Great British Railway Journeys: Season 15, Episode 12

15 - 12: Derby to Nottingham

Michael Portillo reaches the jet age in the Derby suburb of Peartree, where he tours the engineering colossus Rolls-Royce. In Derby city centre, Michael is on the trail of little-known modernist sculptor Ronald Pope, admiring two of his works and discovering how Pope began his working life as an engineer at Rolls-Royce.The chance to catapult a model train along a 150-metre-long track into a purpose-built wind tunnel takes Michael to Derby's Railway Technical Centre, founded in 1967 and once the largest railway research complex in the world. Michael's last stop is Nottingham, where he finds one of the oldest bicycle companies in the world, Raleigh, and discovers how a bold, new idea became a craze.