The Architecture the Railways Built - Episode Guide

Tim Dunn explores the disused tube station Down Street in Mayfair, that played a crucial tactical role during the Second World War, and tours Rotterdam's new Centraal station with the man who designed it.

Tim Dunn visits one of his favourite railway lines, the Ffestiniog in north Wales. Originally built in the 1830s to transport slate down the mountains to the coast, these days it's a tourist line – but it's filled with hidden architecture. Tim visits everything from the blacksmith's shop at the bottom where locos are still serviced to the line superintendent's house (with its own private platform) halfway up the line; he also inspects a tunnel portal up close and gets a guided tour of the famous spiral that lifted the track in the middle of the 20th century.

Tim also finds out about Amsterdam Centraal which, in the 1880s, was controversially built right across the city's waterfront, ruining views of the sea. Three artificial islands were built to support the stunning neo-renaissance station building. But the then king refused to attend the grand opening. The royal waiting room still exists and we get special access behind its golden gates.

Tim also looks at the opulent Landmark Hotel, built opposite Marylebone station for passengers of the Great Central Railway. The building's detail is exquisite and we get to see inside a secret tunnel below ground and find out about the cycling track on the roof!

Tim Dunn goes behind the scenes at London's Kings Cross station, where he learns about the heritage of the incredible listed building and the complications of adding a brand new extension. Tim also finds out about the disused funicular railway hidden in the Avon Gorge in Bristol. He learns about the world's largest and highest brick viaduct in the world in the German state of Saxony and Tim also visits a station in Dartmouth, Devon that's never had a train.

Tim Dunn visits the magnificent Ribblehead Viaduct and explores the stations and structures along the Settle to Carlisle line. He enjoys the art deco splendour of Surbiton and the glacier-like structures of the Hungerbergbahn stations in Innsbruck.

Tim Dunn follows his family roots by exploring the architecture in Metroland to the north west of London. He also sees the ornate Great Malvern station and its secret "Worm" passage and he experiences the extraordinary Glacier Express in Switzerland.

Tim Dunn explores the ornate St Pancras station in London and its sister hotel – built to show off the might of the Midlands. He also learns about the station built for Castle Howard and a new Swiss funicular that keeps a mountain village connected.

Tim Dunn rides up Mt Snowdon's railway to visit the summit station. He also explores the world's largest mechanically operated signal box and discovers how a glass structure envelopes Strasbourg's 19th century station.

Tim Dunn looks inside the former HQ of London Underground, 55 Broadway, which was the capital's first skyscraper. He visits the rural Norfolk station that used to serve the monarch's Sandringham Estate and sees the timber-framed Barmouth Bridge in north Wales.

Tim Dunn visits the architecture of the Stockton & Darlington railway, the first passenger steam line in the world. He also finds out how Essex's enormous Chappel Viaduct was built and explores the beautiful stations of Stockholm's metro system.

Tim Dunn visits Swindon's railway village, which became home to Great Western's enormous works and he also explores the dark and secret past of Milan's station.
 

Tim Dunn visits Weymss Bay Station in Inverclyde - and architectural gem on the west coast of Scotland. He also explores the engineering marvel that is Blackfriars station in central London. It is the only station to span the full width of The Thames. The glass station was built on the original railway bridge and even provides half its own energy from its solar roof. There's also a look at Sao Bento station in Porto, Portugal. A beautiful Beaux Arts style station in Porto's old town, with its blue and white-tiled booking hall, it has now become a tourist attraction in its own right.

A visit to the Royal Albert Bridge that spans the River Tamar on the border of Devon and Cornwall. Tim Dunn gets a closer look at the phenomenal structure and finds out how it was constructed. Tim also visits Wolverhampton to learn about the history of its train stations, old and new. And there's a look at Gällivare station in Sweden, high in the Arctic Circle, originally built to serve the huge iron ore mines of the frozen north.

Tim Dunn is in Windsor to find out how two rail companies fought to be first to get to Queen Victoria. He also explores the stunning Connel Bridge (below) in the Scottish Highlands and looks at how the Nazis supersized a Polish train depot.

Tim Dunn is in London exploring the striking stations of the Piccadilly Line's northern extension. Tim also takes a look at Causey Arch in County Durham – which is the oldest single span railway arch in the world. And Tim also finds out about Pilsen station in the Czech Republic.

Tim Dunn takes a ride on a funicular railway powered entirely by water. Also, how an abandoned Victorian railway tunnel in Northamptonshire is being transformed into a racetrack and a look at Europe's largest station in Leipzig, Germany.

Tim explores the last working roundhouse in the UK, Barrow Hill in Derbyshire. He visits Bath, a city renowned for its Georgian architecture, but it's main railway station, Bath Spa has quite a different feel. Tim also looks at the transformation of Lód? Fabryczna, one of the most modern stations in Poland.

Tim visits Sheffield station, the centre point of the industrial revolution, which has gone through decades of despair and been reinvented for the 21st century. Tim lends a hand to restore the Bennerley Viaduct in the Erewash valley and he also enjoys the marvels of the futuristic Estacio do Oriente in Portugal. This other worldly station was designed for Lisbon's Word Expo by the "starchitect" Santiago Calatrava.

Tim Dunn goes behind the scenes at Bristol Temple Meads, a Grade 1 listed station, and is given special access to Brunel's old Tudor station and boardroom.

Tim gets up in the rafters of Huddersfield's Grade I listed station and examines the station's clock, to see what makes this building tick. He takes a trip to the seaside town of Morecambe to visit the art deco wonder that is the Midland Hotel, and visits Cologne's magnificent Hohenzollern Bridge in Germany.

Tim is given special access to Wingfield, one of the oldest surviving railways in the world. He uncovers the longest brick viaduct in the UK, the Welland Viaduct in Northamptonshire, and visits Sweden, where award-winning new architecture has popped up as part of the ambitious project to link Malmo to the Oresund Bridge.

Tim Dunn takes to the tracks in Newcastle to explore a city rich in railway architecture. He looks at two recording breaking structures in Scotland and marvels at the quirky design of a funicular in the German highlands.

Tim explores Brunel's first and last railway projects and looks at a Scottish station with a royal connection. Later he takes in the delights of a Portuguese station which looks more like a palace than a railway terminus.

Tim uncovers the secrets above, below and inside London's Charing Cross Station. He also looks at the modern wonder of the Ordsall Chord in Manchester and tells the tale of two stations in the Swedish town of Boras.

Tim heads underground at the magnificent Victorian Bramhope Tunnel in West Yorkshire.

Tim also visits Fawley Hill, home to Sir Bill McAlpine's unique collection of railway memorabilia, and to epic Dresden Station in Germany.

Tim Dunn visits the popular Victorian holiday resort Saltburn-by-the-Sea, exploring the North Yorkshire town that owes its very existence to the railways.

As well as admiring the town's grand station, Tim stops off at the former railway hotel with its own private platform, the impressive seaside pier and eco-friendly cliff tramway.

Tim also takes a look at Grade 2 listed Brislington Tram Depot in Bristol, and uncovers the story of Aleksandrow?Kujawski, a Polish border station that welcomed Russian Royalty.

Tim Dunn heads to Bishopstone in Sussex, a seaside station with a difference – it's also a fortress designed to defend the nation from German attack in World War Two. Tim also looks at the Selby Diversion – a 1980's engineering triumph. At Stockholm Central in Sweden, Tim discovers that building a large station in a city made up of fourteen islands was a town planner's nightmare.

Tim explores London's first passenger railway – the London and Greenwich Railway, on the longest railway viaduct in Britain today.

He also marvels at the mechanics of the Deptford Creek Lifting Bridge and the brewing businesses that operate under the arches of the viaduct today.

The programme explores Alnwick Station, a disused station in the North East of England, reinvented as one of the UK's largest second-hand book shops. And in Central Europe, the Zampach Viaduct in the Czech Republic was built as part of a much-needed rail link to transport timber to the capital, Prague.

Tim Dunn takes a trip through the history of the North Staffordshire Railway Company, admiring the beautiful Stoke Station. He also looks at the revolutionary Byker Viaduct which carries the Newcastle Metro over the Ouseburn Valley.

In Poland, the Elblag Canal is a unique piece of engineering - half railway and half waterway.

Today Tim Dunn heads to the seaside to find out how the railways changed the fortunes of Margate and Ramsgate.

Tim Dunn visits the historic Grade 1 Curzon Street Station, to be reborn as part of the terminus for HS2, the rail link between London and Birmingham.

Tim heads north of the border to scale a Scottish railway icon - the Forth Bridge, without doubt one of the engineering wonders of the world. Tim conquers his fear of heights to learn its story from its foundations, deep under the Firth of Forth, to its summit 110 metres above the water. At Goathland, North Yorkshire, is a railway station where movie magic was made, possibly better known today as Hogsmeade from its starring role in the Harry Potter films.

In Manchester's Castlefield area, Tim discovers how viaducts still dominate the cityscape. In Reading, a railway station is transformed and ready for the commuter challenges of the 21st century.

Tim goes deep beneath the waves to explore the Channel Tunnel, stopping off at Ashford International to take in this underappreciated piece of 90s railway architecture. Folkestone Harbour Station, once a great hub for international travel, is leading the way for the regeneration of a whole area of the town.

Tim gets to grips with his local station - London Bridge, meeting the architects who turned this one-time Frankenstein's monster of a station into the bright, airy and tranquil modern terminus. At the National Railway Museum, Tim gets access to Borough Market Junction Signal Box.

Tim visits the striking post-war Coventry station.? In Scarborough he discovers the birthplace of Britain's funicular railways.? And in a TV first, Tim delves into Network Rail's archives.

Tim explores railway ingenuity at Goole swing bridge in Yorkshire and takes in Edinburgh Waverley from roof to underground vaults.? At the National Railway Museum learns how railways demarked their land.

Tim Dunn sees how quirky railway architecture has shaped the city of Lincoln.?The rivalry of two competing Victorian railway companies and their refusal to share infrastructure not only resulted in two railway stations, but two level-crossings that cut the busiest thoroughfare in the city in two.

In Birmingham, Tim takes an exclusive look at a brutalist signal box, just before it switches off the lights, for the very last time. And, at the Network Rail archives Tim gets his hands on Stephenson's drawings for two great Victorian bridges - the Newcastle High Level Bridge and the Britannia Bridge.

Tim revisits his childhood holiday haunts in South Devon, following the route of Brunel's experimental atmospheric railway.? In Wingfield, Derbyshire, Tim checks in on an ambitious restoration of an early rural railway station.? And, at the National Railway Museum in York Tim finds out how Great Western Railways embraced the holiday business in the 1930s by exploring their railway posters from the era.

Tim explores the birthplace of British locomotive manufacturing - Leeds. Starting at the Round Foundry, the combined engineering works that turned out Salamanca, the world's first commercially successful steam locomotive. In Halifax, Tim discovers a story from the beginnings of the railways, when the canal was still king, and railway architecture demonstrates the rails' deferential position.

And at the National Railway Museum in York, Tim dishes up the facts on railway dining, including the unusual story of Swindon Refreshment Rooms.

Tim explores the surprisingly beautiful Hull Paragon station, a spectacular example of how George Hudson, "the Railway King" indelibly left his mark on the city. But not all the rail passengers who passed through Hull were able to experience the grandeur of this station, as Tim reveals in the much less known railway story of the 2.5 million migrants who passed through Hull station, on their way to a new life in the new world.

In Leamington Spa is a strikingly rare art deco station, funded by a loan scheme designed to create jobs during the Great Depression. And, at the Network Rail archives, Tim discovers some railway war memorials and understands the impact of the Great War on railway workers throughout the UK.