This spectacular series narrated by Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) traces 200 years of railway history, transporting viewers back to the golden age of steam train travel. 

The series celebrates Britain’s pioneering efforts to transform travel, industry, trade and communication with these revolutionary machines, all while revelling in the romance and the thrill of a stream train journey. It spotlights Britain's pioneering early railway engineers, from George and Robert Stephenson and James Spooner, to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and showcases Britain's most iconic steam railways, from the Jacobite Railway in the Scottish Highlands, to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.  

In Yorkshire, we are forge through the iconic moorlands from Whitby to Pickering, the route designed by the Stephensons. We hear the story not just of this railway, but of Stephenson's Locomotion No. 1, the very first steam-powered passenger railway. 

On the West Somerset Railway, we travel along the rolling hills of the Quantocks and Exmoor National Park, to uncover the secrets of its engineer, one of Britain’s best known: Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

And in Wales, The Mountain Spirit, travels along The Ffestiniog Railway in Snowdonia National Park, to reveal a fascinating history of Wales’ industrial revolution, powered by steam trains.