

(Murray) So this is the smokebox.

This is a brand new smokebox.

Original was corroded away.

That's unpainted because, eh, it's gonna be finished in a heat-resistant enamel, which is different from the paint we're using here.

This part of the boiler is protected by insulation, so the heat won't throw off the paint, but it will here.

♪ (scraping) (Jane) Okay, looks fine.

(camera snapping) (narrator) As excitement builds before 5025 is unveiled, volunteer fireman and professional photographer, Jane, has been documenting the refurbishment.

(Jane) That's it, and then if you just lean in a little bit more than you normally would-- that's it, perfect.

And then again, just the-- the brushstrokes there.

(camera snapping) Excellent.

(Murray) Now you see the tangible difference now we've got the first coat of black -on the coat on.

-Yeah, definitely.

(Murray) You know, it's now a Black Five again.

-Yes, exactly.

-For the first time in a long, long time.

(Jane) What about all the lining on-- (Murray) Yeah, well, we'll start that hopefully -at the end of this week.

-Right.

(Murray) And, uh, it's really gonna be quite spectacular.

(Jane) Yeah, it is.

(Murray) ...on the--on the railway.

(narrator) When it comes to restoring heritage railways, attention to detail counts, so it helps to have some old relics to refer back to.

(Murray) So what we're looking at here is the, uh, fireman's-- original fireman's cab, so it's from 5025, and we're keeping this as a reference for obviously making the new cab, but it's handy for me as well to get a reference for the sizes for the lettering here, which I'll be painting on the cab side in due course.

(narrator) The old cab door will help Murray get this job right.

But all around the Strathspey Railway there are reminders of his previous handiwork.

Here's 828 coming towards us now, which was first restored in 2010 after a five- or six-year restoration, and it was painted back in its original color, the railway blue color scheme.

That was quite a long process.

Me and my friend started in 2009.

It took us the best part of 18 months to paint the loco, and, uh, I'm happy to say the paint work has stuck rather well over that time.

(chugging) (uplifting music) ♪ All these carriages here, eh-- Hi there!

Uh, I've painted over the years, so it's quite nice to see, eh, something like that that I've worked on, uh, running past here and seeing people enjoy the trouble.

(narrator) Inside the carriage shed Jane is taking advantage of her visit to indulge another of her steam hobbies.

(Jane) At times where I've not been able to get out and fire, then this kind of bridges the gap.

One of the first drawings I did, it was, um, a picture of 828, and, um, the Ivertt outside the sheds here, and you know, I just thought nothing of it.

I just enjoyed doing the drawing.

We ended up selling prints of that drawing and it raised some money to go towards the final stages of the restoration of 5025, so that was quite a nice achievement.

So this is called "Out of the Darkness and Into the Light," which is-- it was quite an apt study really because it was as it was reaching its final stations of restoration, so it is kinda coming out of the darkness of the sheds, I suppose, and ready to make its grand entrance.

(narrator) Jane's latest sketch is a present for her partner, shed foreman Nathan, who has led the restoration of 5025.

(Jane) I know how passionate he is about it.

I can understand that passion.

This loco has basically been his life for the last 10, 11 years.

That's his other woman... (laughing) ...which I don't mind.

(chuckling) (narrator) Under Nathan's leadership, the restoration project has been a team effort, and today, apprentice Shawna is lending a hand.

(Shawna) The railway actually goes right past my house.

I've grown up with the Strathspey Railway going, like-- being about when I was a kid.

And then when I was younger I did a lot of volunteering on the trains.

Getting my hands dirty doesn't bother me anyway.

I like kinda finding out how things work, you could say, and how to put it back together.

(narrator) In a couple of weeks, the hard work will be over and 5025 will be back in steam, exciting visitors to the railway.

(Murray) I've been slowly watching the guys taking this thing apart over the years, and then fixing it and putting it all back together again, and to actually see it as it is now, all back together again, it's quite, uh-- quite incredible.

♪ (birds chirping) (atmospheric music) ♪ From the wild Highlands to the Borders, every inch of Scotland's railway is monitored and maintained by Network Rail's army of expert engineers.

At Galashiels on the Borders Railway work is underway to protect part of Scotland's rail infrastructure from the ravages of climate change.

(Ricky) Back into it, off in the sea, now we gotta find the one.

(narrator) Redbridge Viaduct was built by Victorian engineers to carry train services over this pretty stretch of the River Tweed.

But 172 years in these fast-flowing waters has taken its toll.

(Sean) The force of the water as it comes down erodes away the rocks underneath the structure, which then leaves the pier unsupported, so that the power of the water, as you can see it coming through the culverts up there, is quite powerful, and that can lead to this erosion.

(narrator) The five-arched viaduct is undergoing a 2.4-million-pound program of scour protection work.

This will see a protective mattress installed around the base of the viaduct to shield it from the swirling river current.

(Ben) So at the minute you can see the mattress laid out in the water.

It is spread out 'cause it's empty, this float then.

It's got compartments, so it's made of a fiber material.

The fiber then will place the end of the line into the mattress and we'll fill it until required.

(narrator) A specialist dive team is responsible for filling the mattress compartments with liquid concrete which is piped into position.

(pleasant music) To make this work possible, a temporary breakwater has been built upstream to slow the river current.

A portable dam, known as a containment bund, has also been installed.

This creates a safe working area and ensures that any loose materials don't escape into the scenic part of the River Tweed.

Next 5, 10 minutes we got a concrete wagon showing up hopefully, and then, uh, it's all aboard then, the boys will start jumping about, filling the mattresses.

Yeah, the wagon's all in position now and it's ready when you are.

♪ Come on, fill it up, keep up.

You ready to pump?

(man) Yeah, pump on, pump on.

♪ (narrator) The dive team makes sure each compartment is filled before guiding the nozzle onto the next.

(Ricky) Joel, are you happy with that one?

So yeah, that's the-- that's section two of the mattress filled.

There you are, Joel, my diver, is happy with it, and now he's, um, searching for the fill location on number three.

We have a drawing from the mattress provider and it shows us exactly where all the fill points are.

Obviously it's very handy due to the limited visibility when diving at times and I can direct the diver then to where the fill points are.

(mellow music) (narrator) Now a listed structure, Redbridge Viaduct was built in 1859 by North British Railway as part of the Edinburgh- to-Carlisle Main Line.

Closed in the late '60s, it was reopened again as part of the Borders Railway in 2015.

But extreme weather events, including storms and flooding, pose a growing risk to Scotland's railways.

(Stewart) For structures river scare isthe bi g-- the big issue for us.

It's been very noticeable in the last few years, and the amount of extreme weather events that we experienced on Scotland's railway, and we've also noticed it.

And degradation in our structures, um, the affects of-- of these weather events on them, and so the need to do this-- this type of work is increasing.

(Ricky) Everything okay with B?

Now you're in, uh-- you're in the filling point of C and the bottom of A, yeah?

(narrator) Redbridge Viaduct has stood proud for 172 years.

Now with scour protection installed, trains can pass safely over this stretch of the Tweed.

♪ (Stewart) It's a dream job and it's a real privilege, and you feel like you're walking in the--in the footsteps of giants, the people who built them originally.

You know, it's a labor of love for a lot of us to keep them going and-- and make sure the future.

♪ (contemplative music) (narrator) At Aviemoor Train Sheds, billowing smoke heralds the return of an old favorite to the Strathspey Railway.

Maintained and operated by volunteers, it's a big day for shed foreman Nathan Lightowler.

After a 10-year restoration, Nathan and the Strathspey team will unveil 5025, Britain's oldest surviving Black Five locomotive.

(Nathan) The fire's been in now for around about three hours, so all in all, well, uh-- we've got plenty of steam now so we can move at any time, but we'll, uh-- we shall await instructions.

(narrator) Today's unveiling is big news and 5025's long-awaited return is eagerly anticipated.

But inside the shed last minute checks and final touches are being applied.

(Nathan) It's quite surreal, it's, uh-- The last time it was in here it was unpainted and yeah, the time before-- the time before then it was in-- in many, many bits.

So it's quite-- quite something else to see it one piece really.

Murray Duncan, he's finished the paint job, which is absolutely superb.

There wouldn't have been anyone else in the country we would've wanted to use other than Murray.

So the job, the lining, the lettering, the general black paint, everything about it is absolutely gorgeous.

(Murray) We'll have to get this, this is exactly the right position in relation to the rivets-- to the rivets and the position of the-- the height of the cab, because your height of the cab's slightly different, it's a quarter of an inch higher.

Constantly going back and looking at old photographs from 1934, "Oh, did we get that right?"

No, magnifying glasses, you're tempting the rivets and what have you.

(narrator) As it has been throughout the rebuild, it's a team effort to get 5025 looking its best.

(Shawna) At the moment I'm just kinda cleaning the motion up, just getting bits of-- you know, wee bits of rust just so it's a bit shinier, so just have to carry on with doing the rest.

(whirring) (Nathan) Today it's--you know, it's the end of a very, very long line of sore fingers and sore hands, sore arms, and the results here today is just nigh on perfect.

Um, it's just such a great achievement to see it all sort of come together in a spearhead, and the final--the final bit is when it goes out the doors today.

(uplifting music) ♪ (horn whistling) ♪ (hissing) (Jane) Today's been quite momentous I think.

It's been absolutely amazing.

It just looks stunning.

You know, the light's just capturing the paint work absolutely perfectly, it looks--it looks like a model.

It's so perfect.

It's a moment in history, so it's been really nice to-- to photograph it, and yeah, finally see it come out of the shed with, uh, some gusto.

(chuckling) (whistling) ♪ -It looked good, though.

-I bet it did.

-It was worth it.

-There's probably -no plaster left on the wall.

-Aye.

(hissing) (Jane) That was quite emotional.

I got a little bit teary.

Hiding it behind my glasses.

(laughing) (Murray) Well, the first thoughts were, "Whoa, that is a big engine."

You know, when you get up close and personal, when you're working on it perhaps you lose touch with just how big these things are sometimes.

It's one of these hobby days today when everybody can see the fruits.

(whistling) The fruits of the labors of the-- so much effort rebuilding the engine.

♪ (chugging) ♪ (clattering) (whimsical music) ♪ (bright music)