Paddle-steamers were not designed for tourists. They were cargo ships ... A hundred and fifty years after they first appeared paddle-steamers are still one of the best ways of exploring the alpine landscape. Ronald Top, Industrial Revelations: Europe s4e9: Steaming up the Alps
Trains occupy a special place in our hearts. We grew up wanting to drive Thomas the Tank Engine ... York is a puffing Mecca: it has the largest railway museum in the world ... Mallard set the record back in 1938 when she reached 126 [125.88] miles an hour. Rory McGrath’s Best of British Engineering s5e4: Vehicles
Soon an extraordinary canal network, the most extensive in the world, fanned out creating a new industrial Britain. Rory McGrath, Industrial Revelations: Best of British Entineering s5e6: Transport Systems
The golden age of canals was short-lived. By the mid-nineteenth century a new invention had revolutionised transport: the steam engine. ibid.
The magnificent steam locomotives of the Great Western Railway: a combination of elegance and raw power. They still evoke a spirit of adventure. Great Railway Adventures with Dan Cruickshank: Brilliant Brunel
Brunel was obsessed about every detail, building wonderful stations to suit his great enterprise. Nothing deters him. The Great Western Railway was just part of his steam-driven revolution. ibid.
The construction of the Great Western Railway between Bristol and London was inspired by Brunel’s vision to bring speed and comfort to the experience of travel. ibid.
It was the coming of the railway that led to Britain adopting a standard time across the country. ibid.
Brunel would eventually lose the battle of the gauges. ibid.
When the Great Eastern was launched its paddles were driven by the biggest marine steam-engine of its day. ibid.
After a journey of just fifteen days and five hours his Great Western steamship made a triumphant entry into New York Harbor. ibid.
Brunel had produced two of the finest ocean steamers in the world, but the city of Bristol failed to take advantage of his genius. ibid.
For more than a hundred years steam-trains drove Britain. But in the 1950s the government planned to modernise the railways, scrap steam and close thousands of miles of track. The Golden Age of Steam Railways I: Small is Beautiful, BBC 2012
After World War II branch lines were closed and steam fazed out. Some people refused to accept it. ibid.
A passion to save something they saw disappearing: the world of the narrow-gauge steam railway. ibid.
Talyllyn, north Wales: It didn’t stop the volunteers from opening the world's first preserved railway on May 14th 1951. ibid.
The world’s first narrow-gauge steam railway: it ran for twenty-two miles from the harbour of Porthmadog. ibid.
In the 1950s three thousand miles out of a twenty thousand mile network were lost. A few people resisted these closures. The Golden Age of Steam Railways II: Branching Out
Bridgnorth – the volunteers worked every weekend for two years. ibid.
The Worth Valley Railway reopened in 1968 ... The Preservation movement was gaining momentum. ibid.
The Railway Children was to have an effect on preservation well beyond the Worth Valley. ibid.
All over Britain more than 200 restored steam locomotives are running on more than 100 preserved railway lines. ibid.
I have been branded with folly and madness for attempting what the world calls impossibilities. Even the great engineer Mr James Watt said that I deserve hanging for bringing into use the high-pressure engine. Richard Trevithick
The parties adjourned to the hotel. And comforted their hearts with a roast goose and proper drinks. Richard Trevithick
Richard Trevithick: to get round Watt’s patent Trevithick began to build his own engines. This was his greatest achievement: the Puffing Devil. All eight horse-power of it. And unlike Boulton & Watt’s engine it moved. Trevithick’s genius was he built high-pressure steam engines. Michael Mosley, The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion, BBC 2010
In Darlington in 2008 a team of enthusiasts is building the first brand-new British steam locomotive from scratch in nearly fifty years. It’s a multi-million pound endeavour that started nearly twenty years ago. Timeshift: The Last Days of Steam BBC 2011
It’s theatrical. It’s dirty. Noisy. Powerful. It’s heavy metal in motion. ibid.
Over two and a half thousand brand-new locomotives between 1948 and 1960. ibid.
The railways may not have been Britain’s top priority. ibid.
A wonderful but complicated heritage that could do with a bit of sorting out. ibid. early film
The four great railway companies were brought together into one single new organisation: British Railways. ibid.
Officially the Great Western Railway is dead. And to many undoubtedly the late lamented. ibid. early film
The question of steam’s continuing place on our railways had to be addressed. ibid.
Electrification required miles and miles of costly overhead lines; diesel power was more straightforward. ibid.
This great variety of locomotives running on the lines gave rise to a cultural phenomenon that celebrated this diversity ... The weird and wonderful engines running on Britain’s railways. ibid.
Engine classes, numbers and dimensions ... The trainspotter craze took off. ibid.
‘That thing has got a voice up the front there, it’s making a noise, it’s speaking, the terrific noise it makes ... It sings like a kettle.’ ibid. Trainspotter
British Railways ceased to be a profitable company. ibid.
The passing of steam was happening. Even the railway enthusiast could see that the Age of Steam could not carry on. ibid.
Steam was dirty, noisy and impractical; new diesels were clean, safe and quiet. ibid.
The modernisation plan had promised an end to steam-powered locomotives. But steam-engines carried on being built for several years. ibid.
Others were racing against the clock to preserve Steam’s heritage. ibid.
The Beeching Report of 1963 advocated the closure of money-losing regional lines. ibid.
Luxury Pulmans provide one of the answers ... It’s already been called the Expense Account Train ... It cocks a snook at the MI. ibid. black and white film
As the engines went jobs were removed too. ibid.
Over one hundred separate heritage railways. ibid.
The public are still in love with steam. ibid.
One of the biggest success stories in railway preservation is the Great Western society based at Didcot, and started by the Southall Boys. ibid.
Horses were expensive … Steam was the next choice … but steam trams never took off. Timeshift: The Golden Age of Trams: A Streetcar Named Desire, BBC 2016
Every small boy wanted to be a steam engine driver when they grew up in the old days, including me. There’s something very special about them – the noise, the smell, the steam coming out everywhere. Michael Bond
Almost no-one had understood the fundamental nature of the steam engine; very few were aware of the cosmic principle that underpinned it. Order & Disorder With Jim Al-Khalili I: Energy, BBC 2012
Thomas Newcomen: An engine that harnessed a new type of power – steam. Jim Al-Khalili, Revolutions: The Ideas that Changed the World II: Car, BBC 2019
But building a piston that fits so precisely within a cylinder that could contain that steam under high pressure was really tricky for eighteenth century engineers. ibid.
Watt was determined to make the most efficient steam engine yet produced. Professor Jeremy Black, Why the Industrial Revolution Happened Here, BBC 2013
The Perrier brothers didn’t want to just copy the design of the Watt/Boulton steam engine, they wanted to improve on it … They failed. ibid.
By 1830 Britain is producing four-fifths of all the coal sold anywhere in the world. And from coal you can make steam. The British V: Superpower, Sky Atlantic 2012