Yet again another great film footage, love the history you provide on past stations and lines, learn so much and nice seeing different parts of this country, please don’t stop filming these!
I found this quite fascinating and I'm definitely not a Train Spotter.... I followed it beginning to end on Google Maps satellite view. How so much of it has changed since I lived in the South East up to 1985.... the little posts of information were fascinating. Thank you so much for this excellent film.
I dont mean to be offtopic but does someone know a way to log back into an Instagram account?? I somehow lost my account password. I would appreciate any assistance you can give me
@Bryce Vincenzo I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site thru google and im in the hacking process now. Seems to take quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.
So much information as well as a great train ride. It was obviously a huge effort to make this vid, so thank you for that. PS - love the sound of that engine!
Thank you for showing where the Elham Valley Line joined this route, as the actual junction site is the only remaining evidence of it at this end. The Channel Tunnel works totally obliterated the trackbed between here and Peene. Between Peene and Canterbury, quite a lot of the line can still be seen if you know where to look, including Etchinghill Tunnel, Lyminge, Bishopsbourne and Bridge stations, and Bourne Park Tunnel. The site of the other junction, just West of the bridge carrying the Canterbury East line over the Canterbury West line, can still be clearly seen.
I really like that video, its fascinating how the facts/information is on top left and I travel on that route dover to ashford and back, its cool seeing it on youtube though and great video
@21:12 With the Folkestone dock finally getting refurbished into a tourist area, it looks like the short branch line to the docks is also being preserved as a Remembrance line. This is a positive development for local tourism and preservation of its historical significance. Future expansion may have it run to the Folkestone East and then the main Folkestone Central station for connectivity to the rest of the rail network, allowing a further boost in tourism traffic. www.theremembranceline.org.uk/index.html
That, what was it called, Sellindge Converter Station looks interesting, like a modern version of the AC/DC converter stations the SR built back int he 1930s with great big DC generators driven off the AC grid supply to supply traction current. I expect it's all modern and electronic now though.
Wow, a lot has changed sadly. Dover Town Yard gone, Dover Marine/Western Docks Station gone plus all the sidings, car ferry etc., Archcliffe Junction, Hawksbury Street Junction and Marine Boxes’s also history. Used to curse my luck when I shunted trains there on winter evenings years ago, but didn’t realise at the time the history of the place and what was going to be lost forever. Should have savoured it more at the time.
It's been a long, long time since I travelled that route, and it has changed a lot since I did. I think the biggest change is around Folkestone, with the loss of quad tracks and only one platform in use at Folestone Central.
Roll on HS2... 10:00 My main annoyance is that services from The North should have terminated at Ashford International with a stop at Stratford 'white elephant' station. At least it would've seen a major bump up of passenger numbers and an interchange at Ashford for Eurostar transfers could have offered a watertight case for building it (tickets could've been purchased at relevant HS2 stations, even if direct boarding was not possible.) But no, they built a terminating stop at a station that already has a northern link.
As a passed second man, ( Next step Driver ) motive power, based at Dover Marine, I ran this line many times. But then there was no high speed line, so this looks very different at the start. Great memories, thanks.
Thank you Richard for this great video. Also love the interesting historical and informational captions you've added. Greetings from Texas. Keep up the good work.
Things on this line have changed a lot since I was a boy and used to go down to Folkestone, but the Rye and Ashford remains little altered apart from being singled, which you don't notice as a passenger.
Very very cool video. Thanks. Brings back memories. I spent parts of 3 summers up to the left just past the footbridge at 23:20, right on Folkstone Road, behind The Royal Oak.
There is a shaft in the abbotscliffe tunnel that runs up to the cliff above, anyone have any info on this, how deep is it? You can see just see down to track level from above.
It looks as if there's a shaft on the cliff-top, a construction/ventilation shaft. Is that the one you mean? Should be possible to work out its depth by finding the height of the cliff and the elevation of the railway.
I have now watched all of your cab ride videos . Always informative and interesting . Sadly , only the last part of this ride to watch . Do you guys remember the SRN 4 Hovercraft at , Dover ? Another sight resigned to history . Thanks for some great entertainment , Hoping there will be more to come .
Thanks Tony. I only saw a hovercraft once and that was at Portsmouth. Glad you have enjoyed these videos. There's lots more footage 'in the can' and more will get captured soon too, but life has thrown me a lot of extra tasks in the last couple of years and I just haven't been able to afford the (considerable) time that this takes. I do think of it often, and do intend to resume in due course.
That was probably an SRN , ( Saunders Roe Nautical ) 6 . Powered by a Rolls Royce Gnome . I think both types are on display , along with other types at the hovercraft museum at Lee on Solent , Formerly , HMS Daedalus . Looking forward to your new videos . Kindest regards , Tony .
Alas much has changed, yes. I explored the area a little in 1999, and it was possible to stand by a fence on the roadway by the Lord Warden Hotel and look across the former trackbed at the Dover Marine signalbox. But when I returned with my camera, the box had been demolished. Also, the quadrilingual "Do not cross the track" BR signage that I was going to liberate had gone. :(
I grew up in ashford, and being kids we hung about on that very line and the non electrified Hastings line doing things like putting coins on the tracks to see what the trains did to them. One time and don’t ever try this kids we also touched the third rail with our feet and nothing happened, thick soles on our shoes maybe who knows. The stupid things kids get up too.
In my career as a railwayman I've accidentally kicked an electric rail with my boot after the person I was carrying the fire-extinguisher for shone the torch elsewhere for a second - and felt nothing. Equally, a kid died after tripping on the rails at the same location, and I've seen a youth lying dead across the rails at another location after getting juiced. The only way to stay safe from its dangers is not to go on the track.
Great video. Many times in the 70s & 80s we'd take the train to Dover or Folkstone then cross the Channel on the Sealink ferry to Calais or Bologne then onto Paris. Do many trains still go to Dover as most folks probably take the tunnel so affecting the ferry business?
Dover Western Docks station closed in 1994 after the Chunnel opened, but yes Dover has a regular train service including Javelin high-speed trains from St. Pancras.
I had a holiday home,AKA caravan, in Winchelsea for a few years and used to love the sound of these going up and down to/from Hastings in the early hours.My parents joined Hastings Diesels and enjoyed many trips with them.Very nostalgic for me.
traveled that route or 8 years, necver seen it from this view...thank you. remember getting on the wrong part of the train when it split at ashford....landed up in Canterbury.
Love this part as well. Brilliant video. Kent holds a special place in my heart for me in many ways. Met my first proper girlfriend in Folkestone in the late 90's and the county itself has so many things to do and places to see. And I love Ashford Intl. station as I used to change trains from the Marshlink route to get to Folkestone. Love the humour when you get trounced by the Eurostar. Classic !!!!
If you would like to see how the stretch of line has changed from Folkestone West to Dover Priory, have a look at this video th-cam.com/video/G0wTjxryUy4/w-d-xo.html I've no idea when it was filmed, but it's coming from the other direction, and many of the removed lines and closed signal boxes are still in use.
I was so innocent after moving back to UK after 30 yrs in Germany and Switzerland. I saw the third rail and thought railways were going to fit them to old and crumbled railway lines. Then I learnt. Here in Bournemouth lots of animals are killed, sometimes stopping trains. It is so pitiful, oh my dear honestly loved of my England, why did you decide on that power type does. As far as I know no railways are doing that there.. And we are supposed to be a nation of animal lovers. WHO PRO
3rd rail electrification on all sectors south of London was already widespread by the 1930s - it's not a new phenomenon. To change the entire ex-Southern network for overhead lines (which bring their own safety problems) would be impossibly expensive and really not necessary. I would presume that more animals are killed by road traffic than by electrified rails.
3rd rail electrification was an extension from the London Underground system. Also around 1930 there was a widespread sentiment to call overhead wires an inroad to the views and landscapes, particularly in Kent. Nowadays there are 3rd rail systems where the upper and side contours of the rail are insulated, and only the bottom side is live. The train's shoes strike the rails from below.
Thanks for this, I'll bear it in mind when videographing subsequent outings from now. Equally, we do have hundreds of exterior images of our train on the website at www.hastingsdiesels.co.uk ;)
It would, wouldn't it! :) I did in fact capture the Hastings - Tonbridge route about 18 months ago. I wish I had time to produce more videos. One day, I promise, I will.
Ive live in Kent for most of my life and never knew the history of the railway. Came back from France in 1967 and we came back from Dover harbour station. Looking forward to part 3
Thoroughly enjoyed that video: thanks VERY much for keeping us so well informed throughout the journey. At the first tunnel, I hurried the film on, but then I realised that I had missed some info. during the transit, so at the next tunnel, I put up with the dark until more info came on screen and I was fascinated by what I learned! Very well done, and thank you again.
Yup! They do do that a bit. The engine-speed governor is quite a crude device comprising a system of mechanical linkages and bell-cranks connected to the fuel rack at one end, and actuated by oil pressure and a centrifugal governor unit at the other. A small amount of hysteresis in any part of the system can result in hunting. The DEMUs did this back in BR days too, so it's quite a characteristic noise. :)
Thanks for a very interesting and watchable video. Reference the new country park, if we could dredge up more of the sea, we could perhaps help to lower sea levels and expand our country too. 😊
Thank you. As to dredging up more of the sea to make more land, well it has been done on the Romney Marsh, the Norfolk Broads, and large parts of the Netherlands... but it would need an impossibly large effort (with correspondingly large rise in sea-level through global warming) in order to achieve any lowering of sea level!
Richard, great work! I’m watching this in Nov 2023. Having grown up in Ashford, worked in Smeeth, lived also in Hythe, and now living on the outskirts of Dover I can say that I know the area surrounding your journey very well. Your excellent captioning was accurate and well researched. I’m thinking the tunnel under the country house grounds is probably either the Brabourne family’s ‘New House’, owned by Lord Brabourne (married the late Countess Patricia Mountbatten). Or perhaps the original Palladian manor - Mersham Le Hatch, on the other side of the A20, the seat of the Knatchbull family. I hadn’t realised there were so many disused stations on the route. As you approached the two tall gothic tunnel entrances before Dover you described the ‘new’ Samphire Hoe country park there. This was in fact created as you say from (half) of the spoil of the channel tunnel boring except that was chalk marl, not just chalk, an interesting conglomeration of clay and chalk from beneath the sea bed. I am also a volunteer ranger at Samphire so that part was particularly fascinating. It is in fact another SSSI and is a riot of colour in spring with orchids and other flowers
Hi and thank you for your kind comments. Yes, I am fond of this area and lived in Canterbury for a couple of years about a quarter-century ago; during my time there I paid visits to the (then rather newer) Samphire Hoe CP and was duly impressed by its scale and history. I am certain its flora & fauna will have continued to increase as it 'grows into itself'. I also went to the fenced-off but still vaguely extant Dover Western Docks station, seeing from afar its signal box (soon to be demolished) and a quadrilingual sign about keeping off the tracks (there weren't any left; someone else pilfered the sign before I could)!
@@hastingsdiesels Would be great if you visited Samphire for a chat and a tour of the maturing land. And join us for a coffee in the shelter, let us know if you are going to visit so I can be there, I am a ranger.
Not really - the bastards used to break down a lot between Ashford and the tunnel blocking the line and myself and 3 other passengers on the Dover train piling into a Taxi to get home!
Why do some stretches have fencing that blocks sight of the Eurostar line and others that don't? I cannot see the point of putting it there in the first place. Fascinating video, thank you.
You may well be right about Mersham Tunnel, it just wasn't listed as such (or at all, actually) in the Sectional Appendix. Our film concludes (in part 3) with Dover to Faversham, which is as far as the train went. (Much more recently, Feb 2023, we did actually film to Faversham via Paddock Wood and Strood.)
I use this style of video to help me off to sleep but there's just too many interesting facts of the top of the screen... Oh well, I'll just have to use another channel to fall asleep to!
Dollands Moor is a bit of a white elephant, rather like Kingmoor or Tyne Yard, those gigantic marshalling yards built as part of the Modernisation Plan that were obsolete within a few years.
its pretty much a interface for EUROTUNNEL Compatible locomotives (class 92s and SNCF class 222000s) to switch with uk locos but most occaisions they use class 92s but thats probably it because our freight that comes through the tunnel goes to didcot or wembley however it is useful for storing new Stock and freight.
The unusual profile of Shakespeare tunnels is thought to be to help resist the sizeable pressure of the rock above; this may not turn out to be the full answer.
@@hastingsdiesels it might also explain why they are single line tunnels. Maybe its just me but most tunnels on the Southeast tend to be oval shape instead of round.
it was for the eurostars when they used third rail before Hs1 was built and they would continue on at saltwood junction (then) contentental junction. they would switch voltage and signalling systems from AWS/TPWS to TVM430 for the channel tunnel but now class 375s can use it if they are through trains
Coming into Dover Priory at time 32:43 there is an illuminated OFF sign. I have seen the same on other stations, any idea what it is for? Excellent video by the way, also made me smile when the Euro star overtook.
great video i remember seing this go passed Buckland Junction, also do you know when you will be uploading the recent one from 11th January faversham hop as i saw that at shepherds well
Thanks. I have a large backlog of video material, but have also been continuing to work through much of these times and so have not had the acres of free time that producing such videos takes, unforunately.
Further to my previous message, in the case of the Faversham Hop, please see the Canterbury Bell footage which covers the same route and the footage actually came out better anyway. The only bits of the Faversham Hop I intend to publish are between Eastbourne and Hastings, which I did duly film this time.
Very nice video. It was quite difficult to see the English Channel from the current angle of the camera due to foggy conditions though. Couldn't spot the newly built viaduct also after the tunnel.
the driver would have to stop at the last Convential signal and inform ASHFORD IECC and they would then inform FOLKESTONE CC anything not eurotunnel valid has to stop at the interface which the point they stop if such a incident occurred it would be worse if the train was third rail powerd becuse the third rail only continues along for a certain length and then the 25 kva ac OHE is the eurotunnel power system and its at a certain height but nothing like tahat has happened YET
How every cab ride video should be,informative graphics and NO voice overs or music! well done
Thank you Andrew, glad you like my style of cab ride video. :)
@@hastingsdiesels yh its very good lol
Very nice! Best way to watch a cabride, no music, calm dieselsound in the background, clear explanations of interesting points down the line.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Yet again another great film footage, love the history you provide on past stations and lines, learn so much and nice seeing different parts of this country, please don’t stop filming these!
This are great videos. High quality, clean windscreens and lots of useful information on the way. Well done.
Thank you, glad you appreciate it.
I found this quite fascinating and I'm definitely not a Train Spotter.... I followed it beginning to end on Google Maps satellite view. How so much of it has changed since I lived in the South East up to 1985.... the little posts of information were fascinating. Thank you so much for this excellent film.
A faultless, exemplary video of how to do a cab ride on a fascinating piece of track.
I'm not a rail enthusiast, but one doesn't have to be to enjoy these cab rides. Really interesting stuff and quite relaxing too.
I dont mean to be offtopic but does someone know a way to log back into an Instagram account??
I somehow lost my account password. I would appreciate any assistance you can give me
@David Harlan instablaster =)
@Bryce Vincenzo I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site thru google and im in the hacking process now.
Seems to take quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.
@Bryce Vincenzo It worked and I actually got access to my account again. I am so happy!
Thanks so much you saved my ass!
@David Harlan Glad I could help =)
So much information as well as a great train ride. It was obviously a huge effort to make this vid, so thank you for that. PS - love the sound of that engine!
I enjoyed this, no music. Great video
Thank you for showing where the Elham Valley Line joined this route, as the actual junction site is the only remaining evidence of it at this end. The Channel Tunnel works totally obliterated the trackbed between here and Peene. Between Peene and Canterbury, quite a lot of the line can still be seen if you know where to look, including Etchinghill Tunnel, Lyminge, Bishopsbourne and Bridge stations, and Bourne Park Tunnel. The site of the other junction, just West of the bridge carrying the Canterbury East line over the Canterbury West line, can still be clearly seen.
Indeed. I visited Bourne Park Tunnel some 20 years ago, and isn't the station near it preserved in some fashion?
I really like that video, its fascinating how the facts/information is on top left and I travel on that route dover to ashford and back, its cool seeing it on youtube though and great video
Thanks for the video totally awesome thanks love the thumpers, a great line from Folkestone with some awesome tunnels!!😎🚃🚃🚃💯🇬🇧
4:09 - That Eurostar was actually going at 270 km/h, which is the maximum speed limit on HS1 through Ashford.
Really interesting to watch plus the added information. Most excellent.
Big thumbs up, especially for the helpful notes. Wish all cab-rides were as good as this.
Thank you!
@21:12 With the Folkestone dock finally getting refurbished into a tourist area, it looks like the short branch line to the docks is also being preserved as a Remembrance line. This is a positive development for local tourism and preservation of its historical significance. Future expansion may have it run to the Folkestone East and then the main Folkestone Central station for connectivity to the rest of the rail network, allowing a further boost in tourism traffic.
www.theremembranceline.org.uk/index.html
That, what was it called, Sellindge Converter Station looks interesting, like a modern version of the AC/DC converter stations the SR built back int he 1930s with great big DC generators driven off the AC grid supply to supply traction current. I expect it's all modern and electronic now though.
Wow, a lot has changed sadly. Dover Town Yard gone, Dover Marine/Western Docks Station gone plus all the sidings, car ferry etc., Archcliffe Junction, Hawksbury Street Junction and Marine Boxes’s also history. Used to curse my luck when I shunted trains there on winter evenings years ago, but didn’t realise at the time the history of the place and what was going to be lost forever. Should have savoured it more at the time.
It’s a shocker, isn’t it. As a (young) passenger I recall that outrageous multi-track diamond crossing just outside Western Docks.
It's been a long, long time since I travelled that route, and it has changed a lot since I did. I think the biggest change is around Folkestone, with the loss of quad tracks and only one platform in use at Folestone Central.
Thanks for the added descriptions.
Thanks for that - especially the captions. Always good to know where all the old stations and junctions were.
This is really well done. Very interesting annotations. I was born in Shildon so railways are kind of in my blood. Many thanks for the video.
very informative everything explained, sites
Without doubt, the best ride-along cab video I've seen. Clear, great quality and with lots of interesting info in the captions.
Ah, thank you - that's a very kind thing to say.
This is an excellent video, with excellent commentary! Thank you! How I love this area of England....
Thanks for uploading this. I like the facts in the top left of the screen.
Roll on HS2... 10:00
My main annoyance is that services from The North should have terminated at Ashford International with a stop at Stratford 'white elephant' station. At least it would've seen a major bump up of passenger numbers and an interchange at Ashford for Eurostar transfers could have offered a watertight case for building it (tickets could've been purchased at relevant HS2 stations, even if direct boarding was not possible.)
But no, they built a terminating stop at a station that already has a northern link.
As a passed second man, ( Next step Driver ) motive power, based at Dover Marine, I ran this line many times. But then there was no high speed line, so this looks very different at the start. Great memories, thanks.
Thank you Richard for this great video. Also love the interesting historical and informational captions you've added. Greetings from Texas. Keep up the good work.
Things on this line have changed a lot since I was a boy and used to go down to Folkestone, but the Rye and Ashford remains little altered apart from being singled, which you don't notice as a passenger.
Very very cool video. Thanks. Brings back memories. I spent parts of 3 summers up to the left just past the footbridge at 23:20, right on Folkstone Road, behind The Royal Oak.
There is a shaft in the abbotscliffe tunnel that runs up to the cliff above, anyone have any info on this, how deep is it? You can see just see down to track level from above.
It looks as if there's a shaft on the cliff-top, a construction/ventilation shaft. Is that the one you mean? Should be possible to work out its depth by finding the height of the cliff and the elevation of the railway.
Elegaic journey . . . a sad litany of closed lines, abandoned branches, disused stations, redundant buildings and lifted tracks . . .
I have now watched all of your cab ride videos . Always informative and interesting . Sadly , only the last part of this ride to watch . Do you guys remember the SRN 4 Hovercraft at , Dover ? Another sight resigned to history . Thanks for some great entertainment , Hoping there will be more to come .
Thanks Tony. I only saw a hovercraft once and that was at Portsmouth. Glad you have enjoyed these videos. There's lots more footage 'in the can' and more will get captured soon too, but life has thrown me a lot of extra tasks in the last couple of years and I just haven't been able to afford the (considerable) time that this takes. I do think of it often, and do intend to resume in due course.
I travelled on it 2 or 3 times. A bit bumpy but a quick way to cross before the tunnel. It was bloody huge
That was probably an SRN , ( Saunders Roe Nautical ) 6 . Powered by a Rolls Royce Gnome . I think both types are on display , along with other types at the hovercraft museum at Lee on Solent , Formerly , HMS Daedalus . Looking forward to your new videos . Kindest regards , Tony .
What a great journey especially along the cliffs and the run in to dover,Many thanks bob.
Very informative and a real pleasure to watch. Thanks.
Thanks for posting, I worked as a 'Box boy ' in Hawkesbury Street many years ago things have changed a lot since then.
A most interesting video.
Alas much has changed, yes. I explored the area a little in 1999, and it was possible to stand by a fence on the roadway by the Lord Warden Hotel and look across the former trackbed at the Dover Marine signalbox. But when I returned with my camera, the box had been demolished. Also, the quadrilingual "Do not cross the track" BR signage that I was going to liberate had gone. :(
I grew up in ashford, and being kids we hung about on that very line and the non electrified Hastings line doing things like putting coins on the tracks to see what the trains did to them. One time and don’t ever try this kids we also touched the third rail with our feet and nothing happened, thick soles on our shoes maybe who knows. The stupid things kids get up too.
In my career as a railwayman I've accidentally kicked an electric rail with my boot after the person I was carrying the fire-extinguisher for shone the torch elsewhere for a second - and felt nothing. Equally, a kid died after tripping on the rails at the same location, and I've seen a youth lying dead across the rails at another location after getting juiced. The only way to stay safe from its dangers is not to go on the track.
Thanks a lot - used to travel Waterloo East to Folkestone for a while on the old slam door death traps
Commuting? That must have taken ages.
Great video. Many times in the 70s & 80s we'd take the train to Dover or Folkstone then cross the Channel on the Sealink ferry to Calais or Bologne then onto Paris. Do many trains still go to Dover as most folks probably take the tunnel so affecting the ferry business?
Dover Western Docks station closed in 1994 after the Chunnel opened, but yes Dover has a regular train service including Javelin high-speed trains from St. Pancras.
I got seasick in 1982😵
Thanks for uploading this, great view, I could imagine if Javelin trains went to france
A real nice ride. Love the info, very interesting.
The educational and visual side of these videos makes for an interesting 'virtual' train journey. Great work!!
I had a holiday home,AKA caravan, in Winchelsea for a few years and used to love the sound of these going up and down to/from Hastings in the early hours.My parents joined Hastings Diesels and enjoyed many trips with them.Very nostalgic for me.
traveled that route or 8 years, necver seen it from this view...thank you. remember getting on the wrong part of the train when it split at ashford....landed up in Canterbury.
Love this part as well. Brilliant video. Kent holds a special place in my heart for me in many ways. Met my first proper girlfriend in Folkestone in the late 90's and the county itself has so many things to do and places to see. And I love Ashford Intl. station as I used to change trains from the Marshlink route to get to Folkestone. Love the humour when you get trounced by the Eurostar. Classic !!!!
Excellent video as always , very interesting route, thank you.....
Thank you for this wonderful video - so much history covered there in your embedded comments - long live the Hastings Unit !
If you would like to see how the stretch of line has changed from Folkestone West to Dover Priory, have a look at this video th-cam.com/video/G0wTjxryUy4/w-d-xo.html I've no idea when it was filmed, but it's coming from the other direction, and many of the removed lines and closed signal boxes are still in use.
Great to see the old Arch cliff tunnel turntable brick recessed retaining wall is still in place on the left approaching Dover Harbour.
Terrific video, thanks! Ahh, all those depressing footbridges...
I was so innocent after moving back to UK after 30 yrs in Germany and Switzerland. I saw the third rail and thought railways were going to fit them to old and crumbled railway lines. Then I learnt. Here in Bournemouth lots of animals are killed, sometimes stopping trains. It is so pitiful, oh my dear honestly loved of my England, why did you decide on that power type does. As far as I know no railways are doing that there.. And we are supposed to be a nation of animal lovers. WHO PRO
3rd rail electrification on all sectors south of London was already widespread by the 1930s - it's not a new phenomenon. To change the entire ex-Southern network for overhead lines (which bring their own safety problems) would be impossibly expensive and really not necessary. I would presume that more animals are killed by road traffic than by electrified rails.
3rd rail electrification was an extension from the London Underground system. Also around 1930 there was a widespread sentiment to call overhead wires an inroad to the views and landscapes, particularly in Kent. Nowadays there are 3rd rail systems where the upper and side contours of the rail are insulated, and only the bottom side is live. The train's shoes strike the rails from below.
Never saw these in service-which won't surprise you when you learn I grew up in Berkshire.
I really enjoyed watching this & learn't a thing of two. Well done.
It would be neat to have a quick shot of your train before you set off?
Thanks for this, I'll bear it in mind when videographing subsequent outings from now. Equally, we do have hundreds of exterior images of our train on the website at www.hastingsdiesels.co.uk ;)
@@hastingsdiesels I thought the same so I searched "60116 Mountfield" and found some nice images.
Like therapy watching this, the tunnels are a bit hypnotic.
Great Video just came across it. Enjoyed it thank you. ( John Whitehouse)
Great informative video, thank you so much !
Awesome again my friend I really like these train rides almost like being there thank you and keep up the good work
Excellent really enjoyed that thank you for posting :o)
Great informative cab ride video. It would be great to see some cab footage of this on the 1066 line.
It would, wouldn't it! :) I did in fact capture the Hastings - Tonbridge route about 18 months ago. I wish I had time to produce more videos. One day, I promise, I will.
@@hastingsdieselsI look forward to it!
Ive live in Kent for most of my life and never knew the history of the railway. Came back from France in 1967 and we came back from Dover harbour station. Looking forward to part 3
Thank you. Dover Harbour closed in 1927 :-) You would be thinking of Dover Marine, which was renamed in 1979 to Dover Western Docks.
Thoroughly enjoyed that video: thanks VERY much for keeping us so well informed throughout the journey. At the first tunnel, I hurried the film on, but then I realised that I had missed some info. during the transit, so at the next tunnel, I put up with the dark until more info came on screen and I was fascinated by what I learned!
Very well done, and thank you again.
Thank you, Peter, and glad that my efforts weren't in vain!
That engine is hunting on idle
Yup! They do do that a bit. The engine-speed governor is quite a crude device comprising a system of mechanical linkages and bell-cranks connected to the fuel rack at one end, and actuated by oil pressure and a centrifugal governor unit at the other. A small amount of hysteresis in any part of the system can result in hunting. The DEMUs did this back in BR days too, so it's quite a characteristic noise. :)
But it's a lovely sound though!
This is a beautifully done video, with excellent annotations! Bravo!👏
Thank you, glad you liked it!
Thanks for a very interesting and watchable video.
Reference the new country park, if we could dredge up more of the sea, we could perhaps help to lower sea levels and expand our country too. 😊
Thank you. As to dredging up more of the sea to make more land, well it has been done on the Romney Marsh, the Norfolk Broads, and large parts of the Netherlands... but it would need an impossibly large effort (with correspondingly large rise in sea-level through global warming) in order to achieve any lowering of sea level!
Richard, great work! I’m watching this in Nov 2023. Having grown up in Ashford, worked in Smeeth, lived also in Hythe, and now living on the outskirts of Dover I can say that I know the area surrounding your journey very well. Your excellent captioning was accurate and well researched. I’m thinking the tunnel under the country house grounds is probably either the Brabourne family’s ‘New House’, owned by Lord Brabourne (married the late Countess Patricia Mountbatten). Or perhaps the original Palladian manor - Mersham Le Hatch, on the other side of the A20, the seat of the Knatchbull family. I hadn’t realised there were so many disused stations on the route. As you approached the two tall gothic tunnel entrances before Dover you described the ‘new’ Samphire Hoe country park there. This was in fact created as you say from (half) of the spoil of the channel tunnel boring except that was chalk marl, not just chalk, an interesting conglomeration of clay and chalk from beneath the sea bed. I am also a volunteer ranger at Samphire so that part was particularly fascinating. It is in fact another SSSI and is a riot of colour in spring with orchids and other flowers
Hi and thank you for your kind comments. Yes, I am fond of this area and lived in Canterbury for a couple of years about a quarter-century ago; during my time there I paid visits to the (then rather newer) Samphire Hoe CP and was duly impressed by its scale and history. I am certain its flora & fauna will have continued to increase as it 'grows into itself'. I also went to the fenced-off but still vaguely extant Dover Western Docks station, seeing from afar its signal box (soon to be demolished) and a quadrilingual sign about keeping off the tracks (there weren't any left; someone else pilfered the sign before I could)!
@@hastingsdiesels Would be great if you visited Samphire for a chat and a tour of the maturing land. And join us for a coffee in the shelter, let us know if you are going to visit so I can be there, I am a ranger.
Thank you - I am by no means local to there but will bear it in mind should I plan to be in the area.
RIP third rail eurostar services
Not really - the bastards used to break down a lot between Ashford and the tunnel blocking the line and myself and 3 other passengers on the Dover train piling into a Taxi to get home!
Why do some stretches have fencing that blocks sight of the Eurostar line and others that don't? I cannot see the point of putting it there in the first place. Fascinating video, thank you.
Noise abatement.
I guess I’m the only person that doesn’t know. Is the repeating bell a dead man’s switch warning?
Yes, it is the Automatic Warning System (AWS). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Warning_System
Thanks Cooper_87
@@alanwells4752 happy to help
I'm glad you asked because I didn't know either. Reading the wiki link it's a great system.
Brilliant footage!
Great quick train ride brillant
Brilliant video many thanks.
Superb. There's a wealth of information conveyed. Thank you.
Enjoyed (almost) every minute. Thank you. Sad to see Marine station gone.
There should only be 2 tracks so that you always know where you're going. Someones going to screw up!
On the contrary... that's what Road Knowledge is all about.
There have to be others to handle the load in peak times, or when it just becomes necessary to grind those rails once a week.
That's why there is CTC, to keep track of everybody.
I think the bridge at 6:42 is Mersham Tunnel
Edit: Will you carry onwards from Faversham Station?
You may well be right about Mersham Tunnel, it just wasn't listed as such (or at all, actually) in the Sectional Appendix. Our film concludes (in part 3) with Dover to Faversham, which is as far as the train went. (Much more recently, Feb 2023, we did actually film to Faversham via Paddock Wood and Strood.)
Brilliant work,. Appreciated. Vernon in Johannesburg.
Fine Video! Greetings from Lübeck (Germany)!
I use this style of video to help me off to sleep but there's just too many interesting facts of the top of the screen... Oh well, I'll just have to use another channel to fall asleep to!
Dollands Moor is a bit of a white elephant, rather like Kingmoor or Tyne Yard, those gigantic marshalling yards built as part of the Modernisation Plan that were obsolete within a few years.
its pretty much a interface for EUROTUNNEL Compatible locomotives (class 92s and SNCF class 222000s) to switch with uk locos but most occaisions they use class 92s but thats probably it because our freight that comes through the tunnel goes to didcot or wembley however it is useful for storing new Stock and freight.
why are the Shakespeare tunnel entrances shaped like keyholes?
The unusual profile of Shakespeare tunnels is thought to be to help resist the sizeable pressure of the rock above; this may not turn out to be the full answer.
@@hastingsdiesels it might also explain why they are single line tunnels. Maybe its just me but most tunnels on the Southeast tend to be oval shape instead of round.
4:11. "WHOOSH". Blink and you'll miss it - Ha ! Ha !
Very good video . Very informative And interesting .
3:57 100 mph on the southern region? I never thought I'd see it.
it was for the eurostars when they used third rail before Hs1 was built and they would continue on at saltwood junction (then) contentental junction. they would switch voltage and signalling systems from AWS/TPWS to TVM430 for the channel tunnel
but now class 375s can use it if they are through trains
Eurostar 373 Pointless speed limit for Eurostar’s as they’d never reach that speed in the down direction.
Excellent. Thank you. Been here, done that, and still learn every time.
There's still a signpost for Smeeth station not far from Donkey St in Kent😊
Een bijzonder interessante rit.
Coming into Dover Priory at time 32:43 there is an illuminated OFF sign. I have seen the same on other stations, any idea what it is for?
Excellent video by the way, also made me smile when the Euro star overtook.
The OFF sign is a signal repeater for platform staff. It indicates that the station starting signal in that direction is showing a proceed aspect.
It’s a bit skid hahaha. Looks like barely 60 mph.
Excellent video. The 600hp ( correct?) EE engine brought back memories.
500hp in the Hastings units, 600hp in the other DEMUs, although Wikipedia says 600hp I think you will find that this is incorrect.
great video i remember seing this go passed Buckland Junction, also do you know when you will be uploading the recent one from 11th January faversham hop as i saw that at shepherds well
Thanks. I have a large backlog of video material, but have also been continuing to work through much of these times and so have not had the acres of free time that producing such videos takes, unforunately.
Further to my previous message, in the case of the Faversham Hop, please see the Canterbury Bell footage which covers the same route and the footage actually came out better anyway. The only bits of the Faversham Hop I intend to publish are between Eastbourne and Hastings, which I did duly film this time.
Very nice video. It was quite difficult to see the English Channel from the current angle of the camera due to foggy conditions though. Couldn't spot the newly built viaduct also after the tunnel.
Thank you. The new viaduct is from 27:41 to 27:59. It is a 'zero height' viaduct, if you like, carrying the line along the beach.
Very enjoyable and info. good. cheers !
What is the bell or buzzer thingy that keeps going off?
Automatic Warning System (AWS). Wikipedia will tell you all about it.
What if by accident go to France?
vanillasplash - what if by accident you develop a brain?
the driver would have to stop at the last Convential signal and inform ASHFORD IECC and they would then inform FOLKESTONE CC
anything not eurotunnel valid has to stop at the interface which the point they stop if such a incident occurred
it would be worse if the train was third rail powerd becuse the third rail only continues along for a certain length and then the 25 kva ac OHE is the eurotunnel power system and its at a certain height
but nothing like tahat has happened YET
vanillasplash, Nice tongue-in-cheek comment . . .
Very watchable. We don't get scenery like this in Australia.
Bella123Bella1234 Check out Sydney Trains Cab Videos. Eminently watchable.
Thanks very much; a mine of fascinating information! A good thing though that I am not a train driver because I find the passing sleepers mesmerising!
Thank you. I think it's more mesmerising when you're seeing it on a screen, compared to when you're actually driving.
Yes, I have the same problem! In my case, it is an age thing!
Aaaaaaa
Thanks for sharing!
Excellent vid x