WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.640 Welcome to another deep dive. Yeah, glad to be 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:05.559 here. If you were glancing at your screen just 00:00:05.559 --> 00:00:07.900 now, you might have seen today's topic involves 00:00:07.900 --> 00:00:10.720 the Little Northwestern Railway. Which is quite 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:13.339 a title. Right. And honestly, that name might 00:00:13.339 --> 00:00:16.079 sound a bit, I don't know, quaint. A bit quaint, 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:18.980 maybe even insignificant. Exactly. Yeah. But 00:00:18.980 --> 00:00:21.320 we are so glad you are here with us. Yes, you, 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:24.460 the learner who loves to figure out how the physical 00:00:24.460 --> 00:00:27.820 world around us actually got built. Because today's 00:00:27.820 --> 00:00:30.620 journey is going to prove that sometimes the 00:00:30.620 --> 00:00:33.280 most massive impacts on our landscape come from 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:35.960 the quote unquote little guys. Yeah. Our geography, 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:38.600 our modern technology. It really is a remarkable 00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:40.899 story. It is. We often think history is just 00:00:40.899 --> 00:00:43.560 shaped by grand empires and sweeping political 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:45.880 movements. But a lot of the world we navigate 00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:48.020 every day was actually carved out by ambitious 00:00:48.020 --> 00:00:51.439 engineers and frankly, incredibly stubborn corporate 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:54.340 executives fighting over turf. That is the perfect 00:00:54.340 --> 00:00:57.479 setup. So our source material today is a comprehensive 00:00:57.479 --> 00:01:00.159 Wikipedia article detailing the history of the 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:02.479 Little Northwestern Railway. Situated in the 00:01:02.479 --> 00:01:04.959 beautiful, very rugged northwest of England. 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:07.760 Right. And our mission for this deep dive is 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:11.019 to unpack how a single, seemingly minor railway 00:01:11.019 --> 00:01:13.879 line from the mid -19th century managed to birth 00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:16.640 an entirely new town from scratch. Literally 00:01:16.640 --> 00:01:19.159 out of nowhere. Spark one of the most petty and 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:21.659 bitter corporate feuds in British transport history. 00:01:21.900 --> 00:01:24.680 Oh, the drama's real. And somehow serve as the 00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:27.859 high -tech pioneer for modern rail electrification. 00:01:28.359 --> 00:01:30.840 It's an outsized footprint for a regional railway 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:33.939 that most people, unless they're serious transport 00:01:33.939 --> 00:01:35.859 enthusiast circles, have probably never even 00:01:35.859 --> 00:01:37.819 heard of. Okay, let's unpack this. We really 00:01:37.819 --> 00:01:39.260 need to set the stage. Right, let's go back. 00:01:39.379 --> 00:01:42.640 The year is 1846. We are at the absolute height 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:45.280 of the Victorian railway boom. Everyone is laying 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:48.319 track. Yeah. And this company, the Northwestern 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:51.599 Railway, gets its nickname. The little NWR for 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:54.579 one very practical reason. Right. Just to distinguish 00:01:54.579 --> 00:01:57.879 it from its massive, intimidating and very wealthy 00:01:57.879 --> 00:02:00.480 rival. The London and Northwestern Railway. Right. 00:02:00.540 --> 00:02:03.560 Or the LNWR. Right. Which is a crucial detail 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:06.900 here. The LNWR was a titan. So the little NWR 00:02:06.900 --> 00:02:09.300 was essentially styling itself as the scrappy 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:12.560 underdog from day one. And they had the ambitions 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:15.199 of an underdog with something to prove. Oh, absolutely. 00:02:15.620 --> 00:02:20.500 So on June 26th, 1846, the little NWR receives 00:02:20.500 --> 00:02:23.340 its Act of Parliament. A big deal. Right. Now, 00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:26.159 for those of us who aren't experts in 19th century 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:29.039 British law, what does an Act of Parliament actually 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:31.939 mean in this context? Good question. Could anyone 00:02:31.939 --> 00:02:35.099 just, I don't know, start laying down train tracks 00:02:35.099 --> 00:02:37.460 wherever they wanted? Not at all. An Act of Parliament 00:02:37.460 --> 00:02:40.379 was literal government legislation. No. You had 00:02:40.379 --> 00:02:41.939 to petition the government. You had to prove 00:02:41.939 --> 00:02:44.340 your route was viable and basically get a law 00:02:44.340 --> 00:02:47.340 passed that granted you the power to compulsorily 00:02:47.340 --> 00:02:49.460 purchase the land. So it wasn't just a permit. 00:02:49.639 --> 00:02:52.560 No, it was a massive, extremely expensive legal 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:55.360 hurdle before a single shovel even hit the dirt. 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:58.039 OK, so they clear this massive legal hurdle and 00:02:58.039 --> 00:03:01.319 their grand plan is to connect Skipton, which 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:04.099 is deep in Yorkshire, all the way up to a place 00:03:04.099 --> 00:03:06.900 called Low Gill. Right. Because the ultimate 00:03:06.900 --> 00:03:09.780 prize here was capturing the incredibly lucrative 00:03:09.780 --> 00:03:12.479 Yorkshire to Scotland rail traffic. Which was 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:15.039 a phenomenally bold move. I really want you to 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:16.939 picture the geography of northern England here. 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:20.080 It's not flat. No, we are not talking about laying 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.599 tracks across a gentle prairie. The terrain between 00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:26.699 Skipton and Logill involves the Yorkshire Dales 00:03:26.699 --> 00:03:29.719 and the Cumbrian Fells. Oh, wow. It is steep, 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:33.000 it is rocky limestone, and it is battered by 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:36.280 harsh, unpredictable weather. So they were taking 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:38.879 on a massive engineering challenge. They were 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:42.099 aiming to carve a direct path through some of 00:03:42.099 --> 00:03:44.180 the most unforgiving landscape in the country 00:03:44.180 --> 00:03:46.740 just to get a piece of a highly profitable pie. 00:03:47.099 --> 00:03:49.599 But, as is so often the case when you try to 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:51.740 fight mountains and weather... Reality hits hard. 00:03:51.939 --> 00:03:54.379 Exactly. In this case, an economic recession 00:03:54.379 --> 00:03:56.479 hits right as they're trying to build. Yeah, 00:03:56.520 --> 00:03:59.240 the worst possible timing. The funding dries 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:02.319 up. And work on that crucial, difficult mountain 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:05.099 section between Ingleton and Logill has to be 00:04:05.099 --> 00:04:07.479 completely suspended. They essentially hit a 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:09.860 financial brick wall. So what happens? This is 00:04:09.860 --> 00:04:11.780 where the survival instincts of the company have 00:04:11.780 --> 00:04:14.439 to kick in. They were forced into a major pivot. 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:16.839 Instead of forging ahead with the impossible 00:04:16.839 --> 00:04:19.980 mountain route to Scotland, the NWR decided to 00:04:19.980 --> 00:04:22.959 focus its remaining cash on a branch line heading 00:04:22.959 --> 00:04:27.139 westward toward the coast. Specifically to Lancaster. 00:04:27.300 --> 00:04:29.959 Exactly. So they essentially abandoned the Northern 00:04:29.959 --> 00:04:33.500 Dream to build a coastal branch. Why Lancaster, 00:04:33.540 --> 00:04:36.879 though? Because strategically, it was a brilliant 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:40.079 fallback. By completing this route from Skipton 00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:43.540 over to the coast via Lancaster, the NWR eventually 00:04:43.540 --> 00:04:46.519 gave their primary working partner, the Midland 00:04:46.519 --> 00:04:49.740 Railway, direct access to the West Coast. And 00:04:49.740 --> 00:04:51.970 why does that matter so much? Because the west 00:04:51.970 --> 00:04:54.490 coast of England was an area utterly and completely 00:04:54.490 --> 00:04:58.069 dominated by their massive rival, the LNWR. Oh. 00:04:58.209 --> 00:05:00.790 It was essentially finding a backdoor into enemy 00:05:00.790 --> 00:05:03.149 territory to steal some of their shipping and 00:05:03.149 --> 00:05:05.189 passenger traffic. That paints a totally different 00:05:05.189 --> 00:05:07.149 picture. It's like a strategic game of chess. 00:05:07.350 --> 00:05:09.509 A very expensive game of chess. But played with 00:05:09.509 --> 00:05:12.569 thousands of tons of steel and coal. Yeah. And 00:05:12.569 --> 00:05:14.709 in the process of building this backdoor, they 00:05:14.709 --> 00:05:16.430 do something that I just find mind -blowing. 00:05:16.550 --> 00:05:19.350 If they are pivoting west to the coast, Where 00:05:19.350 --> 00:05:21.670 exactly are they building this new harbor? That 00:05:21.670 --> 00:05:23.709 is the crazy part. Was there already a major 00:05:23.709 --> 00:05:25.910 port sitting there waiting for them? There really 00:05:25.910 --> 00:05:29.189 wasn't. There was a bay, and there was a tiny, 00:05:29.230 --> 00:05:32.110 quiet fishing village called Poulton -les -Sands. 00:05:32.329 --> 00:05:34.610 A fishing village. The railway literally had 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:37.089 to build a town from scratch to make their plan 00:05:37.089 --> 00:05:41.800 work. On July 16th, 1846, a subsidiary called 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:43.920 the Moore -Cambie Harbor and Railway Company 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:46.800 was incorporated. They constructed a brand new 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:49.319 harbor right on Moore -Cambie and laid down a 00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:51.800 three -mile track connecting it to the Lancaster 00:05:51.800 --> 00:05:54.879 Green Air Station. So they basically drop a massive 00:05:54.879 --> 00:05:57.720 logistics hub. Right next to this tiny village. 00:05:57.920 --> 00:05:59.740 What happens to the village? What's fascinating 00:05:59.740 --> 00:06:02.819 here is the sheer scale of the geographical and 00:06:02.819 --> 00:06:05.120 cultural overwrite that took place. Overwrite. 00:06:05.180 --> 00:06:07.860 I like that. This new transport hub brought so 00:06:07.860 --> 00:06:10.459 much commerce, so many ships, and so many workers 00:06:10.459 --> 00:06:13.300 that a massive new settlement exploded around 00:06:13.300 --> 00:06:16.300 it. Wow. This new settlement rapidly expanded, 00:06:16.540 --> 00:06:18.720 eventually swallowing up Poulton -les -Sands 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:20.660 entirely. Just completely absorbed it. And it 00:06:20.660 --> 00:06:22.740 didn't stop there. It kept growing, absorbing 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:25.379 the neighboring villages of Baer and Toresholm. 00:06:25.480 --> 00:06:29.339 too. And what did this new sprawling mega settlement 00:06:29.339 --> 00:06:32.100 call itself? They didn't keep the old village 00:06:32.100 --> 00:06:34.139 names, right? No, they simply adopted the name 00:06:34.139 --> 00:06:36.779 of the harbor company, Morechem. I want you to 00:06:36.779 --> 00:06:39.560 really think about that for a second. Yeah. Imagine 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:42.879 a modern corporation, let's say an Amazon or 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:47.420 a Google, building a massive server farm and 00:06:47.420 --> 00:06:51.670 logistics hub in a quiet rural area. Okay. And 00:06:51.670 --> 00:06:55.029 within a few decades, that hub becomes so dominant 00:06:55.029 --> 00:06:57.350 that it physically swallows up three existing 00:06:57.350 --> 00:06:59.829 towns, and everyone just starts calling the entire 00:06:59.829 --> 00:07:02.790 region Amazonville. Amazonville. That is exactly 00:07:02.790 --> 00:07:04.600 what this little railway did. They literally 00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:07.220 put the town of Morcambe on the map. It perfectly 00:07:07.220 --> 00:07:10.279 illustrates the raw world building power of infrastructure 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:12.699 in the 19th century. The railway didn't just 00:07:12.699 --> 00:07:14.839 connect existing destinations, it willed entirely 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:17.300 new destinations into existence. But of course, 00:07:17.300 --> 00:07:19.819 getting all these lines actually built and connected 00:07:19.819 --> 00:07:22.639 to this new town was absolute chaos. Oh, total 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:25.339 mess. The source notes that between 1848 and 00:07:25.339 --> 00:07:28.699 1850, it was this bizarre piecemeal rollout. 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:31.660 Right, very fragmented. For instance, the single 00:07:31.660 --> 00:07:34.660 track line to Lancaster. opened on Witt Monday, 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:38.680 June 12, 1848. And the historical wording notes, 00:07:38.860 --> 00:07:41.959 they built a temporary station at Morecambe that 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:45.139 supposedly afforded, quote, every possible accommodation. 00:07:45.500 --> 00:07:48.699 Oh. Knowing Victorian public relations, every 00:07:48.699 --> 00:07:51.620 possible accommodation is a very polite way of 00:07:51.620 --> 00:07:54.500 saying it was likely a drafty wooden shed. Right. 00:07:54.579 --> 00:07:57.220 With a ticket desk and a roof that hopefully 00:07:57.220 --> 00:07:59.300 kept the worst of the rain off the passengers. 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:01.920 Yeah. Every accommodation means you're extremely 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:04.819 lucky to have a bench. Exactly. But the logistical 00:08:04.819 --> 00:08:07.800 nightmare really peaks around 1849 and 1850. 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:11.680 The NWR is opening lines eastward from Lancaster 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:14.060 through the Loon Valley to Wennington and then 00:08:14.060 --> 00:08:17.040 on to Bentham. Advancing eastward. Right. But 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:19.100 at the exact same time, they were trying to connect 00:08:19.100 --> 00:08:22.000 westward from Skipton to a place called Clapham. 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:25.180 Coming from the other side. Yes. But they couldn't 00:08:25.180 --> 00:08:27.139 build fast enough, which meant there was a literal 00:08:27.139 --> 00:08:29.819 physical gap in the tracks between the two advancing 00:08:29.819 --> 00:08:32.080 lines. A pretty major problem for a railway. 00:08:32.460 --> 00:08:35.000 How do you run a railway with a massive missing 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:37.720 piece of track? Well, you resort to what they 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:40.820 called a horse bus. A horse bus? Yes. You're 00:08:40.820 --> 00:08:43.259 kidding. No, they couldn't afford to wait for 00:08:43.259 --> 00:08:45.240 the track to be finished to start selling tickets. 00:08:45.580 --> 00:08:49.759 Wow. So, they implemented a horse -drawn omnibus 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:53.000 to ferry passengers over the rugged terrain between 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:56.179 the unfinished sections at Wennington and Clapham. 00:08:57.000 --> 00:08:59.440 Put yourself in the shoes of a Victorian traveler 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:02.279 for a second. Okay. You buy a ticket for this 00:09:02.279 --> 00:09:05.960 cutting -edge, steam -powered marvel of modern 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:09.000 engineering. Right, the absolute peak of technology. 00:09:09.259 --> 00:09:10.960 You're wearing your finest traveling clothes. 00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:13.960 The train abruptly stops in the middle of a field. 00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:16.860 Yep. A conductor tells you to get out, grab your 00:09:16.860 --> 00:09:19.340 heavy trunks, and climb into a muddy bouncing 00:09:19.340 --> 00:09:22.779 cart pulled by a horse. And ride several miles 00:09:22.779 --> 00:09:25.080 across the hills just to catch another train 00:09:25.080 --> 00:09:27.519 on the other side. It is incredibly jarring. 00:09:27.659 --> 00:09:29.779 It highlights the intense financial pressure 00:09:29.779 --> 00:09:31.759 these companies were under. They had to start 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:34.419 generating revenue immediately. It reminds me 00:09:34.419 --> 00:09:36.639 of when a tech company releases a massive software 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:39.600 update today, but half the features don't work 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:42.779 yet. So you have to use clunky workarounds? Exactly. 00:09:43.179 --> 00:09:45.740 This was the Victorian equivalent of a beta test. 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:48.309 That's a great way to look at it. But even with 00:09:48.309 --> 00:09:50.809 these workarounds, there is a brutal reality 00:09:50.809 --> 00:09:54.269 to infrastructure investment that the NWR had 00:09:54.269 --> 00:09:56.950 to face, right? What happened to that original 00:09:56.950 --> 00:09:59.450 mountain route they abandoned? This is where 00:09:59.450 --> 00:10:03.009 we see a colossal failure. Okay. So the horse 00:10:03.009 --> 00:10:05.789 bus era ends when the main line from Skipton 00:10:05.789 --> 00:10:08.429 to Morecambe is finally completed. Thank goodness. 00:10:08.730 --> 00:10:11.929 But remember that original grand ambition to 00:10:11.929 --> 00:10:14.809 go north to Logill. Right, through the mountains. 00:10:15.049 --> 00:10:17.490 Well, before they ran out of money, the NWR had 00:10:17.490 --> 00:10:20.210 actually finished a small section of that northern 00:10:20.210 --> 00:10:23.450 route from Clapham up to Ingleton. Oh, they actually 00:10:23.450 --> 00:10:25.870 built some of it. But once the main coastal route 00:10:25.870 --> 00:10:28.009 to Morecambe was secure, and it became obvious 00:10:28.009 --> 00:10:29.970 that pushing through the mountains north of Ingleton 00:10:29.970 --> 00:10:32.669 was financially impossible, they looked at this 00:10:32.669 --> 00:10:34.429 dead -end track. And what did they do with it? 00:10:34.590 --> 00:10:36.710 They just closed it. What? Just closed it. Just 00:10:36.710 --> 00:10:39.370 10 months after it opened to passengers, they 00:10:39.370 --> 00:10:42.710 abandoned it. That is wild. It was a massive 00:10:42.710 --> 00:10:45.440 waste. of money, labor, and engineering deemed 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:47.820 completely useless because the larger vision 00:10:47.820 --> 00:10:50.440 had failed. Here's where it gets really interesting, 00:10:50.500 --> 00:10:53.519 though, because you can't just leave an abandoned 00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:57.139 railway line lying around in 1857 without someone 00:10:57.139 --> 00:10:59.460 trying to take advantage of it. Nature abhors 00:10:59.460 --> 00:11:02.879 a vacuum. And who swoops in? The giant rival 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:06.970 LNWR. Of course. They realize they can use this 00:11:06.970 --> 00:11:09.529 abandoned route, so they get authorization to 00:11:09.529 --> 00:11:12.330 take over the Engleton to Lowgill section. Which 00:11:12.330 --> 00:11:14.950 sets the stage for one of the most famously petty 00:11:14.950 --> 00:11:17.730 corporate standoffs in British transport history. 00:11:18.090 --> 00:11:21.830 Paint this picture in your mind. It's 1861. The 00:11:21.830 --> 00:11:25.049 giant LNWR finally opens their new northern line. 00:11:25.250 --> 00:11:27.230 They build their own beautiful station at the 00:11:27.230 --> 00:11:29.919 town of Engleton. But the Midland Railway, who 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:32.039 are now running the little NWR lines from the 00:11:32.039 --> 00:11:34.399 south, they already have their own station at 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:36.879 Ingleton. Two stations, same town. So naturally 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:38.519 you would assume these two companies would share 00:11:38.519 --> 00:11:41.220 a station or at least build a seamless connection 00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:43.139 for the poor passengers, right? Absolutely not. 00:11:43.240 --> 00:11:45.320 They built their stations at opposite ends of 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:48.820 a massive sweeping viaduct. It is so wonderfully 00:11:48.820 --> 00:11:52.039 petty. Imagine you are that same Victorian traveler. 00:11:52.299 --> 00:11:55.169 Back in the mud. You've got your heavy trunk, 00:11:55.269 --> 00:11:57.750 your hat boxes, your umbrella. You arrive at 00:11:57.750 --> 00:12:00.129 Ingleton on a Midland Railway train from the 00:12:00.129 --> 00:12:02.330 south. Hoping to continue your journey north 00:12:02.330 --> 00:12:07.029 on the LNWR. Exactly. But because these two megacorporations 00:12:07.029 --> 00:12:10.490 loathe each other and refuse to cooperate. The 00:12:10.490 --> 00:12:13.529 train just stops. You are told to get off. And 00:12:13.529 --> 00:12:15.690 you literally have to walk yourself, carrying 00:12:15.690 --> 00:12:18.210 all your luggage, completely exposed to the wind 00:12:18.210 --> 00:12:20.950 and the rain, all the way across a massive stone 00:12:20.950 --> 00:12:24.549 viaduct to the rival company's station just to 00:12:24.549 --> 00:12:26.850 catch your connection. It was the ultimate corporate 00:12:26.850 --> 00:12:30.120 walk of shame. That's hilarious. And if we connect 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:32.080 this to the bigger picture, it wasn't just an 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:34.960 inconvenience. It was a symptom of a deeply toxic 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:38.100 corporate relationship. A symptom? Yes. And this 00:12:38.100 --> 00:12:40.759 petty friction over the Ingleton viaduct had 00:12:40.759 --> 00:12:44.019 a massive historic ripple effect. How so? The 00:12:44.019 --> 00:12:46.340 Midland Railway executives were so incredibly 00:12:46.340 --> 00:12:49.840 fed up with the LNWR's hostility and uncooperative 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:52.200 nature that they made a monumental decision. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:54.500 What did they do? They decided they were never 00:12:54.500 --> 00:12:57.340 going to rely on the LNWR for northbound traffic 00:12:57.340 --> 00:13:00.220 ever again. Just cut them out completely. Completely. 00:13:01.019 --> 00:13:04.200 They decided to build their entirely own, phenomenously 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:06.960 expensive, incredibly difficult line straight 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:09.620 through the mountains. Right. The famous Settle 00:13:09.620 --> 00:13:12.139 to Carlisle line, which opened to passengers 00:13:12.139 --> 00:13:16.419 in 1876. So Spite literally built one of the 00:13:16.419 --> 00:13:19.779 most famous railways in the UK. Spite and a refusal 00:13:19.779 --> 00:13:23.340 to share. Exactly. That is wild. And the consequence 00:13:23.340 --> 00:13:26.919 for our little NWR is huge because this new, 00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:30.299 massive Settle to Carlisle line branched off. 00:13:30.350 --> 00:13:33.009 Off from the NWR route. Okay, so they intersected. 00:13:33.070 --> 00:13:35.909 Yes, and that suddenly elevated the section of 00:13:35.909 --> 00:13:38.090 track between Skipton and Settle Junction to 00:13:38.090 --> 00:13:40.850 full mainline status. Because it was feeding 00:13:40.850 --> 00:13:43.769 this new massive line. Precisely. It became part 00:13:43.769 --> 00:13:45.950 of the primary Midland route from London -St. 00:13:46.029 --> 00:13:47.710 Pancras all the way up to Glasgow. They have 00:13:47.710 --> 00:13:50.250 a huge upgrade. And that mainline status is something 00:13:50.250 --> 00:13:52.149 it still holds to this very day. Wait, really? 00:13:52.250 --> 00:13:55.230 Yes. When you see inner -city trains being diverted 00:13:55.230 --> 00:13:57.950 through that area today, they are running on 00:13:57.950 --> 00:13:59.799 track that was essentially upgraded. because 00:13:59.799 --> 00:14:03.179 two 19th century railway managers refused to 00:14:03.179 --> 00:14:05.840 share a station at Ingleton. That is just incredible. 00:14:05.899 --> 00:14:08.179 The vital infrastructure we rely on today is 00:14:08.179 --> 00:14:11.519 sometimes just the fossilized remains of old 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:13.879 arguments. It really is. But speaking of the 00:14:13.879 --> 00:14:16.039 future, let's move the timeline forward a bit 00:14:16.039 --> 00:14:19.379 to the dawn of the 20th century. The little NWR, 00:14:19.500 --> 00:14:21.639 which is now fully absorbed into the Midland 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:24.639 Railway. isn't done making history. No, it is 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:27.899 not. In 1904, they opened a brand new port called 00:14:27.899 --> 00:14:30.720 Hashem Harbor to replace the old Morkan Harbor. 00:14:30.860 --> 00:14:33.940 And this sets the stage for a massive technological 00:14:33.940 --> 00:14:36.500 leap. A leap that would effectively make this 00:14:36.500 --> 00:14:39.919 quiet regional line the Silicon Valley test track 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.379 for British rail power. I want you to put yourself 00:14:42.379 --> 00:14:45.220 in 1908. Think about what rail travel looks and 00:14:45.220 --> 00:14:47.559 feels like in 1908. It is entirely dominated 00:14:47.559 --> 00:14:50.549 by steam power. Exactly. Trains are these massive, 00:14:50.730 --> 00:14:53.870 breathing, coal -shoveling beasts. Very romanticized 00:14:53.870 --> 00:14:56.610 today, but very dirty. They are incredibly loud, 00:14:56.789 --> 00:14:59.029 and they cover everything, the stations, the 00:14:59.029 --> 00:15:01.610 landscape, the passengers, in thick soot and 00:15:01.610 --> 00:15:04.509 smoke. But if you were standing on the Lancaster 00:15:04.509 --> 00:15:08.269 -Morecampation line in 1908, you look up, and 00:15:08.269 --> 00:15:11.690 instead of a cloud of black smoke, you see overhead 00:15:11.690 --> 00:15:14.230 electrical cables. They were absolute pioneers. 00:15:14.649 --> 00:15:17.690 They really were. In April 1908, they electrified 00:15:17.690 --> 00:15:20.350 the line from Heysham to Morecambe. And by September, 00:15:20.509 --> 00:15:22.909 it reached all the way to Lancaster Castle. And 00:15:22.909 --> 00:15:25.190 the specifications they used were groundbreaking. 00:15:25.850 --> 00:15:28.549 They used an alternating current system running 00:15:28.549 --> 00:15:32.029 at 6 .6 kilovolts at 25 hertz. Okay, stop right 00:15:32.029 --> 00:15:33.649 there. For those of us who aren't electrical 00:15:33.649 --> 00:15:36.370 engineers, what does 6 .6 kilovolts at 25 hertz 00:15:36.370 --> 00:15:39.649 actually mean in the context of 1908? Why is 00:15:39.649 --> 00:15:41.710 that impressive? It means they were using high 00:15:41.710 --> 00:15:44.330 voltage alternating current, which was incredibly 00:15:44.330 --> 00:15:46.809 efficient for transmitting power over long distances 00:15:46.809 --> 00:15:49.649 without losing strength. At a time when most 00:15:49.649 --> 00:15:51.950 of the country was relying on localized dirty 00:15:51.950 --> 00:15:54.789 coal power, they had their very own dedicated 00:15:54.789 --> 00:15:57.370 power station at Haisham generating this massive 00:15:57.370 --> 00:15:59.370 clean electrical force. And feeding it to the 00:15:59.370 --> 00:16:02.129 trains via cables. Suspended from these elegant 00:16:02.129 --> 00:16:05.429 overhead steel archways. While the rest of the 00:16:05.429 --> 00:16:08.450 country is choking on coal dust, passengers in 00:16:08.450 --> 00:16:12.710 Lancashire are gliding. along silently on 6 .6 00:16:12.710 --> 00:16:15.669 kilovolts of clean electricity. It must have 00:16:15.669 --> 00:16:18.509 felt like riding in a spaceship. Seriously. It's 00:16:18.509 --> 00:16:20.629 decades ahead of its time. It was a bold proof 00:16:20.629 --> 00:16:23.450 of concept. And what's amazing is how this exact 00:16:23.450 --> 00:16:25.970 stretch of track continued to be the laboratory 00:16:25.970 --> 00:16:28.789 for British rail innovation decades later. Oh, 00:16:28.809 --> 00:16:31.750 really? Fast forward to 1951. After World War 00:16:31.750 --> 00:16:34.389 II. Right. The National Rail Network desperately 00:16:34.389 --> 00:16:37.210 needs modernizing. So what do they do? They look 00:16:37.210 --> 00:16:39.110 right back at this line. The old test track. 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:41.700 They actually temporarily bring the old steam 00:16:41.700 --> 00:16:44.299 trains back to this specific route just so they 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:46.259 can shut off the power and upgrade the entire 00:16:46.259 --> 00:16:48.720 electrical system. A mid -century reboot. What 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:50.600 were they upgrading? They upgraded the system 00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:54.200 from 25 hertz to 50 hertz. Why 50 hertz? Which 00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:56.500 is crucial because 50 hertz was becoming the 00:16:56.500 --> 00:16:59.000 standard frequency for the national power grid. 00:16:59.220 --> 00:17:01.440 They wanted to see if trains could run off the 00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:03.919 standard grid rather than needing their own special 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:06.380 power stations. Oh, that makes total sense. Much 00:17:06.380 --> 00:17:09.029 more scalable. Exactly. So they resume. full 00:17:09.029 --> 00:17:12.750 electric service in August 1953. But they didn't 00:17:12.750 --> 00:17:14.990 just upgrade the invisible power. What else did 00:17:14.990 --> 00:17:17.109 they do? They experimented with the physical 00:17:17.109 --> 00:17:20.730 infrastructure. On a 4 ,000 -foot section of 00:17:20.730 --> 00:17:23.630 the track, they tore down those original 1908 00:17:23.630 --> 00:17:26.750 steel archways. Oh, the elegant ones. And installed 00:17:26.750 --> 00:17:29.750 experimental cantilever structures. These are 00:17:29.750 --> 00:17:32.569 supports anchored on just one side to hold the 00:17:32.569 --> 00:17:34.740 wires. Well, only one side. They were testing 00:17:34.740 --> 00:17:36.960 how to keep the wiring for the two parallel tracks 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:39.539 entirely separate. So if one side failed, the 00:17:39.539 --> 00:17:41.519 other could keep running. That's brilliant. It 00:17:41.519 --> 00:17:44.319 was meticulous, iterative engineering happening 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:47.000 right on this quiet regional branch. So what 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:49.700 does this all mean for the little NWR as we get 00:17:49.700 --> 00:17:52.200 into the late 1950s and 60s? We've talked about 00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:54.720 grand ambitions, town building and high tech 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:57.880 experiments. It's a great resume. It is. But 00:17:57.880 --> 00:17:59.759 sadly, we have to talk about the decline. What 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:03.099 changed? The post -war era brought a massive 00:18:03.099 --> 00:18:06.859 cultural and economic shift. Yes. You have the 00:18:06.859 --> 00:18:09.660 rise of the affordable automobile, the massive 00:18:09.660 --> 00:18:12.680 expansion of the road network, and shifting industrial 00:18:12.680 --> 00:18:14.599 realities. People weren't taking the train as 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:17.240 much. Right. Railways that had been vital for 00:18:17.240 --> 00:18:19.799 a century were suddenly deemed unprofitable because 00:18:19.799 --> 00:18:22.180 people were driving instead. And the cuts were 00:18:22.180 --> 00:18:25.529 deep. That infamous Ingleton branch. the site 00:18:25.529 --> 00:18:28.450 of the great viaduct Walk of Shame, closed to 00:18:28.450 --> 00:18:31.750 passengers in January 1954. And it hung on for 00:18:31.750 --> 00:18:35.490 goods traffic until 1966. And then came the sweeping 00:18:35.490 --> 00:18:38.309 cuts of the Beeching Axe, which devastated regional 00:18:38.309 --> 00:18:42.150 rail in the UK. For a listener who isn't familiar 00:18:42.150 --> 00:18:45.190 with British history, what exactly was the Beeching 00:18:45.190 --> 00:18:48.269 Axe? In the early 1960s, the government commissioned 00:18:48.269 --> 00:18:50.910 a man named Dr. Richard Beeching to make the 00:18:50.910 --> 00:18:53.289 railways profitable again. Okay. His report, 00:18:53.470 --> 00:18:55.829 which became known as the Beeching Acts, essentially 00:18:55.829 --> 00:18:58.349 recommended slashing about a third of the entire 00:18:58.349 --> 00:19:01.329 national rail network. A third. That's massive. 00:19:01.710 --> 00:19:04.089 Thousands of miles of regional track and thousands 00:19:04.089 --> 00:19:06.589 of small stations were simply wiped off the map 00:19:06.589 --> 00:19:08.710 to save money. And the beautiful Loon Valley 00:19:08.710 --> 00:19:11.549 line, the section from Wennington to Morecambe. 00:19:11.769 --> 00:19:15.210 fell victim to this. Passenger traffic ceased 00:19:15.210 --> 00:19:19.269 entirely on January 2nd, 1966. Which is a shame. 00:19:19.430 --> 00:19:22.390 It must have been a profound loss for those local 00:19:22.390 --> 00:19:25.230 communities to lose the infrastructure that had 00:19:25.230 --> 00:19:27.789 literally defined their geography for over a 00:19:27.789 --> 00:19:30.049 century. It was a physical severing of community 00:19:30.049 --> 00:19:33.589 ties. But the ghost of the little NWR is still 00:19:33.589 --> 00:19:36.309 everywhere, if you know where to look. It hasn't 00:19:36.309 --> 00:19:39.549 entirely disappeared. No. The physical landscape 00:19:39.549 --> 00:19:42.410 of Lancashire and Yorkshire is permanently marked 00:19:42.410 --> 00:19:45.730 by it. For instance, almost all of the dismantled 00:19:45.730 --> 00:19:49.150 line between Caton and Morecambe wasn't just 00:19:49.150 --> 00:19:51.490 left to rot. What happened to it? It has been 00:19:51.490 --> 00:19:54.210 repurposed into a combined cycle path and footpath. 00:19:54.509 --> 00:19:56.529 That's wonderful. You might literally be walking 00:19:56.529 --> 00:19:58.569 your dog on the exact path where a steam train 00:19:58.569 --> 00:20:00.990 used to chug along and the Greyhound Bridge in 00:20:00.990 --> 00:20:02.930 Lancaster, which used to carry the railway over 00:20:02.930 --> 00:20:05.390 the River Loon. It was completely converted. 00:20:05.960 --> 00:20:08.740 and is now a major road bridge for cars. Wow. 00:20:09.099 --> 00:20:11.240 And we can't forget the architectural gems that 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:14.000 survived. If you are ever cycling down that path, 00:20:14.200 --> 00:20:17.180 you will cross the disused railway bridge at 00:20:17.180 --> 00:20:19.680 the Crookaloon. Oh, I've seen pictures. It is 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:23.000 a stunning piece of design by the architect Edmund 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:26.559 Sharp. It's so historically and architecturally 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:29.240 significant that it is now a grade two listed 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:31.559 building. What does it mean to be a grade two 00:20:31.559 --> 00:20:34.279 listed building? In the UK, it means a building 00:20:34.279 --> 00:20:36.720 or structure is legally protected by the government 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:39.700 for its special historical or architectural interest. 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:42.619 So it's safe. Right. It cannot be demolished 00:20:42.619 --> 00:20:45.380 or altered without special permission. So that 00:20:45.380 --> 00:20:48.900 bridge stands there today as a beautiful, legally 00:20:48.900 --> 00:20:51.539 protected monument to the Victorian engineers 00:20:51.539 --> 00:20:53.900 who carved a path through the valley. And it's 00:20:53.900 --> 00:20:56.680 not all just ghosts, psychopaths and monuments. 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.180 The legacy is still. very much alive and functional. 00:21:00.380 --> 00:21:02.460 It is. Two -thirds of the original line over 00:21:02.460 --> 00:21:04.740 in North Yorkshire is actually still in use today, 00:21:04.920 --> 00:21:07.640 providing vital local rail services. That's amazing. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:10.039 And here's a great comeback story to end on. 00:21:10.200 --> 00:21:12.559 That little branch from Morecambe to Haysham 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:14.900 that closed to passengers in 1975. What about 00:21:14.900 --> 00:21:17.759 it? It actually reopened in 1987 specifically 00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:21.519 to serve passengers catching the ferry failings 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:24.059 to the Isle of Man. Oh, that's fantastic. So 00:21:24.059 --> 00:21:25.900 the trains are still rolling into the harbor 00:21:25.900 --> 00:21:28.299 they built over a century ago. It is a testament 00:21:28.299 --> 00:21:31.019 to the fact that good infrastructure, even if 00:21:31.019 --> 00:21:34.420 it changes purpose or ownership, rarely disappears 00:21:34.420 --> 00:21:37.539 completely. The Little Northwestern Railway might 00:21:37.539 --> 00:21:39.960 have lost its independence early on to the Midland 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:42.680 Railway, but its bones are still holding up the 00:21:42.680 --> 00:21:45.839 region's transport network today. So let's wrap 00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:48.519 this up. We have journeyed from an ambitious... 00:21:48.779 --> 00:21:52.400 cash -strapped project in 1846 that literally 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:55.700 had to use muddy, horse -drawn buses to bridge 00:21:55.700 --> 00:21:58.160 the physical gaps in its tracks. Like the visual. 00:21:58.380 --> 00:22:00.339 To a company that accidentally birthed the entire 00:22:00.339 --> 00:22:02.619 megatown of Morecambe out of thin air. Right. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:05.740 We saw it become a pawn in a massive, petty corporate 00:22:05.740 --> 00:22:08.859 turf war that forced passengers to haul their 00:22:08.859 --> 00:22:11.299 trunks across a windswept viaduct. The walk of 00:22:11.299 --> 00:22:13.619 shame. We watched a pioneer overhead electrical 00:22:13.619 --> 00:22:16.960 engineering. gliding cleanly on 6 .6 kilovolts 00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:18.680 while the rest of the world was stuck in the 00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:21.140 grimy steam age. Ahead of its time. And today, 00:22:21.319 --> 00:22:24.859 it lives on in the cycle paths, the legally protected 00:22:24.859 --> 00:22:27.380 bridges and the local rail lines you might travel 00:22:27.380 --> 00:22:30.940 on without even realizing the epic history beneath 00:22:30.940 --> 00:22:33.259 your feet. This raises an important question. 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:35.910 It is. When you look around at the cutting edge 00:22:35.910 --> 00:22:38.269 tech platforms or the infrastructure battles 00:22:38.269 --> 00:22:41.170 happening today, whether it's rival tech giants 00:22:41.170 --> 00:22:43.509 refusing to make their software systems compatible 00:22:43.509 --> 00:22:46.569 or sudden controversial pivots in modern urban 00:22:46.569 --> 00:22:49.569 planning, what petty corporate feuds of today 00:22:49.569 --> 00:22:52.329 are accidentally building the essential permanent 00:22:52.329 --> 00:22:54.930 landscape of our future? Wow. Well, Lerner, thank 00:22:54.930 --> 00:22:56.809 you so much for joining us on this deep dive. 00:22:56.970 --> 00:22:59.190 Keep looking at the world around you. Keep questioning 00:22:59.190 --> 00:23:01.190 the hidden history of the roads and paths you 00:23:01.190 --> 00:23:03.170 travel every day. And we will catch you on the 00:23:03.170 --> 00:23:03.509 next one.