Carrog to Llangollen - A Driver's Eye View

I've always wanted to do a driver's eye view video, and during a second visit to the Llangollen Railway to ride the line I did exactly that. With the line's resident 109 DMU (The only 109 to survive in preservation, formed of unit nos.50416 & 56171) in service, I took the opportunity to ask if I could stick my camcorder in the front window to record the journey through the Dee Valley from Carrog to Llangollen, which the crew were more than happy to let me do, so thanks go to them. A short lineside clip of the departure from Carrog has also been added into the mix.
Filmed on a Panasonic HS900 with a Panasonic VW-VM2SE microphone.
Enjoy.

[@sansovino4124]

Thoroughly enjoyed that - peaceful, calm, beautiful scenery and a nice gentle clackety-clack!

[@SpeedToTheWest]

Thanks for watching 😄

[@catlover4971]

Thank you for a beautiful video - I can't understand why 17 people have given a thumbs down

[@davidellis279]

Driven a steam engine on this line for my birthday,what a fabulous day out would recommend it to anybody interested in trains,the staff were great,the next year I drove a big Diesel and again it was a day to remember and watching this video brought it all back,I am thinking of booking a DMU driver experience this year before I get to old,give it a try and you'll remember it forever worth every penny.

[@williamcarrington61]

A fine example of Railway Preservation , well done to all .

[@Snapdragon4472]

What a lovely cab ride. Brings back memories of many happy enjoyable trips in the front seats watching the driver and learning the routes. You can certainly see the gradient dropping in the distance. The good old days of the jointed track as well. Nothing more relaxing than the sound of the clackety-clack over the joints. :)

[@LLLLLLLLLucas]

I'm always amazed and delighted by how spacious and well appointed Llangollen Railway Station is.

[@MeTezzer]

I love that I live in Llangollen and it has steam trains. Great video.

[@MrAtheHun]

Lovely video, and strangely therapeutic.

[@DavidBrown-cp2vm]

Ditto !!

[@davidellis279]

Been on this railway loads of times,it is a great day out if your interested in trains,I can thoroughly recommend you give it a try the scenery is brilliant and I never get tired of riding this line,if you fancy rowing the boat out a bit on a nice meal there is a nice pub at Carrog just over the river bridge at the top of the hill not cheap but very good value for money or Carrog Station has a good little buffet room with a lovely open coal fire which is great on a nippy day.

[@OlafProt]

quite wonderful. Thanks for this. The scene we are presented with at 5:45 is almost tear-inducingly beautiful. And to think once upon a time this wasn't a heritage thing, it was just life.

[@SpeedToTheWest]

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching 😄

[@flippop101]

Great video and very much appreciated. I remember this railway just as a stretch of earthworks and ballast. Thanks for the nostalgic ride!

[@SpeedToTheWest]

Thanks for watching 👍

[@rutheliz75]

Enjoyed the ride through that beautiful lush countryside during these days dull days of sub freezing temps here in Indiana .

[@kevindickinson5081]

Two excellent videos, thank you for posting them. Kevin.

[@JamesSimpsonn]

what a beautiful line, very well captured :)

[@v6200man]

Exemplary quality and definition - superb sound & vision

[@Bearpit222]

Wonderful scenery and such great quality.

[@AndreiTupolev]

Lovely ride, it's quite educational seeing them from that angle.

[@giuseppegulino]

meraviglioso video con panorama stupendo con automotrice favolosi complimenti ha pure segnali di protezione semaforici grazie per bellissimo video dalla sicilia un saluto caro giuseppe

[@glnassa5589]

It's really an awesome and magnificant train journey that I have watched thus far. Much appreciated. Thanks for sharing this wonderful video. Best regards, Nassa

[@chrisbradshaw159]

Absolutely superb.Thank you for taking the time and effort to produce this stunning video.

[@locowerke]

Great footage, thanks for posting.

[@LDEGM]

Beautiful cab ride! I like this video! :)

[@stuartpottinger542]

Nice, brings back memories of the BahnTV rides!

[@melvynroyrunham5988]

A really great video,thankyou!

[@roboftherock]

I had recent experience of the Llangollen Railway and I wondered what it was like at the 'sharp' end. The only gripe I have about this video is that you eliminated the operation of the level crossing at Glyndyfrdwy. Since all the best seats were taken, I didn't have a great view of the crossing. It would have been nice to see how this was carried out. Nonetheless, I'm happy I stumbled across your work. Thank you.

[@sansovino4124]

I agree - I would like to have seen how the signalling worked there too.

[@ThatsnewsTV]

A beautiful line, well-looked after, too.

[@alastairgray5648]

Great video. Thanks for sharing.

[@STEVEHARLEY1956]

Great Cab ride....very scenic..nice one...Steve.

[@pauldelcour]

The sound is gorgeous listening with headphones. So spacious. Highly recommended.

[@paulmurray8766]

awesome vid thank you i realy enjoyed watching this

[@stephendines1936]

Love the way those crossing gates ooened

[@31edogru]

thank's for lovely video.

[@5mnz7fg]

How marvelous!

[@dreamofmirrors]

This would make the perfect model railway!

[@howarth004]

Nice scenic view as well

[@Bigbro28]

I love the sound of the old rails - welded rails are boring. An excellent video ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - a pity it wasn’t a hundred and twenty three minutes long but thanks for sharing 👍🇦🇺.

[@keith3988]

The best cab ride video I've seen, well done.

[@MegaSnow121]

Lovely! A train line that seems to belong to a quieter, more peaceful time….

[@JaneEva]

Lovely! Thank you!

[@Han-wh5ie]

Prachtig treinstel, mooie rit.

[@bivashchakravarty4397]

Beautiful country side

[@ncs8730]

The most beautiful in the world, to my mind.

[@keiththomas795]

A lovely ride so much improved by the extension. I was a little worried to see up signals giving the all clear!

[@Steve14ps]

On some single lines a signalbox could be 'switch-out' during quiet periods with signals set in both directions.

[@JBtrainman]

Very nice line and video! :)

[@mickeyjupp7749]

Excellent - thank-you.

[@Test-hw5fn]

Great video👍

[@SpeedToTheWest]

Thanks!

[@nigelfarley814]

What a nice and tidy preserved railway. None of those derelict wagons behind the station building or rusty coaches opposite the platform

[@foxcell]

Nice shots :-)

[@john-of-the-north]

Excellent video, thanks for posting. In no way a criticism but using You Tube's 2x play speed button you get through the journey in half the time - my point being maybe more at the kind of speeds that would have been had this line remained part of the national network. Lovely time of year to film it too.

[@LittlewoodJunction]

Great video

[@gilhunt663]

loved it thank you.

[@Turnerspaintbrush]

Class 109 E 50418 was a regular on the Peterborough Leicester line in 1970 ,it was coupled to a trailer from another DMU

[@daveb0789]

Very nice filming. Hi I'm a train driver.

[@masonallenbuskirk5648]

Nice diesel rail cars. 👍 Great video!

[@gka4976]

Fantastic video! I just wish you had left in the part in which the gates open up at the level crossing. I would have liked to see that operation.

[@likklej8]

When I was a trainspotter back in the sixties me and my friends would always try and get that front seat behind the driver on Western Reguon DMUs

[@kristinajendesen7111]

Nice little route. As a driver I find it strange though that many of the signals are in the 'Off' position for the opposite direction.

[@sansovino4124]

Yeah - I was wondering about that.

[@edwinholland6149]

Box switched out creating a long section. Used too happen quite often on quieter routes in my days as a driver with BR.

[@gabrielpizzi2303]

wonderfull, really enjoyed the video....Tell me please what about the semaphores in the opposite direction? why were some of them indicating the track was free? thxs!

[@PlanesTrainsFan]

that railway and train was seen in a thomas and friends video called Even

[@john-of-the-north]

Just out of curiosity, in getting your steady shots, do you use a tripod or do you 'stick' the camera to the glass with a suction pad?

[@ddronson]

7:08 - взрез стрелки. Видео очень красивое. Спасибо!

[@None-zc5vg]

At 19.40 both signals are 'off' (allowing trains to proceed either way along the single track): are the signals just dummies/ornaments and is only one train working that section of line at any time, making these particular signals redundant ?

[@michaelwidmer7516]

Das ist ja toll

[@Housephonestimes4]

Middle class exhaust rasp!

[@deimos2k6]

I just wish to live there.

[@ncs8730]

I said this to myself more than once while watching!

[@mechanichead1711]

Hi, what camera do you use? Thanks

[@pega17pl]

Small river, small bridge, small hills, small stations... - do you need more to have great pleasure riding old diesel railbus?

[@riverhuntingdon6659]

VERY nice job they did on that Wickham set, I wonder what happened to the others that went to Trinidad, I think it was. Too many diesel classes have been lost forever. Swindon 123's, Transpennines, Blue Pullmans, the NIR/UTA 70's, even the 80's 210 class. To name just a few.

[@TheJohnscot]

I believe the line now ends at Corwen.

[@DaveInBridport]

HD is wonderful! Great video but why were some signals for opposite direction showing clear?

[@CBeaumontHIGTFY]

+Simon Robbins The line must have been worked that day on the "one train in steam" principle. Meaning that there is only one train out on the running line going back and forth, with no risk of collisions, and the added bonus of this being a DMU means that no run rounds are required. Thus, the Signal Boxes don't need to be manned and the signals are put at clear in each direction for the set route and platforms at stations with loops. The interlocking would have been switched out which allows the boxes to be unmanned, and this can only happen with signals at clear (otherwise the switch out causes an interlock barricade on the line - the signals become buffers!!). RE the points, these must be sprung, which means that they switch back to the correct route after a train has passed over. This allows both platforms of a station to be used with a loop and still maintain 1 train in steam with no signal boxes running. The signal quadrants - usually these heritage lines have to operate with "spare bits and pieces" across the board - in other words what heritage equipment can be rescued. A signal was needed to allow the line to work safely when more than one train runs, and an upper quadrant was all that was available perhaps (time and money factors in as well to keep a line open, and perhaps waiting for a lower quadrant wasn't practical, or one couldn't be made - maybe the original was destroyed).

[@CBeaumontHIGTFY]

+Christopher Beaumont The only exception for the rule above for one train in steam is of course at level crossings, where the boxes do have to be manned for obvious regards to safety.

[@DaveInBridport]

​@@CBeaumontHIGTFY thanks for info

[@danthefryingpan963]

7:09 how come the train went over the junction when it had it set against the train? And how did the Consist not derail?

[@BogdanSerban]

The wheels and the weight of the train push the blades in the right position. Trains only derail on a junction if the guard rails are not in good shape or if the blades are not properly set onto the stock rails and the train is coming from the toe of the switch.

[@danthefryingpan963]

***** Oh that makes sense. Awesome! Thank you!

[@leonardcook9190]

Bogdan Se

[@MarcTrowsdale]

@7min 10sec it seems the points were set wrong .......

[@fgwHST43009]

Almost an ilkey at 20:04

[@angelsone-five7912]

Rather annoyingly every time I drive the coach to Llangollen I have to "pass" here on my way to Jones The Boat. One day I`ll talk the punters into seeing the railway instead, lol.

[@allanxxx8789]

Great vid...Been on various heritage lines in th uk, but they all seem to fall victim to install colour light modern signals.And even the semaphores appear to be electric motor remote...WHY. Keep ALL signals semaphore and cable operated..as its supposed to be.

[@alastairgray5648]

Yes, I agree... keep the semaphores, but hide the electric mechanisms. Too much maintenance and too costly to keep the original mechanical gear.

[@rhbeadlejr]

I see every time a sign SW appears, the train horn sounds, but what does SW stand for? Sound Whistle?

[@samuelfellows6923]

Yes, ✅

[@gjmob]

Its great to see all the trees, its a shame the rest of the UK has been cleared so much.

[@rubyait]

Good quality video. Captions would have been nice.

[@Isochest]

This line needs a connection to Network Rail at Ruabon. Notice how "Government" has thwarted this!

[@samuelfellows6923]

Well... this and the other older preserved trains will have to be fitted with the modern warning systems, the main line signalling would have a headache guiding this old girl and her companions through the network, and if she is slow - 65/70 rpm? Either she would have to frequently stop at stations to let high speed trains pass/restricted to the low speed commuter lines/the train behind her being delayed by being repeatedly held at red signals because she’s too slow to safely clear the blocks she’s in. And the tree huggers will be weeping at her burning diesel - we could see the visible blue diesel fumes out her exhaust pipe as she pulled out the station, “ew, another dirty diesel” 😷 and they would demand she is converted to burn bio-fuel/battery, hydrogen electric. That is why I think this train is constricted to this heritage line, and why the line is not connected to the main network. ☹️

[@Isochest]

@@samuelfellows6923 A lot of old kettles diesels and electrics currently run on Network Rail metals on charters and even loaned to freight operators at times. This was a local government action

[@samuelfellows6923]

Isochest - 🤨

[@fetchstixRHD]

@@samuelfellows6923: While a fair point, there are a number of older units which have all the required equipment and are certified for mainline operation (such as the Hastings Diesel unit - it's made trips from there across Network Rail and over quite large distances) so there may not even be a need to work on any units (though you can, as Swanage I believe are/were doing). Many heritage lines have a mainline connection (again the Hastings unit has travelled to them across the national network). A few "tree huggers" may get upset but they're more likely to be annoyed at normal rolling stock and a lack of electrification. A few trains (or other vehicles) that are used relatively infrequently are nothing compared to a huge mass of them being used intensively!

[@samuelfellows6923]

@@fetchstixRHD - apparently they went through my local station - Gordon Hill, despite not stopping at it 🙁

[@desmondcurtis9392]

Da iawn.

[@donkarro]

On 7:09 there is a wrong switch position, lol

[@lindseyholmes9054]

watched in China by a set of weepy nostalgic teachers!

[@pradipkarmakar6391]

Is it uk?

[@ncs8730]

Wales, exactly.

[@arch9enius]

13:53 Smile yer all on telly . I hope nobody 's murdered nobody .

[@fermincuervo8613]

Ok..great.. good.........bye...