(wondrous music) (narrator) In these towering mountains and through deep glens, across open moorland and highland heaths, and along shimmering lochs, Scotland's railways travel a landscape like no other.

From coastal towns and remote villages to historic cities at the heart of the nation, trains bring passengers to some of Britain's most iconic landmarks.

For the teams maintaining the stations... (John) You get blue sky, you're up, to get our sun tan.

Tourists'll pay a lot of money -for a view less.

-...for the engineers safeguarding the track...

I just have to look out the window ahead of me.

It is just a beautiful part of the world.

(narrator) ...and for the volunteers preserving our steam heritage... (man) It was a privilege to get paid to do something you enjoy.

Not many people could say that.

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

♪ (train chugging) ♪ (whistle blowing) ♪ (soft guitar music) ♪ 2,300 trains a day crisscross Scotland, traveling on some 2,800 kilometers of track.

♪ And from windswept coasts to the wild highlands, every inch of the line is monitored and maintained by Network Rail's army of expert engineers.

♪ At Cumbernauld Airport, aerial survey specialist Sean Leahy... -There you go, Stu.

-...is getting ready to take flight with geotech engineer Stuart Jamieson.

-Two steps over, that's all.

-Yeah.

So, the objective for today is to get aerial imagery to pick up any new defects, to look at some of the defects we already know about, and to look for any deterioration, anything that may be a cause of concern.

(Sean) Yeah, I've probably flown this line 60, 70 times, and it changes every day.

It's just like flying through the garden of Scotland.

It's absolutely beautiful.

(narrator) Today they're on the trail of the West Highland Line.

(whirring) (indistinct remarks) (uplifting music) Built over a period of just four years in the late 1800s at a cost of just over half a million pounds, this world-famous railway cuts through a landscape of breathtaking beauty.

♪ We're in the wild highlands of Scotland, in amongst the hills of the Trossachs and the mountains.

It is just a beautiful part of the world.

(Stuart) So, we got Loch Lomond, just down behind you, and the railway is just over that hill line, you can see on the west banks Loch Lomond.

(narrator) Loch Lomond is a 22-mile-long freshwater loch, and is often seen as the boundary between the lowlands of Central Scotland and the highlands.

From its northern shore, the West Highland Line splits in two, with one branch continuing north to Fort William, and another forking west to Oban.

(wondrous music) Today Stuart wants to survey the mountainous western stretch along the Oban line.

(whirring) (Stuart) This deposit always falters in and around these trees and above, because the hillsides are very steep.

They can actually make their way down the hillside towards the railway and cause us problems.

(narrator) Falling rocks and boulders don't just damage the tracks.

If they come to rest on the line, they can derail a train.

(Stuart) You can just see the volume of rock materials sitting on the hillside itself, all of which could potentially become dislodged at some point, so aerial surveys to look for any recent defects or movement is something that has high value to us.

(somber music) (narrator) In 2010, a two-car passenger service was derailed on this line after striking a boulder that had fallen onto the track.

Fortunately none of the 63 passengers or 3 crew members onboard were seriously hurt.

♪ It's not just boulders on the slopes that Stuart needs to keep an eye on.

The rock beneath the track is also cause for concern.

(Stuart) So, Sean, yeah, that's it there, yep.

(Sean) It's a big lump of rock, isn't it?

(Stuart) Just that whole area you're focused in on now, that's the area that we're experiencing a lot of movement.

The rock, it's just slowly sliding down the hillside, very slowly, but over time, that can cause voids to open up underneath the track, and we basically lose the ballast, and that creates a hole in the track.

We've got monitoring systems on individual blocks, large blocks that have the potential to topple.

One actually has shut the track.

(narrator) These sensors act as the geotech's eyes and ears on the ground, and they require regular review.

So, the next job for Stuart and the team is to get back to track level.

(whirring) (cheerful music) Scotland's heritage railways attract almost a quarter of a million visitors every year.

They come to marvel at the engineering of yesteryear, and to experience rail travel from the era of steam.

But, above all else, they come to celebrate the nostalgia of a bygone age.

For many people, railway travel rekindles special memories of places visited and journeys taken, and the opportunity to own a part of that memory has seen railway memorabilia, or railwayana, as it's better known, become a lucrative market.

Collecting the artifacts of Britain's railways has become big business.

(Neil) 2,000.

2-1, 2-2, 2-3.

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

(Neil) Bidders out to the bar, we can set it to the gentleman for 2,500.

No further interest?

(clacking) (pleasant music) (narrator) Neil's railwayana business takes him all over the UK, and today he's come to Wemyss Bay -to meet a client.

-I'm absolutely blown away.

It--what an incredible station this is.

(narrator) It's his first visit to Wemyss Bay, and it's certainly making an impact.

Stunning, I'm-- I'm bowled over with it, I really am.

♪ But, I wouldn't like to be the window cleaner.

(narrator) In 2016, renovation work at the station uncovered a number of long-forgotten railway posters dating from the late 1970s and '80s.

(Neil) Wow, look at these posters.

God, that'll take you back 76 pence.

(narrator) The old adverts for cheap ticket deals offer a reminder of the cost of traveling on the nationalized British Rail network.

Of course, we got this fabulous map here, an original map showing the direction of travel, which you would've come up MacLeod from Glasgow, heading out round through the Firth of Clyde, and out there into the Irish Sea.

Superb, I mean, we're talking 1950s in my estimation.

Value-wise, if it came into auction, I'd certainly think it's worthy of 500 pounds at least.

(narrator) One of the adverts for SeaLink Ferries offers a clue about the person that Neil has come to meet today.

For 30 years, Robin White worked onboard the ferries that ran from Stranraer on Scotland's southwest coast to Belfast and Larne in Northern Ireland.

-Here he is.

-Hello.

Hello, Robin, nice to meet you at last.

-Yes, yes.

-And you brought me this -lovely nameplate.

-I brought you this -lovely big sign, yes.

-Fabulous, well, let me take-- let me help you off with that, it's quite heavy.

-What a fabulous plate.

-There you are.

(Neil) And of course, you had a connection with the Galloway Princess, I believe?

(Robin) Yes, I was very lucky that I sailed as second officer, and then master, then senior master on the Galloway Princess ship.

-Wow, uh-huh.

-Which was the first double-deck drive-through ferry, British owned, that was in the UK.

-And was that in SeaLink days?

-And that was in -the British Rail SeaLink days.

-Uh-huh.

(Robin) And Stranraer then was one of the plum routes, believe it or not, even more so than Dover-Calais.

(narrator) To publicize the new ship, British Rail also named a diesel locomotive Galloway Princess to carry passengers connecting with the ferry.

When it was retired in 2016, Robin acquired the nameplate, which he's hoping that Neil can auction for charity.

(upbeat music) (Neil) So, do you mind if I have a closer look at this?

(Robin) No, help yourself, it's in mint condition.

(Neil) It is, um, there was alloy, that alloy in construction, of course, and as you can see, once I've turned it over, there's all the signs that it had been carried on the locomotive, fell to decay, the weather's been getting at it, but it--you know, it's a good, straight plate, it's in nice condition.

Value-wise, I'd be putting about 2-and-a-half- thousand-pound reserve -on that plate.

-2-and-a-half-thousand reserve?

(Neil) Yes, and expect that to go for more.

-Right, okay.

-So, Robin, I thought you'd like to see this poster, which I've been able to acquire.

(Robin) Oh, yes, crumbs, that really takes me back.

That is real history, that is, and it's also showing the vehicles going onto the stern of the ship, which I believe was one of the first drive-through ferry boats in the country.

(Neil) It's not very often that you see such a poster in such beautiful condition.

The vibrance of the color, you know, the color of the sea, all the business, what's going on on the quayside, but the colors is phenomenal, and it's a beautiful poster.

I'm gonna be putting a value on that of 500 pounds, and I'm expecting it to go for an awful lot more.

(Robin) That takes me back.

Very nice to see.

It's not always been such a nice, sunny day as that at Stranraer Harbour, though.

(narrator) Next, the art of railway travel.

Why would you travel by car when you can travel like this?

(narrator) Painting castles by rail.

(Leo) It is a stunning spot.

Brilliant spot to sketch.

(narrator) And the battle to keep Edinburgh's Waverley Station looking beautiful and pigeon free.

(Ewan) I think if we were gonna get a cat for our station, it's gonna have to be a very big cat, a big, hungry one.

(wings flapping) (wondrous music) (narrator) Scotland's railway makes up over a fifth of Britain's rail network, as it travels through breathtaking mountains, lochs, glens, and straths that have inspired poets and artists for hundreds of years.

♪ Among them is Leo du Feu, who is traveling today from Edinburgh's Waverley Station in search of inspiration from Scotland's landscape and wildlife.

(Leo) In Scotland, we've got so many exciting places to visit by rail, not just cities, towns, villages, but also landscapes, and really wild remote places.

(narrator) Leo is an artist and wildlife enthusiast whose passion is traveling by train with his sketchpad, as he visits historic locations around the country.

(Leo) I grew up in a family where we didn't have a car.

All of our family holidays would be on the train, so I've grown up not using a car.

Why would you travel by car when you can travel like this?

I just love what you see from railway lines.

I love the more leisurely pace, and sketching in cars is very good for getting travel sick.

Never happens on the trains.

(narrator) Leo has spent much of the past 15 years championing the benefits of sustainable travel, and sharing his experiences on his Scotland By Rail blog.

Today he's traveling the Borders Railway, the longest new domestic railway to be built in Britain for over 100 years.

Known as the Waverley Route, after the popular novels written by local resident Sir Walter Scott, the line runs south from Edinburgh, through Midlothian, and into the Scottish borders.

♪ Opened in 1849, it closed 120 years later, but in 2015, after a prolonged campaign, a 30-mile stretch of the line was reopened.

♪ (Leo) I grew up getting to know most of the railway lines around the country, and suddenly there's this whole new one for me to explore.

(narrator) Leo's journey today will take him to two local landmarks.

Crichton Castle and Borthwick Castle.

(peppy music) (intercom) We are now approaching Gorebridge.

(narrator) The closest station is Gorebridge, where Leo's came to find out about plans to restore the station facilities to benefit the community.

♪ I have never been to Gorebridge Station before, and it's pretty impressive, because although it's a new station, so there's all the new infrastructure, got these really beautiful planters the whole way along.

I'm already hearing so much bird sound.

There is--ah, it's got a bit quieter now, but there's a chiffchaff, which is singing, "Chiffchaff, chiffchaff, chiff, chiffchaff," up behind us.

♪ And I'm hearing a blackcap over here.

(birds chirping) (narrator) Leo is meeting Rod Lugg, a local architect, and part of the development team leading the restoration effort at Gorebridge Station.

(Rod) Well, what we're gonna do is restore the building, restore the historic features, but provide a new extension on the front here, and that will provide a cafe-gallery inside with a new kitchen, a training kitchen.

People to train and be able to cook using local produce, and the gallery will be a venue for local artists to display their work.

One of the issues we've got in Gorebridge is food poverty, food banks, and things, so we want a project which enables people to train and be able to cook properly using local produce, so it will be sort of training exercise, encouraging people to come in and use the kitchen.

And on the other side of the building will be the bike hire facility, which will be run as well perhaps on a commercial basis.

People could pick up their bikes, go visit the surrounding countryside, Crichton Castle, Borthwick, Arniston House.

All the beautiful countryside around Gorebridge will be accessible from here.

(narrator) Leo is following in the footsteps of artist William Turner, who traveled this way 200 years ago.

But, unlike Turner, he's planning to continue his journey by bike, or rather, by e-bike.

(Leo) So, Michaela, when the station regeneration project is complete, the e-bikes will be hirable from the station?

Yeah, exactly that, so you'll be able to get the train to the station, and then get any bike and explore the glorious kind of surrounds of Midlothian, as I'm sure you're about to discover, it's just fantastic.

So, you'll be able to comfortably live car-free.

(Leo) Yeah, well that's what my life is all about, and before coming here today I've been looking on the (indistinct) survey, and hoping to go to Borthwick Castle and Crichton Castle.

All right, and off I go.

(narrator) Leo is heading to Crichton Castle, a short ride away on the River Tyne.

(pleasant music) Built as the seat of power for the Crichton family, the castle later passed to the earls of Bothwell, but when the fifth earl was accused of witchcraft, the castle fell into neglect and is now a ruin.

♪ (Leo) This valley that Crichton Castle sits on, there's pretty much nothing man-made visible other than fences, one road, and off behind me a beautiful church, and it is a stunning spot.

Brilliant spot to sketch.

There's lots of wildlife around.

Lots of jackdaws are wheeling above Crichton Castle, and jackdaws are a bird which you'll often find in all these old ruined castles.

One of my fairly recent Scotland By Rail days was up to Aberdeen, and it was a glorious summer day, like this, and I came back with more work than I felt like I'd done in weeks at home.

It was just one of those days that just worked out brilliantly.

And I sense that in this place if I had a full day, I could have a very happy time working away like this.

(narrator) But today, a quick sketch of Crichton castle will have to do.

Leo has his sight set on another of the Borders' famous landmarks.

(peppy music) ♪ Edinburgh Waverley is one of the largest stations in the world, and keeping the building in peak condition is a constant battle.

(Ewan) The amount of work that goes into trying to repair the station every day is a massive job for us.

The roof itself is one of the biggest challenges to maintain.

Each and every day the guys are up there doing a bit of litter picking, cleaning out any blockages in the drainage system.

If you have to keep a beautiful station looking beautiful.

♪ (narrator) The size of 14 football pitches, the station roof is the third largest glazed structure in Britain, and makes the most of the station's central location.

♪ But, style comes at a cost, and it takes 30 man hours a week to maintain it.

♪ (David) This is how we get to and from places.

We use these wee runners.

But, we clip them under there, the rail down here.

(quirky music) (narrator) Refurbished at a cost of 130,000,000 pounds in 2012, the sloping glass funnels dirt and rubbish into 28 valleys, each of which must be carefully cleaned.

(David) You see the amount of beer cans we find.

A full can of Guinness without even a drink.

I'm not even tempted to open that, keep it for myself.

(Ewan) This is one, any other way we'd class as one of our throw zones.

We have a lot of people coming up here after a night out, had a few drinks.

Things'll start getting thrown over the wall.

-Umbrellas there.

-(muffled response).

We've actually had quite a bit of underwear -getting thrown over.

-Even get the occasional bike from time to time.

There's some.

(chuckling) ♪ (narrator) Alongside the litter, Ewan Dalrymple and his team face another fierce adversary in their battle to keep Waverley beautiful.

(squawking) Pigeons.

(wings flapping) (David) These up here, these are the hawks.

Try, eh, scare off the pigeons.

Their droppings come down on the glass and stuff, and it's filthy.

These are a preventative measure.

(contemplative music) It works to an extent, but the (indistinct) pigeons get wise to it after a while.

♪ (Ewan) Pigeons are a massive problem, so we'd used to get a guy who'd come in and he would have his rifle, and he would be doing his pigeon call.

Now that was stopped a couple years ago, and we now have thousands that turn up on a daily basis.

(narrator) Ewan and his team have employed every weapon against their unwelcome visitors.

(Ewan) We've installed a lot of spikes throughout the station.

We've also installed netting and specialized pigeon gel.

(narrator) But, they've been outwitted at every turn.

Pigeons are, uh, very, very clever.

Heard that some other stations do have cats.

I think if were gonna get a cat for this station, it's gonna have to be a very big cat.

A big, hungry one.

(wings flapping) (upbeat music) ♪ (narrator) At Arrochar in Tannoch, in the heart of Trossachs National Park, Network Rail geotech engineers Alastair and Stuart are preparing to survey the open stretch of the West Highland Line.

(beeping) But, this type of work requires meticulous forward planning.

(Sean) Understand the line is blocked between the station (indistinct) for 950-09-15, over.

(beeping) All right, so we got a blockage at Arrochar station, and we can mount the machine in the track.

(Alastair) Our colleagues have just taken an electronic talker, which allows us access to the line.

So, the premise is only one key exists at any one time, and if you've got that key, then you've got the key to the line, and you're actually on the track, and no other traffic can run into the section, so we'll be protected from the movement of trains, but having that.

(indistinct remarks) (narrator) To access the line, they're using a road rail vehicle, a truck modified with flange steel wheels, so it can grip to the tracks.

(whirring) They've traveled to a section of the line that's under an increasing threat from the very rock upon which it sits.

(Stuart) This lump of rock here used to be attached, um, at a previous stage in time up there, and it slid down the hillside.

It's fractured, and these fractures come right underneath the track, and when that rock slowly moves open over time and displaces, you get a loss of ballast, so we lose support effectively underneath the track, and a hole opens up.

(solemn music) (narrator) In 2018, at this spot, the ground opened up, exposing a void beneath the track.

Rail services were halted immediately, while Stuart and the team came to investigate.

♪ (Stuart) What we've had to do is we've filled in the hole, and then we injected it with a polymer resin to bind all that material together, and basically just re-establish support underneath the tracks.

(Alastair) It's an area of constant movement.

We know that this is keeping very, very slowly.

It's like your hair growing, you might not notice it, but, um, in six months' time, it will be moved, so there's, um--there's a period of intensive maintenance through this section.

(narrator) The biggest fear for Alastair and Stuart is a derailment, like the incident that occurred along this line in 2010, when a large boulder derailed a two-car train and left the front carriage hanging over the road below.

In an effort to avoid such a disaster, a sophisticated monitoring system has been installed on this vulnerable stretch of line.

(Alastair) We've got geometry monitors on the track, which measure the movement of the rails and the sleepers, and we've got a system of cameras set up at the site as well, which are movement triggered, and send images back that we can look at in the office.

And further on into the site, we've got monitoring set up on the actual hillside itself, on the rock slope.

(Stuart) There is, um, a concern that this large mass of rock could potentially slide or topple down towards the tracks, so we've got monitoring on there just to pick up any movement.

(soft piano music) ♪ (narrator) Using technology to monitor the shifting terrain here is nothing new.

Stuart and Alastair are heading a few miles down the line to check on a unique monitoring system in the shadow of the 1,100-meter peak of Beinn Chroin.

(Alastair) We've got a number of challenges through this section, mainly from falling boulders, from rocks and boulders which are high in the hillside and can roll down onto the railway.

We've got Access 7 which is a very old monitoring system.

It was installed not long after the line was opened in the late 1800s.

(Stuart) It's a series of 10 wires which are in tension, and the idea is, if a boulder was to come down the hillside, it would interact with those wires and snap one or more of them, which then de-tension the system, and will drop one of the semaphore signals into the danger position.

That then alerts the train driver approaching that there may be an obstruction on the line within that section.

(narrator) Installed in 1882, the system of tripwires is called Anderson's Piano, after its Victorian inventor John Anderson.

(Alastair) It's known as Anderson's Piano, because the wires whistle in the wind, and the tension on them are like tension piano wires, and so they make a kind of noise as the wind rustles through them.

(narrator) They stretch for over four miles along the line, the signals erected at quarter-mile intervals.

(Alastair) It has a listed status, so we need to preserve it.

I am in awe of the mechanical nature of it all, you know, as an engineer, that is very pleasing to see that someone can come up with something, almost clockwork, and yeah, really cutting edge of its day, and we try to be cutting edge of our day with some of the kit that we're installing on the railway now.

(narrator) Despite the advent of electronic monitoring, Anderson's Piano still plays its part in track safety, and its survival is testament to the railway engineers, both past and present, who have been working to protect this magnificent line for over 120 years.

(Stuart) Quite often you kinda forget exactly where you are, you know, that you're in the middle of all this fantastic scenery, because you got a job to do, and you're focusing on that job, but yeah, it is good to just take a few minutes and soak up the scenery, and, uh, try not to take it for granted.

We are dead lucky, let's be honest.

(Alastair) It's a great job in a great location.

(peppy music) ♪ (narrator) Next, art on the line.

Leo paints Borthwick Castle 200 years after William Turner.

(Leo) What was Turner thinking when he was here?

He certainly wasn't dreaming of the Borders Railway Line.

(narrator) And signs of the times.

The secrets of Scotland's railway heritage are revealed.

(Neil) They've chalked the score at the end of the day.

It looks as though Celtic got stuffed on that occasion.

(pleasant music) (narrator) Railwayana dealer Neil Booth is in Scotland to meet enthusiasts interested in putting their much loved railway collectibles up for auction.

Today he's come to the Boness and Kinneil Railway, a hub of Scotland's railway heritage to meet Mike Calahan.

Mike is a volunteer here at Boness, but today he's showing off his collection of railway totems.

The classic enameled railway sign, introduced by the newly nationalized British Railways in 1948, is what most people associate with railwayana collecting.

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

(Neil) There we are, ah, the last one going up.

-How are you?

-Nice to meet you, very nice to meet you, Mike, what a fabulous selection -you've brought for me.

-Yes, well I hope -you'd be impressed.

-Could you tell me a little bit -about them?

-Well, as you know, I was born and brought up in Dundee, which has really got me incentivized to collect the local line.

And I've collected these over a number of years, and this is a set of five, as you see, and it covers the entire branch line from Dundee Tay Bridge through Wormit at the south end of the Tay Bridge, through Newport-on-Tay West, Newport-on-Tay East, -to the terminus at Tayport.

-Fabulous, what a lovely selection.

Condition-wise, just let us look at this Tayport at the moment, and you can see how natural it is.

It's got a very nice plume and shine.

(narrator) Vitreous enamel signage is achieved by fusing glass particles to sheet metal or cast iron by firing it at temperatures over 800 degrees.

This results in a surface that is incredibly hard wearing, and ideal for exposed station platforms.

(Neil) And that is a beautiful totem.

(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 auctions, prices range from around 250 pounds to many thousands for very rare or sought-after destinations.

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

Beautiful condition, okay.

756 for 700 pounds.

(pleasant music) (narrator) Neil is lucky enough to have acquired quite a collection of totems over the years.

-One of the major stations.

-Whoa, yeah.

-Paddington.

-In the western region.

-The chocolate, yeah.

-Chocolate and cream.

I mean, that must've spent its life under cover, you know, that is in remarkable condition.

(Neil) So, the next one, of course, is Stockton.

-Oh, a nice one, new.

-That's an absolute beauty.

-Northeastern orange, yes.

-That is in beautiful condition.

-Yeah, gloss.

-You can't have a Stockton... -Oh, don't tell me.

-...without, uh-- -Darlington, you have it?

-You're a mind reader.

You're a mind reader, Mr. Michael, there you go.

Darlington, Stockton and Darlington.

(Mike) You don't get much more historic than that, do you?

(Neil) Absolutely, Stockton and Darlington was where the railway started.

(Mike) That's right, first ever railway in the UK.

(Neil) Incredible, and Scottish region territory.

-Ibrox.

-Ibrox, yes.

(Neil) And what's very interesting about Ibrox, apart from being the home of Rangers, on this particular totem, they've chalked the score at the end of the day.

(chuckling) -Remarkable.

-It looks as though Celtic -got stuffed on that occasion.

-Yes.

-Three-nil.

-And the comment, "Easy," yes.

(Neil) I did--I did put that on.

(chuckling) (narrator) Neil's collection makes for a very colorful, not to mention a very valuable, display.

(Neil) But, of course, it doesn't come overnight, it took me a lifetime, and I've been a collector for over 50 years, and I've saved up, and I've aspired to buy really good quality totems over the years, and my own personal collection, I try and get the best as I can.

And the last one is the Morecambe Easton Road.

There she is, and a lovely display.

(Mike) It looks good, Neil, that's a lovely collection, and you know, in great condition.

(narrator) Mike will be hoping that his totem collection goes for a pretty penny when Neil puts them up for auction.

(pleasant music) Artist and environmental campaigner Leo du Feu is traveling the Borders Railway with his trusty sketchbook.

♪ His journey has brought him to Borthwick Castle, a 15th century keep composed of a daunting 90-foot-tall double tower.

Built in 1430 by nobleman Sir William de Borthwick, the castle provided a refuge for Mary, Queen of Scots, when she fled Edinburgh after the death of her husband Lord Darnley.

(Leo) This is my first time ever coming to Borthwick Castle.

We've just walked down this really beautiful tree-lined avenue, and now here I am approaching the gatehouse.

♪ And two really tall towers, which seem to join together in the middle to form one big castle.

It's stunning, and incredible to think that 200 years ago Turner came and sketched right here.

♪ Through the gate.

♪ I think there is a lot of sketching potential here.

♪ -Hi, Yvonne.

-Hi, Leo, nice to meet you.

(narrator) Yvonne Pearce is part of the team at Borthwick Castle, and knows all about its rich heritage.

(wondrous music) (Leo) Wow.

-Agree.

-Look at this.

(Yvonne) So, the castle has been here since 1430, so very nearly 600 years old, and at 1650, Oliver Cromwell attacked the castle.

Decided to say to the Lord Borthwick at the time, "You have two weeks to take your family, take your things, and leave," and they heeded his warning.

So, they left, and so from about 1650 till about 1890-ish or so, the castle was a ruin.

No one was here.

Trees growing out of the fireplace.

Hard to imagine now.

(Leo) One of the things that I'm really excited to see here is the reproduction of Turner's painting, 'cause Turner visited here a couple of hundred years ago?

He did, yes, so for Sir Walter Scott, he was commissioned by him for his book The Provincial Antiquities, and we do have the production up in one of our bedrooms, which I can show you.

(creaking) -Mind my head.

-Yes.

And just over here.

♪ (thudding) -There it is.

-Turner's version of Borthwick Castle.

It looks so grand, it's super impressive.

This is the gatehouse which we walked through.

The gates which we walked through.

It looks like the land has changed a bit, because there wasn't that same slope that I walked through.

The day that Turner was here, it looks like it was blowing a gale, because all these trees are bending to the left.

This family trying to get across this ford, looking like they're not having a very comfortable time of it.

Can't wait to get out there and find the same spot.

(pleasant music) (birds chirping) ♪ Where I'm sitting right now, looking up at Borthwick Castle, this is as close as we can get to the spot where Turner sat to do his sketching, and it's a peaceful, idyllic spot right now, but on the day that Turner was here, or at least in his artwork, he made it look very dramatic.

Just think of everything that's happened in 200 years of life going on.

This stream is still here, this castle is still here.

And what was Turner thinking when he was here?

When Turner was here, it was a ruin, and that front wall was all tumbled down.

Was he thinking about what had led to that happening?

Cromwell's attack.

He certainly wasn't dreaming of the Borders Railway Line behind him, or the post van going past.

♪ I would like to spend another four or five hours here, and do more and in more detail.

But, it's been a wonderful experience to sit here with the chiffchaff singing over head, and the stream gently going past.

It's really amazing to be here and to have traveled here from Edinburgh this morning by train.

Now here I am, and Turner was here all that time ago.

So, yeah, another great Scotland By Rail day.

♪ (mellow music) (narrator) 11 miles north at Edinburgh Waverley, it's starting to feel a lot like summer.

♪ It's a great day to be up on the roof.

(indistinct remarks) ♪ (John) Keep it washed places, yeah, you could be in worse places.

You get blue sky, you're up, you're getting a sun tan.

♪ (narrator) The fresh air and views go some way to compensate for what, it's fair to say, is a very big job.

♪ (John) I think if you thought about cleaning 27,000 windows, I think you'd get off your heater.

I think you'd get off your knot.

(pensive music) ♪ (narrator) John and the team clean station roofs all over Scotland, but Edinburgh presents the biggest challenge.

(John) Glasgow Central Station is not so bad, because the glass is kinda opaque.

But, here at Waverley, when you look down, you look down and you see everything, you know?

♪ A lot of things we clean and we think, "Nobody ever thinks about how a thing like this would be cleaned," they never look up.

I think some people might be imagining fairies coming out at nighttime and cleaning the station up for everybody coming in the following day, you know?

♪ Ah, but it's all right.

I suppose you could get tourists who'd pay a lot of money for a view less.

♪ (adventurous music) (narrator) Next, putting up net in the wet.

All in a day's work protecting the West Highland Line.

(Stuart) We're very exposed here in the winds and the rain, but to be honest, this is very typical.

We're used to this.

(narrator) And it's hammer time at the railwayana auction.

(Neil) Beautiful condition.

2,400.

(clacking) (soft piano music) (narrator) It's the day of the railwayana auction in Stafford, where enthusiasts are gathering for the sale of 500 lots of railway memorabilia.

♪ Going under the hammer today will be Robin's nameplate from the Galloway Princess locomotive, and Mike's collection of totems from stations along the old Dundee Line.

Interest in railwayana is on the up, and bidding is brisk at today's auction, (Neil) 2-8, 2-9, 3,000.

Thank you very much.

364.

(narrator) Next up is Robin's Galloway Princess nameplate, which he's selling to raise money for the Scottish Lifeboat Charity.

(Neil) Uh, number 60, ah, this is interesting, because we've got a lot of postal interest on this one.

It's Galloway Princess.

I was up in Scotland a few weeks ago.

Met the gentleman who was the captain of one of the SeaLink ferries.

That'll go to postal bidder 198 for 3,500, which is a very good price, and that's going back to Dumfries.

(narrator) Next under the hammer, it's Mike's collection of totems, the old-style station signs he's lovingly collected over the years.

(Neil) First one we got going under the hammer is this lovely Dundee Tay Bridge.

It's 2,400.

The next one is Newport-on-Tay East.

Gentleman at the back's bid is 15, 16, 17, 18.

Can sell it for 2-3 in the room.

And the last one out of the same batch, again, beautiful condition, the postal bid is out to 1,000, we can sell it for 1,050, can be sold.

(narrator) Sold as separate lots, the totems fetch a total of 9,100 pounds.

(Neil) So, we've done very well for the gentleman there.

Our friend Mike from Perth.

Sold.

(whimsical music) ♪ (narrator) The West Highland Line has been voted the world's top railway journey.

♪ The line branches west at Crianlarich, and runs through Garelochhead to Dalmally, and along the shores of Loch Awe to Oban 40 miles away.

♪ Today a journey along this spectacular railway is a reminder of Scotland's rich heritage and abundant wildlife.

♪ But, the dramatic landscape conceals hidden dangers.

♪ (indistinct intercom remarks) (whirring) The unique geography of the West Highland Line poses a constant threat to the track.

♪ Aerial surveys are used to identify areas of potential risk.

(Stuart) It's the steepness of these slopes, it's the geological makeup.

In fact, there's lots of bedrock, Lots of loose boulders in and around these trees and above.

(narrator) And control measures are put in place to monitor any threats to the line... (Sean) Okay, those are the sensors there on the camera now.

(Stuart) That's them?

(narrator) ...and protect the track from rockfall.

(Sean) You got some netting there as well, haven't you?

(Stuart) We do.

This section of the West Highland Line was opened right about 1894, you know, so it's over 100 years old.

Back then, they didn't have the equipment or the ability to protect the track by means of physical mitigation, and by that I mean installing mesh, and installing steel equipment on these cut-ins to make them safe basically.

This is what we do in the geotech team.

We commission lots of work of localized rock, or protection is what we call it, to protect the railway from risks that have really been created just through construction of the railway as it's cut its path through the natural terrain.

That additional mesh over the gully is actually to contain any fragments of rock which have been dislodged when that water course in full spate.

We got a lot of water coming down off the hillside here, and we do have some locations where we have to control kind of rogue fragments of rock being spat out with the water.

(whirring) (pattering) (mellow music) (narrator) Today Stuart has returned to Glen Douglas to inspect work along this stretch of the line.

♪ (Stuart) Just kind of where we're at with the project at the moment.

They're just kind of continuing this one on and then beyond, yeah.

So, we're back at the Glen Douglas site today.

We're out with our project team from Network Rail, and our designer, and our contractor as well.

We've done a lot of work since the last time we were out here, we've been busy, we've installed some rockfall mesh to mitigate against some of these little fragments of rock coming down there off the hillside.

(woman) Oh, my goodness, it looks super different here now.

It looks great.

(Stuart) The vast, vast majority of the work we do is proactive.

It's not reacting to incidents, you know, we're trying to prevent any sort of incident on the network, so this is a great example.

♪ The mesh that we install, the catch fences we install, we install this stuff all over the place.

We're constantly identifying new areas of slight concern that we wanna just do a bit of assessment work on, and get some proper mitigation installed.

Just want to protect the track and make sure people can go about their journeys safely.

All the works we do, particularly the mesh, the fencing, you know, and filling the voids and that sort of thing, it's not particularly complex.

You know, it's easy to deploy, but it works.

You know, that means that we can really reduce the risk to the track, and ensure that it's safe for the passenger trains.

(pleasant music) (narrator) Protecting Scotland's railways is a constant challenge, so Stuart and his team are out come rain or shine.

(Stuart) Out here we're very exposed here out in the winds and the rain, but this is--to be honest, this is quite typical.

We're used to this, we're out right through the winter, all weather, all conditions, so that's part of the challenge.

(whistle blowing) However, one of the great things about being out on a day like today, if you can pick one thing, is you see the drainage functioning, or rather, where it's not functioning.

(woman) We have specified maintenance of the ditches up there, but they've just never really been maintained.

(Stuart) And so, you can really pick out little problem areas that 9 days out of 10 you don't have any issues, but on these really wet days, you know, you get to see where the water's really getting concentrated, and where you might need to do some little improvements.

Do you think we try and cut it off... -Yeah.

-...way up there?

(woman) That's kind of the hope for it, 'cause this whole section is just-- it's incredibly wet through here, so I think if we can do a bit of work with those third-party ditches, we can try and cut it off -at the pass.

-Yeah, yeah.

(Stuart) Sometimes you just need to work with nature.

You know, if the topography's not working for you, the easiest thing to do sometimes is just let it come down to track level, and then accept it there, try and formalize a channel, and then take it to the nearest stout fall.

So, a day like this is fantastic for that, because it's so easy to see where these problem areas are.

(narrator) When it comes to protecting the line, it seems that Stuart and his team are more concerned about keeping water off the track than keeping it off themselves.

(Stuart) You can waterproof kit, you know, but it is not always effective on days like these.

There's just not a lot you can do to keep totally dry.

(clacking) (upbeat music) ♪ (narrator) Next time, steamy memories along the old East Fife Coastal Railway.

(man) The train, when it came through, made such a racket, all you could here was the sea until the train came, and then suddenly you were aware of the train shaking the village.

(narrator) Fighting the flood that threatens the line, all created by some busy beavers.

(man) They don't need method statements and risk assessments, they get on with it.

(narrator) And the flavor of the highlands comes to King's Cross for a Tartan takeover.

(woman) In my heart, I'm just so proud to be Scottish.

(uplifting music) ♪