Walking Britain's Lost Railways

Documentary

Rob Bell explores the lost landscapes and infrastructure of some of Britain's former railway lines. From the 1960's the axe fell on 4,000 miles of Britain's rail network. Now, decades later, Rob Bell is going on journey to uncover those lost railway lines. Every week Rob will explore a different line; experiencing the hidden landscapes, lost infrastructure and forgotten worlds that disappeared when the line closed.

Play

Starring

Rob Bell

Audio & Subtitles

EN (Original), English [CC]

Format & Features

4K Ultra HD • Dolby Atmos • 5.1 Surround

Seasons(6 Episodes)

45m

1. Elgin to Portsoy

Rob Bell seeks out the lost railway from Elgin to Portsoy, a line which served the fishing and whisky industries so vital to the local communities. The track bed to the 'Scottish Riviera' of Lossiemouth once saw sherry barrels aplenty and vast quantities of fish along its surprisingly straight route - the picturesque docks still betray the presence of steel track right up to the water's edge. Rob is helped in detecting the line by local ramblers, but he's quite unprepared for the sight that awaits him: the magnificent Spey Bridge. Salmon fills the river here and once ...

45m

2. Sheffield

Rob starts his journey in the famous steel town of Sheffield, where he’ll be following the old Woodhead Line, through the Pennines, to the industrial powerhouse of Manchester. This film is about human endeavour against all the odds, building, and running a railway through one of the most inhospitable parts of the country.

45m

3. Dartmoor

Rob’s journey through Dartmoor from Plymouth to Exeter begins in unlikely surrounds: in the garage of model railway enthusiast Bruce Hunt. Bruce has meticulously recreated the beginning of this line in miniature, including a model of Rob himself, and explains how to trace the now lost line through the dense overgrowth which has emerged since its closure.

45m

4. Lake District

This is the story of a freight line, built to traverse the tricky landscape of the Lake District to transport minerals from the many Cumberland mines, but which later was embraced by tourists eager to explore the spectacular countryside. Rob begins his journey in Penrith Station, where he?s advised that the lost line begins over the busy motorway between a fence and a walking track - not an easy route to find.

45m

5. Somerset & Dorset

The story of the Somerset and Dorset line is one of investors, certain of the wealth they would generate, overcoming tremendous difficulties to build the line, only to find the landscape too punishing to avoid financial ruin.

45m

6. Wales

Rob Bell visits Wales to examine the story of a lost line between Ruabon and Barmouth. The route represented a sea-change in how ordinary Victorian working families were granted affordable access to the landscape and language of the Welsh heartlands. He takes a trip across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct - the oldest and longest navigable aqueduct in Great Britain and the highest in the world - and goes canoeing in Lake Bala. In Dolgellau, Rob meets a local harpist and hears the sounds that became intrinsically tied to the image of Wales.