Train Truckers Season 01 Season 01

an historic steam engine weighing over 90 tons britannia is a really big loco one of the biggest steam engines that run on the network can a team haul this precious antique 70 miles cross country to return it to the rails terribly cruel on them tires this is italian a super long metro train that's been re-engineered for the 21st century the class 230 is pretty unique it's the only battery trained in the country you're good to go gav let's ride can this crew transport this super-sized load through rugged rural roads in time for its first scheduled departure the teams must battle tight turns the spin in the back of the trailer on the spot treacherous traffic he's moved made it 10 times worse [Music] and heavy metal deliver these enormous engines on time [Music] a titanic task even for the world's toughest train truckers [Music] crew a great british railway town in the north of england in its heyday in the 1930s cruz railway works employed 20 000 people who designed and constructed more than 7000 steam engines [Music] today in the heart of the town sits lnwr heritage this is a specialist restoration workshop where historic locomotives are repaired and refurbished ian walker is the chief engineer steam locomotives were abandoned because they were labour intensive in some respects unreliable so we just muck in and get them fixed among the many prestigious engines undergoing work here is a steam-powered superstar this is britannia britannia is one of the iconic steam engines britannia is one of those premier league locomotives it's up there with your flying scotsmans and your tornadoes built in crew in 1951 britannia was the very first engine made by the newly formed british rail britannia's the first of its class there's quite a lot of experimental kit on it she is latest technology in terms of steam development 55 britannia-class locomotives were built to haul both passengers and freight at speed around britain but today just two examples survive ian's team has devoted the last two years to painstakingly restoring britannia this will allow it to return to the tracks for another 10 years of service lnwr heritage was founded by pot producer and railway enthusiast pete waterman in 1988 the engine you see now you can't imagine how much work has gone into it from what it was like when i purchased it it's probably now better than the day it was made the restored locomotive is believed to be worth two million pounds it's set to roll again on the seven valley railway in kidderminster we'll accumulate a total of around about a thousand miles before we go for a test run on the national network but just one thing stands between the 94 ton locomotive and the seven valley railway 70 miles of winding road 75 miles south is a company that devises unique solutions to problems like this is a family-run firm that specializes in transporting heavyweight railway locomotives old and new we started initially just your standard trucks and grown over the years they have 10 dedicated heavy haulage crews that operate an arsenal of innovative trucks and machinery to haul train engines and carriages around the world so that is britannia loco and tender pick up a crew at your site and running down to seven valley kidderminster brittanya weighs in at 94 tons and is 21 meters long that's twice the length of a double-decker bus and seven times heavier britannia is a really big loco she's one of the biggest locos i've run on the network hauling this goliath to kidderminster will be an epic engineering endeavor the team needs to make sure that they select the optimum route the best trucks and the most resilient crew for this job [Music] it's the day of the big move britannia is finally ready for its epic road journey it's one wagon or two they reverse it they'll be right way around [Music] squeezing their way down the narrow entrance road a combined 1200 brake horsepower of locomotive hauling hardware terry savery heads up today's move [Applause] terry has 28 years train moving experience making him ali's support driver jason priest lends terry a hand we're gonna get wet i think tonight the crew has just 12 hours to deliver britannia to its destination once britannia is loaded terry's team need to navigate the engine 70 miles from crew to the seven valley railway the most direct route takes them over an elevated section of road which has weight restrictions so the team need to take a much more complicated route that cuts straight through wolverhampton to make this challenge even more difficult heavy loads drivers like terry can only be on the road for nine hours a day we've got to get it off tonight the problem you got is wolverhampton you can't really go through and rush over terry's already used up two of his driving hours getting here so he needs to crack on but one thing's missing all right we're going to find out where the loco is team britannia are still making some final tweaks have you got that spanner just put the normal at the back or something first task ian's right hand man ben needs to move britannia and its tender to the opposite side of the workshop we can't um start putting their ramp down until the loco has gone past us i have to then separate the tender from the loco and then we can go on put air ramp down and then winch it on and unfortunately it's going to be a delay of i don't know how long [Music] all right let's do it ben calls in a diesel shunter to haul britannia into position for terry this will be the precious engine's longest run in over two years so they need to take it nice and slow it's mainly because it's all new you can hear things starting to bind so you perhaps you can ease things if you have to like any 68 year old britannia has a few creaking joints but so far so good [Music] it's now gone 12. we just need them now to split it and then we can start loading it with britannia finally in position terry and his team face their next big challenge they need to load the 94 ton engine onto the truck to do this terry's crew must build a ramp from the back of the trailer down to the rails and reinforce it with heavy blocks of wood to haul britannia onto the trailer they need to hook it up to winch cables these will safely pull the engine up onto the trailer terry's team want to beat the traffic and reach their destination before nightfall they're ready to load the locomotive but the locomotive isn't ready for them for this one before it disappears at the moment they're still working on the loca and we can't have it till they finish working on it so i don't know why there's a delay but there is a delay so until they've finished whatever he's doing to it we're sat here twiggling their thumbs in crew after a two-hour delay terry and his trucking team are finally gearing up to winch the steam-powered superstar britannia onto their truck for its mile journey to the seven valley railway in kidderminster [Music] hold in there chase we've got the white of the loco on that they need to take great care winching this precious engine one of the problems with big steam engines is they're not designed to go up onto trailers britannia was built to travel along smooth flat rails not steep inclines as the team winch the engine there is a risk that its multiple fixed axles will cause the load to rise into the air and topple like a child on a seesaw to guard against this terry's team has built a long shallow ramp this should allow them to load britannia more smoothly another matron the last whale will be on the hedge eyes i think we'll try it there it's taken 90 painstaking minutes to carefully winch britannia and its tender up onto the trailers locked and loaded they're running two hours behind schedule two hours is the difference between doing it in one day and doing it in two days next challenge reverse the heavily loaded trucks out of the tree-lined yard and onto the road a risky maneuver okay i'm bringing it over to the offside mate towards these railings yeah i'm going to keep it tight to the near side up here tends to keep that tree's mate right one says the worst of these branches are these first few the trees were a close shave but terry's team need a guiding hand to make the tight 90 degree turn onto the main road without rear wheel steer the trailer wouldn't have the space to make the turn and would end up blocking the road but jason can operate the rear wheels independently by remote control this allows him to guide the trailer safely out onto the road nice and steady tastes coming up on the curb mate come on go on terribly cruel on them tires this is i'll tell you go on mate [Music] they make it out but navigating this enormous steam engine through cruise rush hour will be no mean feat [Music] 80 miles south a second team from alalys is gearing up to undertake another very special train trucking mission [Applause] this might look like a train graveyard but it isn't where old trains come to die here in stratford-upon-avon engineers transform old london underground trains to give them a new lease of life [Music] the class 230 is a brand new environmentally friendly prototype train built by british startup viva rail each carriage and engine is refurbished london underground stock [Music] the class 230s are particularly green not least because we saved all this material going to waste but the way we've built it as well so we've used things like automotive technology which is much cleaner greener and much more far advanced than rail technology [Music] the class 230 can also be configured to run as a zero-emission battery-powered train the only one operating in the uk they offer the low emissions of an electric train without the cost of the infrastructure of electrifying a railway which is massive cost for rural lines it could be a game changer these pioneers want to launch their groundbreaking train at an event here at the bones and canel railway on the firth of fourth scotland but transporting two of these nearly 19 meter long cars by road will test the train trucking team's metal the crews will need to navigate the loads 422 miles from stratford-upon-avon to the bow nesting canal railway near edinburgh the most direct west coast route passes through the same section of weak elevated road that britannia must also avoid so the team need to take a much longer alternative route up the east coast [Music] [Music] 10 am on the day of the big move the two units need to be in scotland for their launch event 36 hours from now in charge of this trucking mission is gav joseph's in his eight years on the job gav has moved over 500 trains it's hard work a lot of lifting and humping about first challenge shunt the train into position so he can load its two cars onto a truck i just want the train pushed further down so we can get the truck over the top of the track we straighten it all up then that's the ideal why [Music] if the trailer is at an angle to the railway line then the ramp won't be straight and the train could roll over and derail so gavin needs the train to move back so he can line his trailer up with the rails build the ramp and ensure the load is smooth and trouble-free oh it seems like maybe i'll get it on the line this battery-powered train is a complex prototype starting it up calls for engineers with laptops can you get it so it just rolls [Applause] as the train rolls into position callum broadhurst and dave monger arrive with another low loader to hold a second car up to scotland are you ready to go on are you okay yeah we'll get gavin loaded once he's loaded get his net back on and ramp away and then we'll pull on the line then and we'll get loaded but the quickest way to do it compared to a steam engine like britannia the class 230 is a featherweight but lighter trains are more likely to derail i'm just looking out here just in case the points move you see there this comes onto the ramp you just want to watch yourself and points don't kick out gav's well experience of building ramps that bulldozes a bit low on there yeah isn't it the class 230 will run on rural lines so engineers have fitted snow plows front and rear you catch it unfortunately they sit precariously close to gav's loading ramp [Music] one car safely loaded one more to go in crew terry is struggling to steer the legendary steam engine britannia through rush hour traffic jason keeps a close watch from his escort vehicle let's watch that idiot in that black bmw which come out here mate go on come on come on go on go on nice and steady mate come on nice and steady go on go on go on come on hang on steady on he's moving the idiot he's moved and made it 10 times worse [Music] it's 5 p.m the original plan was to have delivered and unloaded britannia by now but terry and jason still have the 70 mile drive to the seven valley railway in kidderminster ahead of them i should think we'll probably be four hours now at the moment we've got road words and anything over nine foot six has to have two lanes and we are with three meters so we're ten foot so we have two lanes now through here and jason will stop the traffic or just warn the traffic that we're ahead [Music] it takes three and a half hours to reach the outskirts of wolverhampton six more i think from the m5 so maybe another hour and a half maybe we'll be in kitty minster after a few close calls yeah there's a numpty here in a in a black mercedes i think second there's some sort of gap like he's gonna try and go up the curb jason terry and britannia finally make it to the seven valley [Music] next challenge reverse the huge load down the busy main road and into the railways yard but there's a problem the batteries in jason's radio and his steering remote control have both died [Music] the truck is stranded jason must work fast to move the truck and clear the road you've got a radio there there's one on charge mike he swaps his radio for terry spare the batteries are done there are no batteries and grabs the backup steering control that's better go on mate come on okay i need to get a better lock on i'm gonna move it over to the near side a little bit it was working fine and all of a sudden it started throwing the steer into the opposite way and then it stopped it's always when you're in the middle of the road you know it's 9 30. three hours later than planned britannia finally makes it into the yard legendary engine britannia has arrived at the seven valley railway terry remains responsible for the engine while it's on his truck so tonight he's bedding down with britannia we dared leave it here or not unattended because there are people who steal things especially copper so it's just practice that we wouldn't leave a valuable engine unattended even though it's locked up in a compound so i've got the short straw we'll see in the morning [Music] in stratford-upon-avon gav callum and dave are gearing up to load the second all-electric class 230 cars for their epic journey to scotland but this car's low-hanging snowplow looks set to cause them more problems the snowplow catches on the concrete hang on you have to get going oh yeah i can't get off now go on go take it steady dave adjust the winch pull too hard and the snowplow will be ripped from the train okay aren't i despite the close encounter with the concrete both cars make it onto the trucks intact it's time to hit the road [Music] you're good to go gov let's ride [Music] drivers calum and gavin need to haul both nearly 19 meter long loads 422 miles north from stratford-upon-avon to the bones and canal railway near edinburgh callum's only got seven hours of driving time left on the clock today so this will be tight how fire driving we're going to get today i've gotta be parked up for half nine tonight so get up uh probably near the edinburgh road somewhere around there yeah dave's got his sights set on an overnight stop at a hotel that serves rare scottish delicacies have you ever had a deep-fried mars bar or haggis uh i've had a haggis and i've had deep fat fried marshmallow yeah collection was through the roof what was it [Laughter] you've had a deep fried milk bar yeah you probably have them every night i used it yeah and then well they're called uh cadbury's green meg what do you fry yeah oh mate beautiful ambassador start your life out oh we bought it into it all [Music] no that's really a long asteroid it is be a full card 150 miles into the trek they run into heavy traffic [Music] time spent in traffic is time wasted when you're driving against the clock this could be a long slow crawl through the night [Applause] just short of the scottish border callum's hours run out [Music] it's quarter ten this is about as far as we're gonna get tonight because our days up we'll take our time off and then we'll crack on again in the morning and i'm hoping to be up there for 10 o'clock sorry dave tonight's dinner will be instant noodles and sliced bread deep-fried mars bars will have to wait until tomorrow [Music] 300 miles south at the seven valley railway in kidderminster [Music] terry has spent the night watching over britannia i slept quite well last night i enjoyed the trains coming past every other hour rattling the cabin waking me up the team faced a precarious challenge this morning and now we start all over again they must guide the 94 ton engine smoothly off the trailer and back onto the railway tracks you want the tender off first that will go down onto a straight bit of track and then the engine will come down behind it and then we'll join it together which makes sense this is a precision maneuver that makes britannia's chief engineer ian walker anxious it's kind of getting to crunch point now so everybody's nervous it's going to probably be mid-late morning i expect by the time they've unloaded both sections of the loco the the loco is here in the yard ready the tender's just reversing up the car park as we speak at 40 tons the tender is a light weight okay now the big one britannia okay with 94 tons of rolling weight it should roll straight off and again but it's not budging there's a a little raised piece of steel that's maybe two millimeters higher than the trailer and that stopped the loco coming off jason must use the winch to rock britannia over the obstacle okay [Music] the engine makes it back on the rails once again it's all off now that unloads the textbook perfect as it should be [Music] mission complete for terry's crew world champion jenga players the locomotive is back in the hands of team britannia to me reunited with its tender britannia is almost ready to return to steam today's gone very well we're now getting ready to put a fire in and uh get the fire set for overnight hopefully it should stay in all night so there's just nice red embers in the morning and they've just warmed the boiler through nicely there's the aim of the game should be proud hopefully this isn't britannia's first visit to the seven valley in 1966 steam engines were being phased out replaced by diesel power just 15 years after coming into service britannia was consigned to the scrap yard thankfully a group of enthusiasts stepped in to buy the engine before it was scrapped and they moved the engine to the seven valley railway where over a number of years they did restore it to working order [Music] tomorrow the team will find out if her latest overhaul has paid off as britannia will attempt to ride the rails once more on the scottish border hit the road after an overnight stop in a lay by callum dave and gav are gearing up for the final leg of their 422 mile journey to deliver two class 230 electric cars to the bonus and canel railway here we go again welcome to scotland [Music] the crew need to navigate the two super long loads 80 miles to the bowness and canil railway in scotland where'd our team taste different from the styrofoam cup don't know it [Music] this is the bit i like this bit here yeah nice enough edinburgh 50 miles [Music] the class 230 needs to be back on the rails in four hours time but the deeper into the lothian hills they travel the tighter and bumpier the roads become [Music] truck has got stuck on a ridge in the road there's not enough space between the trailer and the ground to move over the crest of the hill if gab keeps driving he'll damage the trailer and could unbalance the heavy load he needs to use the trailer's hydraulics to raise it up in order to clear the hill and drive safely on after a tight squeeze they make it back onto the home straight to the bonus and canil steam railway bonus is a small town on the firth of fourth [Music] we acquired this site in 1979 and all of this has been built by volunteers over the last 40 years there was not a railway here but the major thing that differentiates us from other railways is that we have the museum of scottish railways the range of locomotives that sit in our museum i don't think you'll see that in any other major heritage railway the bonus and kineel railway may only be five miles in length but it's exactly the kind of rural route that the electric class 230 is designed to run on this makes it the perfect location to showcase the new train i'll just go past it a little bit so you could you'll have to tip first one yeah yeah calum and dave run up against their next big hurdle they need to squeeze the three meter wide trains through these gates to deliver them into the yard [Applause] turn going into the place we'll have a goal getting in [Music] start following the trailer now mate so we'll be right back to just pass the audi there and i'll take a big sweeping yeah it's getting too sharp might just spin in the back of the trailer on the spot come back i'll go on the grass keep it going just spinning on the spot again the gate sits at an angle to the road this makes the approach very tight the truck is at right angles to the trailer when it moves backwards and forwards the trailer pivots around the central axis and can't clear the gate to solve the problem callum must reverse the truck while dave counter steers the trailer onto the grass this should give them enough space to clear the awkward corner god come back go on this will be one tight final turn go on come back i said drive up and then i would have reversed over onto the grass then it would have been easier literally you're just not moving at all at the bonus and canel railway near edinburgh calum and dave are in a tight spot hauling the two class 230 cars through a narrow rail yard gate go on it's moving now nice and steady nice and steady yeah cool mate keep going keep it going keep it going keep it going elijah and go on get it in there [Music] it takes precision guidance to steer both trucks through the gate and into the yard final task unload both cars guiding them back onto the rails to get them ready for tomorrow's big launch let's take it steady i was a bit worried about the front because the phone's got a big snowplow but i had to go three four inches coming down there bang off i gotta push it 30 foot might be a stun that one then the next one in and get that off so loads of fun one car down one to go [Music] it takes skill and patience to line up both cars on the rails without one running into the back of the other yeah keep going keep going keep going keep going hold it in that minute [Music] it's not long before this pioneering train buzzes back into life it's mission accomplished for gav's team [Music] the revolutionary zero emission electric class 230 is up and running ready for its big launch this launch is hugely important to us we really need to get it out there and show that this technology works today battery power has the potential to bring environmentally friendly technology to remote rural railway lines where diesel engines would traditionally run hundreds turn out to experience the new class 230 zero emission train travel gets the public thumbs up 300 miles south at the seven valley railway in kidderminster oh that's going too far now the day has finally arrived for legendary steam locomotive britannia to return to service [Music] the plan is to ease the engine in gently by taking it for short runs along the 16 mile line today will be a huge draw for steam enthusiasts i love my job don't worry hot water it's only me the fire is lit and there's plenty of smoke they're just waiting for the pressure in the boiler to build so it can produce steam it's giving it a bit of tlc tidying it up making it look presentable i think there's going to be uh a few photographers knocking about this is a huge moment for team britannia it's feeling quite nervous this is where all the months of hard work come together and we find out if it's okay or not so touch wood everything will be all right and we'll have a successful day [Music] the seven valley railway was founded in 1965 by a group of young rail enthusiasts they set out to restore the line between kidderminster and bridge north which had been closed two years earlier today the railway attracts nearly 200 000 visitors every year eager to experience a forgotten age of travel the seven valley is one of the few preserved great western railways that is actually able to really authentically portray the interwar period because it has not just the original locomotive signaling and stations but it has the antiquated rolling stock that you can ride in as well and i think that really sets itself apart from from its counterparts [Music] after more than two years of careful restoration work it's the moment of truth for ian and the team will she be ready for this departure uh i'm not entirely sure actually the the boiler is nice and hot keon's just lighting the fire so as soon as we get steam we'll we'll know in the next half hour they've replaced or refurbished almost every part of this locomotive but have forgotten one crucial element slight problem with the very old coal in the tender not burning we're not producing steam at the moment they pump more air into the firebox to fuel the flames [Music] britannia is finally set to go oh please baby be okay the 68 year old is rolling under its own steam once again [Music] ian and his team are looking listening and feeling for any indication that all is not well [Music] but first signs are good [Music] we'll stop for a look around [Music] we've got to wait for a charter train to come through so we've got 15 minutes and the engineers are just going to have a look around now make sure everything's fine so far so good fingers crossed everything's nice and cool [Music] britannia spends the rest of the day racking up 36 trouble-free miles the guys and myself were all extremely proud today's been very successful and it's it's a huge relief that it's been successful you know we've just got a few teenage problems to to see through but the the ultimate goal is there of getting back on the main line at 75 miles an hour [Music] you

Channel: The Challenge

Views: 16,884

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Id: SD57Bz7gyC0

Length: 43min 30sec (2610 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 08 2022