2.7k UHD Manchester Piccadilly to Chester 

These videos are clearly edited and annotated with great care. I'm so grateful for your efforts to share your knowledge and experiences with us. Thanks again!

This is a superb video with really interesting captions, thank you.

Hi Don, once again another very informative and interesting video. I really look forward to viewing them, thanks for all your hard work putting them together.

another great one Don, and a route I've never travelled. Thumbs up on it!

Really enjoyed watching this, thank you for putting in the time and effort to create and post these videos, looking forward to the next one already!

Once again Don, brilliant video and information. Waiting for your next one.

Mr Coffey, you present us with superior videos of your country, historical information about lines, buildings, scenery and life. You have a mastery of presenting information. Enjoying your videos ! Thanks!!!!

Fantastic video as always. The quality just keeps getting better. I love the captions giving a "history" of the railway as it was. Relaxing and informative viewing, and helpful from a railway modellers point of view too. Keep up the good work

Absolutely amazing video once again I’ve came back to watch it from the start after watching it live halfway through !! Thank you once again don !

Wonderful stuff, great information about closed lines, junctions and the like. I could watch this for hours!

Thankyou for taking me back in time. I travelled this line every day from Buxton to Piccadilly and back to get to the nearest grammar school ! Age 11 to 18 . Several of us made this trip. Homework on the train. lots of snoozing . Saw the transitions from Steam to Diesel. Many happy memories of a picturesque journey. Service was very reliable too whatever the weather !

Absolutely tremendous stuff again Don.

Great video Don, thanks for uploading. The story about the wagon at Lostock Gralam reminds me of a similar incident that happened at Tees-side in the 80s. At Tees yard we used to have job of taking oil tanks from Teesport to Jarrow and return. At Jarrow was a refinery with unloading bays pumping petrol, diesel etc. The loco wasn't allowed next to the unloading aprons as it was a fire hazard so a rusty old 2 axle 'reach' wagon was always stabled there, the procedure for collecting the empty tanks and positioning loaded ones involved quite a bit of shunting and 'run round' moves. My mate was a guard at Tees and in a rush to get an early finish one day forgot to detach the reach wagon from his train when ready to depart back to Teesport. No one noticed until he got back to the destination that he had taken a condemed piece of junk 50 miles at a top speed of 60mph over the East Coast mainline without any problem. Its a minor miracle that it didn't develop a hot box as it can't have seen oil for decades :-)

Brilliant photography and description as always related to my nostalgia. Takes me back to spotting at Baguely Station and sitting by the track at Skelton Junction and travelling to Chester. Those were the days. Thanks for the fine work.

Beautiful! I can’t believe I missed this one. It pays to go back through them.

Hi Don, your videos are excellent and for someone who was born and bred in Chester and used the railway network in Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside before moving away over 20 years you are providing a great insight into how things have changed. Thank you 👍

Excellent video Don! Enjoyed it! Thanks again for all your hard work!

Another fantastic, high quality, informative video. These are easily better quality than some commercial offerings! Thank you for taking the time to make these videos so good! I particularly liked the caption about old, bold train drivers now operating ticket barriers! I knew quite a few of those on LU!

Another excellent video. I have enjoyed all of them. I find them very informative. I live in the U S and being a train buff I’ve taken to watching videos on U tube from many European nations about the train systems an I must say that you’re all so far ahead of us when it comes to train travel. Keep up the excellent work as I look forward all of your future endeavors

Great video, thanks. Love the pop-up captions with info, makes it much more interesting.

Brilliant Don, many thanks for a really well produced video.

Regularly take this train to Chester from Greenbank and back, really exciting to see it from this perspective, and these videos are going from strength to strength! Great stuff

A blast from the past I was a guard based at Northwich shed in them days we ran out off Oxford road to Chester and also did the hopper run up to Tunstead quarry funny enough I am a truck driver now and run out of Tunstead thanks Don for this great memory for me

Absolutely awesome don so loved the video great job.

Another excellent cab view, and this one has triggered all sorts of memories for me. At 29'43" you pass an obscure office block on the left about 200 yards after leaving Hale. In 1978 it was the offices of Harrington Fleming and Worsley (Architects) where I took my first job as a junior Architectural Technician. Age 19. Amazingly the office block still has the same front door (being designed by Architects for Architects it was well specified and made!) which I can remember nervously going through for interview. Yep, the memories are flooding back - of course I was delighted to discover that my office was on the first floor overlooking the railway although I never dared much to stand gawking at the trains as I wanted to! Thanks Don 👍😎

This video popped up as a recommendation, very impressed, easily one of the best videos I've seen. UHD clear picture, no camera shake, clean windscreen ( Very important! ) and excellent captions, a delight to watch. Subscribed and highly recommended! 👍🙂

Brilliantly informative trip, including fine camera work plus railway procedures,history,architecture. This must have taken you many hours to edit. Thank you.

Another masterfully crafted video, many thanks Don. Delamere forest brings back memories. My family used to go for walks there (and got lost every single time). The simple expedient was to find the Railway track and "shadow" it back to the station / car-park. The last time, my friend and I decided to separate from my parents; we didn't get lost but we realised that my Mum and Dad were, after waiting at the car for them until after dark. We wound-up going knocking on the door of the forest Ranger, who then took us in his vehicle, where we eventually found them limping on the side of a road. :-) He told us that loads of people got lost in Delamere, and it was not unusual for him to have to call the nearby Military base to organise search parties!

Thanks once again for an entertaining and informative trip.

I loved watching the pace bounce up and down :)

Loved the smell-o-vision at the bakery and as always the narration at various points along the line. It really clears up things for us guys across the pond. After watching, a trip to Google maps and things really begin to come together.

Excellent and informative, as ever!

Thank you for another fascinating ride today. Cheers Don. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🙂👍🇺🇸

Brilliant Don very enjoyable.

Several memories and points of interest in this superb offering. 1. Site of old Stockport Edgeley depot, last visied in 1966 when A4 60019 Bittern was being prepared for a railtour. 2. Northwich station - saw a Clan pacific, around 1967, hauling a freight. Unusual. 3. Same location - huge trains of liquid chlorine tanks from Murgatroyd's Sandbach Cheshire. Chester station - last there on my part 1986 - I barely recognised it. The countryside of west Cheshire is unsung; suspect the locals want it kept that way! Thanks once again.

Love your commentary on train history. It sad to see the demise of train travel. There have been so many shut downs here in Canada. At one time the trains were the backbone of the country. Looking at old train maps, there are many towns that have been abandoned due to train modernization or the building of highways. With the introduction of diesel trains, all of the coal and water station slowly died away. With highway modernization, transport trucks took over. All of the cute rail stations were either bought out or destroyed. In northern Ontario there are many towns that have left individuals isolated, not being able to drive, no longer have means to travel any great distances. Even buses no longer support the norther towns. Once the large pulp and paper companies closed their doors, freight trains were no longer required, and that stopped the passenger trains as well. Thanks fir the videos.

Thank you for uploading this amazing videos. Very instructives ones to those of us that live in other countries. Is a good way to know and see other railways systems around the world. Greetings from Argentina.

this video so good, feel like we really in the cab with You Don, like always very informative!

Excellent video. Very well captioned. Very informative, and very well edited. I love trains.

Superb work,thanks

Great video. Remember my 1st trip over it in 1986, the sidings at Northwich were really busy. At Mouldsworth, there was a freight line going off to West Cheshire junction near Helsby. It closed in 1991 when West Cheshire SB burned down. The gap between the trees on the left at Mickle Trafford was probably the old line to Dee Marsh, closed in the early 1990s. Passenger trains from the CLC used this to reach Chester Northgate until it closed in 1969. The odd gap in the station roof in Chester was caused by a fire in 1972. An oil train from Stanlow had run round near Helsby and the brake pipes were not reconnected and the now unfitted train ran out of control down the bank from Mickle Trafford. It ran into an empty dmu at the station and the resulting fire damaged the roof which was removed.

Another great, informative video. Beautiful scenery.

Thank you Don,I can’t get over how quiet the cabs are on these!

Nostalgia :) I used to go 'spotting' at Skelton Junction with some friends. Class 37s doing run arounds from the cement works at Northenden. Round about 1978 - brings back good memories. First cub camp at Cuddington - I was 12 - 1964.

Hi Don this is the journey I know best as I live locally, nice to have a cab view 😀👍

Excellent informative video of a route I once travelled behind steam! In those days the line was from Manchester Central to Chester Northgate & from Cornbrook was shared with the ex LNER 1500V dc units which used to rattle along stopping at all stations to Altrincham. I was surprised to see Plumley West Signal box still there (as a block post?) and Northwich is a mere shadow of what used to be - the shed with the magnificent Stanier 8Fs battling up the viaduct with the ICI Limestone trains sometimes another 8F at the rear. Spent some wonderful times in Delamere Signal Box where the basic principles of the block system were explained so well with the cooperation of the Cuddington & Mouldsworth signalmen answering my attempts on the bells!

Many thanks for another fascinating video. Your notes and captions add a great deal to the enjoyment that I, for one, get from your videos, particularly when, as this one does, it covers a location where I spent my childhood. I certainly appreciate the effort you put into this. As far as the journey is concerned... Sadly, Skelton Junction is now a shadow of its former self: the three lines that used to converge from the west now reduced to the loop to the line from Altrincham, and the tall signal box that would provide a view over the Moss Lane road bridge now gone. Also I'm amused that Navigation Road has a direct service to Chester. In the days when the service along the CLC route ran direct from Manchester Central to Altrincham, the only regular calling point was Sale - never, ever, Navigation Road. Finally , it's worth noting that the original CLC service did not join the route from Warrington at Mickle Trafford into Chester General, but ran along a separate line into Chester Northgate station, a rather smaller terminus in the city. In your video at 1:13:09, there appears to be a gap between two lines of trees to the left of the junction where the old line might have gone. I don't remember when the rerouting into the General station occurred, but I recall, as a child in the early 1960's, arriving at Northgate.

Love the new captions. Great video👍🏾

Many thanks for this, Don. It was a real walk down Memory Lane for me. I lived in Hartford in the sixties and seventies. When I was very small, I had a wonderful vantage point of the CLC from the bottom of our road. It was set back about 100 m from the track opposite to where the cord line diverged from Hartford CLC junction to Hartford Junction. Now that field is full of houses, little boxes in which everything is tiny except for the mansion level house prices! I used to have a wonderful view from the front of the first generation DMUs. The line is very much the same as when I last traveled on it, even down to Mobberly and Plumley signal boxes, including a semaphore on the up line. I remember how the trains to Manchester went directly through to Oxford Road, rather than round the houses. I can even remember going to Manchester Central! Associated Octel have gone, and the old ICI (where my late father worked) is somewhat reduced. I remember when the panel signal box at Greenbank was first commissioned. I wonder how much longer it will be in use for, although if the charade at Stockport you mentioned is anything to go by, it will have a good number of years to go. I also remember when Chester PSB was built, and the fine LNWR boxes were still going. In the end, Chester PSB covered very little, so it seems. The massive gap in the overall roof at Platform 6 at Chester General was the result of fire damage. In the early seventies, a rake of tank wagons ran away and ended up in the bay. At least one split and there was a massive fire. They simply removed that part of the overall roof. It remains like this to this day. I had always taken the stations for granted in those days. They are gems. Thank you for all your added details, as well as the view of the line. :)

Excellent video. I always look forward to hyours.

Just had a few biscuits whilst watching the video, well done Don another interesting video.

Thank you Don for another great video. All I ever wanted to be was an engine driver, sadly never achieved! Your films are a tremendous substitute. All the best.

Great quality, especially as not the best weather for filming, very informative (even more when running google earth next to it) and brings back memories.

wow, wonderful train video

Another excellent video Don ! Keep them coming. I just feel for the signaller at Deansgate Junction, one busy guy with trams heavy rail and a crossing to contend with.

Great video as always

Brilliant, as always.

Thanks Don. Really enjoy watching your videos, reminds of my younger days travelling on my dad's railway pass, (he was a signalman mostly on the Mc/r - Woodhead line from 1948 to retirement in 1993. He was at signalboxes at Godley, Gorton platform, Guide Bridge Stockport Junction & Dewsnap sidings. He was also at Bredbury, he retired from B.R. while at Stalybridge box.

Another 'bloody' good and informative video Don. I was under the impression they were planning to double the line throughout again; especially in light of the wish to reopen the Middlewich freight only branch to passenger service.

Amazing !it’s a different point of view from the drivers cab , much better than a coach window should I add

Another great video. Enjoying this more than the current second Test between Australia and New Zealand at the MCG.

That was a "Gem " of a trip Don! That was a route that I would have never thought to try. If I ever get back over the "pond" I will take this trip!!! Thank you for sharing !!! :):):)

Another great vid. Thanks

Fantastic video brings back a lot of memories from when i worked on track. I prefer signalling now though as it's much warmer inside.

Wonderful, simply wonderful.

love all the additional information

Excellent video much information to an old codger like me. Many thanks

The entire site at Oakleigh has been flattened in recent years. Very sad! Great video as usual. Even my mate who signs the line and goes there frequently enjoyed your video!

Brilliant video as always! The viaduct at Northwich is amazing!

My friend from school used to live in one of the railway cottages at 1:04:20. Growing up playing there and (when were a bit older) going for midnight drunken walks in the forest was great. Delamere Forest is pretty magical.

Great video Don. Some nice old stations on that line, pity some of them have been let run down. Looking forward to more excellent videography. Thanks. K.

Don't know what it is, but just so pleasing to hear a purr coming from a 150 sprinter, and memories of them from my teen years in the Derby / Nottingham area, especially on a run up to Skegness. Do miss the 150's around here, so is nice to see one on the Nottingham / Leeds run, when they do occasionally appear, in place of the normally expected 158's.

You give us great information there. Thanks

very nice and interesting journey. thank youi

Very smooth video with info..I lived Bebington, Ellesmere Port & Chester as a teenager..

HinduCowGirl sent me. Hi Don, thanks for making these. Our house loves driver's views!

Your videos are great thanks.

Excellent, as always.

Interesting video but whatever perspective one views this nothing will change the tiring look of the stations, the passengers and even the tiring feel of the journey too!

Thanks for 'doing' this line, Don. It may interest you to know that my Paternal grandparents had a greengrocer/bakery shop right on the corner of the road in Hale, outside the station, I was born in Knutsford, and my Maternal grandparents worked in the ICI at Northwich. I well recall the steam-hauled ICI hoppers going past the end of our estate, and where that large multi-windowed building appears to be standing, on the right of Knutsford station used to be the coal yard. I'll have to go back, one of these days, and see how much else has altered since 1955!

Thanks for posting this - a great movie packed with technical info (I now know what the horn toots mean) and how the 'reduced' (from bygone days) line works. Wonderfully filmed and easy to follow with a map beside me ... I started watching because as a southern freelancer working in the general Manchester area, 1981-87, always travelling by train hither and yon, I thought it would be interesting to see the landscape in a different educational way. Flippin' 'eck, it was that and more. Thank you m'lud.

Excellent video 👍

Hi Don, I am relatively new to your channel, and I am impressed with the quality and research contained in each video so refreshing! Thank you. Perhaps others may follow!

Hiya Don , Awesome video as always , Firstly I would like to thank you for taking my feedback into consideration , Secondly I would like to thank you for implementing my feedback (even if on a test basis) it made the video so much easier to watch and didn't miss a thing on the route , It is greatly appreciated thank you , from a fellow railwayman :)

Another excellent video, ideal if you were learning the roads. Autumn, working a 110 DMU up the Cheshire line to Manchester Victoria. The joy of standing in the guards door as the unit slid through Delamere because of the mulched leaves and having the "bold" driver propel back to the platform. (it only happened once). In a 142, it was hell on wheels.

Kettles on and I'm ready to settle down and enjoy this 😁

Nice one ! Thanks

The comment about 'Bold' drivers reminded me of the story about Mallard's record breaking run. Apparently, Nigel Gresley asked the running department for a suitable driver and was told that they would provide the best driver for the attempt. Gresley responded by saying that he did not want the best driver, he wanted a fearless driver.

great and beatiful video thanks (from italy)

Thanks once again, Don.

Used to take the train from Northgate To Delamere in the 50’s to visit grandparents who lived in a cottage in the station yard. Great place for a holiday for a ten year old. Grandad was a platelayer, my aunt was a porter during the war and my uncle was the signalman during the same period. Sad to see it’s a “country park” now.

Remember as a child taking this train into Oxford road in the 70s

I love these videos always looking forward to the next one. hope one day ill get to be a driver

Don, I am awed by your knowledge of the system. I spent my childhood and adolescence in Sale, on the Manchester-Altrincham line....a couple of points...I noticed the high doors on the Metrolink cars as they use the former railway platforms, which would be too high for normal cars. Also I was amused by your references to "Navvies" to build the railways in the area. "Navvies" is short for "Navigators", the term used to refer to the predominantly Irish labourers who were brought over specifically to work on building the canal system in England from about 1750. As these workers were nearly completing the canal system in England, they began to be transferred to the building of the railways from about 1840 or so. The prodigious work done by these men can be seen in your wonderful video which shows the miles and miles of raised embankments to support the new railway construction, especially across the flat Cheshire plain, to allow for the necessary underpasses. "Manual labour" was just that....

I'm surprised you didn't mention the missing section of roof at Chester, clearly noticeable at the very end. This was caused by a major fire from a petroleum train which lost control on the steep gradient from Helsby (which you did mention) due to inadequate braking effort. It had been booked to run as an unfitted train from Ellesmere Port to Helsby, and then as a fitted-head train after reversal at Helsby, but the brake pipe wasn't connected so only the locomotive and brake van brakes were available. The Chester signalman was unable to divert the train away from the bay platform, which had been signalled for a different train… The affected section of roof was demolished as it wasn't considered economically repairable. 40+ years later, it's still missing!

Great video as usual, I would have thought with all the development by the line new stations might have a chance.

Great video. Would love to see a video like this of the Calder Valley

Superb Video, Particularly since I never traversed this route entire! Just normally a jaunt between Piccadilly and Altrincham. For abandoned waggons whilst we are on the subject, there were two coal/Ballast waggon's at Burnden Sidings, Bolton for an absolute age, the foliage covered them eventually, now removed due the Electrification engineering works..

well informed trips mate,congrats

Hi Don, as previous comments from all over UK and abroad! Brilliant would love to see these in real time from other parts of the country, Us Southern guys have the Hastings DMU unit that still manages to get onto most of the south east networks🤓