Who'd have thought this would already be consigned to history ! 😭

Huge well done to TPE for having the brains and balls to go back to loco stock. Will be so much more comfortable and quiet than a Pendo or Voyager

This engine sounds REALLY powerful. Must be a thrill to drive. Many thanks for the captions Don

Love the APT at 1:20 on the left side - I remember seeing it as a boy at Shields Road depot in Glasgow during an open day - showing my age now..

I was a driver at Crewe but left in 85. Worked on crewe north box for a short while after leaving school then worked in Crewe south till I was 18 then transferred to saltley diesel depot in Birmingham to get on the footplate. Good to see the old APT still around. I used to do the test runs on it during the weekend's from Carlisle to oxenhome and back to Carlisle then back to oxenhome back to Carlisle, and repeat 😂 (I think oxenhome long time ago now) the hydro brakes took a bit of getting used to but I found them fine. I wasnt passed out on it just helped out driving as it was an 18 hour shift. I ran that crewe to Liverpool route a lot, it was the first route I signed for as well as the hollyhead route. Thanks for posting

The noise of genset is a heavenly music!

Really enjoyed watching this and love the sound of the class 68!

Another brilliant video. Love the rainbow at the start and the sound in the cabin of this train. Sounds so smooth!

Really like this loco and one of my favourites, great to see different units being shown here, 185's 158's and now the class 68 all my gifts coming at one time. Many things for the great work with the captions also they really do help the trip so much easier to understand.

Superb quality video. Brought back memories for me and BR when I worked in the Engineering dept and walked and worked most of that route.

these are just fab recordings, brings new viewings to us, who we long to view upfront driver experience, can view a whole journey in real time. Fab.🤓

I love the muffled sound of that engine. It sounds so cool!

As someone born & bred in Coppenhall it's great to see the 4 track line out of Crewe. For all you "youngsters" the 4 track section used to house water troughs on the 2 fast lines in the steam era! The fields on the left had a public path so you could watch a "Coronation" steamer at full speed picking up water! Odd that the 4 track overhead has been reduced to 2 tracks so early as operators are always complaining about congestion. Great video thanks for taking me back to my young days!

Stunning! Absolutely stunning!

Was seeing 68 Brutus passing nearly everyday few weeks back on light engine from yard in winsford were I was working can hear it roaring has its coming up from winsford station amazing sound. Thanks for this great video much appreciated bud 👍👍👍

Excellent video, captions and comments are great too. Thanks for sharing!!!

That’s amazing - it’s so quiet and looks smooth too. Thanks for a great video 😀

Cracking video. Thank you so much for sharing.

excellent as always, big thumbs up for this, love the 68's, can't wait for the Nova 3 sets to start

Excellent ride and your location info is really nice. Thank You

Thanks very much for uploading, enjoyed it.

Just recently come across your channel, Don, and I'm really glad I did. I've never worked on the railways - just a humble overgrown schoolboy who loves trains! The videos and your answers are really informative. Great work, and thanks for your efforts.

Many thanks for the reply Don and okay about the filter! Keep waxing lyrical about your enthusiasm for the old buildings, etc.., we support you! Regards, Rob.

Well I didn't think it was possible but you've totally out done yourself with this one, never expected to see a 68 cab ride. Really enjoyed this, can't beat some good old 68 thrash. Top stuff.

Another great video today. Always a comfortable ride. Thanks Don.

Great vid thanks. Did like the engine room shot. What a difference to all the early Diesels. So clean and spacious. Thanks again 😀👍😎

Those Class 68's sound awesome machines, we sometimes get the occasional one on the Mountsorrel stone. Top video.

Lovely video. I look forward to the return journey.

Awesome post, as all ways . ..but as the loco first pulls away , did anyone else notice the curious looking rainbow cloud on the left of the sky view? Most curious . ..a lovely video though, does anyone else watch these to help with insomnia? They are magic, though I do love anything train related...it is most soothing for my soul to listen watch and learn from these beautiful videos that you and many others take the time and energy to create and share..Many thanks ☣️

Another great video, thank you.

Hi Don, no matter how ever many times I see the viaduct at Runcorn, and the new road bridge, I am amazed at the architecture and design. To think there was a man in an office somewhere in Victorian times who drew that out on paper, passed by his boss and given to the works foreman, without comment, built and still standing. It's a great shame that members of the travelling public do not see it from carriage windows.

Great stuff Don - I now have a Beatles song in my head (and in my heart lol). Keep up the good work - many thanks for creating and sharing, Bruce.

Nice free cab ride, nice also to go somewhere, where I had never been, and possibly never will 😊.

So, if you start the journey in Cheshire, it doesn't rain! Another brilliant travelogue, looking forward to the return journey. Many thanks.

What a magnificent piece of machinery!!!

I really enjoyed watching this video

You get a great view of these bad boys from the little window you see on the left @ 1:05. Its the model railway room in the heritage centre. They have some nice chairs there for you to while away an hour or so watching 00 scale and full scale trains go by. Well worth a visit. The last time I was there I saw this train go up and down 5 or 6 times always wondered what it was.

Good quality video 👍 Captioning makes all of the difference.

The video high frame rate gives a great amount of realism. Excellent. The 68 sounds very nice too.

Wow, what that was really interesting !!! Thank you for sharing !!! :):):)

Superb footage. Great viewing on the big screen.

First class - thanks Don. Love the captions and the quality of the video. Super looking loco as well. I want one!

Good video. That’s a heck of a motor. Thanks.

A Bell was much better for the AWS on a green, it distinguish better from a yellow.I used to love riding up the front with the driver ,one excuse was to bring a pot of tea for the driver and secondman .Seeing people on bridges used to get me worried. One low point was when we nearly wiped out two track workers walking with their backs to the trains on the down slow where the tracks went from two to four at Woolmer Green.They just manage to get out the way by about two seconds! that shook me up slightly.I would have been in trouble cos I wasnt supposed have been travelling with the driver!!

wow it's quiet isn't it I mean compared t a shed Great video and I love your captioned vids keep em coming it's nice to see the North west being covered!!

Marvellous vid Don, very informative and a pleasure to watch. Best regards IAN

Fantastic video!

Lovely locos Don,looking forward to seeing loco haulded trains on the Scarborough line.

Excellent video as always. Greetings from Canada.

Its a very nice walk along the River Weaver under the viaduct by the Vale Royal locks. Great video.

Amazing, thanks for uploading this.

Awesome video of the Class 68 Thundercat cab view.

Cheers Don for another informative video for the train novice 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚒🇨🇦

At 0:18 that hum...love it!

Thanks don another fine video cheers bob from sydney.

I always enjoy your videos Don. I have often walked under the Dutton Viaduct and driven over Runcorn Widnes bridge, great to see them from a different angle.

Love your videos

Great video

A Class 08 shunter shunting wagons at 30:50 is quite a nostalgic sight.

Thanks for this.

I live in the chilterns, and regularly see/hear these 68s on chiltern mainline duties. That cat engine sounds fantstic, if the winds in the right direction you can hear them for miles. Great video, really shows the accceleration and power of the 68

Brilliant & like everyone else yes the APT👍🇬🇧

Excellent!

Hi Don. Fantastic run up the west coast line in the 68 Top marks for TPE for putting on loco hauled trains to stop over crowding but 5 coaches still won’t be enough!! Look at our roads we widen them they fill before there finished 🙈 Cross country trains should do the same maybe with a 68 and MK3 coaches as there’s plenty stood up in sidings. Great video Dom cheers Stevie 😁

The engine room shot was a nice surprise :)

sounds are amazing

Came back from Crewe Sunday one night back in the 1980,s i was out chasing class 85,s ...i was waiting for the ( i think it was a Birmingham to Carlisle ) you sometimes got a Class 85 working it ...this night a 87 working it and we got diverted via Hartford Junction back on to the WCML ...

Train-Sim is getting very good these days!

Love to see a Cl68 for real. the colours etc make it look like a future loco

I often see (And hear!) Class 68s passing through my home town of Bicester. I've taken to nick-naming them 'Boom-boxes' because they don't half kick out a lot of noise! (Seems pretty quiet in the cab, though.)

Wow Don, very very, VERY good!! Super captions but of course the start of the show is the '68', my favourite diesel locos! Super work and super driving, well done! :D

Merry Christmas mate have a fab day and a fab new year

EXCELLENT

Enjoyed

Sorry Don, forgot to say thank you for a great trip.

Nice that’s the new train

HOLLY CRAP ... An APT-E 01:20 Nice video ..So good to see locomotive hauled trains again...

Great video!.... Looks (and sounds) like Caterpillar 3512 or 3516 power in that shot at the 8:45 - 9:03 mark.

Didnt realise Eddie Stobart was as big as that...100`s of trailers and wagons...and his warehouses are huge. worth a few bob considering he started with sweet F A .......when I was 19 worked for Wincanton \ Frigidaire,we did long weekend nights ( fri sat sun mon ) installing air conditioning at Halewood...in the offices that were being extended..me and 4 of our firm and about 25 other contractors..earned a few quid that week...back in late 80`s

great video Don, very good cabview videos, big like from Me!

at 17..34 site of Birdswood signalbox excellent captions BTW

Great to see the APT at Crewe.

Lovely and I do not think I have seen a ride in this class of locomotive before - a real treat ! A ride in a thunder or snowstorm would be really awesome !!!! Regards, Dana.

Class 68.. First Time for me.. The longest straight track is in Australia, 100 / 200 miles long.. Thanks..

Awesome trip, Don. The enhanced sounds, especially as power is demanded from the fantastic engines and then lowered, ARE the ‘background music’ of the video and videographers who add unrelated music need to be ignored, in my view.What most viewers want, I believe, is what you give us, a REALexperience. Thanks again. What is Wavertree Junction, just a parking area ?

Remember watchng the ATP come past AP Comercials in Garstang under its own power only to be dragged back to Preston behind a Diesl loco after yet another breakdown as the tlting system failed agan and again yet the Italians were able to solved the problem and now we have the pedilinos

That CAT C175 purring sounds just like the ALP-45DP’s twin 3512C HD engines! Well, the muffled version does. I’ve never heard an ALP-45DP’s engines from inside the locomotive.

Wow that was out of nowhere! Great video once again Don, it's a sign of things to come! Just a question: as a driver, how do you find these new 68/mk5 sets? I don't really like the look of them; I'm not used to a train without a yellow front! However, the 68s do make a good sound, and living in York I've seen quite a few on driver training between there and Scarborough. Still, it's good to get some more loco-hauled trains!

Finding your videos great watching. I am a 77yo ex-trainspotter and have watched most of your videos. Interesting to see the old steam sheds such as Crewe North, Edge Hill, Upperby, Kingmoor, Neville Hill, Patricroft,Longsight etc etc. I would be fascinated to see a Tamworth to Crewe cab view especially the new Norton Bridge section. Any chance of that Don? Keep up the good work

Love your videos.... and have a question about the track system. Every so often (a Mile or KM?) the train passes over a sensor sitting in the middle of the track, and a chime is heard in the cab. Is that some kind of RFID tracker to report position or speed of the train?

Thanks for another excellent upload. A signal question; what is the purpose of the two low level red signals between the tracks?

what a stright rail

mr Coffee; enjoy your cab rides very much (part of my early morning); can I ask, is there a set distance between signals; does this depend on line speeds; many thanks; more cab rides please; Raymond

Another great video Don. Firstly may I wish you and all your colleagues a very merry and safe christmas. When they enter service will it be configured as a loco and rolling stock or a loco at each end? As other poeple have said when you see the APT stood there it makes you wonder where we would be now if the programme had been allowed to continue

Great video as always. Are these ever done with anything on the hook, or is it always light engine?

Great video Don. What routes are planned for the class 68 in 2019.

Another interesting production and glimpse into the future. Unless I blinked and missed it, you weren't overtaken on the 4 line stretch south of Winsford, so was there any reason why you were routed on the Down Slow, rather than the Fast?

she's purdy!

Nice video do these locos have a central driving position like a 67 which was a pain in the arse on freight. There certainly been some subtle changes in the track layout on this route since I drove it about 13 years ago.

Very interesting Don...what a tremendous rate of acceleration this locomotive has! Is the colour fringing I’m noticing on my iPad screen due to the locomotive’s electric windscreen heating element... it’s only faint but I’ve never noticed the effect from inside a driver’s cab before now...is it visible to the driver? The former Weaver Junction mini-panel signal box also looks very forlorn now doesn’t it? I suppose it will be demolished soon...a shame, the staff who worked there previously were exceptional. Many thanks, Rob.