Steam power and steam railways helped transform 19th century Britain into the world's first industrial nation. In this first episode, Dan explores the earliest steam railways and their links to the burgeoning Lancashire cotton industry, discovering how railway pioneers George and Robert Stephenson created the first regular rail service from Manchester to Liverpool in 1830. Travelling down 200 year-old tunnels deep under the Pennines, Dan learns how scores of construction workers risked life and limb to construct the extraordinary networks of tracks, viaducts, bridges and tunnels that developed into the modern rail network. And he reveals how the early railway magnates won and lost fortunes in the investment bonanza that became known as Railway Mania and which created Britain's modern rail network.

Host Dan Cruickshank follows the work of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the brilliant engineer of great originality who designed the Great Western Railway and the first transatlantic steamer. The magnificent steam locomotives of the Great Western Railway were a combination of elegance and raw power. Brunel dreamed of a fast, luxury, long-distance line and built stations to suit his enterprise, transforming the experience of railway travel. And the Great Western Railway was just part of Brunel's steam-driven revolution. His passengers could travel all the way to America: from London to Bristol by train and then across the Atlantic by the largest steamship in the world. The construction of the Great Western Railway between Bristol and London was inspired by Brunel's vision to bring speed and comfort to the experience of travel.

In this episode our story focuses on the railways on the frontline - moving troops to the front, rescuing them when they retreated, evacuating civilians, suffering nightly bombardment during the Blitz and playing a vital role in the build up to D-Day. Dan explores the work and heroism of the railway men and women as well as exploring the vital technology and engineering that kept the railways running during this turbulent historical period. Dan's journey starts on the line to Dover. In both the First and Second World War, thousands of troops left from here for France. Although this period saw train disasters, the worst maritime disaster in history, the sinking of the Lancastria, it had at least as tragic an outcome for the many railway engineers travelling aboard. On the 17th of June, 1940 the Lancastria came under attack, she received three direct hits; the former ocean liner sank, taking with her an estimated 4,000 victims, many of them railwaymen.