Te
Tedd
Teddy:
Teddy: S
Teddy: Som
Teddy: Somet
Teddy: Sometim
Teddy: Sometimes
Teddy: Sometimes s
Teddy: Sometimes sur
Teddy: Sometimes survi
Teddy: Sometimes surviva
Teddy: Sometimes survival
de
Teddy: Sometimes survival depe
Teddy: Sometimes survival depend
Teddy: Sometimes survival depends
Teddy: Sometimes survival depends on
Teddy: Sometimes survival depends on a
Teddy: Sometimes survival depends on a p
Teddy: Sometimes survival depends on a pai
Teddy: Sometimes survival depends on a pair
Teddy: Sometimes survival depends on a pair of
steel tracks on shaky ground, carrying fresh cargo.
Aliya: Or, a high-tech plane bringing medical care
to remote locations.
The airplane people's job is to get to the hospital deck.
Teddy: ...or a huge floating hospital navigating tiny,
isolated ports.
The sooner we get there the better!
Doctor: This ship is a tool that we can bring into areas where
you just don't have the infrastructure that's needed.
It's a fantastic tool.
Aliya: Or, a jumbo cargo jet supplying a remote Arctic mine.
Man: Without that machine, things will stop.
Teddy: The missions are tough.
You never know, what day-to-day,
what's gonna take place out here.
Aliya: But, they're essential.
Rhoda: We don't have a rail line, we have no food, nothing.
Teddy: They're not just vehicles, they're lifelines.
♪
(Train whirring)
These are the mightiest planes, trains and ships
humankind has ever devised.
And their journeys make the difference between the success
and failure of their community,
sometimes even between life and death.
In every sense of the word, they are lifelines.
That's true, and you know, it's really something to see
the tech and innovation behind these lifelines!
For example, Nolinor Aviation's cargo flights
way up into the Arctic.
Or the ORBIS.
This is a DC-10 that's been retrofitted into
a flying operating room.
It provides vision-saving procedures to some of the
world's poorest countries.
Aliya: And the Africa Mercy, which is a state-of-the-art
floating hospital that ships surgeons and nurses, dentists
and their families around the world;
they say they do approximately 7,000 surgeries a year!
That's incredible! Yeah.
Yeah, the work they do is so vital, and you know, AJ,
I got to see the impact of one of these lifelines
up close for myself.
I was so lucky to jump aboard the Hudson Bay Railway.
This is a train that brings life-sustaining goods
way up into Canada's frigid north.
And I got to tell you, a lot of the small towns along the way
could not survive without it.
Incredible. It sounds like a very hostile environment.
It is, it's not an easy journey up there.
In fact, there have been several major derailments because
the track was laid on unstable ground.
So to keep things going, the community has banded together to
maintain the track;
that's how much this train means to them.
Gotta tell you as well, a lot of really interesting characters
on the way up to Churchill, Manitoba.
♪
Thompson, Manitoba is as far north in Canada
as Siberia is in Russia.
♪
It's 761 Kilometres, or 472 Miles north of the province's
biggest city, Winnipeg.
In other words, it's far away from Civilization,
and it's cold up here.
It's early morning in Thompson freight yard, as you can see
right behind me, they're starting to, uh, to load cargo.
♪
They got a lot of work to do and not a lot of time.
♪
(Truck beeps)
The cars are bound for Churchill, Manitoba;
a port on Hudson's Bay, just a little over 400 Kilometres
or 240 Miles away, as the crow flies.
But two long days away on the rails.
They organise the train in a way that, at the first stop,
the thing at the back comes off, and so on.
And that's done so they don't have to keep reorganising it
as they make their way up.
Planes land in Churchill, but it's so expensive to fly,
the cost of everything goes way up.
There's a port, but ships can only use it
from late July to early November.
That makes this train vital to the life and livelihood
of everyone along the Hudson Bay Railway.
♪
This is the lifeline for all the Bay Line communities.
Teddy: Ricky is in charge of getting our train ready
for the trip.
So you're shunting engines, too?
Yeah, well, our engine, we're gonna start building the train
this morning to get everything ready for time, to leave on time
for 11:00, but usually it never happens, but we'll try!
(Clunk)
If it did leave really late,
the contractors that are in the job site
waiting for them, it'll start costing them money.
Clear!
Teddy: At every stop along the line,
workers are waiting for supplies,
stores are waiting for food,
people are waiting for their stuff.
Since there are no roads,
if it's not on this train,
it's not coming.
And this is all their supplies
for their stores out in Churchill.
So, every week, fresh produce, like vegetables
and other-- milk and stuff like that
So, this is their perishable services in here.
This is a very important load
for the survival of the people of Churchill.
We're taking this crushing equipment to Churchill
and then we also have, like, explosives
and stuff like that going, detonators.
So, they got their stuff
for blasting the rock and all that.
We got everything for everybody and every use.
Teddy: Ricky checks in on the status of the cars
with Lena, his boss at work
and at home.
Yeah, we're actually, uh...
Husband and wife.
Husband and wife, yeah.
This is gonna be a big train.
So, in the past two days,
we've loaded 27 railcars
And there's another 20,
plus the five ballasts
that we'll be dumping along the way.
Teddy: The big load is desperately needed,
but no one is compromising on safety.
Good, Tony!
Good job, guys!
This one just needs to get retightened here, Theo.
One chain loose, that's it.
Everything seems to be looking pretty good.
My boys usually do a good job.
It's a nice feeling to go home
and know that you helped the people up North
♪
Teddy: Getting up North
is going to be a little easier today.
It's one of two new locomotives that the company has.
This is actually their first run up to Churchill.
And people here are pretty excited
because these are more powerful than the old ones.
And the reason why there's two locos
is because the area we're going is super remote.
So, if something happens and one breaks down,
they need the second as a back-up.
Yeah, we should go, Brian.
♪
This new locomotive also uses satellite technology
so the drivers can be in constant contact
with their head office.
It's a much-needed modernization of the line.
Now, it's time to meet Bruce,
the driver who gets to break in
this sweet new ride.
Hey, are you Bruce? Yeah.
Hey, Teddy. Thanks for having us. Very good, thank you.
We're gonna be filming you all day.
(Radio bleeping)
That's correct, it's on, yes.
Teddy: Bruce will make sure
everything is working before we head out.
(Unclear) emergency brake test.
♪
Teddy: Time to roll out.
(Horn blaring)
Bruce: We're out of here.
On our way.
♪
We've just pulled out of Thompson.
You can see we're going pretty slow.
That'll be the case for most of the journey.
This train goes really, really slow.
It has to because of the terrain
and all the cargo.
The man in charge of the cargo
is Tony, our conductor.
Yeah, we got everything on board.
Teddy: He'll be hopping out to switch tracks,
inspect brakes,
and add and drop railcars.
But he likes what he sees
inside this new locomotive.
Oh, I like these engines.
They're comfort cabs, eh?
There's lots of room.
They're big. They're big engines.
Good to have all that power, too,
especially in the winter.
If you're going through snow,
it's trying to pull through snow
Teddy: Weather is always a challenge
this far north.
Pretty normal to go into Churchill
and find it -50.
♪
Teddy: But cold weather isn't the worst climate
for these rails.
Bruce: When the ground's frozen, it's pretty good.
The rail is not going to move.
And then when it thaws, it gets a lot of water in it
and gets soft, it moves around.
Teddy: That's because when the tracks were laid,
back in the early 20th century,
the railway was built on land filled with muskeg:
wet spongy ground that shifts
with the amount of water it holds and how warm it is.
Bruce: If it gets too hot out,
the rail gets like spaghetti and kinks all over the place.
Because it gets soft, the rail could come loose, you know,
and you can spread your rail and then anything could happen.
♪
Teddy: In May 2017, anything did happen,
thanks to catastrophic flooding between Gillum and Churchill.
There were 19 washouts in 24 kilometres
or 15 miles of track.
Sections as long as a kilometre were under six metres of water.
Five bridge structures were severely damaged.
The train derailed in one spot.
The company that own the railways said they couldn't
afford to pay the millions of dollars in repairs.
The railway that had run for almost a century was shut down.
♪
But a consortium made largely of Indigenous communities
along the line fought the railway.
After 18 months of stillness,
cars full of cargo were headed north again,
and these rails are now constantly maintained.
They do their due diligence in making sure that the track
is safe for us to operate on, no question about that.
♪
Teddy: Sheldon Johnston is one of the maintenance workers
performing that due diligence.
He's working on the line ahead of the train.
In effect, 10-24, one, nought, two, four.
Teddy: Like a rural James Bond,
he converts his truck into a rail car.
That call I just made gave us permission
to enter the main track.
Teddy: A computer inside the truck scans the rails
to see if there are any abnormalities
that need to be fixed.
Well, 29.07, we've got potential urgent defect.
The high rail is two or three quarter inch low.
It's a quarter inch from going to impassable.
So it needs to be fixed.
Teddy: Sheldon marks the spot so another crew can jack up
the rail and support it with crushed rock for balance.
They need to come soon because the train can't afford to wait.
Then Sheldon's back down the rails.
There's no shortage of work on this line.
It's going to take five or six years
to get back to a good base.
Teddy: But Churchill can't wait for five years
to get another train full of supplies,
so crews are on the scene all the time.
And what they find isn't always good news.
The track could spread,
and the wheels of the train could drop in
and cause a major derailment.
♪
Coming up: I'll see repair crews in action as they shore up
dangerous stretches of rail,
and they've got their work cut out for them.
And we'll also fly with Nolinor Aviation
on a life-sustaining journey to the Arctic.
Wow.
We'll also take a look at a floating hospital
and a flying eye hospital,
both that are changing the lives of people
in underdeveloped countries around the world.
♪
(D
(Dri
(Drivi
(Driving
(Driving r
(Driving roc
(Driving rock
(Driving rock mu
(Driving rock musi
(Driving rock music)
♪
This is the Mightiest: Lifelines,
trains, planes and ships
that sustain communities and save lives.
Now, Teddy, you were talking about
how on the Hudson Bay Railway
there was actually markers for badly needed maintenance.
Yeah, and if that work doesn't get done
the tracks can shift
and that can cause a train to derail.
So getting those repair crews out, it's absolutely urgent.
(Driving rock music)
The base is a constant concern on this line.
(Train rattling)
With the rail built on waterlogged land,
a solid foundation has to be imported.
That's part of Bruce and Tony's next task.
♪
So right now we've stopped.
We've actually picked up two more workers
and what they're doing right now
is releasing ballast, or crushed rock.
♪
(Gravel pattering)
Man: (Over radio) Okay, start moving.
Man 2: Okay.
Start dumping dump feeds.
(Loud clattering)
♪
The banks are steep, the rock falls down.
And with traffic going over the track all the time,
the rock gets pulverized, eh?
So I have to keep adding to it.
♪
Teddy: Another crew will push the small rocks underneath
the rails to keep them even
and provide support on the sides.
Without the ballast, the rails will become unstable.
Then you'll end up with a bunch of cross-travel
and it gets soft.
It'll come down on one side and you'll end up
with another train on its side again.
♪
Anthony: You can bring her to a stop, Bruce.
♪
Dumping ballast went really well.
Smoother than I expected and we're on our way again.
♪
So, as you can see, working in the far north, it's not easy.
It's why you need specialized and hardened crews and vehicles.
It actually makes me think of Nolinor Aviation.
They often get the call when someone needs to ship cargo
to a remote destination by air.
Yeah, and besides the unpredictable
and extreme weather,
the airports, let's just say
they're not as nice as the one that we're in right now.
Often the runways are made of gravel.
Well, Nolinor has a lot of experience dealing with
inhospitable locations and I can think of nothing
more inhospitable than a mining town in the Arctic.
This morning, Bruno St-Jacques
and co-pilot Jean-Christophe Seguin
prepare their next mission for Nolinor Aviation.
They service the most rugged terrain in the world.
Jean-Christophe: Zero fuel weight,
41,804 kilos.
Pretty high, huh?
Aliya: Today, they will be delivering essential food,
equipment and workers to a booming gold mine in the Arctic.
This mission is one of four weekly flights
to Meadowbank Gold Mine in Nunavut.
Without the plane, the mine would shut down.
Yeah, we are a lifeline to go to Meadowbank.
(Dramatic rock music)
Aliya: After departing Mirabel, Nolinor's 737 will fly
to Val-d'Or, Quebec, to pick up workers
and essential supplies
before continuing to Meadowbank Gold Mine.
♪
Inside the mine's warehouse, shipping manager James Boast
prepares for the plane's arrival.
We have a bit sharpening machine
that had a major problem with it.
It-- actually, it doesn't work any more.
Aliya: But without the sharpening machine,
rotary drills can't drill holes
for explosives to break up the rock.
James: Without that machine, things will stop in the pit.
Aliya: Nolinor's 737 takes to the skies right on schedule,
7:00 a.m. sharp.
♪
Her first destination is Val-d'Or Airport in Quebec.
Woman: (Over radio) 9-oh-9-5-0, climb to 1-6000.
(Unclear) 1-6000.
Aliya: The 737 is on its final approach to Val-d'Or.
But on the ground Denis Caron is missing a vital piece
of cargo for Meadowbank.
The drill bit sharpening machine hasn't arrived.
(Speaking French)
Aliya: And if Nolinor's 737 doesn't deliver it today,
work in the pit could come to a standstill.
Denis tries to tack down the drill bit sharpening machine.
♪
Captain St. Jacques brings her in for landing.
♪
90 knots.
60 knots.
I'm tracking on the way in for 60.
♪
Aliya: Finally, the drill bit sharpening machine is loaded.
♪
Setting up thrust.
♪
Engine stable.
The controller set.
(Unclear) is on the road.
♪
Aliya: When the plane reaches Nunavut,
Captain Bruno is facing a difficult landing.
♪
Bruno: There's no room for error at all.
It is a one shot deal.
One approach only and then direct the alternate.
Aliya: But the airstrip is still hidden
below a cloud of ice crystals.
Bruno relies on GPS to guide the plane
towards the start of the runway.
Back on profile.
♪
(Unclear).
Check. Landing.
Aliya: As the plane descends to 300 feet
it breaks through the ice crystals
making it safe to land.
We're on speed on profile.
♪
On speed.
♪
Fog's minus 5.
Man: 14, 13. 20, 10.
♪
Rear brake up.
Reverse (Unclear).
♪
Aliya: It's a spot-on touchdown.
♪
And the desperately needed drill bit sharpening machine
is delivered!
♪
A successful delivery!
But our cargo to Churchill, Manitoba is still en route.
So smooth sailing from here?
Not quite.
I mean, this is a really long railway
so crews are always on the alert for damage
or else the train and its badly needed supplies
won't make it through.
♪
Sheldon comes across a stretch of track
that Bruce and Tony might not get across.
♪
One, two, three, four, five
defective ties all in a row.
This is just too many defective ties in a row here.
And the track could spread and the wheels of the train
could drop in and cause a major derailment.
This is a very bad spot.
♪
Teddy: He calls in the maintenance crew.
We need to replace at least two or three of those ties
to bring it back into tolerance.
Come on, you guys.
Teddy: They arrive in minutes.
Time is not their friend.
Sheldon: We got a freight train coming
so we have to get these ties chained up
because the train won't be able to go over this.
That one and this one has to go too.
♪
Teddy: The crew makes short work of this job.
♪
Sheldon gets in a few precision strikes of his own.
We ended up changing all six ties.
They did a great job and the train is on its way.
♪
Teddy: The lifeline to the North couldn't be in better hands.
Sheldon's been doing this for 45 years.
He'll miss this hard land when he retires.
Sheldon: I'm going to miss being up here.
Just being up here.
Seeing the wildlife. Seeing the people.
Yes, that's who I'd miss the most.
♪
Teddy: Sheldon may love the wildlife,
but the critters up here aren't all beneficial.
In fact, one national symbol
is a direct threat to this vital link.
All right, beavers are amazing animals,
but along the Hudson Bay Railway
they can be a source of real danger.
So up next, I see what it takes to keep these animals
from destroying this delicate lifeline.
And we also go aboard a Flying Eye Hospital
called the Orbis, and the Africa Mercy,
a ship that brings medical aid
where it's needed the most around the world.
♪
(Train chugging)
Teddy: In 2018 on this line just south of Thompson,
a train ran into a flooded track
and went off the rails.
One crew member died.
An investigation suggests the flooding was caused by beavers.
As long as the culverts are open, the water runs fine.
Teddy: Right.
(Laughter)
The beavers got a culvert clogged up,
the water's going to go over the track in some place.
Teddy: So how do you prevent that?
'Cause there are beaver dams here.
Bruce: Well, there's another guy that does patrol.
He's on beaver patrol.
Teddy: That other guy is Bryan Lundie.
I'm a bonafide certified trapper.
Teddy: He's been hired by the railway.
For him this is business and personal.
I worked with the guy that died in 2018.
He stayed in the same bunkhouse with me.
Teddy: So he has to find the beavers.
Bryan: There's a breathing hole in here. See it?
It keeps going.
It goes under there.
He's probably under those trees.
Teddy: And Bryan can stop them from being a problem.
I said this yesterday, actually.
It's a drowning set, leg hold drowning set,
and it's legal to use.
Teddy: This is just one of many stops for Bryan.
He has to be as industrious as his adversary.
"Busy as a beaver."
There's a reason they say that.
I got something.
Oh, Jesus. Bigger than the last one.
Teddy: You don't have to follow Bryan long
to see how persistent the threat is.
That bank is higher than the rail.
It's gonna flood out the rail.
Teddy: The next step is to get rid of the dam.
With all this rain we've been getting,
you'd better come and break this dam.
I know you're in the vicinity.
♪
Teddy: Help is there in a hurry.
This excavator makes short work of the beaver's accomplishment.
(Creaking)
♪
And the water is flowing again, but it's all necessary
to keep this essential service on the tracks.
We're doing what we can to keep it drained
for the railroad's sake.
This railway's the lifeline for the people in the north.
They depend on the railway.
(Bell clanging)
People devote their lives to the Hudson Bay Railway
because it's changing lives along the entire route.
I see how it maintains the health
of the communities lining the tracks.
Let's also talk about a plane
that's helping to maintain physical health.
Right, the Orbis.
This thing is amazing. It's a passenger jet,
converted into a flying eye hospital.
Right, and blindness is debilitating,
and in some parts of the world,
it means you won't survive.
And even more sad, it can often be prevented
with timely medical help.
But that means getting doctors and medicines
where they're needed, and fast.
So what's the fastest way around the world?
By air.
ALIYA: From the outside, this DC-10
looks like just another passenger plane.
And here's the paperwork for signing off. Alright.
ALIYA: But it's not.
Inside is an operating room
where doctors perform eye surgeries
and share their expertise with aspiring colleagues
in the world's poorest countries.
This plane travels the world, changing lives.
♪
The Orbis team is in Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar.
In Mongolia, there's a huge number of people
who do not need to be blind.
Their blindness could have been
prevented or cured, about 80 percent.
ALIYA: Orbis will directly assist 150 patients.
And the local doctors they train in the process
will eventually assist thousands more.
In 1992, philanthropists bought the plane
and donated it to Orbis.
Over the next two years, it was transformed.
The former first-class section is now a 48-seat theatre
where local doctors can follow surgical procedures
as they happen in the OR in real time.
Next is the pre-op laser exam room,
a state-of-the-art operating theatre,
and finally, a recovery room.
On the tarmac at Genghis Khan Airport,
the Orbis DC-10 is about to be reconfigured from plane
to state-of-the-art eye hospital.
BRUCE: Yeah, getting ready
to offload all our ground equipment,
start to set up in hospital mode.
♪
ALIYA: The surgery and post-op rooms
get a top-to-bottom scrub.
It's virtually like a real hospital back home.
ALIYA: In a few hours,
the plane is a fully functioning operating theatre and classroom.
DOCTOR: These sutures basically decide
on the distribution of corneal tissue
in the recipient opening.
HUNTER: Our goal is really not how much we can do,
it's how much we can show
and how much we can get them to do after we leave.
The whole purpose is not coming in and showing off,
it's coming in and showing how.
You know, one of the major factors
affecting lifeline vehicles is weather,
which makes perfect sense,
especially if you're travelling
to remote and extreme parts of the Earth.
And this is absolutely true
on the Hudson Bay Railway.
Extreme weather means tough problems
and even tougher people to solve those problems.
♪
It's 8:00 at night, but we're still
hard at work on the line.
We had to hop off the train
so Tony could take care of some business.
So at this stop, two really important things are happening.
The first is that we're dropping off
five train cars of cargo for a nearby community.
The second thing is that as the train comes by
and reconnects with the remaining cars,
Tony is doing a visual inspection of the brakes.
They call it a blow-by.
Ready for a safety check.
TEDDY: The brakes are inspected
every 60 miles, or about 100 kilometres.
You can't leave something so important to chance
in a place this remote.
15 cars, one-five, 6001.
So far, so good.
♪
TEDDY: Life on the rails isn't for everyone.
Perfect. Good inspection.
♪
Some guys come up here, they don't last very long.
They're gone right away.
TEDDY: Tony started in 1976.
He's quit twice himself, but keeps coming back.
Gets in your blood.
Becomes a way of life.
TEDDY: But Tony's coming to the end of this journey.
He'll be off at the next stop,
and a new conductor will take over.
We're coming into Gillam in about another 10-15 minutes,
and then eight hours after we go off duty,
we'll continue our journey on to Churchill.
TEDDY: And that new conductor will have to go past the scene
of the devastating 2017 floods
that cut off supplies to Churchill
for a year and a half.
In moments, we go aboard
the Africa Mercy floating hospital.
And we reach the end of the lifeline track
into Canada's remote north.
♪
TEDDY: It's early morning.
The crew is getting ready
to leave Gillam to go to Churchill.
♪
Okay, boys, let's get rolling.
See, the brakes aren't set up right now.
The piston's not out. We're good.
TEDDY: Josh, the new conductor,
is doing the morning inspection.
JOSH: We're all in the clear
and you can start taking her ahead.
♪
Basically, you just come out,
inspect your train, everything is good.
Look at the chains on the flatbeds,
and make sure the wheels aren't steaming hot.
The bearings get too hot
and the wheels could just fly right off.
TEDDY: Josh is just 22 years old...
Yeah, three more cars to stop.
...and has been a conductor for less than a year.
We actually got a car with dynamite on it right now,
so we've gotta make sure that that one's secured
and everything's good, right?
♪
TEDDY: With the load secure, the train is on its way.
Engine 6001, six naught naught one,
may proceed on the main track from Gillam North.
Off to Churchill.
TEDDY: Josh just happens to be the son
of our engineer, Bruce.
He teases me a lot.
Got some boots to fill.
TEDDY: Josh takes the responsibility
for the safety of the train very seriously.
They say the rules are written in blood,
'cause every rule that they made,
someone has died because of it.
TEDDY: The crew settles in for a long ride.
You got a 10.5-hour run from Gillam to Churchill
with absolutely nothing in between.
Nothing.
♪
TEDDY: Except work crews and the passenger trains
sharing the line.
♪
For that reason, Josh is in regular contact
with Occupancy Control System,
the government agency that supervises all railway activity.
(Beeping)
Josh: Instructions from foreman Dustin Head.
No animals subforms are being predicted.
♪
We're good; we got permission up to 351.
♪
Teddy: The activity on the line
is the result of much better maintenance than in the past.
Since the disaster of 2017,
the rails have been getting much-needed attention.
Bruce: It's like a big roller coaster.
It was up and down and all over.
It was... it was horrible.
(Dramatic instrumental music)
Teddy: And there's no secret
about why the tracks were so bad.
♪
You can see right here
the landscape's really changed again.
All of this water and muskeg.
And it was around here in 2017 the tracks were washed out.
Trains had to stop running and it hurt a lot of people.
♪
Soon, we'll see how the crew faced that difficult
and tragic section of the Hudson Bay Railway.
But first, AJ, tell us about a ship that's saving lives
around the world.
Yeah, the Africa Mercy is literally a lifeline.
It's the second-largest non-government hospital ship
in the world and aboard there are volunteers
from over 50 different countries
transforming lives one port at a time.
And it's really incredible to think about the difference
that they're making in parts of the world
where they just don't have
the same access to medical experts and safe surgery.
Yeah, the Africa Mercy is also an impressive example
of engineering and of innovation.
(Port din)
This ship is part of a global charity that started in 1978.
The organization, Mercy Ships,
has helped countless impoverished communities
around the world.
Africa Mercy has completed two missions to West Africa
but she didn't start out as a hospital ship.
She was originally built as a train ferry in Denmark.
(Whoosh)
In 1999, she underwent an extreme conversion.
The train deck was transformed into two new decks
for a hospital with a 78-bed ward
and six operating theatres
and hundreds of cabins, all needed to serve patients
and a crew of around 400 volunteers
living and working on this ship.
Two of her six engines were also reconfigured as generators
to power the ship at the dock.
This ship is a tool that we can bring into areas
where you just don't have the infrastructure
that's needed.
And... it's a fantastic tool.
Aliya: At a stadium in town, Africa Mercy's surgeons
assess potential patients.
They've seen a lot of this:
untreated tumours growing out of control.
Dr. Gary Parker, the chief medical officer,
is one of the world's top specialists
in facial tumours and cleft palates.
Did you have injection afterwards ici?
Aliya: He's performed more than 4,000 operations in his career.
Man: Treated him, so it came back more.
Dr. Parker: How is the breathing through the nose?
(Male translator, speaking other language)
(Speaking other language)
(Translator, text on screen)
Aliya: Dr. Parker sees this condition a lot in Africa.
A tumour growing out of the jaw bone.
Dr. Parker: His is still relatively small
by West African standards but they get big enough
that it's difficult to swallow
and eventually they either suffocate or they starve.
Aliya: The teenager, Kosi,
will come to the ship for a CT scan.
If the tumour is benign,
Dr. Parker will try to remove it.
The sooner you can do these,
the better it is for the patient.
(Light instrumental music)
♪
Aliya: Kosi arrives on the ship for his CT scan.
It will tell doctors if his large tumour is benign.
This is a rare machine in West Africa,
something Kosi would never have access to on shore.
♪
We're grateful to have such a machine
here in West Africa with us.
Aliya: Dr. Parker will know within minutes
if Kosi's life can be saved.
(Whirring)
♪
Dr. Parker: So, the scan shows the tumour to be pushing up
into the eye socket
but it does not invade the eye socket.
It looks benign from the x-ray appearance,
so we've got a job for tomorrow.
(Man quietly speaking other language)
Aliya: It's big news for Kosi and a bit overwhelming.
Man: You're so happy.
(Speaking other language)
He's so happy that he gonna turn back into the way he was.
And he's so happy.
♪
(Quiet chatter)
Aliya: Kosi's life-changing moment has finally arrived.
(Monitors beeping)
♪
It's been four hours since Kosi's surgery began
and even asleep he's unrecognizable.
The tumour is gone, so his nose and mouth
have shifted back to the centre of his face.
♪
Dr. Parker: Not only will he live
but also I think that the reconstruction
that we've done will work for him
and he'll be able to go to-- go back to school
and should be able to have a normal life.
So, that's really good news for him.
And great for us too.
♪
Let's come back to the Hudson Bay Railway.
As it's nearing the end of the line,
it's about to reach a really challenging section.
Yeah, and I mean the whole line is challenging
but this part in particular is very difficult
and it includes the site of a major disaster
back in 2017.
And believe me, the crew is well aware.
(Dramatic instrumental music)
The railway was never supposed to come here.
In the 1920s,
the line was heading up to Nelson on Hudson's Bay.
When it was discovered the Bay was too shallow
for seafaring ships
the route was changed to Churchill,
putting the line directly through
huge stretches of muskeg.
That decision came back to bite the line in 2017
when the rail was flooded.
A train went off the tracks just around the bend from here.
(Train rattling)
Coming up the hill and there's a curve.
At the bottom end of the curve
there was a soft spot where it was really wet.
The track was going down on one side.
It was a pretty heavy train, it was loaded with ballast.
It was going over it...
and they noticed that the last car was off the track
and they were dragging it.
It could be worse than that but...
Teddy: What's worse?
Well, the engines could go over and people could get hurt.
Teddy: No one wants to see that happen again...
We have to be prepared to stop.
Teddy: ...so it's no surprise to find a maintenance crew here.
We've jumped off here...
in a really, really remote part of the...
of the province way up north.
Jumped off the railway.
Our audio engineer, Brian, is putting the mic on a gentleman
we'll be speaking with here about the work that he's doing
to ensure that the tracks stay even.
A little bit of a sinkhole here with some cross levels.
I'm just gonna get the guys here to pick her up quickly
for you so you guys can continue on your way.
That's nice.
Good thing you guys are out here.
Gotta keep the train safe, buddy.
Got to keep the train safe.
♪
We're lifting ties up so that...
When they drop the jacks down, they're not gonna sink again.
Couple rains, couple trains, sinks again,
you gotta go back.
(Unclear)
♪
Teddy: After the flood of 2017, the repair took weeks.
Took a few sections of track off, dug it out,
put sand in, Geotech.
And then put rock on top of it and put it back on.
Did that for 35 days straight to get the trains going over
it again.
Teddy: But the service was interrupted for much longer.
There was no train service to Churchill for a year
and a half.
Yeah, devastating to the town of Churchill and too all
the other communities that rely on the rail line.
People's businesses almost went under.
♪
Teddy: Unfortunately that's what happens when you build
need on top of uncertainty.
Compare it to building a railway on a sponge,
and see what the challenges are doing that.
That's what you're facing out here.
Teddy: And it seems like the weather changes by
the hour out here, so it's a constant threat I guess, yeah.
Well, you never know what it's gonna do.
Teddy: Yeah.
You know, it gets too hot, you shouldn't be out here.
It gets too cold, you shouldn't be out here.
Teddy: Right!
After two long days on the rails, our crew's approaching
its destination; a town in desperate need of its weekly
supply of essentials.
That doesn't mean the job is gonna get any easier.
We've got lots of work to do when we get to Churchill.
Teddy: Including unloading a crate full of dynamite.
♪
After the break, Teddy, it's the end of the line.
The train is about to arrive in Churchill, Manitoba.
The community is waiting.
And then it's time to unload all that vital
and dangerous cargo.
(Rock music)
♪
(R
(Roc
(Rock
(Rock mu
(Rock musi
(Rock music)
♪
This is The Mightiest Lifelines.
So after two long days on the desolate tracks, our train,
the Hudson Bay Railway, finally arrives in
Churchill, Manitoba.
And Teddy, you said something about
dangerous cargo.
Yeah, there are explosives on board because this railway
really does bring everything that the community could need
up in Canada's remote north.
So for the people that work on the railway it's just all
in a day's work.
After two straight days of hauling explosives, propane,
huge metal machines and groceries over shifting metal
on wet, unreliable ground, the crew's about to pull
into Churchill.
(Train clacking)
We got our work cut out, man.
Got a bunch of cars we got set up once we get there, right?
We gotta grind, grind, grind when we get there.
The ride is the easy part.
Teddy: Arriving in Churchill stirs the memories
of the first train to return to this isolated outpost after
18 months without sight of a railcar.
Well, we were supposed to go in there November 1st and
we went in on Halloween day, October 31st.
Got there about 6:30 in the evening.
People were out trick or treating.
They heard the whistle from the train.
Everybody just stopped and came to the station, because
they couldn't believe that there was a train.
That was the first one in a year and a half.
And, uh, they were just so happy to see it.
(Upbeat instrumental music)
Teddy: Passenger trains returned a month later
on December 4th, 2018.
The disconnected city was tethered to civilization
once more.
There's no fanfare today.
We're at the end of the line here, this is Churchill.
♪
We're as far north as the train travels.
Teddy: The town has come to rely on the dependability
of the Hudson Bay Railway.
♪
(Train clacking)
Now we gotta break our train up.
Place cars on different tracks so everybody can do their part
and unload them.
♪
Teddy: As soon as the train rolls in, the crew carefully
offloads the explosives.
(Rock music)
♪
The truck full of combustibles is done with great caution.
(Rock music)
(Truck beeping)
♪
A truck from the local hardware store arrives to pick
up their goods.
Without this you couldn't get this freight up here
without the rail.
Teddy: The weekly shipment is a big deal for them.
♪
Look at the size of this stuff coming off here tonight.
♪
Our rail line's very important to us.
That's our life.
We don't have a rail line, we have no food, nothing.
Teddy: The crew's reward after two treacherous days on
the rails, two more days of hard labour off-loading
the train.
But this life-sustaining shipment has arrived,
safe and on time.
Some people are chomping at the bit alright.
Teddy: Now all that's left to do is do it again, over
and over, in unreliable conditions in service to this
indispensable lifeline.
Every time you come out here it's a challenge.
(Driving music)
♪
(Train honking)
♪
(Soft music)