Cab ride: Calvert to Willesden via Claydon, Bicester, Oxford and Reading.

One of the freight highlights of 2013 was the use of DCR Class 56 locomotives on spoil trains between Willesden and Calvert. From Willesden, trains were normally routed via the Chilterns, passing Princes Risborough and Aylesbury and on to the old Great Central route to Calvert itself. This journey has already been released as a cab ride (Code: TC091).

This second cab ride features a Class 56 over the less frequently used alternative route: north from Calvert, to Claydon and onto the partially closed Oxford-Bletchley line, via Bicester Town, Oxford, onto the Great Western Mainline via Didcot, Reading, Slough and Acton and then to Willesden.

Filmed on a fine sunny day in August 2013, 56091 is the train locomotive, hauling a rake of empty JNA wagons.

With the Oxford – Bicester - Bletchley section now completely closed – being upgraded as part of the new East West Rail Link - this journey can never be repeated and shows the run-round move at Claydon and the entire freight-only section to Bicester and onto Oxford.

As well as the cab ride itself, we pass a number of passenger and freight trains and there is a thrash camera located in the rear cab, recording the 56 hard at work.

Includes maps, part narration and on-screen captions.

Produced with the full assistance of DCR.

Produced by - Train Crazy
Running time - 180 Minutes
Format - 16:9 widescreen
DVD (2 discs) or Blu-Ray (1 disc)
Released - 2014