Freight Driver's Eye View: Hither Green to Woking 

I love these journeys through the backs of London's houses - it's a different view of the capital you don't see too often. 👍

I am not usually into goods train rides but, this has been really enjoyable. Thanks heaps from Sydney. 🏳‍🌈

Many thanks to the driver and anybody else who made this vid. possible. Appreciated.

Hither Green to Woking in almost two hours? Don't think I'd have figured out that route if I had all year to work on it. Fascinating. Thanks for providing such great entertainment.

Being a freight you certainly get sent round the back routes. When you got to Clapham Junction I thought you would be going down the Guildford line, but oh no, off round the houses for you! Very interesting video, one of the things I love about railways is that you can be running through some of the most built up areas, yet the permanent way runs along it's own little green corridor - like another world sometimes.

I was a signaller at feltham panel between 1990 and 2006. It was nice to see the railway again. It did look alot different on the down side opposite feltham signal box.

Loved it. Sunny day and a meandering route full of interest. Brilliantly captioned so I knew where we were too!

Thank you for this. It covers an old commute through Hither Green and areas near where I live. Nice to see it from the train driver's perspective.

One of the most exciting journeys skirting central London ………absolutely fantastic.

This brings back memories of when I was a young secondman/Relief Driver in the late 1970's-early 1980's at Eastleigh. I can remember there being a temporary 20mph deviation between Chertsey and Virginia Water for the building of a bridge over the M25 that was being constructed at the time... I also remember a Ballast Cleaner forming part of our train becoming derailed on a pair of hand points whilst shoving back into Woking Yard, exactly like as in this video... memories, memories.... now happily retired from driving trains after 40 years service... Strangely, not much has really changed in the intervening 40 years, except that it has become more built up...

Such a geek here. Watched the whole journey in one sitting. I think I echo the sentiment that it is nice to see parts of London and the hinterlands usually hidden from the the views you get from the roads. Thank you for putting this up, very interesting (for me at least) and certainly I shall be viewing your catalog of other vids.

I can see myself in this video, watching you go past the back of my flat in Loughborough Junction! Shame I wasn't filming as I could have provided you with the reverse view.

Man gotta love the UK! Never been there and do I wish to visit or even live there someday! My granddad worked in our royal bulgarian railways pre 1945 and the coming of the socialists, so trains are something I love. Greetings to all and respect!

I enjoy being able to register a lot more detail with the lower speed of Freight; much appreciated; thanks!

A route map at the beginning, helpful for those,who are strangers, also it may help to orientat, the direction of travel. This shows the complexity of the rail network. Thank you for your good work. Patrick, Northamptonshire

Phew what a round the houses run from Clapham Junction to Woking, obviously not enough capacity on the mainline for freight but not only did it use a diversionary route but it used the longer one via the Hounslow Loop rather than the traditional diversionary route used by passenger trains via Richmond and Twickenham. Overall highly appreciated.

Perfect weather, beautiful line, quality camera, clean window, excellent driver🙂 - logical result is a perfect, top quality, low speed railway video. Many thanks for a pleasure to enjoy the ride. ❤ Always check the capacity of memory card. It needs to follow the camera data traffic and be able to record them all. Otherwise pictures are lost and video sticks instead that it would run perfectly smooth. Video should always run perfectly smooth. It is a common mistake that so many do when they go from HD to 4k.

I could just watch these cab videos by the hour; it is so relaxing, and very interesting. Please make more of these. Aarre Peltomaa

Superb footage Ben thank you for bringing this to us

This is absolutely fantastic, when I was trainspotting back in the 1950s, all my spotting was done on the LMS and LNER, I never got the chance to see this part of the Southern Region, great footage and well done, I am watching this using my Track Atlas as a guide and I find it confusing especially around Clapham Junction, gee these signal people who direct and guide these trains around this very busy area do a tremendous job, I never realised how complicated the network could be.

You have chosen an interesting journey, you have good equipment, filmed in good weather at the right time of day to avoid sunlight glare - and someone cleaned the windscreen before setting off!

Fantastic trip. Trains definitely look far more fun to drive when they can't go in a straight line from A to B!

This is by far one journeys it’s got the lot & it amazes me just how much the builders of these lines knew how to link them all together without the aid of overhead observation When you follow your journeys as I do I follow a single line junction & you follow that line & to your amazement it joins up with the Great Western or North London Line or the LMS it baffles me how they knew how to connect them all up perhaps someone with better knowledge can explain But! Thanks Ben this is my most revisited video

Then one thing which hits me every time I watch a video such as this, no matter where in the world it is, is that rail corridors (and rolling stock) have become so defaced by graffiti. Britain, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Japan, Peru, India, Australia, New Zealand.....and many, many more. Too many to list. Such a shame. Thanks for the excellent video, Ben. Most enjoyable....and educational. Subscribed. 👍

Wow, what a great video. Someone once said that the “SouthernElectric” was the greatest electrified railway system in the world. Your video shows how right they were. A two hour journey across London, travelling north and south of the Thames and third rail electrified all the way. The benefits of this vast electric railway system, started over one hundred years ago, are largely ignored by the millions of commuters that use the electric train services every day, and under valued by the current national railway management who can only see 25 KV AC for UK railways, forgetting the the Southern Electric has been operating very successfully carrying millions of passengers for the past 100 years. The management of the LSWR, the Southern Railway, and later the Southern Region were years ahead in their ideas. While the other railway companies north and west of London were still operating dirty steam locomotives, the railways in the south had installed a clean efficient railway system, and today, the other railways still trying to catch up. Perhaps if there had been no Second World War, the Southern would have electrified the LSWR main line all the way to Exeter in the 1940’s, imagine a travel time of under 2 hours from London Waterloo to Exeter Central 70 years ago.

Thanks Ben. Very interesting on a beautiful day for filming. Many, and I mean many, years ago I lived in Virginia Water so I am familiar with Clapham Junction to Addlestone Junction (start of Byfleet Curve) although the 'Hounslow Loop' was not used as much then. Down trains from Waterloo to Windsor and Weybridge were a single train to Staines (via Twickenham and Richmond) where it divided and four coaches (as I recall) going to each destination. Then, Up trains combined into one at Staines. Now, trains to/from Weybridge use the 'Hounslow Loop' and trains to/from Windsor go through Twickenham and Richmond. But, of course, a 66 gets to use the most scenic route every time! Thanks again.

I lost track of time in the cab ride view, love the signal box "Woking" at 1:39:45 Thanks for the upload .....Mark in Australia.

Excellent photography, crisp and clear. Widish angle lens but not so wide as exhibit distortion. This video could be an instructional aid!

I started as a secondman at Hither Green in 1978 and the very first job I did started from that platform. If I remember we relieved a Theale train pulled by a Crompton (class 33). Brings back memories .. deary me..

Love these videos Ben, please keep them coming !

Totally brilliant in every way, thank you very much for bringing to us!

Thanks Ben another great ride, keep them coming..

Whenever I visit The Smoke it always blows me away how complicated the rail network is . Lines come at you at all heights and all angles in the central area. Great video, pity it's not double 37s.

Really outstanding videography this time. So clear, compared to previous views. New gear? Another great video - many thanks.

Wow what a great video. Seeing London through a different set of eyes. Thank you.

Great filming - really enjoyed this journey, video quality is outstanding. keep up the great work :)

Keep up the amazing work!!😎 You have my like and sub👍👍😀. Looking forward to more great footage.

Thanks for another fab video

Nice Ride Ben. Pity Network Rail do not install flange lubricators before the many curves in the tracks over there to stop the continual screeching. Poor old 66099 was making more noise than a steam loco on this run. Travel safe my friend

A nice tour in this part of England. Quite interesting and informative. Thanks for the video and chat. Cheers mate!

I was on the tracks , working district and one of the gang huts was at that area where you entered the siding . Hair raising the state of them now . Keep up the great video 👍🇬🇧

Great video and enlightening routing! I grew up in that area and never remember so much frieght traffic back 50+ years ago. Also never realised Woking still had such a big working yard

A very enjoyable, and entertaining video. Thanks Ben.

Excellent video and thoroughly enjoyable trip from south east London through stations i know so well to Woking station, where I happen to work.

That's quite a detour from Clapham Junction to Woking! Excellent video!

Great video! I love hearing the thrumm of the class 66 EMD 710 prime mover (engine) beating its heart out. 👍👍👍

Quite fascinating when you run it split screen with OS maps open. You see a much larger picture, know exactly where the train is, know what is being passed, what is coming up. London rail tracking is incredibly complex.

That was another great video Ben !!! Thank you for sharing it with us Ben...:):):)

Glad i work passenger and not freight, these seemingly aimless wanderings around the back of beyond must take a level of competency which i think the public would find hard to understand, well done on another great video.

There's a lot of mud (beize colour) being pumped up in the diamonds in the middle of Lewisham Junction 8:23. We had the same problem where the CP North Toronto subdivision cross the Metrolinx Barrie line (formerly CN Newmarket Subdivision). When the wheels crossed the diamond joints, I could see the mud squirting out from below the ties by the pumping action. Aarre Peltomaa of Mississauga, Ontario p.s. I love that Lewisham Junction; it is so unusual in it's track arrangement

Beautiful creation, thanks for sharing

Nice! Driving around on my lines, will keep an eye out 👋

Great video. You see everything.

Excellent!

Brilliant thanks for sharing this

The Lewisham bridge at St Johns was an army "temporary" bridge, once upon a time the whole Crystal Palace to Greenwich line ran across there with the Nunhead spur being the only bit left of the whole line, the flydown was built when they demolished St John's other two platforms and the flydown was built on the old Hither Green Continental sidings which held the boat train freight sets where an engine from Bricklayers Arm depot would fetch down to Dover and the other railferry ports after HG's pilot had deposited them there for forward movement. I remember how they remodelled St John's signalbox going in there with me father as a very young lad and he showed me the old layout before the 1970's modernised layout was brought in for a short while although the box lingered on but like HG only as a relay box. My father at North Kent Junc was one of the first railmen to reach the crash, he allegedly ran all the way down the line after his boss like all the boxes set the signals to red across the board, he was only a box boy not long in the job and he had to see the carnage of the rail disaster.

1:50:17 I never saw a switch turnout geometry like that before. We are boring in Mississauga, Ontario; We don't have fascinating track geometry like that. This is the first time that I took the back Windsor routes west of Barnes. There don't seem to be any passenger train cab videos of these routes. Quail Maps shows two aggregate yards at your finale; is that what you were delivering ? Aarre Peltomaa

Very nice,thanks for sharing,😊

When I saw the train approaching Clapham Junction on the Ludgate Line, I thought it would cross all the way and go through the high-numbered platforms, down towards Wimbledon. But no, it went onto the Windsor Lanes. That confused me! And then the Hounslow loop - I suppose it keeps you off the main Waterloo-Reading route until you get to Feltham. And then Virginia Water, Chertsey and back onto the main Waterloo-Woking route again. It's interesting to see the Hounslow loop and the Chertsey route, because I only did those occasionally when there were diversions: when I lived in Bracknell the route to Waterloo was normally the direct route via Richmond.

I used to live in Walton-on-Thames, taking the train regularly to Woking and also to Egham, via Weybridge. I passed over the Byfleet Curve many a time, and always wondered where it went and what it was for, as no schedule trains ran along it. Now I know!

Great video

This video has inspired me to make a scenario on my Train Simulator game, albeit a short one.

Just watched your video, went through places I’ve heard of but never been. kind regards

It wasn't until we got to Feltham that I realised we were going to pick up the South Western main line at Byfleet & New Haw.

Thanks Ben for this. It was a visual treat, although quite a bit of wind noise throughout, but the visuals made up for that.

Having spent most of my life living somewhere that had one train (where a "long" one had 4 carriages) in each direction per hour, Clapham Junction blows my mind.

I've been watching a few of your videos, mainly passenger services. I think I prefer this type of freight video though! Much calmer speeds and great that the camera is outside the cab. I think if I became a train driver I would run freight?! Seems much more chilled out. Thanks.

Bringing back some memories, firstly the occasional visit when I used to ride the cab of my uncle's 33 who dotted around all over the place including parking stuff in Hither Green which still had back then the old catenary stuff, to my late father who often relief'd out of Hither Green box and commuting from Grove Park every day and the best bit if I was late for duty at Waterloo, I used to ring London Bridge where my father worked at the box there and got them to pull a red on a fast Hastings DMU so I could hop on and not be late for work. Happier days when BR was cool, have no time for these modern joyless units, give me an EPB or a 4CEP any day :D

Great trip along London's leafy byways👍

Clapham Junc is a-ma-zing! Ive only experienced it as a passenger so its incredible to ride on the Ludgate route that goes under all the Waterloo lines and the Victoria-Brighton 3 times (29:31)(30:24)(31:30)! And this freight movement has bumped a Portsmouth direct line train from Plat 5 to Plat 4 at Woking 1:39:18

Salutări din România 🙋🙋🙋🇹🇩

Thanks very much for this. I wondered why the train was coming into Clapham Junction on the north side - was it really going to cross most of the tracks? Of course I soon realised it was going via Staines, but was surprised that it took the Brentford loop (because that's quieter?). I'd not registered that there was a chord south of Addlestone before. Also made me realise why interchange platforms for Loughborough Junction and Brixton are impractical - four tracks are needed on that viaduct near the former, and there's no possibility at the latter save at that useless former East Brixton station site.

Lovely video, well filmed. Not being in South London, the only other time I have seen the route from Virginia Water to Feltham is the Reading to Waterloo (Video125)

Thx fella 👏👏

I like the way you name all the lines used eg up Kent slow

I can see my hometown in this!

I noticed the lack plant/ sapling removal from the brickwork of those beautiful Victorian arch bridges.

Great Lunar light action @ 3:18!!!!

Used to catch the train from Chertsey to Egham every day decades ago

This takes me back - I grew up in Lewisham and the first section of this is well known to me, at least from street side. 9:29 Greenwich Park branch ran left to right over the low level lines towards Blackheath Hill 9:54 Site of Lewisham Road Station 12:08 Site of Brockley Lane Station 12:27 Site of GNR Coal Depot (left) and Dairy (right) 15:56 Site of Junction to Crystal Palace High Level along the line of the flats 16:04 Nunhead's original station site

I watch trains at 0.4 and buses at 0.3. Thx for video

Once you left Clapham Junction it seemed to be up hill and down dale , right and left at Junctions.

Lots to encounter on this journey! You do get about a bit!

Thanks for sharing.Richard from Australia.

Just reading about her shiny new livery supporting the Ukraine that's a fantastic effort and sending items as well, definitely mention worthy.

Just imagine living in the house on the left of picture @ 9:29!!!

Palm Tree ! 30:56. We don't have them in southern Ontario. There's another one north of Ladywell Junction on the west side of the fast tracks near the Esso station in Lewisham as well. It's unusual for me; maybe not for you ! Aarre Peltomaa of Mississauga, Ontario

Be interesting to know what you were pulling, cargo, weight etc. Thankyou

Is the camera mounted externally? It picks up external sounds well and the sound of the loco, but I've just noticed there aren't any AWS sounds

Oh!, Oh!, Oh the Godlessness of trackside south London, with only graffitied walls for their gospel. Thanks for your hard work.

my dad worked at hither green freight depo till about 12 years ago he retired as a driver

This is brilliant! I have been waiting for ages for a modern cab ride on this line and I thought it would never happen. Thank you so much! Could I request the reverse journey too? That would be really useful as I'm building this line in Train Simulator and it would be great to get all the up to date signals in both directions. Also, quick question: What are all those new lineside metal poles with nothing on them? They seem too frequent to be all replacement signals, but maybe I'm wrong?!

When I was a little boy during the years 1941 - 1950 the was a north to west curve at Virginia Water enabling through running from Weybridge or Byfleet to Reading (South) and the Western Region, but even then it was rusty and weed-infested.

Brilliant video as always - BUT, what happened to the TPWS audio cab sounds?

Wandsworth Town Platform 2 - second from left (36:13) next station Putney Platform 3 - second from left (40:05) no uniform platform numbering, ya'd think i.e. platform closest to Buckingham would be platform 1

That was excellent Thank you for a fine video. An interesting option to via Chiswick rather directly via Richmond. Is there an operational reason for this?

My stressbuster..

Interesting journey by a circuitous route, but I wonder why there was no caption for Hounslow Junction.

I really enjoyed that video; someone else has already said it, but that scrapping noise sounded exactly like someone shovelling coal or sand from a concrete floor. TBH it started to drive me mad after a while. I suppose you wouldn't hear that in the cab - or would you? Obviously some of those commenting here have great knowledge of the names of different lines and other stuff about how railways operate, which I do not have. How do you learn such stuff? Do you have to work in the railway or is there somewhere to find these things out? Incredible quality in your videos. I do watch another popular driver eye view channel, but your film quality is a lot better! I always watch on my TV, much more enjoyable there.

fascinating video, interesting move reversing on Down Guildford. What was that periodic sound ? Sounded like arcing