Warrington Bank Quay to Brewery Junction, Manchester

This Cab Ride in a class 66 of DB Cargo takes us from Warrington Bank Quay to Brewery Junction, east of Manchester Victoria on the Rochdale line. We’ve got a full load of 2000 tons on its way to a waste from energy facility.

Our routing is far from direct, and we begin by heading south on the West Coast Main Line to Hartford Junction where we turn east on the mid-Cheshire line. The aim of the signallers is to keep us moving at all times so that our driver can avoid the painful process of persuading the train to get underway again, but they’re not always successful.

We pass by Cheshire’s salt mines and a huge secret underground cavern where strategic reserves of fuel were stored during the Cold War. At Knutsford we turn north to avoid the runways of Manchester Airport, and at Altrincham we meet Metrolink, Manchester’s tram system, which shares the trackbed with us for a mile or so before we head east for Stockport and the Manchester branch of the WCML.

We cross the Stockport Viaduct to Heaton Norris Junction and diverge north-east for Ashton-under-Lyne where we make the final turn west on the Stalybridge line to our destination at Brewery Junction.

Our class 66 is a workhorse of UK freight, and its abilities are stretched to the limit on this journey. On-screen graphics display permissive speeds, Emergency Speed Restrictions, signal aspects and station names along the way, with animated maps which show our route.

Theres’s full, knowledgable commentary, accompanied by the magnificent sound of the class 66.