The series could actually be easily be split in half and re-packaged as 2 complementary series. One focusing purely on the Railway operations, and the other focusing primarily on the "off-gridders" struggles and successes living in the wilderness.
For the localized Discovery UK & Ireland version, primarily removing some of the ad break buffers, the narrator is the distinct voice of Ralph Ineson - who has an expansive range of TV and film roles, and is a popular choice as narrator for "gritty" British documentaries.