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A century ago, Britain's rail
network was the envy of the world.

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You could get a train from almost
anywhere...

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..to almost anywhere else.

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But many of these lines were
considered unprofitable,

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and in the 1960s,

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Dr Beeching was recruited
by the government to come up with

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a plan that would stop the railways
from haemorrhaging money.

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He famously brought the axe down on

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over 4,000 miles of track
and 2,000 stations.

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Almost overnight, 30% of the network
was closed down.

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50 years on, I'm going on a journey

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to discover just a few of those
lost lines.

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I'm walking the old
Ruabon to Barmouth line,

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which connected the heart of England
to the untamed wilderness of

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Wales...

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..the beauty of Snowdonia.

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I'll visit the country's most famous
aqueduct in order to discover

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what the Romans taught us when it
came to building railways.

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I'll seek out living history.

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"I've got a dead body here,"
he said to me.

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Good Lord, the chap had collapsed
and died on the train.

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We had to take him out here.

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We had him standing in the
office over there.

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Once I reach the coast, I'll marvel
at one of the oldest and most

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spectacular viaducts still in use
in Britain.

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And at the end of it, I look forward
to a rather nice seaside town.

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I'm in search of one of the great
lost railways of Wales,

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and to get there, I need to cross
the Cefn Mawr Viaduct.

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And the only way to cross it and
reach my starting point is by train.

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In the 1840s, railway companies
started offering low cost

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excursions so that working men and
their families could travel

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to parts of the UK they may have
never seen before.

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And trips like this became available
to everyone.

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Now the line I'm looking for was one
of the first to take

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passengers from the busy, industrial
heartland of England deep

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into Wales, with its dramatic
scenery.

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I'll be walking the Ruabon to
Barmouth line,

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55 miles of track bed that winds
through the rugged

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countryside to the beautiful
Cardigan Bay.

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This is the starting point for
my journey.

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In its heyday, this station was
a hive of activity.

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It was a terminus with
a goods depot,

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a marshalling yard and a turntable.

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But sadly, by 1974, after the wave
of Beeching cuts,

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it was reduced to an unstaffed halt.

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There's a photo of it
a good few decades ago now.

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There's a lot missing.

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There's a whole station building
gone from that side.

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There's a canopy no longer here.

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That's still the original station
building, though.

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Now it's just quiet.

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The lost railway line I'm looking
for splits away from the mainline

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just outside of Ruabon station here.

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But it's been shut down for
50 years,

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so whether or not I'll find exactly
where it splits, I don't know.

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I'm game for giving it a shot.

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Now the thing about lost railway
lines is,

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for the most part, they're not there
any more, they are lost.

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So, it can be quite tricky
to find them.

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But if you know what you're looking
for, there are clues out there.

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Now looking at my map, I think...

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Well, this is a bit deceptive,
cos there's water down here,

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but if you come across with me,
it doesn't go anywhere.

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It stops there in a bit of a kind of
mucky puddle.

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Now I don't think that is
a waterway.

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I think this is water that's just
filled up.

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I think this is the line.

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This is definitely the first thing
I've come across

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that says I'm on track.

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So, Barmouth, at the very end of
the line,

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should be about 55 miles away
down there.

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Pretty sure I'm right.

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It's hard to imagine walking through
this overgrowth, but this was

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part of the track bed that leads to
a small station called Acrefair.

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There's absolutely no trace of it
now, though.

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Hoi!

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So, I've come down and I thought
there might be some old clues.

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I don't know, some piles of old
railway ballast or some old

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sleepers or something, but, no,
there's nothing down here.

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When it's gone, it's gone.

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Especially here.

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I'm confident elsewhere on the line
there will be some bigger clues.

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Taking a slight detour from the old
track bed,

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I want to see what life was like
before the railways by

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exploring this region's star
attraction.

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Now this is the
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

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This has been here for over
200 years.

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It was built by Thomas Telford,

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pretty much the grandfather
of civil engineering.

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And it's the longest and tallest

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navigable aqueduct in the whole
of Britain.

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I'm meeting Peter Jones and Lynda
Slater of the Canal & River Trust,

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to find out how the railways
impacted on the waterways.

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Come on board. Thank you very much.

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Have a good look
at the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

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Now we've got the Cefn Mawr Viaduct
just behind us there,

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and here we are on the
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Yes. Yes.

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How important were the canals around

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here then before all the railways
arrived?

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They actually shipped all the cargo
around the country into the docks.

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So before the railways, the canals
were the arteries of industry, were

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they? They were the original
superhighway. The superhighways.

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It was just all about speed,
wasn't it?

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River and road just wasn't enough.
It was all about the timescale.

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Taking large loads in a shorter
space of time.

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And it was profitable, was it?
Oh, yes.

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It was going from not being able
to move any industry anywhere,

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to being able to take whatever you
liked across the world.

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What happened with the canals, then,
when the railways came in and

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took over that industrial
transportation?

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Well, it quite quickly turned into

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a tourism attraction, you know,
with boat trips.

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Did it, even then? They did.
So it's always been a hotspot.

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And, of course, it's convenient
to England.

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It's on the border, it's a different
country, different language.

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And so there was something almost...
Exotic. ..exotic,

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yeah, mystical about coming abroad.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

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So we're talking here, kind of
middle of the 19th century?

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Yeah, the Victorian era, yes.

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And people still
do it in their, what, thousands?

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In their thousands. Thousands, yeah.
Absolute thousands.

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We see nearly 500,000 visitors
a year to come see the aqueduct.

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Yeah. 500,000 a year? Yeah.

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Now that it's a World Heritage site,
it's just gone "boom."

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Goodness me. Yeah. Amazing.
It's quite disconcerting.

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I've been chatting to you there
and then I turn around and look.

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Yeah, it's a drop, isn't it?

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Birds flying beneath us.

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That's 126ft down. It's nicknamed,
"the stream in the sky".

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Just because you do just feel like

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you're in the middle of, you know,
flying across. Completely.

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Well, it's beautiful,
and it's magnificent,

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and thank you to Mr Thomas Telford.
Yes, oh, yeah. Definitely.

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I'm walking from an engineering
marvel of the canals

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to a once lost but now found piece
of this line's railway history.

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Train railway enthusiasts
do have model railways.

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You've taken that to the next
level here.

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It's like having your hobby
in your back garden.

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I'm about six miles into my journey,

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walking the lost railway line from
Ruabon to Barmouth in Wales,

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and I'm heading to the picturesque
town of Llangollen.

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Before the advent of the railways,

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the concept of tourism was very much

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reserved for the upper classes -

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the affluent few who could

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afford vast, elaborate,

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cultural tours around the country

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by stagecoach at the time.

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But the railways,

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they were affordable.

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And so suddenly, travel became

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available to the working classes.

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Taking a trip across the border
to North Wales would have been

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an entirely new experience for
Victorian tourists,

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with its foreign landscapes,
language and culture.

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Even now, as I follow the lost
track bed,

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this feels like a hidden,
magical place.

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Esteemed writers such as Shelley,

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Wordsworth and Byron were all
inspired to visit.

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And later, when the railways passed
nearby, the tourists followed.

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This is Plas Newydd in Llangollen.

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It is famously the former home of
two upper class women who

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eloped from Ireland at the end of
the 18th century to escape

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the prospect of arranged marriages,

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against the will of their
influential and wealthy families.

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Lady Eleanor Butler
and Miss Sarah Ponsonby

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became known as the Ladies
of Llangollen.

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And the romantic lifestyle that they
lived here became a source of

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intrigue and curiosity to all
of those who visited the area.

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It's quite a dramatic front
to a house here.

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You can't help but be impressed
by it in some way.

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It's not just the house on its own -
it's all of this, the gardens,

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but then beyond as well, that sets
this house in context.

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While the ladies, with their
unconventional romantic

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relationship, were trying to escape
the spotlight,

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in the years since their deaths
their unique story has enthralled

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hundreds of thousands of visitors
brought here by the railways.

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Tourists have continued
to flock here...

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..attracted by this really
quite seductive,

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idyllic surroundings and...

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..the legacy of romanticism
left here.

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I've just popped back down the hill
to join the line again, which really

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hugs the River Dee here, all the way
along the Dee Valley.

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So as I'm making my way west,

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I'm just coming up into the centre
of Llangollen here.

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When this section of the line opened
in 1861,

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it was busy with freight trains
carrying coal and slate.

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A year later, when it opened to
passengers,

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thousands of visitors started to
pour into this picturesque town.

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The reason all the visitors come
here today,

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the same reason all the Victorian
tourists flocked here,

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it's the peacefulness, the
tranquillity of these surroundings.

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And Llangollen's really turned its
hand at making money from that.

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There's loads of hotels and
restaurants, ice cream shops here.

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But one way these modern-day
tourists can really

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experience what the Victorians had,
is just over here.

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Llangollen was, and still is,
a popular tourist destination.

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But the Beeching cuts in the 1960s
meant this beautiful old

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station became a victim of the
unprofitable line it was on.

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The last passenger train ran through
here in 1965.

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The track was pulled up and the rest
of it just left to rot and ruin.

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A group of passionate and dedicated
volunteers re-found this lost line

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and have lovingly rebuilt ten miles
of it.

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Is this a hobby that's become
a profession? Yeah.

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It was a hobby, it's become a life,
that's for sure.

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It's become a life. Yeah.

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The hobby's very demanding,

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but it's like having your hobby in
your back garden.

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You know, my back garden's here.

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This is where I play.

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This is where I like to be.

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I love the fact that you use the
word play, cos I mean

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people do, you know, train railway
enthusiasts do have model railways.

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You've taken that to the next
level here.

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For me, OK, it's a very
serious play.

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It stems probably from childhood,

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because my father was personally
interested in spotting the

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trains, and he'd shown me all this
at a very early age.

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Do you have a love for the railway
as well now?

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Yes. It was my second date with
my husband

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was a footplate ride in December,
on a Santa special.

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And he said to me,

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"If you don't like this, then we're
not going to go any further."

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And I was on a footplate in freezing
cold weather in December, with

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people I didn't know and a man I'd
met once.

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And look at you, you're still here,
so you must have enjoyed it!

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And I did, I loved it. So it's
a very special experience

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going on the footplate,
I've got to say.

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Do you see yourself as a kind of
custodian in this period? Yeah.

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I'm keen on making sure we preserve
all the original elements,

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like the old clocks and the lamps

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and things that have stemmed from
the old period.

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But it's those things that when
people come in here,

234
00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:57,880
you see their faces light up...
Yeah.

235
00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:00,080
..when they come and they see the
station like this.

236
00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:02,240
It's gotta be a working museum
serving a purpose,

237
00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:03,720
and letting people, you know,

238
00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:05,160
transport themselves from one end

239
00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:06,320
of the valley to the other.

240
00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:08,560
Well, hey, I'm very much looking
forward to my journey

241
00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:09,840
along the route here.

242
00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:18,320
Railway enthusiasts
Quentin and Liz McGuinness

243
00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:22,120
have been spearheading this
monumental task.

244
00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:25,920
Quentin and Liz have breathed new
life into this lost railway.

245
00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:28,760
People come from all around
the world to get a taste of this

246
00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:31,080
great British age of steam.

247
00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:35,680
And now, the moment I've been
waiting for, a chance to

248
00:14:35,680 --> 00:14:39,440
enjoy the line the same way the
Victorian tourists would have done.

249
00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:49,080
Here we go.

250
00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:51,480
That sounds ominous. Tunnels...

251
00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:55,520
..and into the Wild West.

252
00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:00,240
The scenery out here just keeps
surprising me.

253
00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:01,360
And it's...

254
00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:04,040
..truly beautiful.

255
00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:07,720
50 years on since its closure,

256
00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:10,080
this line is now busy and profitable
again.

257
00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:14,840
I know Quentin and Liz would love to
extend it further and claw

258
00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:17,680
back some more of its history, but
the land it would need to

259
00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:22,480
pass through is now privately owned
and it would cost millions.

260
00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:26,280
For now, I'm happy to sit back and
enjoy this beautifully

261
00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:29,320
restored ten mile stretch, that
seems to get more and more

262
00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:31,440
remote the further down the line
we go.

263
00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:57,200
Now this is very obviously the end
of the line as far as the Llangollen

264
00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:01,680
Heritage Railway folk are concerned,
so I'm back on foot.

265
00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:06,120
But it doesn't take too much now to
figure out where the line continues.

266
00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:07,880
It's straight along.

267
00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:09,040
It's all here to see.

268
00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,960
I'm about a third of the way into my
journey now,

269
00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:16,760
and heading west towards Lake Bala.

270
00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:21,920
Although I thought I was following
the line,

271
00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:24,040
I'm beginning to wonder if I've
taken a wrong turn.

272
00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:30,640
I've had to check my map a couple of
times along here to make sure that I

273
00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:34,280
am still following the old railway
line, because...

274
00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:37,920
..well, I'm in people's
gardens here.

275
00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:41,560
So it does feel a bit odd.

276
00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:46,600
It feels like I shouldn't be here,
but this is definitely the

277
00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:50,360
old route of the line, and this is
absolutely a public right of way.

278
00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:56,160
So as long as I've got the River Dee
on my right-hand side here,

279
00:16:56,160 --> 00:16:57,920
I know I'm following the line.

280
00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:10,480
Now this is the first bit of kind of
hidden clue along this railway I've

281
00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:13,040
come across, that this was the
railway,

282
00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:14,760
cos I keep wanting to remind myself.

283
00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:17,680
Look at this little stone wall built
in here.

284
00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:19,680
Just keeping back the earth from

285
00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:22,080
where the tracks would have gone
along here.

286
00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:24,720
In fact, actually you can see
a lot... There's loads along here.

287
00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:26,400
Look at this.

288
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:28,320
You know, this isn't natural.

289
00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:31,800
I mean, it's all covered in moss now
because you haven't got

290
00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:35,680
trains rolling through here
every day.

291
00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:40,920
These stones haven't seen trains
through here for decades.

292
00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:45,440
Rolling stone gathers no moss.

293
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:48,240
And these are covered in moss,

294
00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:49,960
cos there's been no rolling stock.

295
00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:55,120
You've got all this old railway
ballast under me here as well,

296
00:17:55,120 --> 00:17:58,360
that this path's made out of.

297
00:17:58,360 --> 00:18:00,600
You know, that was keeping the track
in place.

298
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:03,400
It's those little clues.

299
00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:06,840
I'm stepping out of the wilderness

300
00:18:06,840 --> 00:18:09,720
into what used to be the
old Bala Junction.

301
00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:13,600
And believe it or not, it's another
section of restored track.

302
00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:16,800
Perhaps this railway's not so lost
after all.

303
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:19,880
I'm actually quite happy I can give
my legs a bit of a rest,

304
00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:23,600
as I catch a ride and head a few
miles up to Llangower Station.

305
00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:31,920
The reopening of two heritage lines
on this old route is

306
00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:36,320
testament to the area's continued
popularity as a tourist attraction.

307
00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:39,720
And that's no surprise with the
beauty of its lakeside scenery.

308
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:49,640
Unlike the full-sized Llangollen
line, this is a narrow gauge

309
00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:52,800
track, meaning smaller locomotives
and carriages.

310
00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:55,280
It almost feels like
a model railway.

311
00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:08,200
As I follow the track bed of this
Ruabon to Barmouth line,

312
00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:12,280
I'll meet up with a railway veteran
who has some unusual stories to tell

313
00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:15,800
about his 50 years as a signal box
controller.

314
00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:18,440
"I've got a dead body here," he said
to me.

315
00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:21,200
And we had a corpse here
all day. All day with you? Yeah.

316
00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:36,520
I'm following the lost railway line
from Ruabon to Barmouth.

317
00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:39,520
I'm about halfway into my journey
and I've hitched a ride on

318
00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:43,520
this restored heritage line,
to take me to Llangower Station,

319
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:48,000
which was once a busy stop
for hundreds of children.

320
00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:53,000
At the beginning of the
20th century,

321
00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:55,640
the future looked bleak for
the Welsh language.

322
00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:57,360
Speaking English seemed to dominate

323
00:19:57,360 --> 00:20:00,200
every aspect of life outside
the home.

324
00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,280
So places like the Glan-Llyn
Activity Centre were set up

325
00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:06,480
all over Wales to protect its
culture and traditions.

326
00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:13,200
By 1953, children were being sent on
the railways to this remote lakeside

327
00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:16,800
station, where they'd board a boat
to take them across to the centre.

328
00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,200
I'm here to meet Llinas Jones
Williams

329
00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:24,880
to find out why these centres were
so crucial.

330
00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:26,800
SHE SPEAKS WELSH

331
00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:29,120
I'm sorry, I don't fully understand
everything there.

332
00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:31,320
No, that's fine. But will you teach
me some Welsh?

333
00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:33,120
I will indeed. Good. Can we do it in
the canoe?

334
00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:35,000
Let's do it in the canoe, yeah.
Thank you. OK.

335
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:36,800
It's the best way to learn a new
language.

336
00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:39,200
How do you say "canoe" in Welsh? A
canoe.

337
00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:45,440
It's pretty calm out today,
isn't it?

338
00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:47,040
Well, I'm glad actually.

339
00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:49,720
We're quite lucky in Glan-Llyn cos
in Glan-Llyn we've got the bay,

340
00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:53,160
which is quite sheltered. Let's get
out and have a look. OK.

341
00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:02,120
Would the kids arriving here
at Glan-Llyn,

342
00:21:02,120 --> 00:21:05,880
when it first opened, would they
have been arrived by rail?

343
00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:09,840
Yes, and the first camp was held in
Glan-Llyn in 1950.

344
00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:13,560
So the first resident would have
arrived from all around Wales

345
00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:15,800
and they would have travelled up
by train.

346
00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:18,640
So imagine the excitement of being,
you know,

347
00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:24,240
12, 13 and you would have travelled
for hours from Swansea or

348
00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:27,160
Cardiff, or Haverford West,
or whatever.

349
00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:30,040
So tell me about the
Glan-Llyn Centre, then.

350
00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:34,800
Glan-Llyn is run by an organisation
called the Urdd, Urdd Gobaith Cymru.

351
00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:40,840
And that was set up in 1922, because
Welsh needed to be preserved.

352
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:45,080
Basically there was a threat to it
dying out altogether.

353
00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:49,320
At the time, all education was
through the medium of English,

354
00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:52,560
and it was only a few decades
earlier that they system of

355
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:54,520
the "Welsh not" had been in place.

356
00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:56,840
The "Welsh not"?
What's the "Welsh not?"

357
00:21:56,840 --> 00:22:02,080
Well, the "Welsh not" was a fairly
cruel system that children in

358
00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:05,080
Wales were punished for speaking
in Welsh.

359
00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:09,120
Say, for example, if a teacher heard
one of the children speaking Welsh

360
00:22:09,120 --> 00:22:13,720
within the school grounds, then they
would have to wear a plaque, like

361
00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:18,320
a wooden plaque, with the letters
"WN" that stood for "Welsh not".

362
00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:20,520
And then if another child was
caught,

363
00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:23,400
this plaque would be passed from
child to child and whoever

364
00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:28,520
had the plaque at the end of the day
would get caned six times.

365
00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:31,040
So, you... So basically, they were
trying to kind of

366
00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:33,760
punish the Welsh language out of
them, you know?

367
00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:37,280
Oh, my word. So it was through
force. Yeah.

368
00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:40,400
The arrival of the railways wasn't
always positive.

369
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:44,200
As they provided easier access for
English-speaking tourists, they

370
00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,640
may well have played a part in the
declining use of the Welsh language.

371
00:22:57,400 --> 00:22:59,440
Back on the Heritage line here,

372
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:03,680
finishing off my journey to the end
of Lake Bala.

373
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:07,480
So I've got a good idea of what it
was like to ride the trains

374
00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:10,960
along here, but I'm about to meet
a chap now who can tell me what

375
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:14,480
it was like working on the old
Ruabon to Barmouth line,

376
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:19,280
cos he's worked every single station
when it was running.

377
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:26,040
One of the most crucial jobs on the
railways fell to a dedicated

378
00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:29,760
group of men whose love for the job
knew no bounds...

379
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:31,520
..the signalmen.

380
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:33,560
And after 50 years on the job,

381
00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:36,960
I'm betting John Roberts will have
some stories to tell.

382
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:38,560
Well, look at it, it's beautiful!

383
00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:40,440
Similar to what it was when it was
running on

384
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:42,680
British Rail and the Great Western.
Is it?

385
00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:46,400
And the instruments are exactly the
same as when I started here in 1947.

386
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:50,600
I was 15 years of age and the wages
I was earning at that time

387
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:53,240
was short of £2 - £1.90...

388
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:55,280
That's... ..for a 48 hour week.

389
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:58,080
I thought you were going to say per
day. No, no, per week. For the week?

390
00:23:58,080 --> 00:23:59,960
Yeah, £1.90 a week.

391
00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:03,680
It's a very active job, isn't it?
It's not just signalman.

392
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,160
You're called into action in all
different ways.

393
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:10,960
Yeah, called into action, yeah. We
were called GPs, General Purpose.

394
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,520
That's a good name for it.
Yeah, it was, yeah.

395
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:16,480
One morning the guard called me
over, "John, come here," he said.

396
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:20,720
And he said to me, "I've got a dead
body here," he said to me.

397
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:23,200
Good Lord, the chap had collapsed
and died on the train.

398
00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:24,800
We had to take him out here, we had

399
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:27,440
him standing in the office over
there for all day.

400
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,200
That's not in the job description.

401
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:34,080
It's not in the job description
that, no, it wasn't. No. Yeah.

402
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:37,160
When the old Ruabon to Barmouth line
closed,

403
00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:38,880
how did it affect the community?

404
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:41,480
Well, it hardly affected them, did
it? You know. Really?

405
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,200
Maybe it affected local merchants
for awhile,

406
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:46,560
as far as the passenger people went
along.

407
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:48,760
Adequate bus service was provided.

408
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:50,560
And what about you? How did it
affect you?

409
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:51,720
How did it affect me? Yeah.

410
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,520
Well as I say, I had to move,
didn't I? Yeah. Yeah.

411
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:56,440
I had to pack it in around this area

412
00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,680
and go back to Ruabon and Shrewsbury
to work.

413
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:01,680
I love characters like John.

414
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:05,400
They're the heartbeat that keeps the
history of the lost railways alive.

415
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:06,920
Thank you so much, indeed.

416
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:08,520
Really, really nice to meet you.

417
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,040
I'm now heading along the old track

418
00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:16,560
to Dolgellau, Snowdonia,

419
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:18,600
which is a nine mile hike

420
00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:21,240
into the rugged countryside.

421
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:24,360
Signs of the old railway are
few and far between,

422
00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:28,600
but every now and then you stumble
across an obvious reminder.

423
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:32,800
Now I wondered what I might come
across when I got to here.

424
00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:35,280
So this...

425
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,640
..there's really not much of it left
here now,

426
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:41,680
but this is Drws-y-Nant Station.

427
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:44,720
You can see, look, we've got
platforms on either side here.

428
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,040
There was never much here in the
first place.

429
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:49,560
I mean, look around, there's no
houses.

430
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,360
There never were any real houses
around here. There's no industry.

431
00:25:53,360 --> 00:25:56,360
There's not really any buildings at
all, which begs the question, what

432
00:25:56,360 --> 00:26:01,480
on earth would you need a station
for in the middle of nowhere?

433
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,560
I guess it's almost like a local
bus stop,

434
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:10,680
where you might have picked up
the occasional passenger who was,

435
00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:14,560
I don't know, maybe went for a walk
and decided to get the train back.

436
00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:18,800
When you see just how remote this
station is,

437
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,280
or was, you can start

438
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:23,080
to understand that this line wasn't

439
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:24,800
always that economically viable...

440
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,720
..especially once cars and trucks
arrived as well.

441
00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:36,080
This wilderness would have felt
extremely alien

442
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,040
to 19th century tourists.

443
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,400
It's no wonder this part of deepest,

444
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:44,040
darkest Wales is often referred to
as the Wild West.

445
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:54,840
The area just off the line in this
direction here was called Mawddwy,

446
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:58,680
And it became infamous in the 16th
century because of a band of

447
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:03,480
red-headed thieves who were
nicknamed The Red Bandits.

448
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:07,480
I mean, they were effectively
highwaymen terrorising locals

449
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:09,560
and people passing through,

450
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,760
and the reason they could get away
with such lawless behaviour

451
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:16,280
for so long was just because of how
remote it is out here.

452
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:21,800
There are very few towns or villages
between Bala and Dolgellau.

453
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:25,320
I mean, this pretty much was the
Welsh Wild West.

454
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:30,840
Fortunately, 200 years later when
the railways did arrive,

455
00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:34,480
they took the fear out of travelling
by offering a secure,

456
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,960
safer passage, turning this
intimidating landscape

457
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:40,560
into a leisurely
sightseeing journey.

458
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:48,320
I've now arrived at the market
town of Dolgellau.

459
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:51,560
There's no trace of the original
station that served this town.

460
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:53,440
It was demolished in the '70s.

461
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:57,320
But in its heyday, the railway
attracted hundreds of paying

462
00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:00,600
tourists, and the locals were eager
to demonstrate a different

463
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:04,240
culture, which in turn encouraged
the economy to thrive.

464
00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:09,120
Towards the end of the 18th century,

465
00:28:09,120 --> 00:28:13,360
it was noted by tourists visiting
the area that many of the women were

466
00:28:13,360 --> 00:28:19,960
still wearing costume from a good 50
or 60 years earlier, if not more.

467
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:24,440
In particular, the large, red tweed
coats and mannish black hats.

468
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:32,120
By the 1830s, this look had become
recognised as Welsh national

469
00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:37,120
costume, and a lot of that was due
to the fact that Welsh gentry

470
00:28:37,120 --> 00:28:41,760
at the time decided there was a need
for more national identity.

471
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:45,720
Almost a manufactured identity to be
used on souvenirs and on

472
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:49,120
postcards to satisfy
visiting tourists.

473
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,480
And it's an identity that's still
strong today.

474
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:56,920
It wasn't just the sight of these
unusually dressed women that

475
00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,120
surprised the early tourists here.

476
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:02,480
They may have been taken back by the
unlikely Welsh sounds too.

477
00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:06,840
The triple harp was also adopted as
a symbol of Wales.

478
00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:09,360
I've come to meet Mair Ifans.

479
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:15,600
Wow, that's lovely. This is it,
then, this is a triple harp.

480
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:17,120
Which is the Welsh instrument.

481
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:19,720
There would have been a harper in
most pubs.

482
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:21,920
People would dance and they would,
you know,

483
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:24,280
do clog dancing and that type of
thing as well, you know.

484
00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:26,840
Oh, lovely. But because it was
associated with pubs and so on,

485
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:29,400
it became the instrument of devils.
Did it?

486
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:33,200
You know, we think of harps being
music of angels. We do.

487
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:37,080
Then after the religious people in
Wales during the 19th century,

488
00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:40,720
they wanted them burnt in Bala,
for example.

489
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:42,000
Goodness me.

490
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:46,760
Because it was creating these urges
in people in the pubs to go dancing.

491
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,720
It was having a detrimental
influence to society.

492
00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:52,000
Yes. Terrible, terrible, it was.

493
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:56,240
And people maybe getting to hear
about this exotic place in

494
00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:01,040
the west, and coming on holiday on
the trains and...

495
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:04,360
To come and experience some of that
exotic... Exoticness!

496
00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:07,640
So then it is exotic, you know,
it is foreign, you know?

497
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:09,960
I would love it if you could play me
a tune.

498
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,600
I'll play you a tune called
The Bellisle March.

499
00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:48,360
Leaving Dolgellau behind, it's easy
to find your way back onto

500
00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:52,000
the old railway line really, cos you
just head towards the river.

501
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,560
This is the River Mawddach.

502
00:30:54,560 --> 00:31:00,200
And unsurprisingly, this has now
become the Mawddach trail.

503
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:02,560
The thing that I find quite
interesting is, how the

504
00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:08,160
modern roads tend to follow the same
route as the old railway line.

505
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:12,400
And the old railway line, for almost
the entire length of this

506
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:15,600
particular line, follow the route of
the water.

507
00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:19,600
The water is the path of least
resistance

508
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:22,080
through all these valleys and hills.

509
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:27,840
And now it takes me up to
Penmaenpool on my way to Barmouth.

510
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:35,600
As I continue to retrace the route
taken by Victorian tourists,

511
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:38,720
I share the excitement they would
have felt.

512
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:40,800
They came across this bridge,

513
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:45,280
possibly about to experience the
seaside for the very first time.

514
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:02,800
I'm three quarters of the way along
this lost railway line,

515
00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:06,000
between Ruabon and Barmouth on the
Welsh coast.

516
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,200
I'm walking the old track, which is
now the Mawddach trail,

517
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:11,720
and I'm approaching
Penmaenpool Station.

518
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:14,720
There's not much left of it,
but it's not too difficult to

519
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:17,200
work out where the platform used
to exist.

520
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:20,920
That's it, that's perfect.

521
00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:23,480
So you've got the bridge here,
I mean that's just off,

522
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,720
and all these hills are exactly
the same, they've not changed.

523
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,560
And yes, there's the signal box
there that's hidden behind here.

524
00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:33,120
But I'm stood in the middle of a
car park now.

525
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:36,200
If I take myself back to the time of
this photo, I'd have had

526
00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:39,320
a whacking great big steam engine
coming right at me here, look.

527
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:40,480
"Toot, toot!"

528
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:53,920
I reckon this is Penmaenpool Station
here.

529
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:56,520
It looks like the back of a station,

530
00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:59,560
coming onto where the platforms
would have been here.

531
00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:01,520
I'm pretty sure that is.

532
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:10,160
Good afternoon. How we doing?
Good, thank you. Beer?

533
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:12,400
Yes, please. Thank you very much.
Just one second.

534
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:16,440
So that building just next door, is
that the old station here? It is.

535
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:18,240
Right at the bottom end,
the two-storey one,

536
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:19,960
used to be accommodation.

537
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:24,000
The middle was the ticket
office/parcel office, lost property.

538
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,120
And this end was the waiting room.
There's not much sign of it out here

539
00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:28,840
now. It's not railway traffic you
get now.

540
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:31,520
There's not much. We keep waiting,
but we don't hear anything now.

541
00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:33,560
No more steam trains coming past
your window. No.

542
00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:36,120
The signal's still there. But, yeah,
it would have been great.

543
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,800
Yeah, it would have been much nicer
with the railway, I think. Yeah.

544
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:40,080
I'm going to go and enjoy this.

545
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,440
Thank you very much indeed.
Good health. Cheers. Thank you.

546
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:54,400
Even though this line was closed
53 years ago,

547
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:57,280
some of the old structures have been
put to good use.

548
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:06,600
Rhys Gwynn works for the national
parks, and has been responsible for

549
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:09,960
re-purposing this old signal box for
nature lovers.

550
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:13,240
Rhys. Hello, Rob. How are you?

551
00:34:13,240 --> 00:34:16,000
Nice to meet you. OK, pleased to
meet you. Welcome to the signal box.

552
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,920
Thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah,
there's not much that would tell you

553
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:20,760
it's a signal box. It's still in the

554
00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:23,240
colours of the Great Western
Railway, on the outside. Yeah.

555
00:34:23,240 --> 00:34:25,680
But apart from that, apart from the
signal box,

556
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:28,080
there's not an awful lot left.

557
00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:30,320
Why was the decision taken to
re-purpose it as you have?

558
00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:34,320
It was empty for awhile, so I
decided to basically off-load

559
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:39,280
all the skulls and bits and bobs of
animals that I had at home,

560
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:41,520
and I thought, "Oh, I'll create an
exhibition here."

561
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:43,240
I mean, it is a fantastic route.

562
00:34:43,240 --> 00:34:47,520
And, I mean, the view that you've
got out here is just spectacular.

563
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:53,440
Would there be any particular effect
on the nature here,

564
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:56,680
because of the railway that used to
be here?

565
00:34:56,680 --> 00:35:00,160
With the old steam trains, so much
vacuum behind the train as it

566
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:03,520
whizzes along, that it draws in seed
behind it.

567
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:06,640
So often you get a progression of
a plant species down the line

568
00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:07,840
following the train.

569
00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:09,720
And I suppose the other aspect
is that,

570
00:35:09,720 --> 00:35:12,880
although it looks very wooded now,
there weren't any trees at all.

571
00:35:12,880 --> 00:35:16,960
But now, it's a bit of a haven
for wildlife.

572
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:21,400
Is this area of particular interest
to bird watchers and naturalists?

573
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:23,600
Well, it does draw people in.

574
00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:28,080
So the people we get in here,
they're either bird enthusiasts

575
00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:30,960
or naturalists, or they're railway
enthusiasts very often as well.

576
00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:34,440
Cos we had a lot of people coming in
who remembered the trains.

577
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:38,400
And in fact, one of our ex-seasonal
wardens remembered coming

578
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:43,640
here as a child to have his hair cut
by the signalman in here.

579
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:46,200
What? Whilst it was operating as
a railway? Yes.

580
00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:48,400
This was an operating signal box?
Yeah. Yeah.

581
00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:50,680
He'd come and get his hair cut? Come
and get his hair cut.

582
00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:53,520
Well, as things were done in those
days, yeah. I love that.

583
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,280
All over the country there are many

584
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:02,680
colourful stories relating to signal
boxes just like this one.

585
00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:05,880
In 1948, there were over 10,000 of
them,

586
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:09,120
but sadly today, just under 500
are left.

587
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:14,160
My journey from Ruabon to Barmouth
is nearing an end.

588
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:18,960
I'm rejoining the Mawddach trail for
the last few miles to the coast.

589
00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:23,320
Here at Arthog, what's now a really
quiet stretch of the estuary

590
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:25,800
was once a hive of activity.

591
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:27,680
Back in the late 1800s,

592
00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:32,320
a mini gold rush here saw around 500
men at its peak employed to

593
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:37,720
search for this precious metal, and
they did a pretty good job too.

594
00:36:37,720 --> 00:36:40,240
In today's money, an estimated

595
00:36:40,240 --> 00:36:44,560
60 million pounds' worth of
gold was mined here.

596
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:49,000
And because of its scarcity and
difficulty of extraction, it's

597
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:53,480
still thought of as one of the most
sought-after golds in the world.

598
00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:58,160
Now, finally, after 55 miles by
canal, canoe,

599
00:36:58,160 --> 00:37:03,000
on foot and on two glorious heritage
railway lines, I can feel the

600
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:06,120
landscape opening up as I approach
the west coast of Wales.

601
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:12,960
It's the end of the line.

602
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:16,880
All I need to do now is head across

603
00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:19,800
the estuary north into Barmouth
itself.

604
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,560
And the reason I can do that is
because of this.

605
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:27,600
The Barmouth Bridge.

606
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:32,520
At just under 700m long,

607
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:36,760
this remarkable structure is
a masterpiece of engineering.

608
00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:40,800
It's survived 150 years of the sea
lashing at its feet,

609
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:45,280
two world wars, a stray naval mine,
and an attack of marine

610
00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:49,800
woodworm, and it's still in use
today, taking visitors right

611
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:53,960
into the middle of town just as it
did over 100 years ago.

612
00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:59,000
What I really love about this bridge
is that

613
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:02,600
it's almost entirely made out
of timber.

614
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:06,440
These handrails are made out of
timber, this walkway is timber.

615
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:09,200
And look here, even the beams that
the rails themselves are

616
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:12,560
bolted down to are all made out of
timber.

617
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:16,200
Now this is the longest timber
bridge in Wales,

618
00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:19,440
and it's one of the oldest
that's still in use in Britain.

619
00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:23,360
I'm quite excited to be coming
across it.

620
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:26,200
But I'm also excited to be here
because...

621
00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:28,960
..I'm almost at the seaside.

622
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:33,320
But I reckon the excitement I've got
here now is only a fraction

623
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:37,560
of the excitement that some of those
working class Victorian

624
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:41,440
families, making their way over
here from England,

625
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:45,680
might have been feeling as they
came across this bridge,

626
00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:50,520
possibly about to experience the
seaside for the very first time.

627
00:38:56,480 --> 00:39:00,320
Barmouth grew up around its ship
building and fishing industries.

628
00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:02,520
But since the arrival of the
railways,

629
00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:06,160
guest houses and hotels sprung up
everywhere to cater for the

630
00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:10,000
thousands of visitors that came
from far and wide.

631
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:13,600
It's easy to see why early Victorian
tourists were attracted to

632
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:16,920
this place, but I wonder
WHO they were.

633
00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:19,200
To find out more, I've come to speak
to Janet Griffith

634
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:21,120
here at the Sailors' Institute.

635
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:27,120
Barmouth was well known for tourism
and though recently I heard

636
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:32,200
that Barmouth was known, not for
bed and breakfast, but for people

637
00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:36,080
actually coming and renting
places even then.

638
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:39,720
And the lady of the house would cook
the food for them.

639
00:39:39,720 --> 00:39:42,400
And in a 1911 census,

640
00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:49,000
there was 130 ladies' boarding
houses that were registered.

641
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,040
So they wanted to come on long
holidays?

642
00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:53,600
Oh, yes, they absolutely came on
long holidays.

643
00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:56,280
A lot would come for four weeks.

644
00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:58,200
They would come as a family,

645
00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:03,080
the husband would then go back by
rail for work and then come

646
00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:07,440
back at weekends, and that's how
they used the train an awful lot.

647
00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:10,760
And of course, they used to put on
special trains as well from the

648
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:15,960
Midlands especially. Unfortunately,
Mr Beeching is the one who cut that.

649
00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:19,760
Sadly. Actually, I used to use that
railway. Did you?

650
00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:24,880
Yes, because I lived in Birmingham
and my parents lived here.

651
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:27,680
I was wondering if you could help me
understand where the majority of

652
00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:29,920
those tourists might have been
coming from?

653
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:34,000
Yes, I've got this photocopy of all
the boarding houses

654
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:37,720
that were in the area at the time.
There's some more.

655
00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:43,280
All these people on this date were
visiting Barmouth.

656
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:48,760
About 40% of the people who came
here as visitors were from

657
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:54,200
the Midlands, but there was an equal
number of 40% that came from

658
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:57,160
the North West, which was Liverpool
and Manchester.

659
00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:00,160
80% were from the Midlands and the
North West.

660
00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:05,440
So, I mean, in a way fairly local as
we might see it today, local.

661
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:07,480
Back then, not at all local.

662
00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:10,560
Well, listen, I'm going to go and,
well,

663
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,200
experience what a lot of these guys
came here for.

664
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:15,800
I'm going to head to the beach,
finish off my journey.

665
00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:26,280
Seeing the effect the railways had
on people and communities

666
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:30,000
here has been a journey of discovery
for me.

667
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:34,040
Despite the Beeching cuts of the
1960s and the closure of this

668
00:41:34,040 --> 00:41:38,200
line, there's still a yearning for
the glorious age of steam.

669
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:45,240
What confirms this for me is that
out of the 189 stations in

670
00:41:45,240 --> 00:41:49,400
Wales that were closed, 32 have
since reopened.

671
00:41:55,920 --> 00:41:59,520
For centuries, tourists and
holiday-makers have been making

672
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:03,240
their way through North Wales here
to Barmouth,

673
00:42:03,240 --> 00:42:08,160
drawn by the allure of the dramatic
mountainous landscapes inland,

674
00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:12,720
and the vast expansive beaches here
on the coast.

675
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:18,280
But it was the railways coming here
that opened up all of this to

676
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:22,320
all people, making it an affordable
journey.

677
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:25,440
Without the railways,
I doubt that Barmouth,

678
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:28,680
nor the scenic route here
from Ruabon,

679
00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:33,360
would ever have become the hotbed
for tourism that it still is today.

680
00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:47,120
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