22nd April Onwards in Great Eastern Land
When I was looking into my plans (for I am a man with a plan) how to visit the various stations along the Southend Victoria branch, I noticed that for a couple hours in the evening peak the frequency doubles to roughly every 10 minutes, so it should be easy enough to grab the shacks linearly with enough time for a brief look around.
Due to the slight wet weather (not as bad as the previous week as the roads werent rivers), I drove to Andover in time for the 15:06 service, formed this afternoon of 159006 & 159108 for the speedy run into Waterloo, although held up around Woking & Clapham Junction for a late running service from the Guildford direction to clear the junctions, but at least it didnt mean the usual sitting outside Waterloo for 5 minutes waiting for the platform to become available. It was a fast walk down to the Waterloo & City line platform, to jump onto duds 65503/65504 for the mile and a half to Bank, exiting via the manual gate (as Im not sure what would happen if I put my ticket through the barrier, would it work the gates the other side of the hill due to the ongoing refurbishment work of the subway?).
Onto the Central line platform, and having just missed a service I walked towards the rear of the platform, for two reasons, the first was to grab the unit numbers of the next service, the 2nd was because it is easier to leave the underground at Liverpool Street. A central line service formed of required sets
91163/92226/92432/91205 rolled in and took me the tiny distance to Liverpool Street, where I arrived onto the concourse a mere 13 minutes after leaving the concourse at Waterloo, enough time to check a couple potential linear hops. Mainly a trio of 360s which runs fast from Stratford to Chelmsford, which were all dud so I dashed around and leapt onto the next Southend service [the other linear hop towards Witham departed from the West Anglia side of the station].
All I managed to grab as I leapt on was the rear unit was dud 321319, and walking through passing the passengers who decided to stay in the area around the rearmost door (even though there was seats available in the next coach), I alighted at Stratford for a quick walk up to see what was on the front, and it turned out to be required
321341, happy days as I stood away from the crowds on the island platform, watching a 90 unload passengers from Norwich, the trio of 360s arrived and departed, before the following Witham service. Dud 321363 was leading required
321355 so it was onto the front coach of 355 for the speedy run to Shenfield. The next Southend service was due to depart from platform 5, so under the subway and up to await the arrival of the first 12-car of the evening.
In rolled a trio formed of dud 321350, winner
321328 and dud 321338 to take me the 4 miles & 28 chains to my first new shack of the evening at
Billericay. nice enough shack where the train emptied out a bit, and 9 or so minutes later duds 321320 & 321426 to take me to
Rayleigh, where a lot more passengers alighted, and I took a seat under the canopy out of the rain which had started to get annoying, but the next service was formed of 12 coaches so it was back to the trios
and in rolled a trio of duds, 321432, 321442 & 321436 for the short sub 3-mile hop to
Hockley, for another short fester at an unremarkable station, before super-dud 321443 rolled in with required
321307 in the middle and 321308 at the end for the short hop to
Rochford. Another nice old footbridge, and decent canopy for the 10 minute wait before winner
321423 rolls in with duds 321356 & 321305 for the tiny 70 chain leap to
Southend Airport. Sadly nothing much around the airport apart from an Easyjet plane, but 321423 gets the honours of 321 with the least distance (beats that GN 321 on a hop between Cambridge villages shacks last month). I didnt want to hang around Southend Airport for long, and thankfully duds 321314/321440/321336 rolled in to take me to my final shack along the line at
Prittlewell
I had noticed that someone had dropped an outer boundary travelcard issued 20 or so minute earlier, which probably would cost them something once in London (especially if RPIs boarded), and that it was mostly only 8-car units coming back up from Southend on a roughly 20 minute frequency (so half the services were going direct to the sidings at Southend after working as well as some units, so something to bear in mind for future). Anyhow, it was fresh dud 321307 & 321308 to take me back up the line to Wickford, where my focus would shift towards a couple of the shacks on the Crouch Valley line, so purchasing my ticket from the TVM, and noting a dud 321 sitting on platform 1 (strangely not locked out of use seeing as it would stay there for another 50-odd minutes as the next Southminster service came from Liverpool Street).
In rolled winner
321324 which emptied out a bit at Wickford, so I managed to grab a seat for the short run to
North Fambridge the passing loop on the single track line, so normally either get lucky with the +1 connection or a 40 minute+ fester, but I had noticed that the next Shenfield bound service gave a 5 minute connection as it sat on the platform for 5 minutes before departing. Winner
321421 was leading dud 321425 & 321424 (which was looked out of use, I suspect it gets locked out of use after Wickford) for the short trip back to
Battlesbridge for a long fester in the rain.
For future reference there appears to be a pub at the bottom of the station approach road, with must feature the smallest station car-park which is Pay & Display, 4 car-park spaces plus 1 disabled bay, charging 50p a day to park, makes me wonder if it is really worth charging for such a tiny car-park, probably costs NCP more to maintain the ticket machine than it does in revenue. Anyhow after a brief look around I returned to the platform, to stand underneath a rubbish shelter, to await the arrival of dud 321310 to take me to the chavastic
South Woodham Ferrers, oh yeah it is Essex, smokers on the platform looking at the passengers alighting, ignoring the TVM as they boarded fresh dud 321324, I suspect the 2nd member of staff on board (I would say guard, but I think the services on this line are DOO for 4 car services) was busy selling tickets to the chavs, playing their rap music loud and proud in the front coach (I could hear it from the motor-coach over the noise of the motors).
Anyhow back at Wickford and a short walk over the footbridge to platform 3 as dud 321342 rolled in to take me to Shenfield as I had time for a small linear hop from a service from Clacton (or wait 20 minutes for a trio of units from Southend). I had a smile on my face when winner
360101 rolled in with dud 360119 in tow, as 101 was my last 360 to get, so I took a seat for the short run back to Stratford, and down to the DLR platform as required units
95 & 35 rolled in to take me the mile (or so) to West Ham. Up and over the footbridge as I got into position for some 96 stock hunting, and first up was required
96100/96081 which I took for the 78 chain leap to Canning Town, and took out the deckchair.
3 dud sets came and went as I decided to jump on the next set regardless (owing to a 5 minute gap afterwards), as winner
96014 rolled in with dud 96079 on the rear to North Greenwich, where I crossed over to the bay platform as winner
96104/96049 was in the bay ready to form the next service towards Waterloo (hence the 5 minute gap). Nice sound of motor noise later and I was into Waterloo, swinging via Sainsburys for a meal-deal and via McDonalds to use up a free Sundae voucher, before heading up for the 22:20 to Salisbury. Which was the front train blocking a 444, and it was 159107 which has returned from its mild holiday at Loughborough.
Nice (busy until Woking) run back to Andover, as I reflected on a good day, and probably will head out towards that Southend line again in the future to hunt down my 321s as I still need quite a few and Ive only got 9 x 321 served shacks left in GA land to get (2 more on Southminster branch, 1 on the Clacton branch, 4 on the Harwich branch, pus 2 on the main-line.
Anyhow First Great Eastern lives!
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23rd April A Ticket to Ryde
A nice relaxing day for me, with the latest UK Railtours trip to the Isle of Wight, mainly to get coverage of the Steam Railway and hopefully a required 483, with free connecting travel to the nearest pick-up (which today was Woking) gave me a couple options, either a drive to Andover for the 7:38 (from Yeovil, I think) or Grateley for the 7:59 (from Honiton), the earlier arrival will give me some time to kill in Woking for a supply raid for lunch, so decided to aim for that service.
Good thing as it was a trio of units, formed of 159011, 159007 & 159001, so I had a nice bit of space (compared to the 7:59 which rolled into Woking reported as full and standing as it was only a single unit. After locating the Sainsburys for a supply raid (not really that easy as its buried within a shopping centre), I picked up a rover for the following weekend to kill time before waiting on platform 5 for the special charter service to roll in.
Happy days as 159022 rolled in with 159008 at the rear, as 022 was my lowest mileage 159, so the run towards Portsmouth Harbour certainly gave it a good push, nothing unusual on the route via Guildford & Haslemere, pausing outside Havant and again between Fratton & Portsmouth and Southsea before a slow crawl through the high level platforms towards Portsmouth Harbour, arriving pretty much on time. Lots of passengers headed towards the loading stage to board the Wight Scene (red pen time!) for a small harbour cruise showing off many of the royal navys ships.
After the short cruise we crossed over the Solent and docked at Ryde Pier Head, due to maintenance issues Island Line were only running single unit services rather than the usual double units previously used on weekends where UK Railtours ran these tours, and with the first departure to Smallbrook Junction due to be very busy, a couple double decker buses were roped in as crowd busters, involving a walk along the pier to the bus stop, where a Vectis Blue double decker, fleet 1523 featuring bars on the top window (as tree bashers I assuming), for the rather nice run towards the Steam Railway HQ at Havenstreet (although from the branch being shouted by the person in the seat in front makes me wonder if they have ever been on a double decker before when they brush against low laying branches). It was certainly different then catching a dud 483 and standing all the way to Smallbrook.
After a brief look around the HQ area, at some of the old carriages & wagons in various stages of being rebuilt, and some history in the Train Story area, featuring some old steam locos being rebuilt, before I headed to the gate for the Brake Van Shuttle, where a class 05 shunter was being used to go backwards and forward up to the head-shunt of the siding used to access the Train Story area. So Nuclear Fred
D2554 hauled me in a brake van to the head-shunt before reversing back to the start where everybody was forced to alight and if they wanted another go join the back of the queue. Certainly an interesting experience with my first 05 shunter, before I headed over to the platform at
Havenstreet to await the arrival of the Wootton bound service with the 4 wheel carriages [from the Victorian era].
The little steam loco was LB&SCR A1X Class W11 Newport and taking a seat in one of the armchairs in a rather lush first class compartment (I could steal those armchairs!) for the slightly bouncy ride to the end of the line at
Wootton, a station with not really a lot around, watching as the loco changed end as I changed compartments for the run back to Havenstreet, changing compartments again during the 25 minute wait for the other service to cross over, mainly for another armchair for the run through the countryside to the end of the line at
Smallbrook Junction, the interchange with the Island line services with no outside access.
I was planning to head back to Havenstreet to make a connection with the other steam loco, however when we called at the request stop at
Ashey I couldnt help myself and I bailed at the station in the middle of nowhere with someone taking some pictures who was happy he wasnt alone as I could flag down the train where he could take a picture. Nice enough platform and it felt strange flagging down the Ivatt 2-6-2 Tank, number 41298, before boarding the bogie stock, didnt feel as nice inside as the 4-wheel carriages, but gave a better ride.
Back to Smallbrook Junction and to the other platform (where I can safety say that I have now cleared the Island Line shacks), sadly both units out were dud, so I decided to head to Shanklin on 483004 before returning to Lake for a mile grab, before 483006 took me back to Shanklin, changing ends for the run back to Ryde Pier Head, first time going to Pier Head by train, and it got busy at Smallbrook Junction (I bet the last service would have been rammed). A brief PNB before we were allowed to board the Wight Scene for the semi-direct run back to Portsmouth Harbour, waiting around for the Wight Ryder Cat to depart from the Cat Flap before heading back to the pair of 159s which rolled into platform 3.
Smooth enough run, a bit of a crawl making not the nicest of noise around the curve at Portsmouth & Southsea station, before heading back in a northern direction up the Portsmouth Direct Line, rolling into Woking a minute or so late, however thankfully we went into P2, which meant I could have a cross platform leap onto the Salisbury bound service, which for me was a first time event as it was formed of 4-coaches, 158883 leading 158887 [first time in having a pair of 158s on their own on the main-line] and after a toilet break (just when did SWT update the sink modules to include a hand-dryer which works at drying hands?) I located a seat for the run back to Andover.
I headed home via a visit to the takeaway pizza shop for some dinner (if I had missed that connection at Woking, I would have headed to McDonalds for dinner to kill the 30 minute wait). Anyhow sadly with two 483s left, I need to head back to the Island, probably on a Summer Sunday where it should be double units for the crowds, but at least the stations are clear and the coverage of the Steam Railway is complete (and I can eventually see the Island Line going over to trams, with one of the tracks from Smallbrook being used solely by the steam railway back to Ryde St Johns.
Anyhow some pictures of the enjoyable day:
Its a baby steam engine:
Class 05 coming through:
41298:
Engine not in use today:
W11 is back:
1st class, Victorian style:
Smallbrook Junction:
Ashey:
From a 1951 steam engine...
To 1939 tube stock:
Lake even has Smartcard readers!
When did this get fitted to the 158s?
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24th April A Marathon Effort
To say farewell to the £15 SWT day returns promotional fare (which has run for quite some time); a day-trip to London was in order, with the focus mainly on avoiding the marathon (and the football at Wembley). I got some gem at the location of a few of my remaining units, which I decided to build up a rough plan to try and get some little odds & sods cleared up.
It was to Andover (for the line was closed between Salisbury & Andover, otherwise I would have gone to Salisbury) and onto 159013, which departed quite busy (and a couple minutes late due to waiting for the bus to arrive), got very busy at Basingstoke where it was full & standing down the aisles, leaving passengers behind at Woking (where I noticed the guard opening the front door so he could close the doors, probably couldnt get back in at the rear of the unit (and probably spent the rest of the journey in the front next to the driver).
No chance at alighting at Clapham, so it was onwards to Waterloo, where eventually I got off the service and headed to the Jubilee line, my first required unit was 387121 which was due to be working a Brighton London Bridge service (the Thameslink core was closed so Thameslink were diverting 2 trains an hour to London Bridge), but first a trip to Canada Water, as last year it was renamed Buxton Water for the day in a sponsorship deal with some bottle water brand.
First Jubi line service was winners
96001/96116 which were quite busy as it took me to Canada Water, sadly no name change this year, so it was back to London Bridge on required
96060/96043, and up-to the low level platforms, with a couple options, either a pair of dud 387s heading to Brighton or a pair of dud 377s heading to Horsham, I decided to pick dud 377105 & 377161 as 105 contains nicer seating, and decided to bail at Norwood Junction for a short wait before dud 455837 rolled in to continue my journey southwards to East Croydon.
On checking RTT, it highlighted that the service 387121 was meant to have been on was cancelled, but wanting to hang around just in case it would pop up on the next Thameslink working gave me around 40 minutes to kill, so it was to the trams
to find nothing heading west of East Croydon due to an incident, with trams terminating at East Croydon, either reversing in platform 2 or heading out and reversing to the west of the station. The first tram was dud, but it wasnt long before required
2537 rolled in, reversed and I boarded to head to Lebanon Road, crossing the busy road to await trams heading towards East Croydon (knowing if there was nothing I was only a sub 5 minute walk away from the station), first two services arrived pretty much on top of each other, but both were dud, giving me a good 10 minute wait before winner
2561 rolled up to take me down the hill to East Croydon. At least 2 more trams are into the book, but sadly a swing via Sainsburys found hardly any sandwiches left, so I gave that a miss, picked up my BZ6 ticket for later and went down to platform 4.
Due to engineering works to the south of Croydon, only the slows were open, so everything heading north was in platform 4, which was busy due to Crystal Palace supporters heading to Wembley. I would have through they would have headed to London Bridge and direct onto the Jubilee line up towards Wembley Park (changing at Finchley Road) which probably would be quicker than the queues at Victoria for the Victoria line and a long walk at Green Park. Anyhow first service was a dud stopper, 2nd was a dud 377 heading to London Bridge, 3rd service was a Victoria bound service with the next up being the Thameslink service I was after. My plan changed as the Victoria serviced was dud 377432 with winner
377438 on the rear.
To Clapham Junction on a busy 377438, where I bailed and jumped onto a pair of 455s heading to Waterloo, which were 455852 & 455726, although the run up-to Clapham I did spot my 2nd last Southern 455 floating around, so I had a plan to hunt it down after a detour to West Hampstead. As time was a tad tight I jumped onto super duds 96028/96055 for the run up to West Hampstead, arriving with 5 minutes to get over to the Thameslink station, strangely the barriers at the Jubilee station were open and the barriers at the Thameslink station were closed (normally its the other way round), over the footbridge and down to platform 1 as the next St Pancras arrival was just rolling in. Dud 377209 was leading winner (and final 377/5)
377519, so taking a seat in 377519 for the run down to St Pancras, micro-gricing the cross-over into the northbound platform.
Out of the station and via Boots for lunch, and to the Northern line platforms, with 51584/51585 taking me the slow trip south, waiting around at every station due to an incident around Tooting services were being turned around early (the dragons had escaped), I through hope was lost as 20 minutes later we arrived into London Bridge, but thankfully I misread RTT and the 455 I spotted earlier wasnt the 13:09, but the 13:22, it just sat at P14 for an extended time [Im guessing due to Sutton services being sent via Peckham, meant a reduced frequency for Southern services]. Anyhow required
455813 was sitting there, so after a short wait we were away, happy days as I planned a route to take as I bailed at Peckham Rye.
The next London Bridge 455 was dud, so I headed over to the South Eastern platform, where duds 465175/465243 took me to Victoria, which was going to be a risk, but thankfully the queues for the Sub-surface line platforms werent as bad (sounded like the Victoria Line barriers were closed due to overcrowding at the platforms due to poor station design where everybody enters the platform at a single point). My focus shifted to being at Paddington for the service to Hereford (hence the reason for the BZ ticket earlier), but as the circle line is only every 10 minutes, it gave me a chance for a spot of linear hopping on the district line, with
21451/21452 taking me to Sloane Square, with
21345/21346 swiftly following to take me to South Kensington, a pair of dud D stock was next before duds 21303/21304 to Notting Hill Gate, followed by a nervous wait for winners
21355/21356 to Paddington.
Upto the main-station, and across to platform 2 where the 14:41 to Hereford was waiting, with dud 166210 leading winner
166219 (caught you at last you sneaky 166), first stop was Slough, and with a BZ6 Slough ticket only costing me less than £3 it would be rude to turn it down, as my remaining 166 is out of action pretending to be a 172 and having caught fire last year, so when I get round to doing a HST hunting day, I dont have to worry about the Turbos. A nice enough run to Slough, keeping an eye out on the state of play with the wiring and the various platform extensions being built to handle the new 345s. Arrival into Slough was a good 5 minutes up, which gave me 20 or so minutes to kill before the next stopper back towards London, so I headed via Tesco to give me something to do.
The next stopper was formed of 5 coaches, and was duds 165110 & 165123 to take me to Ealing Broadway, the driver kindly mentioning to be very careful as the step from the train to the platform on the main-line side of the station was quite large, and with nothing else to do apart from heading towards Putney or Clapham to try and intercept a 458/5, I decided to do some linear hops on the Central line:
91281-92112-92036-91121 to North Acton
91179-92230-92402-
91257 to East Acton
91089-92046-92216-91153 to White City
91325-
32120-92176-91185 to Shepherds Bush
91123-92092-91311-
91079 to Notting Hill Gate
The platforms at the closed Holland Park look so strange, and at Notting Hill Gate it was a long way up to the sub-surface line platforms:
21501-21502 to High Street Kensington
7510*-
7007 to Earls Court (I must have wrote down the wrong number for the leading set as 7510 was one of the first to be withdrawn, but it was a case of jump on as it was sat in the bay platform)
21471-21472 to Barons Court
242-123 to Hammersmith (Piccadilly Line)
193-126 to Barons Court (Piccadilly Line)
7532-7048 to Earls Court
7028-7098 to West Brompton (similarly to 7510, I must have wrote down the wrong number as 7098 has been redrawn, but the platform was very busy due to marathon crowds
21463-21464 to Fulham Broadway
21497-21498 to Parsons Green
21409-21410 to Putney Bridge (complete with working PIS for a platform which doesnt have any track in anymore)
21507-21508 to East Putney.
That was the end of the underground linear hops, a few dud S7s in the mix, but mostly were all winners. With a fast walk took me along the road at Putney to reach Putney main-line station with a couple minutes to spare to head down to the platform before winner
458507 rolled up attached to 458523, which I boarded 458507, and made use of the toilet, holding my breath as they stink.
To Waterloo, and to the Jubilee line platform, with 3 services within 3 minutes and then nothing for 6 minutes, first 2 were duds, but the 3rd was required
96083/96082 to take me to London Bridge, upto the main concourse where the 18:10 to Brighton which I through might have been 387121 [following the diagram it would have been on if it hadnt been cancelled], but as soon as I saw the rear of a 377/5 I turned and headed back (this is when 387121 and another 387 would have been sat as the front train ahead of the 377/5 which would be on a following Sutton service). Required
96090/96039 took me back to Waterloo, where I went upstairs to board the 18:15 to Exeter & Bristol, formed this evening of a very busy 159003/159004, all I can say is roll on the May timetable where the XX:45s to Salisbury call at Andover, which will probably take off some of the pressure of the longer-distance services [not to mention the ending of the £15 deal].
Anyhow a nice drive home, and a chance to reflect on a very productive day with 5 new units in the book (of which 2 were unplanned), a couple trams and a good range of LU units. I think the Central line to the west of White City is quite good for linear hopping, as its out in the open and the services arent so busy as they are in the main core.
Sounds like an excellent day in West Yorks though Kite, still need to get Ulleskelf in to complete the lot all the way from York as far as Huddersfield on the TPE
