So they’re ready for the road, and Alf can’t wait to get started: ‘Oh aye, I’m on this holiday with him. Aye, he’s invited me to come with him. It’ll be a once in the lifetime opportunity. I’m really looking to that. I’m the steersman.’ ibid. Alf
The first thing we need is plenty of coal. We’re off to the coal mine. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e2: Collecting the Coal
Eleven tons moving at about ten miles an hour doesn’t stop in a hurry. ibid.
Today fewer than five hundred people work in the quarrying and mining industries combined. ibid.
Fred Dibnah is now halfway through his tour of Britain in search of the things that went into building a traction engine like his. His is still in Yorkshire and is on his way to the Bolton rivet manufacturing company where they made the rivets he used when rebuilding the engine. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e7: Mechanics and Riveters
Now it’s Fred’s turn to drive the [train] engine. Something he always dreamt about as a lad. ibid.
It’s capable of doing fifty miles on one fill-up. ibid.
Once rivets were crucial and they held together everything from things like my boiler to the Forth Bridge. ibid.
Most people think that the great age of steam is dead. But this whole nursery is actually powered by steam. Not only does it keep the water boiling in the pipes but it generates all the electricity. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e8: Pattern Making
And going down the road to see Mr David Ragsdale who is the owner of six traction engines. And the main reason we’re going is he’s a master at the art of pattern making. ibid.
It’s amazing how many different makers there were of these things [steam engines]. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e9: Engines at Work
Chains made in the Black Country were renowned for their quality all over the world. At the end of the nineteenth century 90% of all the chain workshops in England and Wales were here in the black country. ibid.
Our engine is actually steered by chains. We’ve come here to the Black Country Museum to see a gentleman making chains in exactly the same way as this chain would have been made in 1912, without any fancy electric welding or anything like that. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e10: Chains and Copper
Now that the engine’s been running it’ll do 15 miles per hour with ease. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e11: The Engineering Workshop
At its height Wales was producing nearly half a million tons of slate a year. ibid.
One of the problems that steam enthusiasts have is that it’s difficult to get the right nuts and bolts for their engines. ibid.
In the great days of steam railways there were like two routes up England - one up the West Coast and one up the East Coast. In 1893 the Great Central built one up the middle. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain s1e12: A Lifetime’s Achievement
Fred Dibnah will always be remembered for his passions for steeplejacking and steam. And for his love for the industrial landscape that surrounded him when he was growing up in Bolton in the 1940s. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e1: The Industrial Landscape, BBC 2006
In the 60 years since then our urban and industrial landscape has changed dramatically as whole industries have disappeared. ibid.
‘Fred had a talent for making that [industrial history] very interesting for people.’ ibid. lecturer
‘Their lives were totally ruled by the noise of the gearing and the engine ... It’s unbelievable violent ... When all these [looms] machines were running the decibels must have been unbelievable.’ ibid. Fred
‘I’m really more interested in the mechanics of it all.’ ibid. Fred
Ironbridge: This is the world’s first cast-iron bridge. Iron was so important round here that this place was regarded as the beginning or the cradle of the industrial revolution. It wasn’t just bridges they made here. ibid.
‘Up until the 1850s they only really cast-iron, you know. And they really needed something a bit tougher. And along came Henry Bessemer in 1855 and he invented this thing – a giant eggcup.’ ibid. Fred
‘This has got to be the biggest winding engine left in the world. And it were made about 1905 and it kept on running until the 1970s. And I’m now going to do a demonsteration [sic] of how fast you can put it in reverse from full steam forwards to backwards. And here we go. Did you like that? I did.’ ibid.
Fred’s garden is unique. It was all assembled from scrap and the cast-offs from old mills and factories. But it is probably the finest working example of a steam-powered engineering workshop in the country. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e2: Back Street Mechanic
‘I’m a backstreet mechanic.’ ibid. Fred
‘Steam was the big driver in his life.’ ibid. mechanical engineer
‘Fred could turn his hands and do it.’ ibid. Admirer
‘We’re breeding a nation of men who are not what they used to be.’ ibid. Fred
Between 1710 and 1712 Thomas Newcomen invented a brand new type of steam-engine – the atmospheric engine which was designed solely for one purpose – to pump water from deep mine shafts. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e3: The Machines That Changed the World
Trevithick’s use of strong steam meant that you could build an engine that weighed about ten tons that would do the same work as an engine that weighed six hundred and fifty tons. ibid.
Steam was only introduced really to help out the waterwheel. ibid.
James Watt ... separated the condensing department from the cylinder. ibid.
That wonderful smell, and fog, and coal, and black oil everywhere. To me it were quite romantic. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e7: All Steamed Up
They’re magnificent on a moonlit night. Fred Dibnah’s Railway Collection e5: The Great Days of Steam, BBC 2008
I always wanted to be an engine driver. ibid.
I wish I’d have lived then. ibid.
And this is probably the most famous locomotive from that time – built at Doncaster – The Flying Scotsman. ibid.
1926 – Mallard left Grantham heading towards Peterborough ... 126 miles per hour. ibid.
The skills of building a mainline locomotive have almost died. But here in Darlington they are keeping the skills alive. ibid.
It makes you wonder if they’d carried on with the development of the steam locomotive what could have happened. ibid.
The speeds increased and train loads grew heavier. Locomotives grew in size and in the 1920s the Great Western Railway locomotives were amongst the most advanced. By the 1930s famous streamlined locomotives like Mallard were being built. Fred Dibnah’s Railway Collection e17: Railway Preservation
In 1955 the first Diesel locomotive – Deltic – was built, and singled the end of the line for the steam locomotive. ibid.
All these lovely old engines started to rust away in scrapyards. ibid.
The Railway Preservation Movement was born. ibid.
This locomotive was built in 1957 and was the pinnacle of steam engineering. Mark Williams, On the Rails s1e1: Cornish Steam Giant, Discovery 2004
Richard Trevithick ... He was a natural talent. A natural engineer. A problem solver. But even so no-one at the time imagined this was the man who would build the first high-pressure steam engine, the first car, and the world’s first railway locomotive. ibid.
It’s called the Puffing Devil ... The steam goes up the chimney. Chuff, chuff, chuff. ibid.
The destruction of his first locomotive didn’t seem to worry Trevithick. ibid.
His most ambitious project yet – a machine to run on rails. Britain’s first railway locomotive was about to be born. This locomotive was built over the winter of 1802. And its steam trials were kept highly secret. ibid.
Trevithick’s engine was a technological breakthrough. It was now clear the future of the high-pressure steam engine was not on the common road but on the railroad. ibid.
The brittle cast-iron tram-tracks at the time smashed under the weight of the Loco. ibid.
In 1829 Rocket won the Liverpool & Manchester Railways competition to find the best steam locomotive. ibid.
The Founding Father of the Railways – but that title rightfully belongs to the Cornish genius Richard Trevithick. ibid.