The video mentions the South Devon Railway, "which failed". That railway was planned by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and opened in 1847. There are a few pumping sta

The video mentions the South Devon Railway, "which failed". That railway was planned by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and opened in 1847. There are a few pumping stations along the route, which used steam engines to create a vacuum in a pipe laid along the middle of the tracks. The railway was converted to steam engines and then to diesel when the atmospheric system failed to live up to expectations. The main problem was that the leather seal along the slot on the top of the pipe failed - officially due to wear, freezing solid, or drying out and going stiff. The leather was lubricated with whale oil, and some say that rats took a fancy to this ready source of food. There is still a pub called the atmospheric railway inn in Starcross, which the train would have passed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_railway