1957 TONNES - Class 66 - Warrington BQ to Wakefield 

My brother Peter died in 2002. He spotted all his life and we travelled the country together. How he would have loved these videos!.... Thank you so much Don........miss you so much lovely older brother!

This is very entertaining a fascinating insight into the drivers world. Also almost literally a drive through the back gardens of England. It's great to get a different view of the countryside and the UK. Well done guys keep up the good work

That was a marathon view! Heaven knows what is was like to drive the train. That was a helluva route to Wakefield. Would loved to have seen the onwardleg to Middlesbrough. I used to live in Warrington right by BQ station and also lived in South Manchester so cycled all over Cheshire to Knutsford, Altrincham Northenden etc and later lived in the North East working for a while in Middlesbrough..for us viewers its alovely calming zen like watch! Thanks!

a truly fascinating journey, all the better for being a freight train and so slower. Gives the chance to take in all that is to be seen on and around the tracks. Very enjoyable. Many thanks.

Brilliant once again Don. Just what we need during this Covid-19 Lockdown - a reminder of normality. Premiered on my birthday too, the best present I could have wished for. Thanks so much for your hard work filming and editing.

Not an easy task for the driver but quite interesting to watch from home. Congratulations to Mr. Lee Yarker....

Another of your wonderful videos, showing your and Lee's true professionalism as enginemen. It filled in several nights for me. It also too me back down memory lane on the CLC from Hartford CLC Junction to Deansgate Junction. Good to see how many of the old signal boxes are still in action.

Fantastic series and thoroughly enjoy following along some of the routes that I rode on a trip to the UK a few years back. Love seeing the engineering and industrial heritage of the area. I had planned a return trip a year ago when WestJet announced a new nonstop flight from Halifax (Canada) to Manchester on a MAX8.....but the MAX was grounded and then Covid hit. Well perhaps next year!! Gary Hadfield (...and yes I rode the line to Hadfield!)

Great video, watched it over a few nights. Don Coffey videos are always very interesting and I particularly like the information about the different places you pass through. Thank you Don for the insight of the uk railway network, fascinating.

Thanks for a fascinating video. I like to follow route on Google maps - its amazing to discover places I recognise but had no idea of the route of the rail connections. Thank you

Very enjoyable, excellent again Don. Big thanks to driver Lee. 👍🙂

Good insight into the secondary lines and alternative routes needed to transport these commodities away from the busier passenger corridors.

Don, I do thank you for the edit and comments you do during the ride. Information, slow down to see details, route and special points of interest, all make for a truly fascinating trip.

I'm a retired Loco Engineer from New Zealand. Just like going to work, again. Brilliant for an old geyser. Thanks.

Thank you - that was just brilliant! As a rail enthusiast I've always marvelled at the rail network we've inherited from the victorians and seeing all this from the cab has been wonderful especially the railway architecture crossing the Pennines. A real treat - many thanks for sharing

I really appreciate the hours of work that you put into your videos. Rest assured that they will be viewed in years to come by generations of railway enthusiasts.

Love your channel and I've found the sound of a class 66 through headphones is the best cure for a sleepless night.(i say glued to the screen watching at 1am)Thank you.

Lovely journey, love the on screen info, thanks.

What a great video. Great commentaries and brings back good memories. I lived in Halifax and walked to Sowerby Bridge which had the engine sheds near to the station in 1960. No sign of this in the video. Lots of other changes but none the less, a great experience.

I love the running commentary on this video, very informative! Great video overall! I am a retired railroad tower operator here in the USA ( just retired 31 December after almost 52 years of railroading), and enjoy learning about railroads and their signaling in other countries, including my country of birth, Australia. Thanks for the great video. I'm looking forward to more of them.

Don, I want to thank you for getting me out and about during a lockdown. I haven't left my house but I been all over the place seeing life and countryside with the historical knowledge as a bonus. Thank you, sir. Keep it up. Hopefully you will have more to come. Thank you.

Thank you Don. This surely has to be the best way of travelling; open ‘roads’ no traffic and a wonderful view of the British countryside. Very envious...!

Thanks Don for the extra info. you put in, it makes the journey much more enjoyable.

A wonderful journey. Managed to get lost several times following it on my OS map. I'll have to try and visit the Calder Valley next time I'm in England. The 66's engine sound really does have special qualities...

Thank you once again Don. I lived in Timperley for the first 18 years of my life up to 1991 and my brother was a signalman at Hale box while sometimes working Deansgate Junction box. It was amazing to watch this video and see the strategies used by the driver to pull this train through its journey. Clearly, I loved seeing the section from Ashley through to Stockport. So many memories! Skelton Junction used to be such a hub for freight traffic... so sad to see it is now such a relic. Also yes, I never understood why the line to Liverpool was never rescued for passenger workings to Warrington and Liverpool from Manchester. So sad to see most of it was never preserved as a recreation thoroughfare either. Take care and stay safe and once again thank you!

As a present day modern image modeller Don, your videos are a great resource for working out where all of the line side equipment goes, as well as being able to see how the S&C is laid out. Always really informative too. Thanks 👍👍

Wow, what a marathon run. Very interesting insight to driving a heavy freight train. I love the commentary, contains so much info. A great way to pass away an afternoon. Thanks Don & Lee.

My grandfather worked at Healey Mills Yard when I was a child, retiring from driving in the mid 80’s. How that area has changed is scary. I drive now for GWR based at Reading and I love your videos going over other routes that I don’t get to drive. Thanks for a great video 👍

Thanks, Don and Lee for another great video. A look inside the nitty-gritty of freight operations opens up a whole new field of interest to this armchair train driver.

Forget Star Wars ! Now that's what I call a blockbuster. Thanks Don, great job

Nice to see the Pennines. In the year of the FMD Inwas on a boating holiday on the Calder and the Rochdale canal with a friend. Passing under the Gauxholme viaducts, very impressive. Walsden was the limit as the canal was still under restoration. We walked to Littleborough. As the weather went bad we wanted to take the train back. We boarded the train, wanted to buy a ticket from the guard to find out the train wasn’t stopping at Walsden. If I remembered well, he didn’t sold us a ticket but let us promise to buy a ticket from the next stop back to Walsden. As we also passed Brighouse with the boat I changed the ringtone for my friend to Floral Dance, so I could hear when he was calling.

Thank you both for a most interesting journey. No better way of spending 3 hours traveling around the country side, very well done bring on the next one you cant beat GOING BY RAIL AROUND THE COUNTRY.

Got back to the long volume videos. Was away for while. Always a great episode and learning experience. Cheers Don! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🙂👍🇺🇸

I watched in several blocks over the weekend and enjoyed it immensely. It was almost like getting far from home during lockdown! Also, I've been working on my model railway and noted the similarity in quality of track between Heaton Mills sidings and my own efforts. Nice to know my wiggly permanent way is so prototypical! Please keep these videos coming, and your insightful captioning makes them really special.

This is like navigating a super tanker through narrow channels. Lee and his fellow drivers have a huge responsibility as well as skill. Hartford is a lovely Cheshire village. Thanks Don - and Lee.

Hi Don, really lovely to have this ride back into your portfolio... Was great to travel over both episodes once again. Here's hoping some of the other deleted videos will once again make a comeback. Keep well and safe in these "strange" times. Regards, AB

Another fascinating journey on a classic Victorian railway kudos to driver Lee outstanding and a job well done!

Hi Don many thanks to yourself and Lee for two great videos. Both of you take care.

Hello Don, thanks for sharing! The class 66 is my favourite diesel locomotive. Your comments are great - especially for people who are not familiar with english rails. Greetings from Germany!!

Excellent silent commentaries (captions) : clear and very useful if you want to follow the train looking down a map… or Google maps. It's great giving us photos of Manchester Canal bridge !

Brilliant video! As a lifelong railwayman I found it fascinating and even learned some stuff. I've travelled some of these lines many times but never with a view from the front, which was really interesting. Keep up the good work.

All together in the floral dance! 😁 Great film thanks Don.

This train journey won't be a load of rubbish! Looking forward to viewing this second part of the trip.

Excellent video.if you sit in the beer garden at the golden pheasant at plumley (not now though ) on mid Cheshire line you can watch the trains go by .am glad they use that line .keeps it open .I love the 66s trai ns . Chris x

It's the same with the GBRF operated Liverpool Bulk Terminal - Drax Power Station Biomass Trains. The trains follow pretty much the same pattern over the pennines. However, the train joins the WCML at Winwick Junction - outside of Earlestown (St Helens - Merseyside). On the outward journeys to Kirkby (Knowsley and Liverpool. The trains follow the same route through the Calder Valley through Hebden Bridge and Rochdale plus Manchester Victoria. At Salford Central, the binliner trains continue towards Wigan via Walkden and Atherton, the Biomass trains continue towards Liverpool via Chat Moss and Olive Mount Junction.

Good afternoon I'm enjoying this video greetings from the state of New Jersey

I live right opposite Warrington Bank Quay Station (Parker Street). I was watching a rail review only the other day about the "Caledonian Night Sleeper" service from Euston to Inverness. Hand on heart, I'd never heard of that service before. Anyway, the following night (past midnight) I went for a walk and to a 24hr garage to get some cigs and what do I see whizzing (more or less) past my front door, the "Caledonian Night Sleeper" service 😍😍😍😍. I felt so blessed as I'd NEVER heard of the service before and now their it was in front of my very eyes. Great upload and keep up the good work.....

Very entertaing, thanks. I used to live in Manchester and I watched the changes to the rail network in the area -- not that many years ago instead of zig-zagging all over the place you'd just come up from Liverpool, cross the ship canal at Cadishead, join this video at Skelton Junction, keep going through the Mersey valley through Stockport and out over Woodhead to Barnsley and Wakefield. There was even a handy diversion to miss the gradient up out of Victoria to Miles Platting. (The network seems to have been pruned almost to the point where it can't take any expansion of the business.)

Great long journey to watch...

Fascinating to see how the service navigates its way across the Pennines, including through my old stomping ground of Stockport Edgeley.

Excellent I’ve seen the journey now in both directions thank you

Cant wait now. Something to look forward to. I love watching your videos. They are a distraction from the situation we find ourselves in today. Hope your well and keep safe . Thank you don xx

Don, your videos are among those that make Covid-19 isolation much more tolerable than it would otherwise be. Thank you!! (I'm not ill, just taking care because of my age, and on GP's instructions.) That's a very good description of what goes on in a diesel locomotive, about the forces of the engine, generator and so forth. And good to show locations from other perspectives, as you did at Weaver Junction, Hartford CLC Junction, the skew arches near Ashley, and other places. As you said, it's an extraordinarily long way round. I kept amusing myself by recreating the network from the 1950s and finding shorter routes. There would have been several possibilities that avoided Miles Platting and central Manchester. Thanks again.

Hi Don, at home poorly, thought I’d go through some of your older video,Hope all is well well at your end

some outstanding landmarks on this route, thanks for sharing this with us, thank you, Driver

Thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining video . Very informative , really appreciated the information & comments in the bottom of the screen . Thank You for the video .

An excellent video as ever and thoroughly enjoyed following it with my Rail Atlas and Track Atlas in front of me. Appropriately my son and his family bought me an Official Trainspotter Mug for my birthday recently- he has no interest in railways but I am working on my grandson! Keep them coming.

Brilliant video, thanks so much for such an interesting and entertaining view into the day to day job of driving a freight train.

Thanks once again DC. Yet another fascinating glimpse into the life of a train driver seasoned with snippets of operational, historical and local interest notes. I look forward to your videos an am never disappointed.

Thanks once again Don, and to Lee and his colleagues. I was surprised that no passenger train overtook between south of Rochdale and Mirfield.

Cracking afternoon's entertainment. Thanks for sharing Don. Cheers, Bob

Great video | top quality | superb sound | All the best from Germany

Enjoyable journey, can't wait for the summer!

Thanks for an absorbing journey .

Thanks Don for sharing the video. It is such a pleasure to travel by freight train in the UK . Say my 'Thanks' to Lee for taking us along. It must have taken him some effort to drive the train with enormous weight all the way (3 hrs and 42 min). Looking forward to your next video.

Thanks again Don and Lee. Just what was needed for someone who has been isolated for three weeks - almost a breathe of fresh air! Stay safe

Excellent stuff while we on lock down always find your videos very interesting and informative ,, Many thanks

Extinguished many a grass fire on those embankments from Phillips Park Station in the 70's and I had my fill of Summit Tunnel as you can imagine.

brilliant, played a bit of that each day on my days off, only down side is I now have Sir Terry Wogan singing the floral dance going round in my head🤣🤣 thank you for another great video, keep up the good work...until the next one stay safe 👍🏻

Looking forward to it. It seems strange that in the past loaded waste trains headed up the Southport branch to Appley Bridge for Landfill. It's a plant yard now, but the tracks are still in place.

Superb video and to hear and see the 66 strain and rattle is great. A 60 would do it better of course but as a former railwayman of over 20 years its good to see these 66s still going despite the hammer they've had constantly. 10/10

Good video. I was very interested in the Summit Tunnel as when it was badly damaged by an oil train fire the local Round Table organised a walk through for charity. I walked the walk but it was illuminated.

Mr. Coffey, Hello again from Pennsylvania In the states, I watch all of your vids, but I'm not much of a comment type. Just wanted to say thanks for another fine video. You never fail to please. Take care during these hard times, stay well.

Fantastic run, yet again. Many thanks for all your priceless info again. You will make drivers of us all soon.

Great video Don, as always. And great driving by Lee. That must be a beast of a route for a heavy freight.

Beautiful countryside and insight into Victorian engineering. Thanks.

Victorian Engineer 'I want an embankment 5 miles long, 50 feet high and 75 feet wide. Navvy 'Hold my beer' With modern machines they can't do the same amount of work as a Navvy could, here in sunny Essex it's taken almost 10 years to widen a 2 mile length of the A414 and they still have a 1 mile to go!!!

Fantastic footage, so glad I found your channel 👍

Another brilliant visit to the northern network. Thanks. Don. After seeing this (and the earlier trip from Wakefield) I appreciate the way Lee keeps that tonnage in control by reading all the pointers and knowing the road, the loco and the quarter of a mile string of wagons following him. (I've driven buses and HGVs and there's parallels here between goods and passenger).

Great stuff , also good to see the patch I work on (warrington depot ) network rail . Thanks to you and Lee the driver 👍

This is fantastic! Thanks for making and sharing!

I remember when the line through Elland was basically freight only/diversionary, and the Bradley-Bradley Wood and Greetland-Dryclough chords were effectively closed down. How things have changed. Our railway was so over-rationalised during the 1980s, not surprised that Heaton Lodge to Thornhill is due a remodel and reinstatement of quadrupling. Good chance to eliminate a lot of conflicting moves with the right layout here.

First, thanks again to 'the team'; what strikes me most on this one is just how much lines have been reduced in number.

I play this video when am about to fall asleep the 66 engine is definitely an ASMR for sleeping too ❤️ it couldn't believe it. It can actually send people to sleep just dulll the brightness on your device turn it up side down so your pitch black then plug in earphones then your off to Noddy land thank you Don but it is you should try it yourselves

great work Lee mate . tip top journey .

Good to see Wakefield Kirkgate is looking a lot smarter these days. The last 20 mins or so of this is very familiar to me, I used to travel Wakefield Westgate to Huddersfield twice a day. Enlightening to see it through the eyes of a freight driver. Love the sound of the engine under power!

Another very enjoyable video. Thank you Don.

What a great video. I was hoping we would get to where they were gonna unload all the bins but never mind. Great work, thanks.

Not keen on 66s but the route mileage makes it worthwhile. Thanks for the running descriptions. Please can you explain the speed-limit signs in a future video.

Gr.eat video Don loved the commentary very informative for non railway people Liked the comment about TPWS and the driver being acquainted with the manager! Good to see the drover coming to a stand an engine length from the signal. Looking forward to more from you. Stay safe in these difficult times.

No travel ,in self isolation like many of us ,uplifted my spirit when I saw this ,thanks 😊

Miles and miles of land which had 4 tracks and more . Very interesting to see how much infrastructure was needed in the 19th century. Excellent use of location maps as before . So you do not get too complacent ---- all now lacking is the gradient profiles to show how much foresight and route knowledge Lee has excelled at. Good to follow you on a modern track atlas.

Thanks Don and Lee, nice work! I hope you stay safe

Great shots 😊 nicely put together to 😊

Hello Don. Greetings from Lancashire. Preston postcode here. New subscriber too. My first love is aviation although I like engineering in general so railways and model railways feature highly. I've recently got back into Train Simulator in recent months thanks to the crazy times. Your vids cropped up whilst I was perusing TS videos. Excellent footage and production, sir! I love the scrolling commentaries at the bottom of the screen, and no music. Looking forward to more videos as and when you can manage/are allowed to do so!

Love the subtitles, very interesting, wonderful job 👏

Pity the Arpley to Skelton Junc route closed. Apparently due to the bridge over the MSC at Latchford Locks being insufficient to 1,000 ton coal train,s, but maybe not 100 ton trams? Would have made a link at Altrincham to the tram network, missed opportunity.

Brilliant video Don, I bet the drivers end up with a headache with all that engine noise in the cab, I did just watching it!!

Simply superb 11/10 enjoyed every minute

It is usual that a train at 125 mph on the West Coast completes the signal sequence G>R>Y>YY>G in around 77 to 90 seconds depending on signal spacing but usually 85-90 seconds is the norm.