Walking Britain's Lost Railways
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Last episode
1:00:00
1:00:00Walking Britain's Lost Railways
Rob Bell walks the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway.
1:00:00Rob explores the lost railways of Northern Ireland, which once had 800 miles of tracks.
Series 1
Series 4
1:00:00
1:00:00Rob checks out a railway line in rural Kent that became extremely prominent during the world wars, The Elham Valley Railway, which once connected Folkestone to Canterbury through the chalk downs of the Garden of England.
1:00:00Rob delves further back in time than ever before to explore the copper mining that once dominated this peninsula; from north coast to south coast, he follows Cornwall’s first two railways and discovers how the deep mines they served prompted the invention of the all-important steam engine.
1:00:00Rob is in Yorkshire on the trail of a man once known as the ‘Railway King’. George Hudson rose from farming origins to become Lord Mayor of York. Rob starts in York, which George Hudson almost single-handedly turned from being an ancient city, into a railway city – home now to the National Railway Museum.
Series 1 55:00
55:00In Scotland, Rob Bell follows the Elgin to Portsoy line, a line that once served the fishing and whisky industries. Local ramblers help him unearth a stunning view of the Spey Bridge, then, after trying a warming tipple of the hard stuff, he watches a boat race in Portsoy.
Series 3 1:00:00
1:00:00Rob follows an epic 70-mile route along the glorious west coast of Scotland on the Callander and Oban line.
Series 1 1:05:00
1:05:00Clues that the old track through the Lake District even existed are not clear, but Rob learns that it once served mainly miners, and sustained the entire region with hard industry before becoming more of a tourist draw.
Series 2 1:00:00
1:00:00Rob Bell explores the era when our modern railways were born in the industrial heartlands of the North-East, where for over 150 years coal was king. Visiting former collieries, living museums and meeting former miners, he tells the story of the 1822 Hetton line, the world's first railway designed for steam locomotives.
Series 3 58:00
58:00This episode sees Rob in the heart of England, following an abandoned high-speed railway that once tore its way through the towns and cities of the East Midlands. The Great Central Railway was the final great line of the Victorian era, the last main line to be built until the Channel Tunnel rail link more than a century la...
58:00Rob follows an epic 70-mile route along the glorious west coast of Scotland on the Callander and Oban line.
58:00Rob Bell discovers the lines that unlocked the wild coastline of North Devon, starting in Ilfracombe where rolling green hills and spectacular cliffs kept this lovely fishing town a well-kept secret for centuries.
Series 2 1:00:00
1:00:00Rob follows the line from King's Lynn to Great Yarmouth, discovering a lost railway through some of the quietest parts of England, but also some of the richest country estates of all.
1:00:00Rob Bell travels to Bangor, where he explores a lost line that was built in 1801 to transport Welsh slate from the local quarry, down to the sea.
1:00:00In Derbyshire, Rob travels along a stretch of what was once part of the London to Manchester express route, through the glorious countryside of Derbyshire and the Peak District National Park.
1:00:00Rob follows the Waverley Line, which stretches for 100 miles south from Edinburgh.