Secrets of the Railways

The Nordland Line in Norway is 453 miles long - the longest in the country. Built to transport Norway's greatest natural resource – iron ore – the first section opened in 1882. The Nordland crosses the Arctic Circle and nowadays it carries a combination of commuters, long-haul passengers and freight trains. But it has a darker, mysterious past.

Under Nazi occupation, Hitler used thousands of slave labourers to extend the line towards Kiruna in Sweden. It became, in effect, one huge slave camp where many thousands died in terrible conditions. Nordland became an invaluable part of the Nazi war machine. Nordland also saw one of the most audacious and daring raids of World War Two, when US ski - paratroopers managed to destroy a section of the line, reducing its usefulness to Germany.

The line between Liverpool and Manchester was not only the first to rely exclusively on steam power, with no horse-drawn traffic permitted at any time, it was also the first to be entirely double-track throughout its length. It was the first railway to have a signalling system, the first to be time-tabled and the first to carry mail.

Wealthy Liverpool, which had benefitted hugely from the slave trade, imported cotton from the southern US. Manchester transformed it into garments. What was needed was a way to do it faster, and so the L&MR was born.

But it was a difficult birth. It was a complicated project to complete, but the opening in 1830 attracted engineers from all over the world, all determined to copy the new technology. Unfortunately, there was a terrible accident during the opening ceremonies when the local MP was struck by a train and killed, thereby becoming the first railway casualty.

A line originally built, with incredible difficulty, to support tin mining operations in Queensland. It eventually went on to provide vital support in Australia's vital, if not well-known, WWII defence against the threat of invasion from Japan.