This video covers a trip from Earles Sidings which you know by now to Crewe Basford Hall which you’ve always known! Our driver got called in on Christmas Eve 2021 to do a job of getting two locos to Basford Hall which were urgently required for other duties who knows, maybe Christmas Day ballasting jobs. The lead loco is 70010 and it provides the high definition soundtrack for the journey and our driver had the foresight to mount the Gopro and share the footage with us. It starts by creeping out of the siding and off down the Hope Valley. By the time we get the few miles to Cowburn Tunnel, the rain has closed in and the 70 powers through a deluge. However, when we emerge from the other end of the tunnel, you’d think it was a different day really pleasant. We then pass through New Mills and Disley (Midland) to Hazel Grove where we start the first of two journeys that you’ll rarely get to see as a passenger and even more so from the front. We do the freight line to Northernden and the Middlewich Branch. These are much requested routes that I’m delighted to bring you and Our driver has got the windows clean for a pristine view. If that wasn’t enough, we drop right inside Basford Hall Yard to the crew quarters for handover.



Addendum

At Sandbach, the junction just after the station is Sandbach South and not Crewe South as my tired and desperate to go to bed brain insisted!

The loco on the back was 66542, not 66586.

The junction at the end of Northwich station platform is Northwich Station Junction and not Sandbach Station Junction.