Chester to Piccadilly 

These are the best cab ride videos I have found. Lovely day too.

I'm always impressed by the amount of infrastructure over there, even in the countryside. In middle America we have grade (surface) crossings everywhere, in larger numbers than overpasses/underpasses. And so much of yours appear to have been built a century ago, or more. Good planning. I always enjoy your train rides, Don. From Missouri, thank you!

I love this videos. I love British railways and the british landscape, and seeing this calm videos, with the detaled explanation of what is happening is very nice. Best cab ride videos out there

What a wonderful train ride and very informative indeed. Some very beautiful countryside along the way and I just loved the Helsby Station so beautiful well kept and very charming.

Thank you Don once again another superb video to watch and learn, great to see our country side well done.

The best trains videos I ever seen. Beautiful and very interesting explanations. Greetings from Italy

Another nice cab ride Don.

Another excellent video, Don. The almost empty stations add an eerie quality to this period document. Thanks for sharing and preserving.

Excellent video Don. Thank you very much from us across the pond.

Thank you Don, as usual a fantastic video full of history. Liverpool & Manchester have the lead in railways and infrastructure and world leaders in buildings and viaducts. My Vulcan faves are the early Ivatts, Class 20s, 37s, 40s and Stanier 5s, all the stuff I grew up with. I'm nearly 70 now but have so many great memories.

As others have said, another brilliant video, Don. Thoroughly annotated, wonderfully informative, and at the same time a very calming watch. As a North American, I smile whenever a working semaphore whizzes by. A great thanks to your driver mates for the recordings. Greetings from Canada 🇨🇦!

Thanks for the video Don. Brought back many memories especially of Warrington Bank Quay where I spent many happy hours train spotting. We used to get the St. Helens flyer (Push Pull with an Ivat tank) as far as Earlestown. I also once had a tour of the Vulcan foundry as a school trip, this was in the 50's and Diesels were starting to be made there. I also used to have great times at Dallam Sheds when wagging school and often got the chance to drive a Black 5 around the coal hole. I left Warrington in 1959 to join the Navy, leaving London Road Station (Now Piccadilly) on 17th March 1959 for the journey South. I came back in the late 60's and worked in the local Power Stations finishing up at Fiddlers Ferry before emigrating from the UK to Rhodesia South Africa and finally Australia. So many thanks for the memories

Great sunshine, great trip. Very good, thanks for this.

Great news - Thank you Don. I love your videos

Thanks Don. Watching your train journeys is great way to chill out in the evenings - and as ever, they are so informative.

Another great video Don very informative as usual. Thank you for uploading it.

I like these videos because you point out places of interest like other railways that branch of the line to other places even disused railways too. Keep them coming .

Excellent, as always.

What a relaxing route. What strikes me is how straight the lines are before and after the wcml. Stanier black 5s all day long. Cheers for another route Don

Excellent video again Don. Thanks to all involved.👍🙂

What a great video Don. Thank you so much. That 175 seems fabulously smooth and quick, quiet too.

Thank you Don for your video. I especially enjoyed the last part coming through Patricroft and Eccles. Where I grew up! My dad worked for Gardner Diesels for many years until his retirement in the early 70's. I remember train spotting at the Patricroft yard from a huge long footbridge known locally as "four bridges". It went across the whole goods yard (enormous) and you got a good view of the steam locomotive sheds as well. The main locos in my day were Black 5's, Jubilee Class, and the occaisional Britannia pacific. The road bridge over Eccles station was wider in those days and the sight of a Britannia emerging from the "tunnel" over Eccles station in a massive cloud of smoke and steam is one I will never forget.

Thankyou, Don, for yet another great video. This was a new route for me, continuing your informative journeys. Greetings from Australia.

Yet another superb video. Absolutely the best with such clear line side commentary to complement the already excellent filming. Many thanks

Another fabulous video Don, thanks for sharing

Once again Don a brilliant video thanks for all the effort that you put in these videos take care. Hope it's not to long before next one

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip and look forward to your next one.

Brilliant as always don..love them routes..can't wait for the new one end of the month...thankyou..p.cooke.

I really enjoy these videos Don, not least because they come without music or talking!! Great way to present these things, always a pleasure to watch.

Excellent video and a reminder of how the railway kept going during lockdown. Thanks for pointing out the triangle at Earlestown Station as a lot of people think Shipley in West Yorkshire is the only one.

Cracking video ! Many thanks !

Don Many Thanks excellent video as always.

Great Birthday present for me Don. Thanks and regards as always.

I love these cab train rides, I’d like to see a full west coast main line one from Glasgow to London and the same going back, could split the journey into 2 parts each way. Seen some of these on other channels that are in film movie versions but yours are perfectly smooth as if it’s live broadcast, hope there are more to come.

Another excellent video today. Always relax and watch your videos, Don. See you on the next. Cheers Don! 😊

Another great video, thank you very much Don. I can relate to the whole empty stations feeling, as I worked as a city bus driver during the pandemic, and for the first week or so we ran to our full schedule, which meant a load of busses driving around with nobody but the drivers inside them. Thankfully sensible heads prevailed and a special schedule was quickly cobbled together.

G'day Don from your Aussie Subscriber. I enjoyed this episode very much thankyou. As it happens I plan to catch the 13:44 from Piccadilly on 8th June to Chester on my way from Whitby to Wrexham on this very route. I am over in Britain for my annual Railway related visit (except of course for the two year Covid break). I will have just completed a visit to the NYMR and moving onto the Llangollen Railway next. I am originally from Derby and ex- BR before migrating to Oz. These days I am a volunteer Stationmaster on the Puffing Billy Railway and a retired Loco Driver here and on one of the ex-VR preserved lines in Victoria where I regularly drove either the Coal-fired or Oil-fired ex-VR Class J 2-8-0 (5'3" gauge) Locos built by Vulcan Foundry!! Keep up your good work Don, Cheers from Puf'n-Pete

Excellent caption

Another excellent cab ride with great narrative. I look forward to seeing the return journey video in due course

Deansgate station was formerly Knott Mill and Deansgate. The name is still visible in the faience above the entrance. Excellent, informative video. Thanks.

You might like to know that Newton-le-Willows once was a 'Motorail' terminal, so there was more to the station layout than there is today. How do I know? A family holiday to Southport and the Lake District!! The starting point was Newton Abbot in Devon, the year was 1970!!

Magnificent, as always, Don. Your videos set a benchmark for quality and information. Some of the ones from the European mainland come close but seldom do they surpass you. The weather for this one was superb. It did a first class job for the English Tourist Board!

Welcome back Don Great to see you. Hope you are keeping well ? Keep up the great work .

Another fantastic cab ride from you Don, really enjoyed that! Strange to see Man Picc being a ghost town haha. Brilliant video from you, and cheers as always for sharing! All the best, Jamie

Great video. Thanks for the turn around at Manchester. We rail idiots - eh, I mean buffs - really appreciate stuff like that!

What a beautiful journey

What a joy to watch, so informative and therapeutic! Sad for the birds though...

So basically, that's a Transport for Wales journey that doesn't enter Wales! Great video... very informative.

Another most excellent video you've presented here Don. I've been along this line quite a number of times since dwelling in Wales. I did drive along this route when I was doing my traction training whilst I was a driver at Llandudno Junction, although under instruction, and terminating at Victoria at that time in 1990, and not Piccadilly. I can honestly say that there has been numerous changes since then, like the Vulcan Works disappearing at Earlestown, the huge Parkside colliery at Newton-Le-Willows, with it's associated MGR trains gone, and the masses of high rise buildings that have appeared at Salford and Manchester. I'm surprised that the small bridge at Helsby, from Mouldsworth to West Cheshire Junction is still in place. Whatever Don, thank you for this production, and keep well, mate.

Great interview. Darren Jones is a really good speaker.

Thanks for the video. Even in Train Sim the 175 is a great responsive engine.

Great video......@54:55 the tinted glass building on the right my dad was a scaffolder on that when it was built which despite the modern look was around the early or mid 70's

Thank You for a very informative and knowledgeable video. Although I left England for Canada way back in 1979,being from Prescot,Lancashire ( now merseyside),It’s good too see my old stomping ground. ps, I eat drink and Sleep trains lol. Wishing you a Gr8 ( as in Britain) Day…Dave

A journey I've made many times - sort of! I've only been to Oxford Road from the Chat Moss line once, all other trips being into Manchester Exchange as they were that long ago! I lived in Chester between 1954 and 1969, and as I had relatives in Lancaster trips to see them meant a change at Warrington Bank Quay; until the demise of steam, that often meant seeing a push-pull in the now fenced-off bay at the north end of the down island waiting to depart for St Helens. They always seemed to be worked by class 2 2-6-2Ts, but I can't remember if they were Ivatt ones or BR standards. Towards the end of that period, I travelled between Chester and Manchester at least once a week, and those trips were usually on Birmingham RC&W 3-car DMUs; consequently, I've seen much of this before! However, it was interesting to see how much has changed on the approach to Manchester; it was 4-tracks from somewhere near the M60 overbridge through to Exchange, there was Patricroft shed on the left, and a junction where the line from Kenyon Junction (seen earlier in the video) via Leigh and from Wigan joined. As well as being the home of Gardner (on the right), Patricroft was also the home of the steam loco builder Nasmyth Wilson, and that name could still be seen back then on a building on the left hand side of the railway. Back in steam days, the Crewe line from Chester always sounded more challenging than that to Warrington; Stanier or Standard 5s were the most common engines on passenger trains between North Wales and Manchester, but on summer Saturdays you could see all sorts. Moreover, it was not unusual to see unpainted Gresley Teak coaches on holiday trains from West Yorkshire as late as the 1960s. And at one time there was a Saturday South Wales - Manchester Exchange service which used this route, and that usually brought a Cardiff Canton Britannia into Chester; I think it was detached there and didn't go any further north I was surprised that the train didn't switch to the WCML at Acton Grange; that was the route I always took, and trains heading towards Chester usually took the easier ascent to the Manchester Ship Canal viaduct and crossed over there too. I can only remember taking the reverse of the route taken by the 175 into Warrington once, and the class 5 hauling it really struggled up the bank to cross over the canal The Vulcan Foundry had a large building - perhaps its main erecting shop - at right angles to the railway line, and it was not uncommon for the doors to be open and to be able to see something inside; the most interesting loco I remember seeing was one of the electrics built there for Poland in the early 1960s. There was also a LNWR/LMS/BR wagon works at Earlestown until about 1964 Thanks for bringing back many happy memories

Thank you Don superb as usual. My favourite vulcan locos are the class 37 or type 3s. Sadly the vulan site is now a housing estate. Thank you.

Great train ride there sir, looking at the streets of Manchester without and cars and people is a strange site, and eerily reminds me of that time 3 years ago, when you look and think back what happened was terrible that they locked us in our homes and the poor children not attending school, lets hope they never try it again.

Nice to see a little glimpse of "old" railway history in the form of an old BR cut-out metal speed limit sign (35) just after leaving Manchester Piccadilly.

Thank you Mr Coffey. Brilliant as always. I wonder if the good folk of Vucan Village get tired of people telling them to "Live long and posper" - LOL

Top-notch video as always, and with some 'interesting' commentary mixed in with the technical stuff and place/station names. My fave loco from Vulcan was indeed the Deltic Class 55 - although Spock and T'Pol might not agree...

"Vintage railway film - Work in progress -1951." This is something that you will be interested in. The woodhouse Tunnel in the 50s. Thanks

Brilliant route Don, I had no idea that this is a scheduled run. Must watch it again with the rail atlas.

I accidentally looked in the "RU-vid recommendations" and was surprised myself: how have I not seen your channel before? I will fix the RU-vid error by subscribing to your channel and your wonderful high-quality videos. Congratulations from Belarus.

Enjoyed your video Don, I feel for the steam enginemen with a heavy train of race goers going back to manchester going out of Chester.

There is an 1896 built Vulcan steam engine still in operation in Sabah, Malaysia every other day on the North Borneo Railway. Lasted longer than the factory, as have many of Vulcans products.

Back in the day,the LNWR considered 45 MPH,as a breathtaking speed,and that was for the expresses! When you have close to 2 centuries of transport,over the same route,the engineering and surveying of those lines,was so well laid out,that now,225 MPH standards are operational,it really boggles the mind! The only other lines,that I think would qualify would be the JNR/JR Shinkiasin lines,and the SNCF lines in France,but they are in many cases,purpose built! I'm omitting the North East Corridor in the US,as it only has a 150 MPH,speed limit,and that with the Acelas[TGV's transplanted],so there's a bit of an uphill climb for US roads! Note also,in steam days,both the NYC,and PRR,had stretches in the Mid-West,where they had 120 MPH speeds,so they could maintain schedules,if they had untoward delays,such as snow,wrecks,and other delays! Thanks for a showing an area,for which I'd only seen still photos of,and definitely not from the cab! Thanks from America,and much appreciated 🙏 😊 👍 😀!!

Another great video, thanks Don. The Chat Moss route would surely be good for 100mph, although I'm guessing that safety standards at the numerous user-worked level crossings prevents that unless they are either abolished or upgraded with warning lights.

37s are my fave diesels

Nice little cab ride Don. I'm used to watching your freight ones so that's a small one compared to them 😁

I’m here Don! Hi buddy!

Thanks for another extremely interesting and absorbing video. One small criticism, some of the captions disappear a little too quickly to read them fully! I am old after all! As someone mentioned previously, it's such a shame about the bird strikes! Overall though, a very good watch. Thank you😊

Hi Don, another great video. Just wondering why trains going from Warrington Bank Quay to and from Chester don’t make the switch at Acton Grange junction to avoid the 10mph restriction at Warrington South Junction?

Looked like a really long train ride

Very good video thank you for sharing it with us I have question do have videos of Kingsbury shunt of siding to oil depot or birch coppice thank you

Not often a train from Chester uses platform 3 at Bank Quay, exceptional times

I think that TfW might want to keep the Class 175 Coradia because they are still reliable train’s despite being replaced by the Class 197 Civity on some services in Wales.

Once again a big thank-you. Without checking my history/Geography The Romans were superb in building straight roads and Chester a fort and Manchester there has to be a link ?

Great to see the lack of graffiti on the first part of this journey. Obviously no young budding 'artists' in Cheshire!

Despite the lockdown, what an amazing cab ride. A lovely day as well. A dumb question, is there any part of the railway network that has just one line speed limit throughout?

Yes without doubt the Deltics

you should try and do the wirral line of the merseyrail network

So erie seeing everywhere deserted. Kinda post apocalyptic !

Don one question with very long platforms from days gone by when up to 12 coaches could be on a train why with just 2 coaches do the units stop towards the end of the platform passed were it looks the passengers get on the platform and not in the middle of the platform

Why is Warrington South Junction a blanket 10mph and not higher for non electric trains?

Is this a Diesel engine?

How come you can getaway with filming inside the cabs i was informed that no cameras are allowed it is strickley forbidden !!

In first 10 minutes a distinct lack of stations or even signs of human habitation?

22 minutes in and I’m on the 8th un skippable ad thats just spoilt the whole thing, ill have to try and watch this another time its just a joke its a ads every few minutes just way to much