Hi Don, just a quick note. I have been a rail fan for about 70 years, my grandfather was an “ engineer” driver on the American Rail system, Burlington Quincey from 1898 to 1928 when he retired to be a farmer. He lived to be in his late 80’s and shared his railroad experiences with me as a child. I have been a rail nut ever since. Thank you for doing this, as I have ALWAYS wanted to have this view from the cab. I live in Florida and in North Carolina depending on the season. I have also worked in the Birmingham area and lived in London, in prior years.
Amazing to see such a rarely visited section of the railway network, maybe in the future Manchester to Hull via Wakefield will traverse this route regularly.
Great video brought back modern views of my old spotting locations of the sixties, Mirfield shed , Ravensthorpe junction, Headfield junction now ( Dewsbury cement depot junction) and Healy mills yard . I remember it being built. What a change from those days when it was a four tracks all the way from Huddersfield to Wakefield and the domain of WD 2-8-0s on endless coal trains heading west to Lancashire. Brought back great memories, for somebody living in North Queensland where the coal trains are little longer these days
Another highly imformative and excellent video, Don. Such a shame to see the waste of Healy Mills. Such a contrast when you watch cab ride videos from Germany - railways everywhere, freight yards everywhere, all busy too. Best wishes to you as always.
Thanks, same to you. I used to travel Germany extensively and even where a little village had a line and is long since closed, it still remains untouched so they could reopen it if needed. We had the same and its all sold off to development.
14.14 - 14.25 site of the former Goose Hill Jct, where the 'old' midland mainline from Sheffield to Leeds via Wath Rd Jct and Cudworth joined on the right hand side. Sad to see it nowadays compared with how it used to be, I note the remnants of the sidings serving St John's Colliery still extant surprisingly ! Excellent video Don, keep em coming !
Thanks for the positive feedback and the comment. It is sad to see but it’s progress I suppose. All done at a time when the public was losing interest in public transport and our big industry was in decline. No coal, steel or cars and the only reason the railway remains in this country is because it is bolted to the ground. That area is interesting to see on Google Earth if you get chance.
Super upload Don, all around my old stomping ground back in the day trying with some success to 'bunk' Healey Mills and Hobeck depots. Pity about the weather but that looks like a light shower around our neck of t' woods! Look forward to more from you Cheers
Wonderful video and I love the rain - gives it a nice moody feeling !!!! A run in a snow or thunderstorm would only beat it !!!! Runs in good weather are fine but it is rare to get a run in bad weather filmed as most authors seem to prefer "fine" weather!!!! Thanks again, Dana.
Excellent video once again thanks. This one passes the site of Thornhill Station where I regularly used to go spotting as a lad. Was 4 lines then with a steady stream of mainly coal trains hauled mostly at that time by WD 2-8-0's. Healey Mills must have been an amazingly busy place in those days!
I bet it was wonderful. They will rebuild Ravensthorpe so it can be accessed from the Leeds and the Wakefield line but we’ll never see the same amount of freight of course.
Don, great channel and not a Train Sim. Enjoyed the trip, I live in Golcar near Huddersfield so it’s interesting to see places I have been to or pasted. The other thing to, excellent that you record journeys of all weathers. Views are awesome. See you on the next journey. Viewing all your previous videos. Thank You Stewart 🚅🚆👍
You’re welcome. I’ll be posting the return trip to Hull soon and it includes Golcar of course. That viaduct looks nothing from above but the twin arches are a work of art when viewed from below.
For extra Geek Points, I am watching the video on one monitor and following along on a satellite view on the other. Google maps has a detailed view from above of the lines. About as close as I'll get to Leeds from my living room in Texas. Thanks for the vids.
Well I would do that if I only knew how!!! I had a vacation in Texas some years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wasn’t red hot keen on those Yellow Argoip spiders that popped up on occasions. Just across the bridge from where we stayed was Coffey County which seemed very appropriate.
A great video of my neck of the woods. I have seen TPE trains coming in off Leeds WestJunction but never understood why they didn't use the Dewsbury line as normal.
Seems a shame, that now big hubs are all electrified like Manchester “vice and pic, Leeds, and York, all that’s to do is the connecting pieces! It’s crazy that in all these years, the only real main line electrified link between ecml and wcml is in Scotland between carstairs and Edinburgh! Well, apart from the north London line maybe!
Rainy days in England is so normal , so I really liked this video , with the names of statins ,it's important to me . Thank you so much .Please share it much more . I love trains .
Thanks for another great video-the weather certainly didn't detract from the interest! Fascinating to follow the old Manchester & Leeds route (even if the section from Goose Hill was built and owner by the Midland) from Mirfield right through to Leeds and to see what a superb alignment this railway of the 1830s has (except for the bit ruined by BR by splaying the lines either side of their yard at Healey Mills!). Surely you were lucky to get a clear road the whole way. And how interesting to see just how tortuous the final approach to Leeds is. The ex-Midland section made me wonder ... In another world, could this have been part of a 110 or even 125 mph route from Sheffield to Leeds, vastly better than what we've got today?
I nearly mentioned Goose Hill but was afraid it might not be understood for what it was. There’s scope for a video with just historic content which I personally find very interesting. Thanks for the kind words and your interest.
Thanks Don, that's the second time into Leeds again today. Interesting video. I remember looking at some old photos of Normanton station from the year nought dot and will never get round to how big it used to be due to how many rail companies ran through it in those days. Did someone mention rain, nowt compared to the weather up in Cumbria. I'm told that's why its called "The Lake District". Did get some sunny weather up there though. Another great video much enjoyed.
remember the better days at healey mills when full of traffic and what a change Kirkgate is, last time I changed there for Knottingley it was like an open toilet
I was talking to someone who said that they would be using Healy Mills again as a maintenance depot after the electrification had been done. Let’s hope they do.
The chances of me going over that route are rare in the daylight so I didn’t want to miss the journey. I’m about to upload the return journey on the same rainy day!
Hi Don, I really enjoy your videos, have a question. Why two signals ~7 min showing green are on the right side of the track instead on the left? Is this normal or untypical their location?
That’s very astute of you to notice. Ordinarily, signals are positioned to the left of the driver but on occasions, where conditions permit, they are placed on the right to improve viewing or viewing time of the signal. That used to be a multiple track layout so it leaves plenty of room for putting them on the outside of that curve.
How come the EMT HST was on platform 15 at Leeds? That's very rare. Other than 185s, Novas and 170s, the only other train I've seen on that platform is a 144, all the way back when I was about 7
Great video, is the single track in the first section, when you go past the cement terminal and redundant goods yard bi directional....??? Cheers reply enjoyed this.....still looks run down but not as bad as the eighties !!!
No, our train runs on the east bound line to the north. The west bound line is way over on the south side of the yard on the right. I’ll show you soon - it just needs editing/labelling before I post it.
I have a question about places like the Healey Mills yard. With all those abandoned rails there, is it possible to rip them up and either re-use them somewhere else, or melt them down to be used for another purpose. It always seems like such a big waste to just leave infrastructure there if they can be utilised elsewhere.
Yes Mark and they do. Different routes have different categories and some have had rail used that was originally fitted elsewhere. It depends on the types of trains running over them as to what they can be used for.
Can you explain what the different signal aspects mean? I understand green and red but not what the various yellows are; 1 vs 2, flashing or not. Also do the green or red ever flash?
Those are AWS ramps Tim. They give an audible indication of a signal by pinging (clear) or horn (warning). The driver must acknowledge the horn by pressing a button on the desk (you can hear me doing it) or it will initiate a full brake application. I’ll be explaining some of the things you see in a future video.
Another good video, like the captions but would like to know where the junctions come from, go to unless it's obvious like the freightliner depots etc. I assume a lot of the route used to be quadrupled and reduced due to lack of traffic.
@@doncoffey5820 that's so true, whole area was my 'ground' during my railfan days, so much, well, nearly everything has gone, nice to see Midland road in use, shame about the engine-less class 70's, hope for ressurection soon.
Yes, they are. I remember well the routes from Manchester (Victoria and Exchange) to Leeds (City and Central) via Halifax , or Huddersfield, the Micklehurst Loop, and the Spen Valley Line (The Leeds "New" Line). I also travelled a lot from Sheffield (Midland) to Leeds (City) via Wath (North), Cudworth and Normanton many times. That was a really interesting ride viewed from the front of a DMU, as used to be possible. There is a "driver's view" video on RU-vid of that route. It's a pity that it was not filmed in its entirety. So many junctions, and forests of semaphor signals. Thank you for this film, very much. When one sees Normanton station as it now is, it is almost impossible to visualise how it was when the Midland "Scotch" expresses stopped there for half an hour so that everyone could have a meal in the Dining Room.
Don - are you on a diversion due to engineering works between Mirfield and Leeds on the main line, as I wasn't aware that TPE's went this way? Very cautious approach to Leeds City - was that because of the wet rails? Great video - thanks
Although I drive on most of these videos, I wasn’t driving that one but there’s no rush in a complex area. Its 25 for most of the approach and only 15 into the platforms. We use that route only as a diversion although some of the night trips are routed that way to keep driver competency.
Excellent video, thank you for uploading Don. Just one question - on the approach to HJ1 signal just after Healey Mills, it sounds like you get two seperate "clear" indications for the green aspect?
The person who was driving the train thought it great fun to make rude noises which needed editing out. Of course I didn’t know until I played it back. I wasn’t authorised to be in the cab of that one 🙄
I sign Calder Valley Mike. The trouble is, we tend to use it at night for route retention and while NWR have possession of the Huddersfield Line. For that reason, I only go over it at night or when I get diverted for operational reasons. I will video it at some stage though - bear with me.
@@doncoffey5820 RU-vid is crying out for a cab view video along the calder valley line. I used to regular travel on the 10:30 Liverpool - Newcastle steam train in the 50's via Rochdale & Sowerby Bridge (12:10 change of crews for line knowledge) Mirfield to Wakefield Kirkgate I should imagine is one of the longest trips in West Yorkshire between any two stations. Keep up the good work.
I always found it strange that Ravensthorpe only has platforms on the leeds to huddersfield line thus denying the fine folk of the village a direct link to Wakefield. Did the station ever extend to the other line in the past?
It was certainly further towards Mirfield so I would suspect so. It is due to get remodelled and there will be four tracks all the way from Huddersfield. Ravensthorpe will definitely get access to Wakefield from then.
No you didn’t imagine it. In fact when you see the return journey (which I will post when I get chance) there is a sea of red ground position lights at the eastern entry to Healey Mills Yard. Network Rail never remover signals until after they lift the track even if the siding is OOU (out of use). You never know if it could be used for engineering purposes.
I bought the video game Train Sim World on the strength of these vids as I became desperate to do a bit of train driving myself. Check out my vids on You Tube ( hint, hint )
Nice Vid always interesting to see from this angle! Are you going to be driving the new 68/DVT Nova's then they arrive? 68's do look good in TPE livery gotta say! - www.globalrailnews.com/2017/09/11/first-look-class-68-in-tpe-in-colours/
Shame to see abandoned and overgrown sidings and lines...if bureuocrats had their way we would have single lines...its a disgrace,best form of freight and public transport and they dont support it enough..they arguing over m4 relief road nr newport,add lines for juggernaught carrying freight trains I say...much more green and what not...one rail rather than 6 lanes of tarmac
Its complicated Russ. The railways were not likes or used by the public in the 60s and 70s due to the dawn of the car (personal transport becoming affordable to the everyday traveller) and endless strikes that made them unpredictable. The taxpayer just didn’t want to pay for them and branch lines with little used trains were expensive. Running a freight train with a couple of wagons will never pay. Something had to be done but the politics and the road lobby pushed it farther than it needed - for sure. Its a shame but like most things, its easier to keep it than get it back when its gone.
