In View

[introduction]

John Betjeman:
There are plenty of men in London clubs ready to write letters to the papers about how the railways ought to be run. And there are plenty of cold-hearted Treasury nominees who will invent arguments against having railways at all, statistical ones. And of course there are enemies of railways in the road haulage industry. But this programme isn't about them - it's about human beings, men of steam, and one particular bit of line: the line from Bristol to Paddington, with one branch to Bradford-on-Avon. The Great Western Railway. And here I am in the railway museum in the railway town of Swindon where the Great Western Works are.

Railwayman:
There used to be an old saying how any fool could start a steam engine, but to control it and bring it to a stand is an entirely different thing.