In this episode of Inside the Factory, Gregg Wallace explores the world of train manufacturing, fulfilling a childhood dream as he gains special access to the Alstom factory site in Derby.
Here, he discovers the intricate process behind creating a massive 187-tonne, five-carriage electric train. Each train produced in this 84-acre factory takes up to a thousand hours to complete, and Gregg follows the entire journey, from the delivery of vast aluminium lengths to the intricate 15,000-degree welding process and assembly with enormous cranes.
He even gets to drive the newly finished train, but not before learning about crucial design features like the dead man’s pedal and the benefits of electrification.
Cherry Healey, meanwhile, heads to Scotland, where she visits the UK’s last remaining aluminium smelting factory, witnessing the production process of this essential metal. She also ventures to an HS2 construction site, where two enormous tunnel-boring machines are hard at work, digging a ten-mile-long path through the hills.
Historian Ruth Goodman looks into the history of electric trains, uncovering the story of the UK’s first electric train, which was a tourist attraction along the Brighton seafront and is still in use today. The technology born in this seaside town would go on to revolutionise underground transport on a global scale.
Inside the Factory: Trains airs on BBC Two on Thursday 29 August 2024 at 9:00 PM.
