Secrets of The Motorway - M2 

Hello, How the devil are you!? I hope you enjoy our little trip along the M2. Shout out to Network Rail security (no rules were broken) and anyone who saw me waving like an idiot on the Medway Viaduct. We did a few takes of the end shot and naturally anyone driving past would have wondered what amount of crack had been ingested... here's a guy who's waving to nothing at 9.30am. If you need to get to Dover, go down the M2, it's better than the M20. Thanks for watching, same time next week? x

You nailed the completely accurate description of Sheppey - an island with 2 prisons and no police station.

Canterbury resident here - another little known fact about the M2 is that particularly on 2 lane sections, the inside one is invisible to those traveling along it. At least it must be, as everyone sits in the outside lane 🤦

John Surtees lost his son Henry in a motorsports accident in 2009 and founded the "Henry Surtees Foundation. The Foundation's projects included work in education, air ambulances, transfusion service and medical training, also providing notably help for young people in motorsport. Buckmore Park is the karting circuit where Henry got his first taste of go-kart racing.

I stumbled across this channel and thought who in their right mind has a channel talking about motorways...? neverless, I clicked on it ( only cos I had clicked on every other channel and was bored ) to my surprise I was sucked into the informative content and your unique blend of serious presentation seasoned with just the right amount of sauce. Have to say I'm hooked and look forward to watching this enthusiast talk about not so boring motorways... Great stuff, very informative. A big 👍🏻.. subscribed...

Great, just what i needed, another weird RU-vid channel to watch. Can't wait to learn a bunch about UK roads. A friendly pig sent me. (:

I visited the Isle of Sheppey once. The tribe wasn't unfriendly, but I left the place feeling depressed and dejected.

In the 80s and 90s, every friday night hundreds of single soldiers stationed in garrisons all over Northern Germany would jump on the luxury double deck Transline coaches and head for the Belgian ferry terminals. In the early hours of Saturday morning all these coaches would meet up in Farthing Corner services. Everyone would debus (now seriously worse for wear due to drink) and swap coaches for whatever onward destination in the UK they needed. Often an unconscious Scotsman heading home to his family in Glasgow would wake up half way down the M5 heading for Plymouth. So, Farthing corner holds a soft spot in my memories and will never be known as Medway services to me or countless other ex servicemen.

1:21 the van and the car just left this dimension

Strangely fascinating, could linger on the maps and images a fraction longer so we can grasp what they were

I grew up in Calais and the first time i drove to London after getting a driving licence, i used the A2 /M2 . I stopped at Medway services but the exit is so badly signed that it's easier to find the secret exit because simply going straight gets you there. I did that by mistake, had never heard of backdoor exits at the time and wondered for a few seconds why there was a whole TOWN in the service station. Joking aside, i eventually found junction 4, got back on the m2 and continued on my way.

When you asked it how it felt, I thought the concrete pillar gave a solid response...

He's right about Sheppey. I've visited and safe to say I won't be returning.

I think digger land needs further investigation.

I live on the Isle of Sheppey and have my whole life. You are completely right about those of us who live here.

That's quite an accurate description of Sheppy.

Absolutely LOVE the reference to Sheppey. 😂😂😂

Gotta admit, those drone shots of the viaducts are pretty awesome

My favourite motorway! Junction 6 was where we put a survey camera down a drainage pipe and encountered a seriously pissed off badger. How he managed to get in there we never did find out. There are some huge soakaways draining the motorway, mostly in the hard shoulders/verges but some way off the route. One is 120m away - never could figure that one out. Quite a few of the locations are unknown so god only knows what the state of them is like. They show up on the original 1964 plans but those were drawn with the chainages set to . . . furlongs (five furlongs are just under 1km) and are pretty poor microfilm prints. About 7 years ago the MAC working for the Highways Agency (so few years, so many name changes) was the Balfour Beatty/Mott MacDonald joint venture. Motts allowed the drainage design team to run down so they could outsource the work to their own engineers. The young engineer the gave me for the J6 to J7 study was very keen but inexperienced. Now I've said the existing soakaways are huge; they've been there since 1964 and the motorway hasn't changed that much so I was surprised when she said that they needed to build EIGHT new ones each 6m x 6m x 8m deep! And where was she going to build these? Under the hard shoulder and lane 1 of course! When I asked how long she thought we would have to completely close the M2 for she said "But there are two lanes, can't we keep the traffic flowing on lane 2?" Not while you've got an 8m deep excavation alongside, no. Her other claim to fame was in her innovative suggestion for pipe materials. Essentially there are two types of drainage pipe associated with road drainage - ordinary ones which take the surface water runoff and perforated ones which take away any water in the soil to stop the road structure collapsing - think of a pipe with lines of holes along the top. Water seeps in and then runs away down the channel - at least that the theory. Conventionally in the UK we use plastic, clay and concrete pipes but she wanted to lay 1500m of perforated STAINLESS STEEL. I told her she'd have to get what's known as a departure from the HA as we never use stainless pipes underground. "But there are some there already!" Really? Where? She told me the chainages and I dug out the video footage. At the start of each recording there's a clapper board stating where, when etc and it clearly said "225mm PVCu" (plastic) When I asked her why she thought it was stainless steel she said "Well it looked so nice and shiny!" . . . because it was wet perhaps? Sorry for the long ramble but I love telling that story!

Great to see Buckmore Park still given the recent threats of becoming an Amazon Warehouse

Isle of Sheppy indigenous tribe is a pretty good description! 😂 Some escaped to Sittingbourne apparently...

Fun Fact - The M2 is the only motorway (that is, an 'M' road, not including A(M) roads) in the country that doesn't join directly to any other motorway, because it's just a chunk in-between two parts of the A2.

Went for a family holiday to Devon when the kids were little, ended up at another branch of digger land. Superb memorable day, toddlers operating heavy machinery. Brilliant. Highlight was the mrs driving a huge tractor thing around a track. Me and the kids sat on a hand rail in the back of the cab, and the lad in charge of tuition sat on the door grab handle. First big bump the door flew open with him sat on it, almost ejected himself under the rear wheel. Luckily he managed to grab something mid exit but it was touch and go....

I think it would be a crying shame if this series didn’t continue with exciting episode ideas like- “secrets of the uk’s major trunk roads” “Secrets of the A38” “Secrets of the A303” Etc…..

Awesome, something decent to watch.

Was that award set in stone?

Never realised how interested in motorways I am, thanks for confirming that I’ve turned into my dad🙄

I have never been so interested in motorways, I now find my self pointing out stuff when I go along them! My wife is so lucky!

Thanks John, I just remember when the two main parts opened around 1963-65 Wimpey's built the stretch from the Medway bridge to the Stockbury Viaduct, and Laings built the viaduct to the Faversham end, when I was 19 in 1979 I worked for Wimpys on the Canterbury bypass or A2 Harbledown to Bridge. until then all the traffic from the M2 to dover went through Canterbury, Gridlock. great videos thanks. Joe

I moved to Sheppey at a very young age (luckily my parents came along too to look after me) and we lived there for 10 years, but finally managed to escape. To be honest though, compared to where I live now (Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent), Sheppey is a paradise and I'd love to be held captive by the tribe again. I shared your video on the Sheppey History Facebook group, so prepare for some Swampy grief! :D

John, your aspirations have grown enormously this year! 100K subscribers to you 6 months ago was unimaginable. Congratulations on your rapid growth into a niche interest.

PMSL, you ain't far wrong about Sheppey, it does seem like you've strayed into a long forgotten backwater. Not exactly Shangri-la, but you get the picture. If you do steay onto the Sheppey Bridge, and find that it is too late to turn around, just DON'T WIND DOWN YOUR WINDOWS! and KEEP MOVING (til you find a roundabout)

Love the Sheppey reference but also did you know about the farthing corner service station mosaic? It was there on opening of the service station, However it's since disappeared as an upgrade to where the WHSmith is seems to have covered it up.

From Lazerbig

The concrete society is how I came to work near North Berwick as an 18 year old from the very west of Wales. My college lecturer met my large farmer/employer at one of the concrete society’s undoubtedly exciting conferences. This was back in 1976. Exciting times where the mobile phone was something only found on the telly program ‘Lost in Space’ and the small portable calculator was only widely available as expensive battery-guzzlers a couple of years earlier. An era of Mk1 Ford Escort, Cortina Mk3 and Morris Marina, not forgetting the Austin Allegro.

Man, that MW2 music really caught me off guard on a channel about motorways of all things. Nice video!

Always love the mention of the inclusion of Saabs!

Good timing, I've just made a tea. Going to drink it and watch this...

A perfect episode, fuller's teasel, epic drone shots, big concrete bridges, a bit of trainspotting and abandoned slipways.

Funny! This could have been a very dull video but actually, fast paced and interesting. I don’t think I’ve every used the M2 but still interested watching. Well done folks!

Dude, you're awesome and I hope you reach your goal. I'm the daughter of a civil engineer (who worked on the North Circular in the 1980s and finished off his career renewing Reading's sewage treatment, as well as working on Kings Cross, all for Taylor Woodrow/Vinci) and these videos make me wish I'd followed in his footsteps. I now live down in Basingstoke and loved your M3 video. Keep 'em coming!!

The Isle of Sheppey - that notorious accident in the fog on the A249........

The bridge that carries you over The Swale on to the Isle of Sheppey is well known for being the scene of the biggest multi car pile up in the UK…. Some 100 odd cars in 2013 due to the steep incline, bad fog and therefore obvious blind spot on the bridge!!!

Well done for the success of this series

John mate ur comments on the “indigenous tribe” of the isle of Sheppey has got me pissin myself!! Easily the funniest thing u have said on camera!! 👍😎

Sir. Your humor is amazing. I enjoy it. Keep it up.

Redo your introduction but after the car passes you've disappeared hahhaaa so disappointed you didn't do this!

This series has been amazing so far! I don't live far from the M2 but have never been able to find old 1990s maps of all 7 junctions. Still a great road. I remember walking down the old sliproads (now a footpath) from the A228 to the Medway Viaduct, which I believe was the old coastbound entrance/exit. All I know was they removed those old sliproads during the upgrade of the M2 at J2-J3. I hope to find those old maps one day!

I could watch these all day and I have lmao

Awesome video

Great, thanks. I’m often on the Eurostar and the view over viaduct over the Medway is a delight especially if it’s sunny. Just a few seconds of peaceful river life and then gone. There’s a good shot of it at the end of the video

I get to use the M2 a lot from SE London and it's always surprised me as the A2 goes from a 4 lane A road with hard shoulder, to the M2 which eventually goes down to 2 lanes. They must regret not making it at least 3 lanes in the first place now, it's horrific if there's a lane closed.

Absolute BEST-EVER interview with a concrete bridge pylon on record!! 🎬🏆 (…and very cinematic ending, too!)

"Nearly as fast as the Saab" 😂😂

Watching this made us both howl with laughter. The concrete appreciation society made us think of me saying it wouldn't surprise me if there was a wheelie bin appreciation society. You can just imagine them taking pictures and posting them up with the title, 'Check that moulding', or, 'Check those wheels!!' along with a selfie of said bin and their, 'Like us on Farcebook', 'TikToss' and 'Shitter'. But then this is the country where you can get, not just 'train-spotters', but 'bus-spotters'. (There was a bus-spotter in Wolverhampton where we originally come from, and he would stand there with his little book, watching the buses, single and double-deckers and coaches passing through the bus station and noting them down. It was obviously fascinating. I saw him every day, come rain or shine, when I was attending college and for some years after. Now that's dedication!) We were particularly impressed with the footage of the design process, which was obviously done with CAD (Crayoned Angry Design). Either that or the designer had Tourette's. Lots of thought went into the process. A total inspiration. That should be shown in the Tate Modern.

I subscribed the day I first found your videos and then spent a couple of weeks of spare time watching all your stuff. Now it's a regular Sunday afternoon treat to watch the latest offering. Thanks for all your hard work Jon (and the transport manager). See you next Sunday.

Interesting fact is that M2 is the loneliest motorway in England with no other Motorway conmection 😢😅

I love the reference to your Saab. Lovely cars, never beaten

Why have I just subscribed to someone talking about motorways? Probably because he asked so nicely. 😮

Great video. Greetings from Australia.

Sat watching the video, when it got to the bit where he says 'Remember that.... rain?' I looked out the window to watch it tipping down outside. 😁😁

Before the construction of the second medway motorway bridge you had the strange situation where you travelled on a two lane motorway towards London and when it changed into an A road it widened to three lanes.

There does now appear to be barriers for those access roads at Medway services, not sure when they were installed

A mate managed an office on Sheppey for a while... Everyone was related, except one chap, who was from Stroud.

Just brilliant! Unlike Isle of Sheppey inhabitants… Used to used the M2 back in early ‘ 90’s travelling between Harrow, Aldershot and Canterbury for work … seem to recall you could get a good speed up in it back then without legal harassment … with a friend driving, of course!

Junction 5 looked like somebody's first attempt at an intersection in Cities: Skylines

I came to your channel through suggested videos, watched two of yours and subscribed straight away. I like your relaxed style and the fact you're not afraid to swear a little - love it! You must put in a *lot* of hours of research, recording and editing and it shows 😎

You were one of the few channels I subscribed to after a single video... Mostly so I could hear the "how the devil are you? Did you have a good week?" each week!

Like a lot of people I stumbled on one of your videos, and have subscribed and watched loads of them now. It is criminal that you don’t have more subscribers. Keep up the great work, love the humour and the ‘cheesy’ music. Keep going like you are and I’m sure all those subscribers will appear.

If you're interested in nonexistent slip roads you could have a look at the A43 at Weston Favell in Northampton, where traffic from the shopping centre joins the 50mph dual carriage way with nothing more than a Y junction. Could be a new series: "who the hell designed that junction?".

A friend recommended your videos and I am so happy he did. I love the cheeky presentation of highway infrastructure, history and other interesting facts. I love your style and have been watching 2-3 videos a day to get them all in. There are so many humorous moments in this video especially, including asking the viaduct supports for their comments after winning the Outstanding Merit in the Use of Concrete Award. Hilarious! I would love to see you lend your style to some of our roads here in the USA. Thank you so much for all your hard work in creating these videos. Great job!

Yeah the Stockbury junction isn't the most intuitive junctions, as the west exit from the roundabout takes you onto the eastbound carriageway, and you then have to drive 10 miles to Faversham before you can turnaround. Not that I've ever done that....

I’m surprised the rest of the M2 hasn’t been widened yet.

Can't wait to hear what you have to say about junctions on the M50 that are basically a gap in a fence. They really did things differently with the early ones.

View of the railway and road. Long silence while John looks. Great comic timing.

Used the M2 for a while when living down there and agree with your views on it's layout . Gotta say the script for this episode is the best so far, I've been telling anyone I know to watch these.

I knew a concrete expert who would never change his method of working: he was very SET in his ways ! Interesting video as usual, keep at it.

Quality content, cheers

As an avid enthusiast of your channel, I can't believe that I was on that very same motorway last Wednesday, stopped at the services and thought of you..... How bizarre. I'm on the M5 this Wednesday, so no doubt we will be out of sync again 🤣🤣🤣

Kudos for name checking Darren.

Your doing a great job John, I hope this channel goes on to be as large and well developed as something like Grand Tour! Best of luck, and rock on! :)

I've subbed using the button specifically for that.

5:52 Much respect for perfectly aligning the 'present day' and 'removed' photos of junction 3, making it possible to use the full stop (period) and comma buttons to move frames directly from one to the other, and back again, to compare the many differences between the two.

Love these videos so much mate, keep up the hard work, love watching these so much

😂😂 you can't say that about the Isle of Sheppey, my sister lives there!! Thanks for this on the M2, as you can guess, I use it quite a bit when visiting Sheepy, I mean Sheppey! Yes, junction 5 is a mare, I hope the improvements work! I've got an EV (Renault Zoe) and I love the Rochester viaduct, I try to drive the "downward" side of the viaduct (each way) at the optimum speed ( 58 to 62 mph) so that I'm actually charging my car (via regen) whilst going along. It's the little things in life!! 😂😂

Erudite and confident delivery of some fascinating knowledge. Subscribed.

I went to do as you commanded - I already was!. Seriously th, I was born & grew up in Kent. I remember being given a book when I was about 8, in 1959. This book described how ‘highways’ in future would incorporate innovative junctions which they called’clover leaf junctions - and like your mention of the right curves. In 1959 I was about eight years old. So two very exciting events (for a prep sch boy in Kent. These were the E-Type Jaguar and secondly the opening of the first section of this M1 motorway. You may imagine this is fairly mundane stuff, but remember that back then the black slash across a white circle meant you coul go as fast as you liked. One of my neighbours dad had a Mark Ii Jag, which with the 3.8 or 4.2 litre engine could easily do !ton up’, and he used to quite often along PemburY Road, just past Tunbridge Wells, but 150mph? No, only the e-type could & did reach that speed on the new motorway.! Most cars in those days had trouble getting over seventy.

Commendable drone footage, Master John! Congrats to the responsible body. 😉

This channel is genuinely fantastic - hilarious and informative. I'm hooked every new video - looking forward to more!

Nearly as fast as a Saab… nearly 🤣🤣🤣 not as reliable either. Probably. Brilliant video and the usual underlying high level sarcastic humour. I love it 😆😆

Laughing my way through this - thanks John!!!!

Watched most of your videos and really enjoying them. This video means a lot more to me as someone who's lived in Thanet there whole life and now do a 100 mile daily commute mostly involving the A229 and M2. The M2 is a welcoming road to me, getting onto the M2 after a long drive or holiday etc means I'm pretty much home... Well and that there's no speed cameras and incredibly lackluster police patrols so you can gun it

Good to see Darren still hard at work 😂

I loved the reference to Darren the pothole inspector from Cheshire West. 😆😆😆

Made my wait at the doctors surgery very pleasant. Really enjoyed this one John. Thanks.

Another wonderfully daft video. Thank you!

Government policy is to name a motorway grade road 'M' after the A road it follows unless there is already an 'M' road of that name in which case it named after the A road suffixed (M).

Really cool content bro! Keep it up man!

From Sheppey, fully agree. I have never seen a bridge be treated with such reverence. It was beautiful 👏

I lived in that part of Kent at the time the M2 was being upgraded. There were extensive alterations the J2 & J3 but they are still a chaotic collection of roundabouts and suffer from congestion. Spent much time queueing at J5. If only the upgrade had continued to Dover given the issues where people spend literally days stuck on the M20 trying to cross the channel. The alternative is the A2 which is still single carriageway in places!