Dear Don Coffey! Getting more än more older and getting more and more less mobile I watch films with locos and railways from all over the world, and they give me great pleasure, reminding me a bit of my former life as a long range lorry/truckdriver. Being colourblind I couldnt be a locodriver, my very firtst choise. I just want to say: Thank You, Don! Your videos are in Every way the very Best, they have Everything: Especially they are from the very "birthland of the railways" and to see the fantastic work the old craftsmen and enginers and "Navvis" ! were able to do at that time! Its fantastic! Plese go on with your filming. And more of Class 66, my favorurites, ithey reminds me in many ways of my youth in big machins. Good luck! (My enthusiasm is greater than my English, sorry about that.)

Thanks for the cab ride. My 2nd cousin 4x removed George James Crosby Dawson was Chief Engineer of the North Staffordshire Railway from 1886-1914. He would have travelled the same route on his work in the area as he worked in the main engineering shop at Stoke and lived at Newcastle under Lyme.

Many thanks Don for another good video. That certainly took me back, the number of times I used to go from Derby to Crew as a young teenager trainspotting with my school friends. Thanks again

Thanks for that Don and driver Mike. Very enjoyable, a new route for me. The rain would be considered a mere passing shower in Edinburgh in my day. Loved the raindrop! Tahnks and I look forward to the next.

Brilliant video Don! Thanks for such excellent footage, information and history of my local area. Was great seeing the single line section between Crewe and Alsager from a cab view rather than a passenger view. Thank you!

Super ride as always. Even the water droplet got immortalised! Loved seeing the semaphores. :)

Thank you for this day’s video. A real pleasure to watch, and take a train ride in the United Kingdom again. The only way it will happen for me. The view from the front of the engine is uniquely positioned and beautiful to gaze from. Thanks for arranging these trips, for the public in the UK and outside of the country to experience. I am grateful to discovering your channel sometime back and subscribing to it. It really places a smile on my face, which is rare anymore. God bless you, Mr. Coffey, and hopefully see you on the next! 🇬🇧👍🙂🇺🇸

Thanks for this (and to Mike for filming). I live in Alsager overlooking the U&D Goods Loop and am often at the station when more unusual traffic is passing through. Great video as always 👍

It may interest you to know that Uttoxeter Signal Box is currently the newest built mechanical box in use on Network Rail, and the 2nd to last one to be built on the national network. The last box ever to be built was Porth in Wales, which narrowly beat Uttoxeter by a month!

Thanks for another interesting vid Don. Although it's a line I've never worked over, it brought back memories from doing the MP12 driver training course. One of the training modules was about learning how to learn a route properly. For some reason it had to be a route you were totally unfamiliar with, and I ended up having to do Crewe to Stoke-on-Trent. At the end of that part of the course you had to produce a map showing all the signals, speed boards, bridges, crossings etc. It was the winter of 1981 and it was bitterly cold with lots of deep snow, and I distinctly remember walking round the sidings at Grange Junction, Shelton etc (which were quite extensive at the time), trying to dig snow away from the ground signals to be able to see their numbers! Happy days, although I probably didn't think so at the time!

Thanks, another enjoyable video. 😊

Great video Don. Brought back memories of trainspotting trips from Sawley Junction (now Long Eaton) to Crewe via Derby. I cant remember there being a single line section just after the line leaves the WCML after Crewe

Thanks for that, It's a line I have been waiting to see. Hopefully more of the EMR diagrams to follow.

Another good one, Don.

as ever, quality ride, thanks again Don x

Thanks Don & Mike - been away for a while, great to see your vids again from Down Under :) Rainy section was nice, & middle sections (River Blythe crossings etc.) of countryside were very pretty. Appreciate the honesty about the bird-strike too, part of the great circle... Cheers mate, take care.

Enjoyed your new video Don, and seeing the semaphore signals, upper quadrant and not lower as we had on the Western,Kind regards.🚂🚂🚂

Thank you Mike & Don - always enjoy your cab rides

Excellent, my local line can't wait for this!! Nice one Don

Many thanks for this video. I used to watch the trains with my brother and grandfather from the bridge at Pear Tree station in the early 1960s. Loved being 'covered' in smoke from the steam locos.

As usual, another great video. Thanks to Don, Mike and everyone else.

Sounds Good Don; Looking Forward To Whatching

Thank you Don & thank you to Mike Clark for a interesting & informative video. Thank Don.

First class video yet again Don- many thanks. From personal experience I can thoroughly recommend a visit to the Churnet Valley Railway and a journey through what is known as Little Switzerland. Usual question, where next?

Another great video Don, thank you and the team!

Many thanks Don, Yet another super video. Used to live in Uttoxeter, so brought back some memories. Shame about the rain shower, but all adds to the individuality of the video. Thanks again.

That was a really excellent and informative video. Travelled to/from college several times in the early 1970's. Routing was West Allerton - Crewe - Derby - Loughborough. It was quite the trek, not for the faint hearted. That drop of water reminded me of Rover, the large white ball that kept Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan) from escaping from "The Village" in the wonderfully surreal TV series "The Prisoner" from the late 1960's. I also noted that the horn was used more frequently and far more loudly when the water droplet was on the windshield. Didn't seem to intimidate the water droplet however. 🤣

Really enjoyed latest video Don; Great quality, Superb location(s), Lots of features such as tree lines, bridges, signaling and buildings etc. Lots of facts (don’t know how you do it), Little bit of humour (which we love) Many thanks I have lots of your videos in my fave. Playlist and Crew to Derby will be watched again soon

Another great cab ride, made better with the commentary. Thanks to you and driver Mike.

thanks for the ride

Top work as always Don ,please keep em coming 🙏🏻

Thanks for a very informative and interesting video.

A great video, thanks.

Superb vid. I grew up in Uttoxeter and regularly caught the train to either Stoke or Derby .

Thanks Don , Thanks Mike .

great video-watched last nite 😀

Another great video Don

Great video Don I love 170 train I love sound diesel engine

Thanks again, Don.

Class again Don. So many open spaces compared with Sussex.

You wrote of the early signalling about the 40min mark. In those days the railways were little more than a slaughter house for railwaymen as being on duty for eighteen hours or more and with the unreliable engines then used where oiling would take place on the move. With the driver oiling his side and fireman doing the same and neither of them were looking at the road ahead of them. As for the rain well it wouldn't be summer without a summer shower. I saw an old Railscene cab ride from St Pancras to Sheffield on an HST with the narrator saying "as usual the weather was fowl giving rise to various lighting conditions". If you like a green country then you have to put up with the rain for there's no choice. If you want a parched countryside then come to Australia.

That bridge near Uttoxeter reminds me of a pedestrian bridge near me commonly called 'the bridge too far'.

That drop of water knew the assignment.

Anyone recall Shelton steel mill before it was gone? Saw a 56 there in 1996.

Another top quality video Mr Coffey! Out of curiosity, will there be any chance of you doing one of these videos for, say, Birmingham to Exeter?

You mentioned fearing the extinction of semaphores, well the ones on the hope valley line and some of the Cornish have been recent victims...

Weather wise !! Why do you think i left 35 years ago,.

Another good one Don ,I see you made Mays Railnews

to don coffey I enjoyed your video today from paul chapman at London uk

Great vid. Are there any plans for a station in Hilton? There seems to be a lot of new-build creeping south towards the railway.

Hadn't realised the line from Crewe to Kidsgrove had been electrified. I'm guessing for diversionary reasons primarily?

Brilliant video as always Don. Thank you. I thought the Manchester branch headed north east out of the northern end of the station however? However we’re departing south before turning east?

@54:06 But it's so beautiful

I tried stopping the video so the drop of rain would fall to the bottom of the windscreen but it didn't help!!! 😁

Just a bit of rain fell there.

It looks like the weed killing train needs to make a visit in places!

Great yideo. How is a line heading North East to Derby classified as "Up Tamworth"?

nice to get the sites of the closed stations, though not Etruria - did I blink and miss it?

Comment for the algorithm.

Used to note this service when I changed at Crewe. Leaves at 2 minutes past the hour does it not?

Great video lovely line to see consider me subscribed

~31:00 looks like a RHTT hasnt run along there for a while

on a passenger train, does the driver have the ability to give information to the passengers via a cab radio?

Is this a class 170

Hello don any more freight train cab rides coming up?

I can’t understand why it’s still single track most of the way between Crewe and Alsager! When it was wired I expected that bottleneck to have been dealt with.

First

I owe you an apology had a bad day at CLJ southern driver anyway let’s move on and sorry if I offended 😊 Mark RO2 CLJ