East Coast HST it be
1430 London Kings Cross to Edinburgh service at sunny Grantham last Sunday
larger picture here
http://oi62.tinypic.com/2uqkpkl.jpg
(Also managed to get a picture of a fast southbound 225 set a minute or so later -
http://oi58.tinypic.com/25ssk.jpg)
I might have some spare time this week at work (owing to summer closedown) so I might have a go at playing catch-up with nearly 2 months worth of trips.
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Kinda boring at work this week, so to beat the time I've been typing
Northern Wales 28/6/14
Today’s plan was for lovely new coverage to the west of Crewe towards Chester and beyond to Holyhead & the Llandudno & Blaenau Ffestiniog lines. It was a later start compared to the madness of the previous weekend of a charter train from Basingstoke to Carlisle leaving Basingstoke at 5:10, hence an alarm call for 4am. At 5:30 my alarm went, and it was up for me, picking my rucksack up and out for a quick walk to the station to arrive around 5:50, for a quick sit down to await the train from my advance purchase tickets.
5:56 or so rolled around and dud 159015 (last rode on coming back from Exeter at the start of May) to take me the 72 miles into Waterloo, rather uneventful journey to arrive at around 7:15, no real rush to get upto Euston so purchased a copy of the newspaper and a sausage baguette from Waterloo, and went down to the northern line platforms, after picking up a copy of the previous days’ Evening Standard. Walked to the front of the platform to get onto the first car, for the brief 2 miles 19 chain blast up towards Euston station. Once at Euston it was a quick walk to the main station itself to take a seat down to await 10 minutes.
I got bored and started walking towards platform 16 end of the station as the last Voyager departed from there, and I got lucky (as someone just about to get onto a voyager could be) as a Voyager was waiting, the destination board said Chester and it had just gotten announced so to beat the mad Euston rush, managed to locate my seat and it was a table, but sadly going backwards, but thankfully there was a few available tables in the same car, so picked a nice right hand side table seat heading forward, the Virgin Super-Voyager of the day was 221106, and it was a blast up towards Crewe, stopping only at Milton Keynes, before it pulled away from the main-line at Crewe to a line which appeared to have a few closed stations on, but apart from the old platforms there wasn’t much of interest along the short 21 mile trip, apart from a random duck (after the storage areas at Crewe), due to the races at Chester, the train got quite busy.
Once at Chester I had a nice 15 minute break before the delayed Holyhead train departed, getting held for a connection train from Cardiff to meet it (which was late due to Newport deciding it wanted another holiday), the train was 175116, a new 175 for me (although couldn’t be that hard as previously I only had 105 & 114), quite a busy train for the 84 mile blast towards Holyhead and the islands, lovely scenery from the window of the train, some lovely bridges and some more random sheep. Once at Holyhead it was very busy with people arriving from the Irish ferry so with the connection time cut down to 10 minutes I couldn’t really waste a lot of time around the station area, so jumped back onto 175116 to try and find a window seat, heading backwards but at least I was on the other side of the train. Not that many empty seats I could spot on the journey back, although I was sat next to someone who decided to eat a smelly sandwich.
Onto the Junction at Llandudno to await the Blaenau train to take me down the Conwy valley line and to be honest I didn’t expect the Conwy valley line to be so beautiful, not quite as beautiful as the West Highlands line, but probably would be 2nd of the lines I want to revisit (planned for next year to do the Ffestiniog railway as well). Dud 150240 was on duty (last ridden to Maesteg to Bridgend back in May), but that didn’t matter. What a change of scenery going through the tunnel, it was like another part of the world. 20 minutes at Blaenau itself, allowed me time to locate a branch of the Co-Op for some much needed lunch and I had a walk around the little town, very quiet that time of day, but soon it was time for the return leg of my journey, and I didn’t want to miss that train as the next train wouldn’t be for another 3 hours.
Rode 150240 back towards Llandudno itself, hitting some rain, the original plan was to wait at Llandudno for the Manchester bound service to arrive, but owing to an announcement at Llandudno junction about the line having delays, jumped back onto 150240 for the short trip up the branch line towards junction. My worries were unfounded as we passed the Manchester bound service coming in as we were departing. I had around 10/15 minutes at the junction, so had a look around, has a tiny Asda outside the station itself, but it was busy so I headed back towards the station to catch 175010 (First 175/0) back towards Chester where I had an hour wait. I had a choice of either catching the earlier service and wait at Crewe for an hour and a bit or wait around a busy Chester station. Thankfully my return advance ticket didn’t have a reservation on the Chester to Crewe leg, so I jumped onto a busy 150257/150259 (both new 150s for me) to head towards Crewe, I didn’t fancy hanging around for long as the races had come to an end.
At Crewe I located the waiting room after having a look around the station and noting how busy it is, owing to the time, I pulled up a seat and started to read a magazine, before 15 minutes before departure I headed out of the waiting area towards platform 1, noting that the platform information displays mentioned the service was in reverse formation, I headed towards the end of the platform, as once more I was in Car C. Winner 390117 pulled in, and I found my lovely table seat, and sat down to enjoy the non-stop ride back down to Euston, first time heading into Euston on a Virgin, can’t remember that much of the journey other than sitting opposite a very nice looking young lady.
With an hour (or so) to get back to Waterloo, I was in no rush to board the Northern Line train, to await the arrival of the 22:20 service, which arrives around 22:09. Today’s service was made up of dud 159016 leading (quite a few trips on 016 this year) and winner 159018 behind, yippee. As it was dark I settled down after eating my dinner to finish reading the issue of Modern Railways picked up earlier in the day at Euston. 23:40 the train pulled into Grateley, and a quick walk home to put my feet up for a rare day-off on the Sunday.
Total distance covered 738 miles chains to take my June figure up to 3081 miles, with some new blue lines appearing in the north of Wales.
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5th July, a Southern adventure
The aim of today’s Southern adventure was to try and cover the remaining parts of the Southern network, and started off down Romsey, with a nice early drive to the other major town in Test Valley, first time starting a trip from Romsey on a Saturday in a while. First train of the day was the 6:50 First Great Western service to Portsmouth Harbour, formed of dud 158950 (last travelled from Cheltenham to Swindon back in May, boo).
A few minutes later Southampton was reached, from the prettier side (if you call the docks prettier than a high wall with some housing close up with rubbish etc). A quick transfer to platform 3a to get onto 377414, and as this is the first time doing a report with unit numbers, a few winners, and other times on Southern I didn’t take the numbers down. This 377/4 took me to sunny Barnham, where I had a quick change to get to the island platform to catch the Bognor Regis train. Super luxury in the form of 313209 pulled in, only my second time on a Southern 313, for a shaky ride to Bognor.
At Bognor I had a 90 second connection to get the next train out, which was formed of 377149 & 377447 for the returning 3 miles to Barnham, alighting and waiting for the next Littlehampton train to pull in from Portsmouth, and formed of 313203, running a couple minutes late which messed up another unofficial connection. Hanging around Littlehampton, via the ticket barriers which don’t like Daysave tickets, to have a brief look around, but nothing much of interest, so back to the station to see 313203 pulling away towards Bognor, however the train I was planning to catch was waiting for me, 377410 to take me towards Angmering (to cover the other way into Littlehampton from the east).
At Angmering I had a 10 minute wait, with a FGW 158 set roaring pass, 377162 pulled in and it was rather busy, heading towards Portsmouth (or was it Southampton, can’t remember), but I alighted at Barnham once again, and crossed over to the other platform, quite a few cameras were out as a steam train on its way to Weymouth steamed though, and a minute or so later 377204 pulled in towards Victoria from either Pompey or Southampton, a 377/2 how rare I thought down on the coastway. This lovely 377 unit took me towards Horsham, where a 50 minute wait greated me to await the next Victoria service via the Sutton & Mole Valley line, I was expecting a 455 so I went off searching for a toilet. Horsham station is a good 10 minute walk from the town centre and seems a nice enough town, a bit posh though, toilets were signposted but ended in nothing, so I headed back towards the station to get a surprise of a 377 sitting on the platform.
377124 was on duty to take me up the Mole valley, but firstly I located the toilets on the platform, and took a seat, and as expected it was a rather quiet train (taking twice as long to get to Victoria than the direct trains). Some of the stations on that line were rather basic looking, and there wasn’t really much to look at apart from trees, cuttings and more trees. Dorking was reached with the sight of the first red devil, a SWT 455, as the 377 carried on up, I noticed some 5 car 377s so after investigating via RTT to see what time the 377/6 behind would get into Clapham and seeing I would still make the connection decided to jump off 377124 at Ewell East. Nothing much was happening at Ewell East apart from a ticket office being closed and a nice car-park. 377606 pulled in and god those seats are rather hard compared to the other 377s.
377606 carried up towards Victoria, with me alighting at Clapham Junction, the route between Ewell and Clapham I can’t recall much off, some FCC 319s, some Southern 455s, and the odd 442 once the main line was reached, but Clapham was reached with a good 5 minutes to spare and a cross-platform interchange to the down fast. 377465 with 377435 behind pulled in to take me to East Grinstead, which emptied out at East Croydon, as it went down new track towards East Grinstead, nice couple bridges along that route, but nothing else which stands out for me as a must-return track.
At East Grinstead I visited the local Sainsburys to pick up some sort of late lunch in the 20 minute turnaround, getting back onto 377435/377465 for the short trip back to Oxted, the station where the line from Uckfield meets, and there was a cardinal happening in Oxted, so was quite busy, but I had a good wonder around in the 40 or so minutes I had spare. Another nice little town, split into two by the railway. Back onto the platform, I awaited the Uckfield bound 171 to arrive, and it was formed of 171801, my first 171/8. Quite a lovely line towards Uckfield, although single track in parts, so wouldn’t make that good as a divisional route if the lost connection between Uckfield and Lewis was rebuilt.
At Uckfield I had 10 or so minutes turnaround before the return leg, so had a brief look around the area of the station, nothing really much of interest, so back onto 171801 it was to return to East Croydon where it was being terminated due to engineering works towards London Bridge. At East Croydon I had a 15 minute gap before the Ore bound service was due in, so exited the station for some tram spotting. Back into the platform to await 377451 leading 377120 and 377121 on an Ore/Littlehampton service, with 377121 dropping off at Haywards Heath, was a busy train heading down towards Lewes, and was delayed awaiting for a connection train so passengers could reach Plumpton, this nearly caused me to miss my connection for the Seaford branch, and was a mad dash from platform 1 to platform 3 (which I’m guessing there used to be another bay platform in where the gravel part is now).
313217 was the 313 to take me to Seaford and back, Southease station seems to be in the middle of nowhere, and the ‘closed’ Newhaven Marine seems so close to Newhaven Harbour you could see the old station. Towards Seaford was rather nice, can’t really complain about that route, and I wouldn’t mind returning to Seaford itself at some point, but my time there was short as I headed back towards Brighton, where I made a mistake when purchasing my rover ticket for my Hull trip and didn’t check the date (dated for Sunday rather than Saturday), causing an extra trip on Monday to resolve the issue.
After that issue I headed for the Hove shuttle, made up of 313212 (although I’ve noticed it’s a 377 on Sundays), so it was to Hove, to cross the platform to await 377116 to take me along the Cliftonville Spur to the Brighton Main Line for a short trip to Haywards Heath. At Haywards Heath a short transfer to the other platform to get onto 377206 which had just detached from another Ore bound train for the return service back to Hove, where I had a bright idea with 25 minutes to wait for the next Southampton service, and after visiting a little Tesco Express to pick up a sandwich for dinner, I hopped onto 377101 for the short hop to Brighton, stayed on changing seats as it was the Southampton service, one way to pretty much get a seat on a busy service.
377101 took me towards Southampton, stopping and starting at the smaller stations, passing the steam train heading back to Three Bridges, and arriving into Southampton, where a short hop allowed me to get to platform 4 to await the South West Trains service to Romsey, made up of 158890, a dud (last used in May) to arrive into Romsey for a short (25 minute) drive home, the end of a busy day, but successful as the Southern network is covered (apart from the peak-only services to Guildford & Sutton Circle). Total millage 395, with a few new blue lines on my coverage map
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6th July, London part 1 plus Stansted.
After the busy day on the Saturday, you would think I would have taken it easy, but no, up at 6:30 for a drive to Andover to catch the 7:00 service to Waterloo, parking in my usual place at the side of the road on the station approach (free parking on Sundays), it was under the subway to the island platform to await super-dud 159107 (although this time I would be in standard class) for the trip to Waterloo, felt like it waited a while at Clapham Junction as well on the approach to Waterloo, but it arrived and I went towards the first of my targets of the day, the remainder of the Northern line, to head towards Edgware, and like the other side of the Northern Line, it be quite pretty outside the tunnel
At Edgware it was a fast turnaround for another northern line train to Euston, where I transferred onto the Victoria line platforms (an action now currently replaced with stairs) to get a Victoria line train to Finsbury Park for a quick transfer to a Piccadilly service towards Cockfosters, which was reached, and another nice north London views once outside in the open. Like Edgware it was a fast turnaround to get onto a southbound service, where I alighted at Kings Cross St Pancakes, to locate the sub-surface platform, where I boarded a Hammersmith & City service to Liverpool Street.
At Liverpool Street I exited the underground system (I wonder what the computer thought of entry into Waterloo, 2 and a bit hours later, exit at Liverpool Street) and headed to the mainline platform, to look for the next Stansted Express service (making use of those 30-day advance fares), made up of 379003 (my first 379), with the dodgy buttons and worm seats, and it set off towards the airport. I can’t really recall much of the West Anglia Main Line, but the train warnings were in multiple languages. At Stansted I headed up to the airport itself and it’s changed since the last time I was there, no longer having that many retail units outside the security zone. Time passed and it was soon time to head back to the railway station to head towards the Crosscountry platform.
170106 was waiting departure to New Street, my reserved seat ended up being rubbish (as usual Crosscountry providing the best reservations), but as it was a 3-car unit I found a nice table seat in the middle unreserved car, and it headed out of the airport and carried on up the West Anglia Main Line, getting busier heading via Cambridge, onto the Fen Line, then onto the Ely to Peterborough line. At March the sight of the former station was plain to see, it feels cut in two with the old platforms rotting away.
After March the train had some issues and the brakes jumped on coming to a sudden stop, nice scenery overlooking an industrial park near a road bridge as the driver spent 20 minutes before the train was on its way again in ‘limb-home’ mode, max of 30 mph and waiting outside Peterborough for another 10 minutes for a replacement 170 to arrive to tow 106 back to the depot. 40 minute delay, so I managed to put a claim in for some delay repay, getting back slightly more than 50% back (NUS discount wasn’t taken into account for the refund). At Peterborough my 90 minutes worth of ‘look around time’ was slashed, so I headed towards the centre of the city, to have a look around (and looking for something to eat, failing and ended up in Greggs).
At Peterborough, I managed to time it for a 10 minute wait until my first IC 225 set arrived, being pulled by DVT 82215 with 91131 at the rear, the powered doors of the Mk4 coaches, very nice, the seats are not so nice (compared to previous East Coast 125 trips). Busy train and someone was sat in my seat, but I found a better seat at the end of the coach, once more it was Coach C (I always end up with reserved seats in Coach C!). A nice blast down the ECML and into King’s Cross.
Once at King’s Cross, I made my way towards the Sub-surface line platforms to catch a Hammersmith & City line train (I got lucky) towards Mile End, where a cross-platform interchange was waiting for the central line, can’t be that many other cross-platform interchanges with a deep-level & sub-level tube lines meet, looking at the departures board, noticed that after the next Epping train was a Woodford via Hainault service, happy days, so after the Epping train departed, I awaited the Woodford train, and set off along the Eastern Central Line, and what a lovely area it passes through on its way to Hainault, after Hainault with a 5 minute wait it departs towards Woodford and it’s mostly empty, but again a lovely section of line.
At woodford, it was a quick cross to the eastbound platform to await the next Epping train for the trip to the cut-short Central line (quite a few places I’ve noticed has the old Central line part to Ongar covered over). Cross at Epping to the other platform to board the next service to wherever as I was getting off at Mile End again. I got lucky at Mile End as a district line train had just pulled in to take me to Victoria, the lovely D-stock, and at Victoria I transferred to the Victoria line to take me down to Brixton to finish the Victoria line. Quick cross over at Brixton and back to Vauxhall, where I boarded 455870/455873, both winners, as the 159 passed, I forgot that the trains leave at X:15 instead of X:20, bugger. At Clapham I boarded a service heading to Portsmouth, with both winners 450016 & 450104, quite busy, but I misheard and it was heading via Guildford instead of Basingstoke (which would explain the 450s). At Woking I changed to 444014 (winner) leading 444021 (dud) on the Poole/Portsmouth service, I alighted at Basingstoke having gotten on at the front (thinking better chance of a seat which was successful) and it pulled towards Basingstoke.
At Basingstoke I had 40 minutes spare, so headed to the Pizza GoGo to purchase a pizza (nothing else much open at that time of day), and went back to the station for some watching and eating. A surprise when a triple 159 service pulled in, with winner 159020 leading super-dud 159013 and super-dud 159106, still 1 winner out of 3 wasn’t bad Back into Andover to locate my car for the short drive home.
Total miles covered ~ 409 miles, new coverage was quite a lot with a few winners.
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Monday 7th July
Due to my mess up on the 5th I finished work a bit earlier for a drive to Romsey to purchase a return ticket to Brighton to exchange my East Yorkshire Round Robin ticket for the correct date. Winner 158960 took me from Romsey to Southampton, where I located an undercover co-op outside the north side of the station (first time going out of the north-side), getting back to secure a seat on the Brighton service (winner 377431) to arrive into Brighton. Managed to change my ticket, but wasn’t fast enough to catch 431 back to Southampton, so went down the city to the Tesco Express to pick up some dinner, and went back to catch Portsmouth bound winner 377151, getting off at Havant, having just missed the SWT service which goes across the top of the Portsmouth triangle. Watched as a 159 unit went through and came back again a few minutes later. Winner 377419 pulled in to take me back to Southampton. I should have gotten off at Fareham as the FGW service following goes via Eastleigh and down via Southampton Airport (2123 Portsmouth Harbour to Westbury). Anyhow at Southampton, that FGW service, made up of winner 158798 soon pulled in for the short trip to Romsey.
Managed to do what I aimed for, an unexpected trip, but 5 winners out of 5 services, can’t moan. Although I spent most of the time reading (having covered that route on the Saturday and several times before, but a nice 140 miles to my total, with an idea to catch one of the 442s from Brighton one day.
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12th July – To Hull and To York and back
It was another early morning (5am alarm set, 5:25 train) for me, as dud 159014 pulled into my local station after a nice little walk (which will come back to haunt me later that night), to take me to Clapham Junction, one of the few eastbound trains which stops at both the village stations and Clapham. At Clapham I had a quick transfer to the Southern platforms where the next Victoria train was going to be from the slow line, as winner 455823 pulled in for the short trip over the river to Victoria.
Once at Victoria, I boarded a Circle line train to take me to Notting Hill Gate, and then to Mile End on the Central line. I got lucky at Mile End and managed to get a district line train, however it terminated early at Barking instead of Upminster. Ah well, I thought as I boarded C2C service 357201 towards Upminster, before a quick platform transfer to get to the London bound platform to get onto a busy 357205 (both winners), to finally come into Fenchurch Street rather than go out.
Once at Fenchurch Street decided it didn’t like my Zone 1-6 travelcard, managed to go to Tower Hill, and onto a circle line train, still with 40 minutes to spare before my Hull Trains service, I decided to ditch at Farringdon to get onto a First Capital Connect service, made up of 319433, for the sole reason to use the toilet. This took me the mile and a bit to St Pancras Thameslink platform, passing the remains of Kings Cross Thameslink. At St Pancras I transferred over to Kings Cross and waited around for 10 minutes before deciding enough was enough and ditching the hologram and went through the open gates (are those ticket barriers ever closed?) and spotting a Hull Train, which chances would be the train to Hull.
My first 180 was 180113 and it was an enjoyable 205 mile trip to Hull, a bit like the 220/1/2s with the underfloor engines vibrating when idle, but it was quiet, smooth and with good leg room underneath the table, and the line to Hull from the ECML is quite nice, the swing bridge at Selby was looking in a very poor state. The train was around 10 minutes late into Hull due to congestion around Peterborough, but I should have done what my original revised plan and broke the terms of my advance ticket and got off at Selby to catch the service to York and do the circular from Selby, to give me some extra lee-way. Sadly I followed the terms of the advance and stayed on until Hull.
At Hull I had 25 minutes before the York service, so noticing a large Tesco over the road, headed there to pick up supplies, in the form of lunch and extra drinks. Back at Hull, I was unlucky not to get one of the bay seats, but for my first Northern pride, the 142093, great for sitting on the left, not so great if you want to sit on the right. It was delayed by 20 minutes leaving Hull due to a points failure along the track where the line to Doncaster comes away, so that meant my 23 minute connection at York was cut to 3 minutes, all went well, back along the Selby to Hull line, across the ECML and towards York via the Sherburn in Elmet line, however we came to a stop mid-way, just before Gascoigne Wood Junction as another points failure, which added another 30 minute delay, meaning my plan was pretty much ruined, unless I fancied stopping short of going into Scarborough and changing at Seamer.
Getting boiled sitting on a pacer isn’t my type of fun, managed to drink one litre of juice and water, trying to keep hydrated, god knows what the state of the line underneath the toilet looked like afterwards with the number of visits from other passengers. Eventually it set off stopping at Sherburn and onto York. Due to the nature I decided to stay on 142093 to head back towards Hull, but this time heading down the ECML to come off at Hambleton North junction. Deciding enough was enough of the busy Pacer (two train loads in one), I ditched at Selby to await the next train, a First Transpennine Express service, made up of soon to be Chiltern, 170301, finding a table seat and headed into Hull, a few minutes late.
Once at Hull I had a good hour and a bit to wonder around, which I did, in the search of a non BT phonebox, which I found and as the shops were closing I headed back to the station to sit by the side of platform 2 where 180111 was sat, engines running, awaiting for the doors to be open, which they were 15 minutes before it was due to leave, allowing me to take my seat, another right hand side forward facing seat. The train was late leaving Hull due to a door fault (which ironically would have allowed me to complete the circle as the Scarborough to Hull train was late leaving Scarborough), 29 minutes late, was it bad of me to hope of another couple minutes delay to push it into the 30 minutes allowable for a delay repay claim? Sadly (or happily) it made back some of that time and entered Kings Cross only 14 minutes late, giving me an hour to get back to Waterloo (something which I can do in less than 20 minutes).
I decided to make a change and get off the Victoria line at Warren Street, to go to the Northern line, and it’s not as nice, or as quick, as the cross platform interchange of the Bakerloo at Oxford Circus. Something to bare in mind for future. My homeward journey was on winner 159001. However my joy was short lived when getting of at Grateley to find it pouring with rain, I got home soaked.
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13th July, London part 2, plus Aylesbury.
The plan for today changed when I found out that London Overground were running services from Battersea Park which weren’t at a silly hour. So an early morning drive to Andover to catch 159009 (bringing back memories of my Scotland trip as it was the same 159 used to get to Waterloo for the Highland Chieftain), but still a dud. At Clapham I had a 5 minute wait for the southern service to Battersea Park, I was expecting a lovely 455, but ended up with winner 377603, so I made use of the toilet, as it headed to Battersea Park.
First time alighting at Battersea Park, and first thought is that the steps wouldn’t be nice in the rain, smooth steep narrow wooden steps, but underneath the subway to the underused Overground platform (only a handful of trains use it daily I believe), today’s Overground was 378208, a winner, over the bridge and I changed at Denmark Hil, which seemed to be the most suitable changing point to await a Southeastern service. Highlight of the 10 minutes spent was a bag nearly getting sucked underneath the wheels of a passing 375 as some idiot left it by the platform edge when talking or playing with their iPhone.
Winner 465011 pulled in, with me aiming for the front car, for a quick getaway at Victoria to get down to the District line, which I completed with ease and got lucky as the next train was a District line train and not a Circle. Arriving at Earl’s Court, I awaited the Kensington shuttle, my first District line S-type train took me to Kensington and then back all the way to the end of the line at Edgware Road. Exiting the station at Edgware Road, I fired up my phone sat-nav to show me the way to Marylebone, which I arrived in plenty of time to get onto 165014 to take me towards Aylesbury Vale Parkway, the station which serves a housing estate and a large car-park. Can’t really say I rate that line very high, some nice hills, but nothing that special, with a 165 with a non-working loo. Getting back onto the same train at Parkway (after a look around, if you can call it that), I alighted at Aylesbury, to get some lunch from the nearby Morrisons.
165028 pulled in with the next Marylebone service; however this was going via Princes Risborough, to allow me to get that branch line covered. Alighting at South Ruislip, I crossed over to the central line platform for a long wait for a central line train to West Ruislip, and at West Ruislip it was a quick dash to get to another Central line train getting ready to depart to do the 11 miles towards Shepherd’s Bush, running alongside the old track for the majority of the track, and heading into Shepherd’s Bush for a transfer to a busy Earling Broadway train, standing room only, but I was to slow getting off as a District line train pulled away just as I got to the platform, giving me an extra delay. Sitting on the next to depart District line service, I went to Hammersmith where I transferred over to a Piccadilly line train t Uxbridge, getting lucky with it being an Uxbridge train instead of a Heathrow train.
At Uxbridge, I needed a break from the heat, and a loo break, so changed my plan to do Stanmore, and went off looking, finding a poundland for some extra drinks, and a toilet in the little shopping centre, I headed back to nearly catch a metropolitan line train, getting to the doors as they were closing, but the driver opened them up again, which was nice of them, and the AC S8 was so lovely, as I walked though looking for an empty seat, which I found on the trip towards Northwick Park. Exiting the station at Northwick Park I walked towards Kenton, ending up on the wrong side of the road to the station entrance and walked a little further to get to the station, the Overground to Watford Junction was in sight, and also a return to the Abbey line. First service was a Bakerloo to Harrow & Wealdstone, where a 20 minute wait greeted me to wait for the Southern service to Watford Junction, platform 10, and what a busy line the WCML, any anti-HS2 people should sit at Harrow & Wealdstone station for a couple hours to count how many Virgin trains, how many London Midland trains pull though, and it’s a lot 377702 pulled in, my first 377/7, still rock-hard seats, but it took me the 6 miles to Watford Junction, where a 15 minute wait to platform 11, where 321413 was waiting for the Abbey run, which is a very nice track, and a fast turnaround at St Albans Abbey (it was cheaper to get tickets from Harrow to St Albans than it was just to Watford Junction). At Watford Junction, I headed towards the overground platforms; the up fast was in chaos as a Virgin 390 was stopped with a passenger getting removed by the BTP, blocking the line. 378231 was waiting, and after the 321 with its upside-down posters, old London Midland network posters and old London Connections map from 2001, lots of memories of long gone TOCs was very nice, the AC working to keep it cool.
The 4th rail when Watford Junction was Bakerloo is still in place, poor Bakerloo line, ancient stock and a cut-down service. Anyhow, a trip down to Harrow & Wealdstone, crossing off the northern part of the Overground map, which I was happy with. At H&W, it was a brief cross-over to the southbound platform, and again watching the number of Virgins pass, before 377704 pulled in to take me down to Clapham Junction, sitting in the 1st class area, and the seats are still rock hard, the change-over from AC to DC, and into Clapham onto a narrow platform with steep narrow steps, causing hassle with the flow of passengers going up the stairs mixing with the flow coming down, add in a couple refusing to use the lift for their heavy large bags.
Anyway, I had a 10 minute wait at Clapham, watching as a 450/444 combo passed, with winner 159011 leading dud 159014, last seen the Saturday morning, but arriving back into Andover, the end of a busy day, lots of new coverage.
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18th July
A weekday trip to London
Managing to sneak a freebie day-off due to the heat and working rather hard for the previous couple weeks getting some extra hours, I decided to head to London for a weekday trip with 4 aims. Doing the 150/0s from Basingstoke to Reading, a FGW 180, the Chiltern parliamentary service from Paddington and a non Gatwick Express 442. So the fun began at 8:59 with a brief walk to the station (no chance of getting a parking space that time of day), but nice to start at a reasonable time, to avoid the morning peak.
159014 leading 159010 pulled in, both duds, 014 last seen on Sunday and 010 last seen going down to Exeter back in June, the cheapest way I could find was splitting at Andover, before getting an Andover to Reading off-peak ticket, then an off-peak Reading to London travelcard with my network railcard discount. Once at Basingstoke, I alighted and headed across to platform number 5 to await the Reading/Basingstoke service, sadly it was 165210 on the duty that morning, so aim 1 failed, but that will probably be the easiest to pick up on another weekday.
Into Reading for the first time in a couple months and the day-after it was opened by the queen, and it looked nice and tidy, as I headed across the transfer deck via the shop to purchase a newspaper towards the fast London platforms, a couple HSTs pulled in and left as I had a seat reserved for the 10:34 service to Paddington, and a slightly late 180104 pulled in. Aim 2 completed as it was quite busy, but my seat was open which allowed me to enjoy watching the changes, the march of the poles and into Paddington for 30 minutes to wait around for the Chiltern service. So I headed towards the little Sainsburys Local to pick up lunch (would have cost £5.90, but only cost £3 under the meal-deal), and what a lovely baguette it was.
Heading towards platform 14, with the barriers deciding it didn’t like my travel-card, but getting let on to await the arrival of 165020 for the slow trip alongside the Central line to South Ruislip, arriving a few minutes early which was nice (bit worried with the connection time to meet a southbound Chiltern service), a peaceful bit of track with myself being the only passenger, with the guard making sure that I wanted that train. At South Ruislip a couple fast trains passed (a 168 and the 67 loco set) before 165010 arrived to take me the 11 miles back to Marylebone. Both winners.
Owing to making that connection I engaged plan A (plan B would have been the Central line), and caught the Bakerloo for the short hop to Baker Street, before transferring onto the Jubilee line with the platform closed announcement (sounding more posh than the Northern/Bakerloo announcements at Embankment), but this took me to Canada Water where a quick transfer to the East London Line platforms allowed me time to breath and relax with a 10 minute wait before winner 378139 pulled in to take me to New Cross, allowing me to cross off the Overground New Cross branch, and what a change into the AC train.
At New Cross I had a brief connection to get across to the other platform as 376022 pulled in to take me the short hop towards London Bridge, the modern train with no AC, sweaty, and with rather uncomfortable seats, I wouldn’t like to be on a 376 for long. At London Bridge, I crossed over to the island with platforms 1 & 2 to await the next service to Cannon Street via Lee & Slade Green. Winner 465013 pulled in, and I got a nice seat, opening the remaining windows to get some fresh air, as it set off towards Lewisham, Lee, Crayford and finally onto Slade Green, where I alighted to wait for the Barnehurst service, needing a loo I set off for a look around Slade Green, finding a shop to purchase another bottle of water, and went back to the station as 376020 pulled in for the short 43 chain journey to Barnehurst, waiting on the junction for a good couple minutes, quite painful in an non AC 376.
At Barnehurst, seeing loos I jumped off and made use of the toilets and awaited 465018 to pull in from Dartford towards London Victoria via Lewisham, it was another winner unit, for a trip to Victoria, being odd using the Overground side of the track via Denmark Hill maybe that is usual of that service though. Into Victoria and I had a 10 minute change before the next Petts Wood service, made up of 466029 leading 465036, with me sitting in the 466, nice little blast in South London, covering new ground arriving at Petts Wood on time, allowing me time to get to the other platform to await 465237 pulling 465019 towards Grove Park, and a very tight connection.
I guessed the location of the stairs quite well, and it was a quick crossover to the Bromley North platform, arriving with a couple minutes spare to take a seat on 465155 for the short trip down to Bromley North. At Bromley North I went for a quick walk down to Bromley South where the good record I had going for the day ended with a delay on the Southeastern/First Capital Connect service being 15 minutes late, changing my plans, but winners 319006 leading 319011 pulled in to take me towards Elephant & Castle, with an added delay owing to red signal at Loughborough Junction. At Elephant & Castle it was a short walk from the national rail station (no ticket barriers which felt odd), across the shopping centre to the underground station, to board a north-bound Northern line service to London Bridge.
London Bridge, at 5:45 on a Friday afternoon, busy, hot, delays, but eventually 376033 leading 376014 pulled in to take me to Elmers End (allowing me to cross of the Hayes line from Lewisham), a very busy train with no seating until Catford where I managed to get a sideways seat, but wasn’t that nice overall with the temperature. At Elmers End I passed over to the tramlink platform to await as one of the newer trams pulled in, allowing me to get to East Croydon with a good 20 minutes to spare before the 442 was due. Hanging around a busy station, was very refreshing after being on the busy tram. A Gatwick Express 442 pulled though causing confusion with the platform staff thinking it was the stopper, as it slowed quite down, but sped pass with 442407 following it. First time on a 442 and they are quite nice units, good seats, could probably do with being used on the Brighton mainline express services more often, as they are more comfy than the 377s.
At Victoria, it was a dash to the Victoria line platform to catch a Victoria line train to Oxford Circus for a reverse mitigation to the Bakerloo line to go back to Paddington. At Paddington I had a good 10 minutes before the train left which I had a reserved seat on (once more in Coach C), leading the set was winner 43151 with 43088 behind it, both winners. At Reading I had a short wait, nice to have the waiting room on the P1/2 side of platform 4 having a door so you can see when the Basingstoke/Newbury trains arrive on P1 or 2 (platform 3 no longer has tracks it looked like). Winner 165134 (but sadly not a 150/0) pulled in for the short trip back to Basingstoke where a little while later duds 159001 leading 159101 pulled in to take me back to Grateley, where I ran home trying to beat a thunderstorm which was closing in. 5 minutes after getting in the heavens absolutely opened.
A quite successful day, some more of the Southeastern Metro covered, plus 3 out of 4 of my mid-week targets.
