Today, Sunday 3rd August 2025, marks the final episode of the Ashville Weekly series by the Ashville channel on YouTube with episode 250 ‘The Last Dance’.
I can’t remember the first time that YouTube suggested an Ashville video to me, but ever since then, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the weekly episodes, as well as the various specials. All of them have been presented and produced extremely well, and have been extremely interesting both as standalone videos, but also as part of the wider series chronicling the journey of Ashville and its staff.
It has been a fantastic channel to follow, and while it is sad to see the weekly series come to an end, I totally understand the reasons behind it, and wish Daniel and his team all the best in their endeavours.
Of particular merit, in my own opinion, has been the Ashville presentation of being a railfreight customer (aggregates traffic inward and lately the outflow of non-hazardous waste products from construction sites), with the move from one rail connected yard to an adjacent one and needing to build a new railhead pretty much from scratch.
This video, THE TRUTH About The First Train At The ASHVILLE Yard shows the opening of the newly built sidings in the current yard, built over the course of 2024/2025.
It has been great to see a commercial railfreight customer (perhaps unique in the UK of Ashville?) to show in such a positive but honest light the advantages of railfreight to their business; indeed their comparison of rail vs road in ‘I race a TRAIN for 80 Miles in my TRUCK, to Prove a Point!‘ was a great showcase of the advantages of railfreight compared to road haulage.
I hope that Ashville continues to be a big, and much needed advocate for both construction and railfreight, and hopefully they can lead other companies that have/are developing a rail connection, not just those in construction to similarly create content to showcase the industry better to the public?
So from the part of Northumberland halfway between Hadrians Wall and the Scottish Border, a massive thank you for content so far, and hopefully this is not the end of Ashville videos, just a hiatus?
All the very best!
Ryan Hogg 