The Empire Builder: James J. Hill and The Great Northern Railway

Gulag, the Story

2025

A major political, historical, human and economic fact of the 20th century, the Gulag, the extremely punitive Soviet concentration camp system, remains largely unknown.

David Jason: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2025

In this five-part series, comedy legend Sir David Jason hits the West Coast of the USA. He’s on a revealing and entertaining journey of a lifetime by planes, trains and automobiles, discovering the machines that made America and changed the world.

In the boots of Lucky Luke

2025

Relentless sheriffs, trigger-happy gunslingers, steadfast saloon owners and cocky cowboys are all found in the "Lucky Luke" albums, which have influenced entire generations of comic readers. For the three-part series "In the boots of Lucky Luke", the French comic author Jul traveled to the USA to trace the role models of the familiar comic characters.

Great Railway Adventures with Dan Cruickshank

2025

Climb up on the footplate and join historian and host Dan Cruickshank for a railway adventure like no other as he investigates how trains helped shape modern Britain. This three-part series resurrects an exhilarating age and kicks off by focusing on the railways' role in defeating Hitler, before unearthing the incredible engineering achievements of Isambard Brunel and embarking on a trip on the earliest steam engines.

Trains with Pete Waterman

2025

Filmed on location across the UK, the one-time owner of the Flying Scotsman presents a four-part series examining the history of Britain's railways

Classic Trains

2025

Rail Away

2025

Series about striking railways in the world. Each episode travels along a number of special locations, where the train serves as a guide and there is also attention for the landscape and culture.

Amazing Train Journeys

2025

Railroad Alaska

2025

Following an elite crew of workers-- brakemen, engineers, construction crews, mechanics and train drivers – Railroad Alaska illustrates the battle against ferocious weather and treacherous terrain to keep the State of Alaska’s critical 500-mile long railroad rolling to deliver life sustaining supplies. From controlled avalanches to prevent catastrophe, to fascinating characters, like Jim James, the one-handed handy man, learn what it takes to keep this train on track.

Great British Railway Journeys

2025

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

Around the World by Train With Tony Robinson

2025

Covering thousands of miles, Sir Tony Robinson takes a whirlwind journey around the globe by train.

Trains That Changed the World

2025

This series looks at the iconic trains that have done the most to change history. Each train is an engineering marvel, each one a leap forward in the history of trains and railways. But more than this, these are the trains that made the modern world. These are the trains that unify nations and open up continents, that miraculously shrink distance and create a global economy, changing how we trade, what we buy and make and sell. They change how we live and even how we think, speeding up our lives and expanding our horizons. These are the machines that made us modern. Each episode features one iconic train and describes its impact on railway history and on history in general, combining archive and expert testimony with actuality and hands-on engineering demonstrations.

How Trains Changed the World

2025

The invention of trains transformed everything about how humans lived. From the movement of goods and population, the design of cities, to conquest and warfare, there are few aspects of civilization that were left untouched by these machines.

On the Rails of the Double Headed Eagle

2025

The railway age in the Austrian Empire began with the construction of the horse-drawn railway from Linz to Budweis. Plans soon followed to connect the imperial capital of Vienna with the iron and coal deposits in northern Moravia and with the port city of Trieste. In 1837 the Kaiser Ferdinands Nordbahn was opened, in 1857 the Semmeringbahn planned by Karl Ritter von Ghega, overcoming one of the most difficult obstacles on the way to the Adriatic. The crossing of the Alps by train, such as over the Arlberg or the Brenner, is still considered a unique engineering masterpiece. The expansion of the railway network brought epochal changes. Goods and people circulated on an unprecedented scale – life accelerated. It had succeeded in connecting the northern crown lands such as Silesia or Bohemia and Moravia with Carinthia, Tyrol or the coastal region.

Railways of the Great War with Michael Portillo

2025

Michael Portillo examines the role of the railways in World War I and travels through Britain and Europe uncovering stories from the Great War.