West Coast Main Line Driver's Eye View: Liverpool Lime Street to Preston 

Brilliant ride if a little scary at 110 mph, but I had my seat belt on sitting on my office chair! lol

Loved this train ride. Nothing like being up front with the driver. Watching this from my lounge in Auckland, New Zealand.

That’s me crouched spotting the 397 on departure from Liverpool!

Brings back memories, as I left Liverpool a long time ago. I have taken this journey many times from Liverpool to Preston, great to see the ride from the cabin! Thanks for uploading!

That Victorian engineering when you pull out is just beautiful ❤

Thanks for another great video. I always hanker after the clickety clack of the old unweilded tracks.

Cheers, from Sydney Australia, great video, Preston is my home town. The bridge in front is Fishergate hill, where i use to live just 200 yards away from the station, where in the 1950s I spent many great hours train spotting. lots of good memories Thanks.

This is so good. Love the old and tall walls and archways as you roll out of Liverpool Lime Street

Absolutely brilliant. Thank you for making and sharing. Great educational tool and insight into the route I travel on regularly :-)

Brilliant! Really enjoyed this. I was born and grew up near Carr Mill Dam in St Helens and went back and forth on the train regularly between St Helens and Liverpool when I was a lad. Going over Carr Mill Viaduct reminded me of the time I climbed across on the girders underneath when I was in my teens. I've not travelled that way since electrification and the reintroduction of 4 tracks at Roby and Huyton. It's great to see how it looks now. I would have loved to have been able to see regular long distance trains going through St Helens Central (or Shaw Street as it was then) when I was young. You had to go across town to St Helens Junction if you wanted to see proper locos. It would have been much more interesting than the old 1950s DMUs and the newer Pacers!

Gracias por subir los vídeos !! Me encantan😊

Excellent video sir , I'm here from Mr Coffey's channel who spoke highly of you . Great video 👍🇬🇧

Great Cab Ride Ben... Thank you my friend...

Great video. Walked a great deal of that route when I was a Track Engineer for N Rail.

Been waiting what seems like months for this sort of cab ride vid. welcome back.

Beautiful day for this very.nice cab ride. Thank.you for.the info given in ths video.

2:28 Funny wave from the driver there 😂

Hi there !! ... As others have mentioned ...Welcome back!! A very interesting cabride ... thankyou.

Super video. I've never had a cab ride out of Lime St. Wonderful architecture. Bet these days it wouldn't be built anywhere near as well!! Thank you

funny to see trains not stop at all the smaller stations - I took the stopper from Lime St to Wigan NW back in May 2018. I'm from Garswood now living in Vancouver since 1981

Thanks Ben. Appreciate these cab rides. 😍

I love how you can hear the motors !!!! Lovely , must be nice having a sense of audiable acceleration via the motors .

Excellent upload Ben, thank you for this. Just the right amount of information included !

a very enjoyable trip, thank you. Did the trip 10/12 years ago, like riding in a bucket! This was certainly an arm chair job.

That was excellent Ben ! Thank you for sharing it with us ...:):):)

I rode this route once when the new-fangled DMU's had just entered service and you could see where you were going for the first time. Glad to see the mining subsidence dips and kinks near Bryn have been straightened out.

AMAZING RIDE ! THANKS FOR SHARE IT . GREETINGS FROM BRAZIL .

Awesome video!!! So scenic, love the UK.

Great cab ride Ben. What are the possibilities of you uploading more such similar videos in the near future?

great video as always thank for your efforts

'Back on track' Good to have you back Ben.

Thanks Ben! Good to see you back on RU-vid.

Brilliant video! A nice bit of virtual track bashing for me as I've not yet done Huyton Junction to Springs Branch Junction.

Lovely ride, thank you.

Awesome video I love see full journey from Glasgow to liverpool lime street I love 397 and 800 iep and 68 with mk5 class

Sweet ride! Thank you 🤠

Thanks for uploading.

Nice video as usual, weird to see deserted stations at St Helens & Wigan & masked passengers at Preston.

A brilliant video from start 2 finish and very informative excellent watching from northern ireland

Nice one Ben. Can't wait for Nova 1 and 3 driver's view and also between Liverpool Lime street and Edinburgh Waverley via Newcastle which takes you to the ECML

It’s been a while since your last video so it’s great to have you back, Ben 👍. (Nice to see the England flag flying - 8:20.) 🐨🇦🇺

Great video, thank you.

Great sharing my friend! Big like and a new friend joined you! Wishing you all the best!

I never tire of these railway history lessons portrayed in UHD. In this video the sound seems better. I can feel bass rumble of the engine. Makes me want to leave my comfortable chair in Southern California to experience the life of a Victorian traveler back in England, where I grew up around smoky steam engines and soot stained collars. .

Cheers again Don. Not managed to ride one of these yet for obvious reasons. But seemed some impressive acceleration at times

Nice to see the departure from Lime Street in the video, thank you, Ben, then thought maybe get more of this up to Glasgow then saw that there was to be a driver change.

Very good video! 👍👍🚆🚆

Cracking vid, nice to see the obligatory red before Wigan hasn't changed.

Great video nice quality

Absolut sensationell 👍😀 Weiter so ☀️

Excellent picture quality

Five star coverage

Very nice 👍

great video … thanks for sharing

Excellent. Thanks.

Thank you for this. I was also wondering about the low speed limits on the St. Helens line, but you’ve already answered another person’s query on the same question.

Wish my employer let me use a go pro in the cab, great videos.

Superb video.

Great video and brilliant information along the way too. I never knew how speed restrictive this route is! 60mph max for the straight and narrows seems very low. I'm sure their must be reason?

Brilliant video. Not done the routes here since all the resignallings, plus electrification of the St Helens line although speed still no more than 60mph on that. Sounds like someone has stuffed a cloth in the AWS speaker?! In my day, rolled newspaper or a bit of rag was often stuffed behind the AWS bell 😉

Nice scenic journey thanks ben cheer's bob.

This reminded me just how fast 70MPH actually is. Riding in a car all the time made me forget.

Another good video. You know, with Don Coffey having his problems and saying he will likely stop making videos, there is an opportunity for you to improve even more by going into similar levels of detail as he does.

I really enjoyed that.thanku

Wow there's quite a bit of wind noise on those 397s when they get up some speed! Or is there actually a window the driver can open for ventilation?

Shows what I know - I thought you'd have to go to Bank Quay and reverse! Didn't know that link existed!

Top effort to get this video out today.

Interesting to note that 2-track section of the WCML between Wigan and Euxton, some original 4-track bits had been narrowed to 2 tracks, others looked like there never were more than 2 tracks...

Great video. If you could show a photo of the train please before departure, it would be even greater!

Great video

You mean filmed today!? Thumbs up!

Please can you do more in the Class 397. Would be lovely to see that Thanks ☺️

Good quality filming....

How did you get a sunny day? I have been into and out of Lime Street and hardly ever see the sky. Beautiful video. Nice to ride with you again!

Last train I took from Liverpool to Preston was from Exchange Stn via Ormskirk direct, no break. That's how old I am!

Nice trip.

Good to see this oft overlooked route through St. Helens Ben, but why is it only 60mph? The alignment and sight lines look good enough for higher speeds, the prolonged 30 around St. Helens Central seems a bit extreme too, are there still mining subsidence issues? Great video BTW!

Absolutely love those trains best out there and sound amazing. Are they easier to drive than the 350. Will definitely trying one to Liverpool as I always get one to Glasgow from Carlisle. Great video

Superb footage. I'm interested to know how the 397s compare with other EMUs such as the 350 or 802 from a driver's perspective. I certainly find 350s to be more comfortable from a passanger's perspective than 8xx classes but have not yet traveled on a 397.

At 29.05 is that where Whitley Crossing used to be? I think it is, but much has changed since I spotted trains there in the 60s so I could easily be wrong.

This is great! My commute is Eccleston Park to Liverpool Lime St, but I also go the opposite direction from time to time, as far as Wigan. Seeing everything from your view is awesome, the cutting from Eccleston Park to Thatto Heath is really deep, can't really see much as a passenger, and it's great to be able to see the approach to Lime St. from Edge Hill. Can i ask, what does the likes of Up chat moss, and down fast/down main mean? Thanks.

Excellent video, at certain junctions and stations there looks to be creamed coloured sensors spaced about 20 to 30 yards apart and 3ft high, what are they please?

Yay a new video 😁

Another lovely vid. Do many of these services get routed through St.Helens Junction and the Lawton curves, or is that strictly diversionary for engineering works etc.

I’ve always wondered about the single track tunnels on the left immediately as you leave Lime Street station.

Intresting pathing onto the Down Slow at Balshaw Lane, is it for your route knowledge, like the mid afternoon liverpool off of Preston, going via Golborne Jcn

the line between Wigan North Western and Preston wasn't it a 3 track system in the 70s? as I am sure back then I saw a 3 track system from Wigan upto where the track goes in to a 4 track system at the Euxton Junction, and eventually opening up in to a 6 track system at the Skew Bridge Junction and eventually more tracks for entering Preston Station well thats what I seem to remember, although I dont remember Euxton

Are you doing some more train journeys drivers eye view on RU-vid

Fantastic Ben thanks for this. Shame about the wind noise at higher speeds!. How does the 397 compare with the class 700?

I thought it was via earlstown then Golborne...

27:27 departure Wigan N Western

One thing i will say about the British Railways (and i have watched many cab view train rides and with Dove tails many many hours of simulated routes) they have some of the most unkempt rail lines in Europe. Because much of the rest of what i saw in Europe, i can tell that they take great care of their lines, and often they are beautiful parts of the urban areas. I have seen few British rail lines in urban areas that looked even half decent. Its sad 2 because on this route (as on many others) there are so many beautiful buildings track side and the grounds between them and the rail lines are just hideous!. The British rail system is so amazing that if they landscaped it and then took care of it it would be the nations greatest treasure and hugest moneymaker for tourism.

So do the 397's actually reach 125 mph at any point in their journeys between Liverpool Lime Street/Manchester Airport and Edinburgh Waverley/Glasgow Central, or is it 110 mph as with other non-tilting trains?.

the american train spotters would never understand this;;; no bells, over 60mph and only once did the driver blow his horn. the one thing that this vid proves to one and all is that there is definitely not enough freight on the British net work. such a shame.

Hey Ben, from your personal perspective, how does the 397 compare to the 350 to operate? Is the acceleration as good as in the 350? Cheers.

the date 10/07/2020??

Great film but shocking how the lineside has got into such a bad state. I have a cab ride film from 1988 out of Liverpool to St Helens and it was very different then.

Nice one! This is my local route from Leyland/Preston to Liverpool - Once past Wigan it does seem a lot faster than the speed limit suggests there! 29:00 are you running to enhanced 125 mph or the normal speed?

What are we riding ?

02:29 that loco driver looks familiar?