Secrets of The Motorway - M62 - Part 1
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- #infrastructure #manchester #liverpool #leeds #m62
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We're getting down to some serious business in this two part episode that looks at the M62 motorway as it spans the country from Liverpool to Manchester, on to Leeds and then almost Hull.
The M62 has seen many changes since it was first opened and some of it wasn't even built so we're missing a few junctions. Some parts of it were taken to be used as another motorway... what's the deal there?
There's also some nice bridges, abandoned roads, services... all the usual motorway things you can expect from Auto Shenanigans.
Mast debater you say?
Or Mast debater?
@@davesmith5914 yes you’re quite right
The number one mast debater on all of youtube don't you know.
How's the mast debating going?
Debater of masts. Lewis, John's got you there 🤣
Thank god your corrected Stott Hall Farm. As soon as I saw the thumbnail I was instantly raging. The number of arguments I've had with people about the fact there's a geological fault which led to them diverting the motorway around and not because the farmer was stubborn.
lucky farmer to build on a geological fault
Me too Andy 😂
It’s a great fable isn’t it though
@High Path the land is actually owned by United Utilities as part of the water catchment area for the reservoir, the farm is only rented.
I saw the headline and had to click on to refute the myth that the farmer refused to sell, when actually it was not suitable to build the motorway on his land
@@glen1555 Ever heard of Spaghetti Junction?
Now it's officially Sunday! 💪
AMEN
My new way of knowing the day!
Sundays are all about motorways and economic of providing a fighting force 🎉🎉🎉
I thought it was just me!!!
This is one of those really weird channels where I have absolutely no interest in the subject matter, I have no idea why the UA-cam algorithm recommended it... BUT I WATCHED ONE EPISODE MONTHS AGO AND NOW I CANNOT STOP WATCHING.
Bravo.
Same here. I don’t even have a car!
@@AtheistOrphan same here
Because its mostly daily live stuff what grips you and the fact that most people can relate to
The highlight of any drive on the M62 is seeing the farm in the middle. Always brings a smile. 😊
Didn't make me smile when my cambelt snapped right there in the snow!
Shut up.
Aww, damn, I was told as a kid about the farmer who refused to sell up and now the road goes round his farm, I guess in my head I knew about compulsory purchase but my heart had hoped the little man had won his day !
There was a farmer who protested about the motorway works, but it wasn't this farm and they didn't knock that farm down either.
Not sure how much of a victory it'd truly be to live in such proximity to a motorway on either side of you though.
@@Frag-ile The sheep that live on the fields between the two carriageways are always a mucky shade of grey.
It’s all to do with a geographical fault which lies beneath the soil.
This guy deserves his own tv show
Yes! Been waiting for this one! Used to drive the M62 twice a week. Always strange how the weather from the east to the west of the highest point is usually the complete opposite.
Lancashire to yorkshire?
It's better this side because God likes us best !
XD
You know how it works.
When in Manchester go outside and look east.
If you can't see the Pennines it's raining.
If you can see the Pennines it's just about to rain.
The Stott Hall farm has a tradition. You must wave to the farmer going past, "Hello Mr Thorpe!" Just in case you break down and need help.
What a wonderful end. God's Own County. I can't wait to get to North Cave next week. Well done Jon.
Yes our amazing County of Humberside
@@susanofhullhumberside4753 Haha! Oh my. The Thridings. I may not sleep this evening Susan.
@@susanofhullhumberside4753 But Kingston-upon-Hull is in Hullshire.
@@susanofhullhumberside4753 you're Yorkshire and you know it 😉😆
I have driven past that farm many times and was always told it was because the owner didnt want to sell, that was the urban myth, thanks for clearing that up :)
For those of us who lived in or near the area or passed the place, as a kid it was a right of passage to be told a stubborn farmer story. Must have been because our folks wanted us to be strong and learn to stand up for ourselves :)
Oh how
People change.
7:48 UA-cam’s subtitle/ closed captioning system picks up your joke amazingly well 🤣🤣
This series has turned out to be far more interesting than I thought it would be. Fun fact: The 6 miles over the top of the Pennines took 6 years to build and now is crossed in 6 minutes. There's a good youtube video of how it was built.
You didn’t cover the rather expensive footpath bridge at just about the highest point. It is part of the pennine way and was insisted on by Barbara Castle. Thousands walk across it every year.
Genuinely might be worth sneaking something in to part 2 about this!
I was hoping the same. You can see the Pennine Way bridge in the drone shot at @7:25
Scammonden bridge is the larger of the two bridges. Stay tuned for part 2 ;)
It's great to see how @AutoShenanigans, the master, baits @RingwayManchester so expertly.
So glad you quashed the myth of Stot Hall Farm.. I've known the truth since the 1970s but nobody ever believed me.
I now have a link to send them, cheers 👍
My anxiety was so high for nearly all this video waiting for the farm bit. Thinking 'surely, John has done his research better than the thumbnail suggests?' Not gonna lie, had us in the first half
Came here to rage comment. Disappointed that there's no need.
Nowadays my first thought when I wake up on a Sunday morning is literally "YAY, Auto Shenanigans day"!
Thanks John, it's good to see you up my 'neck of the woods'.
Ironically, you uploaded this whilst I was stuck in traffic on the M60/62. Most accurate commentary on UA-cam.
Aw yiss, been waiting for this one John. I use this miserable stretch of tarmac almost everyday.
An unusual feature of the M6/M62 junction is that the slip roads from M62 Eastbound to M6 Southbound and M62 Westbound to M6 Northbound run side by side for some distance, but the opposite way round to normal. When using one of these slip roads, the traffic coming the other way is on your left rather than your right.
Haha, I read that in John's voice
Sound like a trip. Cheers
It is a feature of the Partially Unrolled Cloverleaf design, so the same also happens at the M40/M25 and M4/A329(M) junctions too.
Good one Jon 👍 I wish I'd had a pound for every time I'd passed "little house on the prairie" 🤣
babe wake up it’s secrets of the motorway time
Me every Sunday
I have driven the 62, since it first opened back in the 60s. I have "enjoyed", all the extreme weather conditions it has thrown at me. It was not unusual to drive through snow 6 inches deep, I once saw a car overturned on the hard shoulder from losing traction in the snow. Back in the 70s, they closed the moor section due to "bottle" ice. That caused a whole load of diversionary problems for a whole week.
Back in the 70s, the motorway was only lit around Manchester, the lights ended at the Thornham interchange, then into the blackness for the remainder of the journey until Leeds.
Driving in fog was a challenge, especially when leaving at J22, the fog was often so thick, that I had to drive with my head out of the window, as dipped headlights would reflect back too much. (cars weren't necessarily fitted with fog lights in those days)
Another mammoth task, was filling in a valley at the Scammonden dam. Before they built the bridge over the 62, cars used to approach the end of the hill, then turn (left/right depending on direction), drive down a narrow winding road, into the bottom of the valley and then up the other side. Sadly, the Scammonden bridge has had to be modified, to prevent poor people jumping off it. 😔
What a lovely way to finish the vid, with a magnificent panorama of Saddleworth moors. 👍
Thanks for that comment - brings back a lot of memories of the 6 years I studied in Durham in the early 80s. As one of the few car owners in my group of friends, I'd regularly drive to Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool in my trusty old Ford Escort, often at night to avoid heavy traffic and police. I remember the winter weather, the pitch darkness and just seeing the odd lorry. If you saw a vehicle on the hard shoulder, you'd stop to check up on them and the next driver'd probably stop too.
This is my favourite motorway secrets video yet!
👁 👁
👄
You can still see the cats eyes on the old scammonden access road down that steep hill.
One more memory - ears popping when you hit up and down the hill - especially if you hit 100 mph!
Seeing as how the past few videos have been motorways up north, I figured you were just doing them to get them out of the way to avoid tackling the M62 for how huge it is, spanning the width of the North from coast to coast more or less.
Good job on having it be two parts!
But where is the M53/M531?
Windy Hill might not _seem_ very high, but it's the first high ground the weather comes to after crossing the Atlantic, and where it can dump huge amounts of rain or snow. Trust me, you *really* don't want to be up there in a storm.
There's the entirety of the west coast of Ireland, and then the east coast around Wicklow. So that's not exactly true...
@@spuriouspodge7416 But Ireland is low compared to the Pennines. The wind then picks up more moisture from the Irish Sea, crosses the flat south Lancashire plains, then has to rise very sharply when it hits the west side of the Pennines. The wind picks up speed, the moisture condenses and falls, and you get weather that's downright hostile !
@@Kevin-mx1vi I've experienced the opposite when the wind is in the opposite direction - raining on the Ladybower Reservoir side of Snake Pass but completely dry in Glossop. People give you funny looks when you cycle past them soaking wet on a dry day.
@@hairyairey Haha, yeah. They're two completely different climate zones.
I live in Sowerby Bridge, my son lives in Littleborough, and whatever the weather's doing in one it's usually the opposite in the other.
Best outros on UA-cam. And you have coolest name to boot. Top notch, keep it up!
As a local, I was ready to correct you on the often regurgitated myth of the stubborn farmer refusing to sell. Well done for getting your facts right 👍
Love the closing drone shot up at Buckstones. Pretty sure I noticed you being enthralled by the view for a few moments before realise the drone was on it's way ;)
my father worked on the first stretch of the 62 for macs. the carriage ways were split because the ground couldn't support the weight of the carriage ways side by side. my dad they worked 16hrs a day 7 days a week to try and get it done because winter would have be job stopped be cause of the water. My dad said it was the worst condition he had ever worked in.
Great video. Glad to see you in Yorkshire again. All the best 🇬🇧.
I remember the M62 / M63 / M66 all being renumbered to the M60. So much time appeared to be spent just using stickers put over the old "2" "3" and "6" digits on gantries and signs that weren't even in the same typeface, so looked quite out-of-place. Some of the old M63 signs were so faded they looked even more out of place when the "0" was added. The renumbering was fairly whack too...
This is the first time I'm answering this, as normally, I don't have good weeks, but you know what, I actually have had a good week! Things are looking up in the life of Baykon!
Thank you for your videos, I've massively enjoyed this series. hope you've had a good week too!
Why, what's up?
Maybe things will get even better for you, don't give up mate.
Ahh yes the M62...So established in Northern folklore, that it got the dubious honour of a mention in 'Its Grim Up North' by The KLF (To the sound of howling winds and cawing crows.lol.)
I just commented about Its Immaterial, completely forgetting about the JAMMs masterpiece (they used that name for It's Grim Up North).
I grew up a mile from Burtonwood services. Originally there wasn't a junction, but there was a service road to each 'wigwam' at either end of the single carriageway bridge which linked Burtonwood and Great Sankey. The service roads had barriers with a key pad and if you (ahem) knew somebody in the Police force who might tell you the code, you could open the barrier and drive onto the motorway in either direction without having to battle through the traffic to Warrington or Rainhill.
Wigwam? I thought the services were supposed to look like trees after a nuclear apocalypse!
Was this just a junction for the service area then, before the Gemini Retail Park and Omega Business parks were built?
@@DizzyDooDar Yes. Each service station had its own slip road, like most services in the UK.
However, when they demolished the old airbase and hangars they built the new junction, and expanded the road network around it.
We did the same at Newport Pagnell services! They could be accessed by a local road, so negated the need to use the junction - just had to know someone who worked there who knew the code!
Wasn't the motorway laid over one of USAF Burtonwood's runways. I seem to recall you could still see some of the old Runway paving at the junction there.
Being waiting for this episode! Travelled the the m62 for years since my childhood and now weekly as an adult! Curious how much I’ve missed on my travels
Am I the only person that watches these videos and wishes that Jon would have started at the other end of the motorway because that is the way they travel?
Do you travel back on a different route? I use the M62 both ways, away from home and back to home!
I start at the Liverpool end, so for me John has gone the right way!!
@@rachelwalker7091 I live at the eastern end of the M62 and find the 'scenic route' via Woodhead Pass is a great alternative especially when heading to or from Manchester airport.
Wooooo, it's the one we've been waiting for! Well, me at least 😉
It's brilliant how you can take something most of us find boring & make it interesting.!
Stay safe out there mate & best wishes from Scotland 🏴 🙏 ♥
It would be easy to imagine a conspiracy theory where the councilor, the banker and the geologist walk into a pub and fix the report. The council save face from bad publicity, the banker keeps an income from the farmer, the farmer keeps his home, the geologist has a fridge full of meat and loaves from the butcher and baker, and the barman sells beer to all the above.
That's not just theory, it's how the world works.
Love the Commandos reference!
When I saw the thumbnail I thought “that’s not true, it’s to do with the land”
It’s a great story though
“Grumpy farmer threatens JCBs with a collie dog” 🤦🏼♂️😂
Another of my favourite motorways this. Weirdly I don’t mind heading east on it but coming back west bound it seems everyone forgets how to use a motorway.
Anyway, thanks John for another splendid episode.
I think you missed a bit of vital information about Rakewood Viaduct. The reason it is so high is to allow passage of ships down Longden End Brook.
Chris Hartley 😂😂😂😂
😂😂🤣
Thanks for setting the record straight about Stott Hall Farm. It's been a super urban myth for years but for multiple sound and extensively proven geotechnical reasons it would have been impossible to build a "standard" motorway with two side by side parallel carriageways there, thus the farm building was "saved".
(Though it's not much of a saving if you try to sleep at night completely surrounded by a screaming great motorway.)
However the "farmer who demanded too much and priced himself out of megabucks compensation" makes a good tale for the old simpleton down the far end of the bar 😆
Poor old soul🤣
Shame the M63 was lost altogether in the M60 creation. Used to love driving the M63 over Barton high level bridge.
I’ve been past that farm 100’s of times. Always thought “I bet he regrets it”.
You’ve ruined my childhood now now I got to the end of the video 😂
Also... Splitting the carriageways at the farm allowed both sides to be shallow up and steeper down, which probably helped the weedy little trucks of the 60s.
My dad used to tell tales of seeing apparently empty flatbed trucks belonging to "Amalgamated Lead" struggling up the hill out of Brighouse.
You can get quite a bit of speed on that bit. It's not uncommon to see cars whizzing at near 90mph thanks to gravity. If you don't want to go that fast you generally have to gently apply the brakes even if you were only doing 70 before.
Apparently empty ? did they have some kind of contraband inside the frames ?
@@highpath4776 It's just that 30 tons (or so) of lead is only a few inches thick when spread evenly across the load bed.
@@highpath4776: a low cargo of rolls of lead concealed below the truck sides weighs a very great deal - looks like nothing, but the motor feels it. It’s lead. It’s heavy. Some of it may be on your roof, too.
Just a quick one, thank you.
I'll never forget the dread when they put a sign up on the Burtonwood stretch before they started work on the missing Junction 8.
'Work starts here for 80 weeks'
I love the intros to each of your videos
Great vid + superb wind noise cancelling + a bit of Elgar! Job done.
"And I feel like the man who lives, on that farm which sits, in the middle of the M62. I thought it would be alright, now I can't sleep at night. Some things you can not undo."
John Shuttleworth - The Man Who Lives on the M62
As soon as this popped up I thought of that song and that's the main reason I watched cos I thought that would be the tune to use.
ua-cam.com/video/unogHKb2KTw/v-deo.html
You missed a landmark just after junction 7 the dream amazing views, great for the drone. The dream.
Finally they're covering the only important motorway in the uk. The one that takes you to yorkshire.
Or even better, gets you out of Yorkshire back to civilization
Another point about Burtonwood services, it’s here that the M62 is actually built on top of a runway of the former Burtonwood Airbase. There’s much to say about this ginormous airbase, of which hardly anything survives under housing developments. (Although the American street names hint to its past as a USAF airfield.)
Unfortunately, as you say, hardly anything survives.
My dad used to drive past that mast on his way in to work in Manchester. One day, he asked when did they put that mast up? He was told it's been there for years and is normally hidden by the weather
Stunning shots at the end of this one. Bravo sir
That farm is better know as the ..... Little House on the Prairie ... as the locals call it lol 😆 😆
Not just the locals mate, it's well known as that by the HGV driver community too 👍
@@hoggmotorsport And pretty much anyone who has travelled that section more than once 👍
Hoped you liked the North West Jon, living in manchester you're never more than an hour from stunning scenery! . . . The West Yorkshire stretch of the M62 is equally stunning. loving the drone shots. :)
…….and you are never more than an hour without it raining. I’ve lived in Manchester all my life and it rains…….a lot. By the way John you went right past my house! I live about 2 mins from the A627(M) interchange.
that ending brought a tear to my eye...lovely stuff
I actually had a good week, landing a new job after only a couple of weeks of hunting. So yay!
Before reaching Junction 22 eastbound, you will find border pillars with white rose for Yorkshire, and if westbound, red rose for Lancashire, before it became Greater Manchester.
Thank you, John - I always enjoy your videos. I used to join the M62 at J22 (at/near the highest point) quite frequently on my way to Leeds. What struck me is that the road approaching the motorway from the south seemed to have an almost permanent fog bank over it, at least during winter.
Great video, once again
You must end them all with Elgar, very stirring 🏴
I will say that the M62 song by little comets is also a bop, which is a surprising for a song about a hundred mile long car park
So drove this section on the M62 a few weeks ago to pickup my sister from Manchester Airport at night. Why do they not fix the street lighting on the Manchester side. Around Leeds all nice bright LEDs. They have slowly been been burning out for year looks of it 😅
Thank you again for your fantastic videos
Find them all so interesting
Keep up the great work
All the very best
Never realised I loved motorways so much until I found you, I'm on these roads alot and actually have a better understanding of some of the more complex roundabouts and junctions.
'Morning John - coffee in hand and looking forward to grumpy farmers.
Do love a bit of Nimrod, gets the goosebumps going there at the end
You missed the white and red roses near the viaduct, separating Yorkshire from Lancashire. Always used to look out for them every time I travelled that M-way.
Great video as always.
Burtonwood Services is very close to the old Buttonwood Aerodrome which is now warehouses. The carriageway of the M62 used to cross the old runway. Used to love looking down it and at the old hangers as a kid.
Well that answered the myth of the farm - was interesting to see Burtonwood Service Area as I used to work there
Another stellar video 👍
I've been looking forward to your treatment of this one - particularly the M62>M63>M60>M602 shenanigans. Kudos for not falling for the myth about the farmer's house too. (78.5k subs - getting there.👍)
Isnt it a fact that the farmer didn't/doesn't even own the farm. Tenants of Yorksire Water? Sure I've seen an old video of the people living there saying it was a bit of a nightmare
@@m60kafi remember that. It was a documentary about the building of the motorway and the farmer was Ken Wild at the time. Paul who is there now used to work for Ken I think and took it over when Ken died. I’m sure they offered him a payment to relocate just for the inconvenience but he stayed put. As Jon said, the Motorway HAD to go round the farm but I’m wondering if that relocation payment started the urban myth about him refusing to move.
This should be on TV
Hello John. Thank you for doing these videos we enjoy watching them 👍
Nice one, Jon! 😁
Can't wait for part 2 and the "smart motorway" that isn't so smart. Great work!
Another fantastic and informative video mate, looking forward to Part 2 of the M62 on the side I have driven a few times heading towards Leeds.
Thanks Jon, I'm very well, and it's been a wicked, sweet, awesome week. Thanks for asking.
6:50 YES. That’s up behind Hollingworth Lake where I used to play as a kid, carry on further up that track and you go up a big hill that leads to a footbridge over the motorway you’ve just been under at Rakewood. Also,.. there’s an actual ford.
As a train enthusiast I stumbled across this video, not realising there are motorway enthusiasts too! Enjoyed it, thanks, although I was trying to guess the name of the station next to the motorway in one of your aerial shots.
My week was wicked sweet awesome, many shenanigans driving a great honking Chevy Suburban around the motorways surrounding Washington DC.
I watch why too much UA-cam so I feel I’m qualified to say that you’re a very talented video making guy
Been waiting for this video for over 6months!! That centre house!! Thanks alot:) gonna watch it now lol
4:01 - I actually mentioned this secret junction in the comments of one of your previous videos. It's situated on the county border of Cheshire and Greater Manchester and was used by their respective police forces as an access road at the end of their force areas. Since the North West Motorway Police Group was established it wasn't used as frequently, even less so now since the removal of the hard shoulder.
Good old bit of Enigma at the end there :)
We (Sheffield) refer to Stott Hall Farm as the little house on the prairie.
One day, in the future this little spot of land will be very valuable for a unique motorway services and advertising spot.
Good point. I'm surprised there's not adverts already in the fields of the farm. There's plenty of other farmers who rent out the side of a strategically placed truck for advertising - I can think of several on the M6 in Staffordshire and Cheshire.
Another great video John, this time on a motorway I use to drive everyday in the late 90’s. I remember the M60 being opened and the traffic congestion dropping off, well for a few years anyway.
Fantastic video. I think when I retire I’ll look to drive every mile of motorway in the uk mainland while watching your videos on an iPad!
Absolutely LOVE your videos. Favourite way to spend the 10 minutes it takes me to drink my coffee ❤ Thank you - genuinely entertaining (and educational! double win!)
My wife says she likes your voice because it's very soothing. So well done you!
The M62 is a motorway I use a lot so this all looks very familiar indeed! Great video as always John
This one of the best channels on UA-cam.
I travel the M62 pretty much its entire length every week. It's weird seeing it from different angles, thanks John. However, even though there are some loverly views coming over the top, that is tempered by the M62 being full of idiots that cannot drive and massive traffic jams. If I set off from Liverpool on a Friday at 12pm I can get home in Lincolnshire in about 2.5hrs. If I set off after 2pm Im looking at 4-5hrs if I'm lucky.
Yep. M62 around Manchester is just a car park on Friday afternoons.
Plus all the vehicles that aren't really up to the climb and the occasional "sheep in road" warning. I think my personal favourite was eastbound on that steepest climb where it has extra lanes, an HGV had broken down in one of the middle lanes and the traffic was opening like a zip to pass it on both sides, absolute carnage. I don't drive much (currently carless) and that day made me glad of it!
a lot of the secret junctions that are supposed to be used by emergency services are often gated and locked shut. i came to this unfortunate realisation a couple weeks back on the A1M while on blues and had to drive an extra 3 miles to the next junction to turn around and head back to the same junction as it only had one set of actual sliproads and the gated “secret sliproad.” slightly annoying.
When I was a recovery driver I was given a set of master keys for those gates, why on earth do blue light drivers not have them?
You are the best thing on UA-cam... honest... absolutely brilliant... private eye can't touch you. .. and I read it since it started ... I should know.. carry on... I don't even have to like you to admire what you do ... that's pure magic innit??
A point to be made about Stot hall farm, is that the builders of the motorway did originally offer to purchase the entire farm and were declined, after which they made no more offers.