All The Stations - The Documentary

during the summer of 2017 Jeff Marshall and Vicki Piper traveled around Britain's railways on services that stopped at all 2563 railway stations their extraordinary journey took 15 weeks starting in Penzance on the 7th of May and finishing in WIC three months later on the 19th of August funded by an online Kickstarter campaign they wanted to record the state of railways in Britain to see how they operated who used them to meet the staff to explore the places as a train can take you to in Britain a snapshot of the railways in 2017 Jeff and Vicki filmed the entire experience and most days published an online video that uncovered the station's towns and people that they encountered along the way and at the end of their journey with all the stations ticked off it was time to reflect on their travels this is all the stations [Music] I think that first day is so so vivid it's been building up for such a long period of time we'd intended to start on the Monday day one should have been Monday the 8th of May and I remember coming out of the hotel that we were staying in in Penzance we're in Penzance all weekend let's just do the sent live brunch on the Sunday and so actually sent Ives became very easy what six or seven stations on that on that first day and I remember that we were doing we were going to do a join Facebook live and periscope on Twitter to announce that the project had started we're here to say we know when we're starting all the stations we tried to keep the day that we were launching under wraps we hadn't publicly announced it to any of our followers where you'll get the 12:05 train there in a minute Viki is over there doing a facebook live what I remember is that I was doing the Facebook live and I always let ten seconds or so go to allow people to join in the Facebook nine and then there was one point where Jeff came over because with the idea was we were gonna exchange phones and then I would be on periscope we're going up the scent Ives branch what's that yes if you're on Facebook I was just on periscope and now I'm on Twitter I was on periscope like the Facebook but when Jeff came to take the camera from me I hadn't really got to explaining properly so I felt a little bit of in the inner in a bit of a anxious state because I felt like I was garbling we're going we've passed over so yes we are already starting we're here in Penzance we're going up some eyes it's a tiny branch we're gonna take a trip up to san Ives to see beautiful top ten I think top ten that it is rated in Europe's beaches [Music] we have officially left our first station [Music] so our journey one station down two 562 to go [Music] which is leaving valence or things on the way up I think we're going to not stop at Leyland but we're gonna stop at it on the way back down questo quite advanced in the left take one we're not even in Wales how I having trouble with pronunciation [Music] [Music] between the start and finish dates the journey took a hundred and five days although only 78 were actual travel days when stations were ticked off averaging 33 each time but ticking off stations was arguably not the best thing about the trip it was meeting the staff the best thing about the railways is the staff the staff that work on the railways are the best people throughout the entire journey we met an incredibly helpful staff please stop doing your job come and talk to us we've met the delightful Stevie when you see all the 30 guys you just heard you've been chatting some of your colleagues yeah that's right and in some of your colleagues have sort of been a demolishing of slightly in a kind of whether they're not gay they're not getting out of every stage so they're not doing it from you cheating basically but you you can't go defense yeah you've convinced me you've sought me round how did we convince you you can reach me I saying basically you've got lives to lead after this and what we're doing is taking three months they were to do it by getting it everywhere would take like a year at least there was a little bit of a deliberate ploy on our behalf because we were aware that we were jumping onto a train very clearly with a video camera and a big microphone and they'd give us a strange look and we're quite quickly learned when than the first day or two the way to defuse a potential what are you doing filming situation was just go talk to the staff why do not try and see funnel actually 37 is a fantastic brilliant welcome all tips you drew me onto the railway I've been on the railway 30 years I don't think I've ever looped back so we're basically at trains of your life and and what is it is it the smell or the sound of a 36% do later today you're going to hear the sound well thank you so much no worries you can cry but what we discovered is that you should just do that anyway and I would encourage people when you get on a train just to always say hello to your guard or conductor that man in Jordan a grain for the legend but we've just met Niall our driver and he's got it on his toy it's got round okay so Neil I love you can I can I have your tie please enjoy the joy receive them but the best thank you so much people that thank you so much love this guy I love this guy so much such a great girl thank you my friend you have days in the road where time is genuinely on the other side but other days when it's not on your side this is one of those days where it's not on your side a very regal way by sometimes I do that terrible thing of judging someone I'd see someone from a distance and think although they look a bit miserable and then we'd say hello and they turned out that they were lovely memory but we spoke to lots of guards lots of drivers lots of platform staff lots of station staff all of whom were so generous with their time and also just like everyone else who was connecting with us on social media giving us tips and advice about places to go and see this is Paul Paul's gonna quickly tell us how to pronounce it overcoming thank you you were did you just come with us the whole week and bl be our translator everything else we want to be like to employ Paul as a translator that would be excellent we do have to mention Ian the selfie King from Lancaster we have a team all the station's team ian is an absolute legend okay are we gonna time for a shelf yeah cuz we've got ten minutes okay well now to trouble you so Ian clearly loves his job and the work that he does and that just comes through nothing was too much trouble with every passenger not just with us they were a few stations honest there okay we've got lancaster capsule which is this one okay lunch the greener is just a bit further down the road where save ridges that's the old station to Morcom and outs all default [Music] we don't know if any of it 20 years now you broke that language over 20 years 20 years people coming up and asking information and he went above and beyond to help and support them and he you can follow him online and see all the selfies that he's taken with hundreds and hundreds of people 12:26 Hisham how about northern service I'm gonna press the project okay lock it up now the signalmen or the Ziggler or the Bobby knows we're ready for departure on platform 2 I wish you're the best thank you thank you so much you were great good luck we've gotta go and he also let me do a platform announce I'll be ready up to 1 2 3 1 2 3 the train standing at platform 2 is the trial 26 to eat you thank you a complete highlight [Music] vision port betray me be careful putting your camera at the nuclear power station because I'll please like switch to premium this time you're gonna get a picture oh if you ever go to Lancaster station you have to ask if ian is working he was an absolute star what some people don't realize is a really really important role on the railway is pest control Oh first and the most famous pest control officer on the network has to be Felix who works at Huddersfield Station but the thing with the unique thing about Felix is that she is a cat this is Felix and she is she is extremely popular with all the passengers at Huddersfield this cat has more Facebook probably than we do how does a cat have more Facebook photos the wonderful staff TPE sent us a message and said let us know and we can arrange an interview with Felix so hannumas Felix being at Hunter's Foods which is fine and also worked as Felix team here at station so she's a very good at pest control amazing and she graced us with with an interview she took it completely in her stride but you again you absolutely have to tell Paulo Felix people love cats and people have railways and you bring those two things together the epitome of that is Felix but if we're talking all the animals as to which was encountered the most that would not fall to our feline friends seagulls featured a lot a very first day in san ives quite aggressive seagulls actually so knives have little signs throughout the town warning you about the seagulls beware seagulls yeah Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff does Posca sometimes my train don't get run over Jeff as they went about their travels Jeff and Vickie spoke to the public other passengers and railway staff to talk about their experience on the railways but also managed to speak to particular people - including on one bright sunny morning at Euston station when they spoke to Sepideh Henry the chairman of Network Rail good morning our first question to you as you know we are travelling to all the stations in Great Britain how many of the stations in Great Britain do you think you have beating kaki I've been on most of the railway in most of Britain North East is a bit weak I think it was a long time ago I haven't done everything which is what we all have done you very kindly sponsored all the stations that we noticed that one of your adopted stations was Dalston Junction is there a story about going back well I was there when it was opened so that's the that was the what was in the bit of the overground from Boston to you crossed a new cross great man to Crystal Palace and that was like embarrassing mm like I think so as the chairman for Network Rail what do you believe the railways are for well that's a really good question what the railway is for is to create economic growth jobs and build houses what it does is move people around but there's a big difference and what I do now a mile they just talk about what they're always for because it's very important that people will realize it's a huge place in society and the economy [Music] what do you feel might be the things when you're traveling on trains in the future that will be easier what do you think will become easy and what might be the challenges with my so I mean one of the things that is coming is there sometimes mostly is connectivity so one of the advantages of traveling on a train is that you can work now actually it's also quite fun to look out the window which I like doing to still even on journeys and I do what's harder is that always getting fuller so actually the trains are getting longer and they'll be more trains but they will be fuller and I think that people have to adapt themselves the fact that he will have something sitting next to you but that's a good thing for the railway because when I was when I joined the transport industry 40 years ago the whole place was in decline and now it's not and that's a much better challenge to face his closing things down the making things worse wonderful - Peter thank you very much again for joining us this morning thank you very much but railways aren't just for the commute or those that love trains they're there to take you to leisure destinations - so as well as being an adventure to explore Britain's railways we also made a very conscious decision that we didn't want to really want to just focus on railways every day because the railways can take you to lots of interesting places and we wanted to show that aspect of the network as well we're on the trend unless that we have together here so we can get to stopping further this train with skip train semester we did a lot of research and people send in tips and information about places that we could go and explore in and around stations across the country it started in a place called Hinkley I have no idea got a complain I have no idea where Hinckley is I've never heard a better town or played the room and that led to the whole vicki explores section of the videos Viki explores sorry should I say Viki explores Preston white person what have you got to offer [Music] Preston from the word priest town or settlement and there are certainly a lot of churches here in restaurant like this one don't know why this one's important I need to check this isn't wall birch and it has the tallest spire of a church that isn't it could be staggering 98 metres tall and also the trains appear to run right next so it just it just involved the sort of the mini-sub series of Viki explores which we've now carried on became a thing at Hinkley so thank Hinkley the Viet all the stations rode on six hundred and twenty two trains in total with just seventeen being late or cancelled that's ninety seven percent of trains that ran as they should a lot of the problems though occurred in one specific period of time so there was this week in June where we had summer one of the most tragic but also slightly comical moments when Rovers aren't valid on was it was when we were traveling around in and around London we're gonna go one stop on the Express to one two three then one step on the Express to terminal 4 then one stop on the Express back to one two three didn't pick up the connector and it was interesting to note that the day that the temp that the temperature hit like thirty degrees four days in a row were the four days where things broke every day is the hottest out here and we and we rocked up at the station and there were no trains at all and well we can obviously tell there was some sort of issue along the line we didn't know if it was a signal failure or something else had happened but we realized there was a lady further down the platform sort of dispensing advice she wasn't in uniform and so at first we just thought well maybe she's just checking Twitter or something on her phone but then we realized she was actually a member of staff but she hadn't clocked on just yet but she had access to to sort of some of the sort of staff forum so she had more information than you can get on the public domain so we went to speak to her he said so what's going on is there going to be a train as they're not going to be trains at a signal failure and she's hit with a really straight face no no pigeons exploded it's too hot Wow Jesus is too hot and what had happened as a pigeon had landed on an overhead wire and somehow had been electrocuted and in the process of exploding had had caused some damage to the underside of a bridge some masonry and and to ensure that it was safe for trains to continue to run underneath it they had to momentarily pause the service so that engineers could go out and check it out and say yes it was safe to cross so pigeon scuppered our journey around London that day a little bit grumpy but a pigeon landed I'm angry at the pigeons these things happen we're on the green for brunch we've walked from ham well to Drayton Green we're gonna try and knock out the green for branch which is so far duded us and then we've still got to struggle with the - sorry harro's and yeah it's just starting to feel like a long day now even though we've had ice cream everything's broke is no - eh there's so much going on now I can't it's hard to summarize with West Ealing the green for trends turned up but now there's been a point spay little Greenford he's delayed right now we're thinking of if in brain stops and we don't know if a train is going to stop into Paddington and we got a Marylebone to knock out the two Subway's go to waitress oh we just buy some pins and sit in a pub somewhere this is what sometimes happens the railway sometimes I'm not going blue bloody hair away but sometimes things happen and it just breaks the staff have been really helpful that driver gwr they're spending the nicest man at GW I'll help you for watching Sven he's so not he was so nice staff usually brilliant the weather the hot weather hasn't helped hold it wheelies on behind I told you he was nice I just bought a thing on my Twitter saying meltdown even monitor his Rams no another is going on saying it is running to make your breaking point that's where we're standing but frankly it's been a long day we have things to do and we're heading off tomorrow you're gonna substitute for parent I'd like to say we loved of our ways but sometimes they don't know it works today is one of those days where there's afternoon haven't worked traveling from place to place in different towns and cities all over Britain meant not staying at home in London but in hotels so where did we stay every night we stayed in a lot of premier inns everything is it me or do all Premier Inn rooms just look like identical I literally don't know what city were in right oh my mainly because from a technical point of view they have really good Wi-Fi so we were uploading video clips every day the initial plan had been to post back every day SD cards and then I realized quite quickly that if you you could pay for like a monthly there's not a lot of money to pay for like a monthly pass for premium Wi-Fi and we'd get in and instantly we'd put things on charge slam the SD cards into the computer and start uploading it over the internet back to London to the video editors trying to get out of it they just look and I know that they're sort of the same when you go in the TVs always there and the beds always there but in a way that familiarity it felt like almost like sometimes you were going home and go up that line a man called gareth is giving us a lift even though you're in a different town it was the same i don't know how do we do I didn't ask him why they help it's a random that live in it went back to walk out and just find hopefully a nice medical care okay so when we get in the car why did you ask all those questions I'm really hoping this man's Gareth like an Internet nutter yeah we vet him in the car I live in a village called higher Kinison which is okay what do you do I work as a freelance theater production electrician which means I do the lighting for shows that's very cool good choice why are you helping us it just seemed like a really cool thing to do over something he passes my screening test that's not for me to decide getting lists from people between stations turned out to be key as it saved time in making connections often preventing doubling back and people took to it by printing their own all the stations taxi signs I can see a man with the sign everybody meet Dan morning gives your car at the ready we gonna go it's very cheap Senate fool [Music] [Music] come here and I could we should do a new series next year called all the premier inns we made some pretty epic connections we did have a lot of moments where we didn't always make the connection that we planned to early on one of our one of the small failures was a train ran late going into Newton Abbot we're approaching you and Abbot minutes ago we had to change and come down to paint and reverse and there was a bit of drama because I didn't think we were gonna make or have be on the train which will allow us to spend time at Dawlish it's going to be adjacent we're coming in and one what we'll be going is if as we arrived it was like it's just like doing tube challenge can you sit it on the platform that's our train that's our train it's a piece of Vicki hold the pacer hold the pacer it's going it's put in there now there it goes I can see our train disappearing into the distance that's really annoying so I felt like I was always making epic connections I remember in Winchester it was a we had about 25 minutes to get from the station down to the Cathedral in Salisbury but we just I'm trying again to see if I can get to Cathedral in time before we have to catch our train go 20 minutes often on vicky's explores I became so focused on trying to find whatever it was that I wanted to take a bit of footage of I the more I did it the more I sort of stretched it's like okay so wherever I am in 10 minutes I have to turn back because if it takes me 10 minutes to get this far it's gonna take me 10 minutes if I come that's all the time I've got but the more I did it the more I was determined to to not not be foiled that's sort of the back of the Cathedral but okay I think I might have one minute to do your on the front and then I really have to maybe run and then I realize oh my god I've only got like eight minutes or something whatever it was to get to get back to station and I'm literally running up the hill I've got a Martin boots on I get back like with 30 seconds to spare before the Train a Jeff is casually sitting on the platform going on yes delayed by five minutes but you couldn't text me back could you oh no sorry we decided to go with option two which involved Vicki running to go and get a shot but while you're ready to get a shot of Winchester Cathedral and she had to be back here to pick up a certain train which valiantly you've done but in the meantime we've now switched to option three at ten one minutes to come back and maybe to look like it's definitely to look like that ya know I've learned about what you see what have you learn about winter Cathedral it's amazing okay and from the station you go downhill but on the way back you come up [Applause] [Music] some connections between two separate stations were made with the help of a ride in a friend's car or in some cases a complete strangers car so it was hard to like vlog as the word is everyday because sometimes you're walking along and I am thinking we need to get this shot or get that short or we need to edit this later must get a shot of that must get a cutaway and I was impressed with myself that sometimes I would think that even in like the heat at the moment so there was one moment just one moment on the whole of the trip where we sort of engineered a small thing to happen and we're glad that I did because it worked out well there was a moment where we were walking between thorn north and thorn South Station and we thought it would take about 10 or 15 minutes so doing the walk between thorn south and Thor north but once we got there and we started to walk through the town we're looking and checking Google Maps we realized oh it's actually more like 20 or 25 minutes away I think we got a walk get about like we've got to like we've got 28 minutes to do a 26 minute walk and as we're walking along discussing this and the corner of a ride this blue car just pulls up into the curb hello what we going to Shawn hoo-wee who are you nice bathroom subscriber - what tell all the stations no you're not do you live it you live in some and just pure pure coincidence they just happen to be driving past they apparently they drove pastor Thoris and then and then turned around to come back and say hello and if they hadn't then we then we wouldn't have made our train he goes big bit and the girl winds down the window she goes scuse me are you Jeff and Vicki and we're like yes she goes oh we just saw you guys and at that moment in five seconds I went I mean you're about to offer us a lift and they were like yes I went brilliant okay well had the lift because we need to get a thorn or that said but it'll be so much better if we could capture that all on video so could you just drive back a hundred yards and come back again and this time we'll have the camera rolling so so I admit police forgive us that the moment where the car pulls up and they go you Jeff and Vicki that was the second time that happened but I would he like that ten seconds and in a minute I opened the door and we get in we go hello who are you that we didn't know who they were that was all that was all unscripted that was as was your genuinely driving past we were just driving home I was like sure that's Jeff I'm gonna turn around see if it is but yes the initial moment when they pull up we got them to do that again but the rest of it was real but thanks Matt anyways this is not planned at all whatsoever because I don't think we'd have made the thorne North train had had they not have been driving past and that was the brilliant thing it was a genuine random we just saw you walking down the street what are the chances moment about happening it has two stations because Ashley crosses over so one side of the line goes on one side of the Humber River and the other side goes on the other side so this station will take you to Hall and the other side will take you down to Cleef ops yeah so that's why it has two stations so that was just one of those in the right place at the right time moments yet sometimes luck just helped us on our way the most useful old thing that is still in use on the network on our first day we witness the beauty that is the token exchange that's the under staff the staff working I don't know what that means what does that mean instead a token block to go down to San Ives its staff working so the only train that can go down there often to rescue the fell trains the Train that's got that is literally a token a physical object that gets given to the driver so that they know that they have right of way on that piece of line and we saw we saw tokens in various different forms some were wooden battens the one that we saw that's an earth station down in Cornwall was was a wooden baton that's that's all I can describe it as and they believe it's the original token from when the railway first opened in in the nineteenth century but the best bit is that we think that's the original one from like the 1870s no as far as I'm aware all the bits on it are that's phenomenal I feel like I should have white gloves on I think one stage it politically on the end of it what the keepin floor so interlocked to the points but now I still haven't unlocked with the signal box okay that's phenomenal thank you in other places they tend to be sort of metal rings they're quite large metal rings and so you see signal is coming out of their boxes down the stairs handing them over to drivers in in what feels like the middle of nowhere another part that springs to mind is in Worcester shrub Hill Station where they have disk signalling so we often think of semaphore signaling as being the arm semaphore signaling but there's also disk version of the semaphore and a Worcester shrub Hill it's it's in the middle of platform 1 I think it is and it was designed because there was less room it was it's in on the platform it's underneath the platform canopy so no room for your arms then before signaling so save space it's a disk and and I believe it is the the last working disks and fall on the network [Applause] it's a manual level crochet there's no money left how many times a hundred day there just it command of the deep I don't know why it's so brilliant but just the idea that we're not in a world where you know well everything is automated yeah where I can be on my phone and share everything with you guys which is brilliant that this sort of pleasure in doing something manually I find that brilliant the man has to come out and and close the get me close the gates [Music] it's a perfect little station isn't it also there's lots of industry around so it's sort of secretin is secreted into the modern world there were many things that surprised me about the railway network I am a bit of a train nerd I'd always loved trains I live in London I have I was born in London I I grew up in an area where trains are every you know four five six ten minutes and often at my local station and don't need to check a timetable I can just rock up knowing that there'll be a train within ten minutes but what was even more surprising than that is that I'm used to like four or eight carriage electric multiple units and I'll complain at my local station if instead of there being an eight car unit there's a problem that day and they only send out four cars near like all with everybody's crammed onto four cars that's nothing compared to the fact when you get a single car one five three unit turn up and a hundred people are all trying to squeeze into one car I was genuinely a little bit surprised at major cities and conurbation so it's what two example out of Felixstowe it's a one car unit train Vicki is a paper or a sprinter a face printer it is a sprinter I thought this would be a very quiet train maybe it because it's like the six o'clock end of the Working Day yeah this tiny ron-karr tractor felixstowe he is very busy we might have to be weird [Music] going up to Lincoln through Market raisin it's a one-car train we were somewhere in the Bradford to Halifax area and it was a one car unit train I'm thinking this is what they said why aren't they running two or three car trains that they'd introduced a new shuttle from Salisbury down to West free it was a one-car train covered commute to our yes I went at half turn if I was in charge sometimes people say to me what would you change I would say get rid of all the instances where there's a one-car train and upgrade them to be two or three car trains and I know it's not that simple because there's often not platform space or the rolling stock but yes when people say to me oh you're in London you've got you've got it easy you can see what they mean when you turn up to a station and there's just a one-car train [Music] there's definitely also places in the country where you think gosh this this place just needs more railways when you look at an old map from pre beaching times and somebody actually sent us during our trip a map of the height of Britain's railways before beaching came in with his axe and it was literally doubled then the joke was what we did two thousand five hundred and sixty-three stations I think at the peak pre beaching era they were like five thousand stations so he joked about how it would have taken twice the amount of time had we been doing this back in the late 1950s early 1960s but I think the area where we noticed that the most was when we got to Lincoln's year so we didn't Lincoln through to Skegness there's this really strange bit of railway with a railway sort of comes up like this and then curls round on a really weird curve and you think why is there that curve in the middle of nowhere because the railway used to carry on and then the curve was within the branch down the sky glimpse but they've ever used to go up the coast and we actually spoke to some people from Lincoln shared so this isn't just me saying it but some locals agreed it sort of feels a bit cut off from the rest of the country that it has it has small trains and a sparse surface and yeah and and we got this train out from Haven house one morning the way back back and Skegness and it just sort of went along for like 20 minutes not many intermediate stations infrequent trains and we set there and we thought crikey if there's one County in England that leads more out ways it's Lincoln and everybody that we've spoken to that from synth from linkage it agrees with us I would love Lincoln should have more allies there's one thing [Music] [Applause] [Music] Chadd you get Sleaford we are in bad neither to tea or coffee very badly to the plus side it's not raining today [Music] [Music] the sixth we're on the train we came to Gordon Hill Vicki and I'm making stupid gags I think he's like so what do you think of Gordon Hill Jeff I'm like yeah he's a really top bloke right and this chap here in the next week Dominic actually brings up some good websites tops you cheat on your wife and the Daleks like what you guys did so gently Dominic now you're on the train going up the Hartford North because you can't drive video because you lost your license Dominic let's not go into details on there that's but you were forced to get the Train because you can't get on the truck it was interesting we were just chatting and you were saying that you think that people are all too ready to complain when things go wrong but people never remember you know the nine out of the ten journeys when it rains on middle is that how I feel me personally I'll use the train from meditation children and then it won't playing a bit of chess just I've got to read rather than being in the car be like man gasps did you learn I've got a nine month old daughter's of my life at home is pretty hectic my life or work is pretty hectic this is like my it's like an hour yeah yeah I used to have peace on the toilet and now get it on the train [Music] approaching water apps at Stone and Joe Thomas on Facebook hi Joe got in touch to say that this was the filming makers are very near to the station of the seventies controversial film the finishing line which is it wasn't intended as a public information film but it's been seen as bad since and it tells the story of the consequences of children play we tracks [Music] if as well ignoring us see express edition his will was with driving high and it's one of his children is awake and another one whose children is less awake I'm gonna film magic magic on the train hello again charges coming with us we're just gonna make the 1710 we're literally just gonna make it let's end it now today can I just say London tick tick they don't think about the horrible ever head-on in London [Music] when in Scotland all the stations spent a week in Glasgow taking of all the suburban lines but whilst there they also got to speak to the executive director of the railway Heritage Trust good morning it's Thursday the 10th of August we're outside the wonderful Glasgow Central Station and we are very lucky to be with and the savage good morning Andy it is nice to meet you thank you and you are the executive director of the railway Heritage Trust is that very so tell us what does that mean what do you do anything okay well I hope I go around and make people happy usually by giving a month we're company we're not a trust from the name of another charity were a company were sponsored by but not part of network like highways England who look up to the residual estate and we give grants to help look after the heritage of listed buildings and listed structures and building construction and conservation areas fantastic so as we've been traveling around we've seen it almost every place we've been that the blue plaques that say railway Heritage Trust and also other sort of commemorative memorials to different events is that the kind of thing that you're all well we do plaques on our bigger more spectacular jobs so the plaques are largely a side effects what we basically do is putting money into restoring the building so our budget is in terms of the railway industry it's pretty insignificant but it's still 2 million pounds a year so it's not nothing and we general in most years they spent two million and we draw in about another two and a half million and so we also get about four and a half in which were were done on Network Wales industry so it really is sounds like it's it's about keeping the heritage of these buildings at the forefront about bringing the community in and about keeping that feeling of where these these buildings have come from the history it's about finding use for the building so sometimes it's community like up an hour sometimes it's railway sometimes it's commercial you've been to York have you been to New York yes yes that's one of ours I was actually my idea was to get pivovar to do the York tuck they've done a tap at Sheffield which we funded they've in York and we've also funded the windows for them in the lodges in Houston so it's a commercial business they're there to make a profit that we've improved the heritage features of the buildings that they work Andy that's fantastic thank you so much for meeting with us this morning my pleasure as well what's for at glasgow central we just wanted to say that if you sneak into the Grand Central Hotel into its champagne bar up from the first floor has the view have fun to Glasgow Central Division and it's a good view Glasgow was one of my favorite weeks of of the whole year I've never really explored Glasgow much I've been there through there by car I didn't realise definitely for sure how how its suburban railway network you know I think it's almost second to London's you know in London you have a very intense suburban railway network and Glasgow was just like that [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] but one of the most beautiful and I laid there quite sincerely one of the most beautiful moments of the whole experience was any time that we engaged with with the public and we'd had our theme tune which my good friend Steven made for us and he'd done various mixes for us so throughout the series we'd had that the main theme and we had like a piano version and like an orchestral version [Music] and then very kindly he came up with he made a PDF of like that the score because someone wanted to play it and so he put into our shared Dropbox the the all the station's musical score and so we're in Glasgow Central Station and I realized one day on a third day in Glasgow that they had one of those pianos one of those hey anybody can picture up they got on instant pancreas as well in various places and suddenly I was like I know we should we should see if we can get some people to maybe come and play the piano [Music] [Applause] [Music] and on the day that some random dude and I come in his name I'm so sorry and a gentleman approached us gave us some tze but here I know you know Harry have some teas and then he ran off and he handed us two cups of hot tea that was the day that we decided to do the piano thing so at very short notice we put a tweet out saying if anybody can play the piano rock up to Glasgow at 5:00 p.m. this evening and about three or four people came down including the guy that given us tea that morning and there was just this it was just a beautiful moment where to these guys they sat down and we got my iPad out and I put the music on and they jammed the all the station music and I remember live-streaming it on my phone at the time going look look what we're doing [Music] and even one of the station stuff the network trail staff came over and they were a little bit like what are you doing I'm like using the public piano which you've provided for us to have moments like this and it was it was a great moment and if I could relive any sort of non train moment of the whole experience it would be to have a little it was like a little it's our own little rock concert gig Glasgow station does that sound he said whilst the series was produced for YouTube TV and radio media outlets did get in touch which in itself led to some strange adventures there is one thing we need to put the record straight on may I put the record straight on something in my eye thank you we're going to call this the Peterborough incident I'm on the Kelly how can you be there and also here I thought that what dude we're good morning same t-shirt we were fortunate enough to generate a lot of publicity in the media so the newspapers picked up on it out Ruth Thank You Ruth who worked so hard on on the press side and once we got in the papers then the TV picked up on it and so we were delighted when the BBC came out to do a package Jeff and Vicki in Starbridge on a class 139 so I asked can't join you sure they said features of Westbury we're on the wrong I think we were stood was it Pusey no Bedwin David's letter their arts correspondent came out and he interviewed us on the platforms at their point station I am wondering yeah I think I will be there so there are so many got nothing else going on in your life well it's pretty full let's go back to work and he asked us the question which you wouldn't actually ask knowing that we were a couple he's like well what's it what's it been like you know your relationship between the two you have you have you got on the whole time but what about the people at the center of this there have been moments with two things so straightaway I I found myself quoting this a lot there's a very famous quote from Ernest Hemingway I'll quote it again now in case you don't know it and that his line was do not travel with those you do not love fortunately we're okay and then I said I said turn to Vicki and I said well apart from that time at Peterborough and David looked at Vicki man the time that Peter Burke should we talk about the Peterborough [Music] and at this point something rather strange happened because Vicki thought I was referring to another incident because we'd actually been to Peterborough twice and the first time we've been to Peterborough [Music] it's actually the day that we come through Hinkley to the date the day that we discovered Vickie explores we then later got the train to Peterborough and the weird thing is I can't him or why if he was to ask me but we had this massive argument at Peterborough I think I'd fallen asleep on the train I'd woken up I was a bit grumpy and we got to Peterborough and Vicki said something maybe a bit curtly and I just took it the wrong way or I was being an idiot and I took it the wrong way and we sort of had this massive argument on the platform at Peterborough and her next train wasn't for 55 minutes and let me tell you people for the whole of 50 funders at 555 minutes at Peterborough we didn't talk to each other we went to separate into the platform so we had this major falling out but I can't even remember what it was about there was the weird thing but two weeks later we'd gone back through Peterborough on a completely separate time and day and our train in had run a few minutes late and we missed the connection and I got very angry and there's this video of me going ah miss train Jeff takes it very seriously we've missed the Train and Vicki went quite brilliantly she went Jeff no worries I'll just go and visit Peterborough Cathedral we know let's turn this negative into positive now they've got time to go and check out Peter per Cathedral I know right you go and do that I'll get the teas in and the sandwich and so she went off and did Peterborough and so when David asked us about how did we gotten on the whole time Vicki referenced forgetting that we had this major falling-out the first time Peter but she went oh there was a time at Peterborough thinking where we missed the train and we took ours a bit like her angry and she told him about the Peterborough incident and I stood there on the platform at Bevan gangnet thinking know that listen that's not what but it was because he a big camera and I didn't want to say Vicki you're wrong I just sort of let it go thinking of well he probably won't use this but when the package went out on the BBC he made a big fuss about the Peterborough hits are done I remember thinking no this is wrong this is not what I was referring to and then the Peterborough Cathedral saw the package got the BBC and tweeted us going oh we heard we heard we might have been the source of your argument because he'd made it look that we'd missed the Train because Vicki had gone to Peterborough Cathedral but that wasn't the case and so it was misreported and later on and the trip my friend Ian author who we interviewed gave us a copy of his latest book and he gave it to us in a Peterborough Cathedral carrier saying I heard you had an incident at Peterborough but there wasn't it was fine Peter per Cathedral you're fine you did not cause any argument I promise you David salute Oh BBC news at a railway station somewhere in Britain I can't do this documentary without mentioning the career station it would be wrong of me if I were to non-instant even though I I feel like I've mentioned a lot it would be fair to say that before we even set out on the trip I knew that we were going to spend the night at career station because there was a B&B in air B&B part of me was just focused on it'll be great when we get to Scotland and go to Carew I'd always wanted to go there I'd been on a when I was 18 years old back in 1990 I've been on a driving holiday of Scotland and it was strange because back then I'm not a train spotter I don't write down the numbers but I'm fascinated by the infrastructure by the men that built the viaduct or the permanent way crew that laid the metals through through mountains or just scheduling how you connect up services or in single track lines like careers you know how do you make sure that you know that there's a regular pattern of trains going in both directions we made it to through the alternate career it's in the remote Highlands it's a totally unique another way station there's no public access except by railway they'd used it as a famous filming location for Trainspotting I really wanted to go to Korea it was at the 18 year old inside of me really wanted to go to Korea and so it became a bit of a an obsession to be like we had to spend the night in Korea and make a big fuss about this so I thought we were staying in that building over there this is not the case around and actually we're actually staying in the old so this is our room in here well just for a second this is where we're staying tonight with all our stuff come with me the thing you need to say mainly he's actually down here up here and this is inside the old signal box so you can see clearly here you're in the cabin where they would have in the leaves and whatnot and it's now been turned into like a little attic den a little snug where they said we can hang out later with views in all directions 360-degree views and there's nothing short of stunning is absolutely nothing short of stunning it's the best station that I I kind of knew it's gonna be come stay here [Applause] [Music] [Music] and at the end with just over 100 days spent traveling on 620 trains what did they consider was the best thing about the railway network if I were to sum up Britain's railways I would say I think I mentioned it earlier there's obviously there's the commuter railway and then there's the off-peak ledger our way I think Moore was the only thing I'd like to see less of no way I think there isn't anything I'd like to see less of because I think we just need more we need more railways we need more services we need more opportunities for people to travel what the off-peak as a railway allows you to do is have an adventure and this became sort of a tagline which we then used there was a day where we were in Manchester with our friend Karl and we stopped it I think it was missed and station there was no people that we know about everything so I feel like we've missed out on the cafe a little hang on train um stone has an amazing pub called the steam house are we allowed to have a drink on the job I don't think we are by our own rules I think we can and me and Carl and and the key sat there thanks Carl because I think he was key to it we were just chatting about he was excited for us about our adventure about he might even said the phrase it's great you guys are having an adventure and this phrase have an adventure sort of came out and it was at that moment there I went you know what we should yeah what this isn't just about us we're engaging with other people on social media we should get other people out on railways to have their own adventure and it was at that moment I went right let's record a video right now and we got the camera out and we made an impromptu video and we were select guys we and we picked a weekend in August we went this is that weekend that we want you all to go out and have your own adventure and email us in your pictures and tell us where you're going and then we made a video about it [Music] and it was a beautiful thing and we had we had I'm sorry if we didn't I really am sorry if we didn't include your picture that you emailed in in in your own adventure because we got just so many and it was quite humbling to I opened up my email that morning and the emails were like bum bum but it was like whoa they all have attachments from where everybody in their hundreds we're sending in pictures not just in Britain but around the world as well and it was a great thing so I think every year we should have an all the station to have an adventure day so we might do it again in 2018 where we're like okay guys this is this is this year's date to go off and have your own adventure let's make that an annual tradition what would be good to have less of would be the negativity around the railways and yes it's not a flawless system it has issues and problems as all businesses do all transport networks all transport services do the roads the the rivers you know they they're all have their problems and barriers that they have to overcome were catering where it's raining and our train isn't going to call be apparently all trains to court be it been canceled for the next few hours and there's an obstruction aligned so I think the trees come down on the line Corby we're going to have to come back to you another day and that is all good but very often I feel that the way in which the railway is discussed and described even within communities of people who are enthusiasts or who are passionate about it they often talk about the railways as the good old days or what was pre beaching or what went before the railways have their flaws but they are brilliant and they work so well within the parameters that we have and there are so many opportunities to improve it it would be great to see more people sharing more positive stories about the railways you if you're travelling on the railways and you have a good journey you never really shout about it you never see tweets people going ah the 12:52 from Waterloo was on time and I got to work ok you probably you never see that you always see people sending messages about it was delayed or the carriage door shut on me and I couldn't get my train or you know you always hear the negative stories and so it would be wonderful to have more positivity on more of those positive experiences that people have showed cased more so that people realize that that there is a good opportunity for them to travel railways let you go out and have an adventure that's that's a great thing you can go out you can see something new you can meet new people you can make a friend you can have an experience and just have a brilliant day out and that's why railways are the best [Applause] so it's been put to us as a question if this were to occur again in 20 years time what would we hoped would have changed and what would we have liked to have stayed the same so what we've done and what we we hoped we would do is create a snapshot of what Britain's railways are like in 2017 if someone doesn't have to be us if someone was to do the same journey again in say 20 years time I hope some things would be the same and I hope some things would be very different and my answer to that would be stick around because maybe we'll be able to tell you ourselves because I think at the time when we did this we thought well this would be amazing we'll never do this again or we'll move on and do something else but it did come up in conversation the other day maybe a bit like they do with the national census opposed every 10 years what if all the stations happened every 10 years things like where you have single track services whilst the great thing about that is you get to see this this token exchange you get to see the sort of nostalgic perspective of the railways and you're reminded of the history of Britain's railways those places the services are dominated by those physical constraints there is part of us myself and Vicki where we thought yeah yeah we can do this again in 20 year 22 2027 thanks maths I think we could do it again I would hope that in areas where it's it's needed you know you can double the track or put in a new line to provide better services for those areas to allow people living in and around those communities to have more opportunities to travel not just further away to different parts of their countries but also with within their own regions as well and that just provides people with more opportunities for the work or or to see friends and families that they don't often regularly get to see or in some people's cases it could be access to medical treatment at different hospitals that they otherwise wouldn't be able to to access I don't know would you like us to do it again in ten years and do a comparison what change between now and then obviously we would we're going to live forever but wouldn't be great if we started a tradition somewhere somewhere in England when or Scotland or Wales it right the years ending in seven off we go it's time to do all the stations I'd like to I'd like to do at least one more time in 2027 I don't know about 2037 though I think I'd be too old by then it would be exhausting on these poor old bones but stick around [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: All The Stations

Views: 1,179,890

Keywords: all the stations, geofftech, geoff marshall, vicki pipe, every station, 2563 stations, great britain railways, all railways, every single station, network rail, national rail, british rail, peter hendy

Id: uXNym2JgUgY

Length: 78min 0sec (4680 seconds)

Published: Sat May 19 2018