24th March Prelude to Staring at the Eastern Sun
Due to engineering works between Woking & Basingstoke on the Saturday, meant to avoid a 4th early start in a row (the non-hotel option involved driving to Didcot Parkway for a stopper to Paddington), but due to some strange reason the last Salisbury service (which would normally depart Basingstoke at 00:30) has disappeared so meant a drive to Basingstoke on the Friday afternoon.
Lots of road works for what looked like new housing and other improvements meant I arrived into Basingstoke around 15:05, managed to grab a space in the premium car-park and it took 10 minutes to purchase my weekend car parking ticket from the ticket office, so by the time I returned to my car, sorted myself out and returned to the station it was a wait for 159019 & 159020 forming the 15:30 service to Waterloo. With nothing other than to be at Victoria for 19:00 for a forum meal, I decided to head towards Thameslink for some 700 hunting, so once at Waterloo I made use of the peak time subway to reach the Northern line platform.
A required 95 stock pair was heading south so I decided to stay around for a couple delayed services to depart heading north before winners
51659/51660 returned from the loop to take me under the water to Embankment, where I decided to hang around for 20-odd minutes on the off-chance a required S7 was spotted. I decided to jump onto 21447/21448 to Temple, before continuing on 21329/21330 to Blackfriars, walking up the stairs. The line was still having issues caused by a failed 700 in the wee early hours, but the first service which rolled in was winner
700045 which I took to City Thameslink. A couple dud 700s were up next as I decided to head over to the other platform, which was the first train in 20 minutes (hence the platform was very busy).
Required
700031 rolled in and took away some of the crowd without any hardship for the 14 chain roll up the hill to Blackfriars. A required 700 was spotted on the other platform but as the hustle alarms were sounding when I alighted it escaped me. 15 (or so) minutes later I was heading back to City Thameslink on
700009, visiting the very purple toilets [south end of the station if anybody is interested for future reference]. A couple more non-700 services before
700036 decided it wanted to get introduced to my book of haulage. Annoyingly another required 700 was behind this one however that was heading towards Three Bridges so I gave it a miss. After noting a very crowded single 319 heading towards Keith Town, I decided to jump on 319010/319445 down the slope to City Thameslink, followed by 700010 to Farringdon.
With one eye on the clock, I turned down the first S8 as the following Circle line service was a minute behind, sadly it was dud 21477/21478 for the mile and 11 chains to Kings Cross St Pancras, walking towards the Victoria line saw 11061/11062 being taken to Victoria, exiting the system at 18:59. It took me 10 minutes to find the venue to have a good social.
After the meal, for a Southern Avoidance Move (caused by trespassers earlier, Southern were doing their usual in being chaotic), I headed to the Sub Surface Line, turning down 3 dud S7s before the next Wimbledon bound service formed of 21379/21380. I took a seat in the front coach and when we rolled into Earls Court, I noted a required S7 rolling in on the other platform. Needless to say it was a quick walk over the footbridge to jump onto winner
21331/21332 for the short run to High Street Kensington where it terminated in bay platform 3 (does the other bay platform (4?) get much use these days?. As I just missed a Wimbledon bound service, it was a 10 (or so) minute fester for 21459/21460 to roll in to take me the long trip down to Wimbledon, making use of the new alignment at Putney Bridge (basically the former bay platform has been turned into a through line, with the former southbound through line being lifted and the platform extended).
At Wimbledon the appearance of one of the 700s I scored earlier was tempting for a trip via St Helena, but I decided it will wait for another day with busy tram 2547 taking me to East Croydon for some tram based action. Usual Easy Hotel windowless room with a noisy AC unit (even when turned off) (plus a random fire alarm which went off around half 11) meant the usual half-sleep, but thankfully it wasnt a 04:XX alarm for the first time in a few weeks
4 more RLU 700s into my book, 1 more S7 plus another 95 pair, not bad going
25th March - Staring at the Eastern Sun
My original plan involved the return of an old friend, however with the replacement buses, the grand return of the bike shall have to wait for the following week. Anyhow I checked out of the hotel and headed to East Croydon for the 06:25 (ish) Thameslink towards Bedford, and in rolled dud 700010 (annoyingly also dud for 10 miles having scored it back in January on the crawl). Anyhow I took up my usual seat in the rearmost carriage and relaxed noting that the sun was shining in southern London.
I alighted at St Pancras, turning down a 319 bound for Wimbledon before dud 700008 rolled in to take me to Farringdon, but not the usual platform as it crossed over to the northbound line in Clerkenwell tunnel 2 to terminate on the northbound platform (looking at RTT it suggests that only 2 trains an hour were continuing south of St Pancras with the other 2 terminating at St Pancras running to City Thameslink as ECS to reverse, but it was a time wasting micro-gricing move (heh). 319445 was attached to 319446 this morning to take me back to St Pancras, where I exited the station, crossing over to Kings Cross for I was booked on the 08:03 to Leeds (making use of a Virgin Seat Sale meaning it was £7 each way).
Dud 91113 was hauling the service this morning with winner DVT 82228 on the rear, a busy service (at least in coach C) calling at the usual East Coast stations (its a far cry from the London Manchester services which are nice and fast). Arrival into Leeds was a couple minutes early, although that was lost as I was sat next to someone who decided to wait until most of the passengers had left the train before thinking about making a move. The set rolled into the far end of platform 9 so it was a long walk back towards the gate line to pick up some lunch from Boots before heading over to the TPE platforms for the Hull service.
I was hoping to get one of the few 185s only in my book with a bus stop leap (i.e. between Piccadilly & Oxford Road), but alas it was 185116 (already on 10 miles due to having a couple Stockport leaps in my book), however I got my reserved seat in coach B without any issues for the 20 and a bit mile run towards Selby, where some shacks on the line towards Hull in East Yorkshire were in my sights. The Colas 67s rolled through the station with a network rail test train after the 185s had departed which took me a bit off-guard for pictures (as it was running slightly late). I was expecting to see a lovely pacer bounce in from York on the next Hull service, but alas no 142 thrash as it was 150270 to take me eastwards, as I alighted 20-odd miles later at
Broomfleet
Yes, the station which was high on my list of stations passed through the most without ever stopping has gone from the top. Beware the station which sees only 4 westbound trains (and 5 eastbound trains) call a day has a level crossing, but a handy car-park and platform announcement system (yes I was surprised when it kicked into live to announce the next Doncaster bound service, as someone sang last year I wasnt expecting that. Basic wooden platforms built on top of the former track bed (I believe it used to be 4 tracks around here at some point), it appeared someone boarded the Hull bound service, but nobody else was around for dud 158787 to roll in to take me one station down the line to
Gilberdyke
For anybody making plans (not for Nigel), it is a hourly served shack on the Doncaster Hull stoppers with roughly one train every two hours on the York Hull services, has a handy footbridge, but nothing else around (apart from one very overgrown looking loop behind the platform). I had Google Maps fired up to show me the way for a mere 3 mile walk, via some houses, then onto country lanes, crossing the railway at an User worked crossing (making sure I closed the gates), then more country lanes before a pavement alongside a busy B-road, before one last countrylane, taking me over the motorway and to the small village station of
Eastrington. You could probably guess which way this trip is going with my 2nd limited served shack of the day in the book. Another level crossing station, featuring a lovely bench, which took my weight to relax as I had 50-odd minutes to kill before the York bound service was due, so I did a few photographs of some of the various trains passing (noting that something had happened with a couple eastbound services running very slowly, like the signal for the level crossing was late in coming down (but did give the advantage of having a 185 accelerate passed the level crossing).
My pacer-less run continued as 158784 rolled in to take me a couple stations to (yep you guessed correctly)
Wressle, (Another level crossing shack for anybody wanting to risk the connection in the morning services which call). Once more I had Google Maps fired up, as I prepared myself for a 3.9 mile walk (pretty much all country lanes) heading back eastwards to
Howden, the walk taking a good hour and 20 minutes with a couple water breaks (for it was warm in the eastern sun). Howden has a level crossing but more importantly has a pub next to the eastbound platform. Anyhow my walking was complete as I took a moment to surrender myself to rest before 150270 returned to take me back to Selby, crossing over to the bay platform (new score) with 158797 working the next Leeds stopper for the run back to Leeds.
Earlier in the day I had spotted a required 153, which I had assumed was working Knaresborough short services, only to see it sitting on platform 5 due to work a peak-time extra Knaresborough short working. With nothing else required spotted, I boarded dud 155341 leading winner
153359 (2nd last Northern 153) to Horsforth, the edge of validity for my (poorly used) rover. A cosy 150132 returned me to Leeds, which was very busy; with nothing else spotted I decided a microgrice was in order with a long walk to platform 7 to board 158872 working the next Selby service. I alighted at Garforth for my first pacer of the day in the shape of 144013 returning from Selby rolling into platform 7 (wait ages for a train from that little used bay and I get it both ways!).
A required 158 was spotted, but wasnt the service I was thinking it would be, and sadly where the connection is possible I didnt fancy a +4 at Bramley (which in itself only gives a +6 to the 20:05 London service). With nothing else spotted which was required (or even gettable by this point), I called it a day, swinging via McDonalds after IDing the Virgin service returning from Neville Hill, and a very familiar looking 91 on platform 8 to form the 20:05. Yep it was 91113 again, made worse by being in the seat opposite the one I had in the morning! Anyhow it was a quiet service, spending the time watching a couple BBC4 programs (Inside Sellafield), and a right time arrival into Kings Cross so all was good. I had previously researched the train I needed to board at Waterloo would be the 23:15, which gave me roughly 45 minutes to play with.
To the Piccadilly line (well it is the line featuring roughly 50% of my remaining LU needs), first two services were dud before 144/
191 rolled in to take me to Leicester Square, the next was dud with a 8 minute gap being shown for the next service after-that, so I walked up the stairs to the Northern Line platforms. 8 minutes of festering later winners
51707/51539 took me to Tottenham Court Road, heading back to Waterloo on 51628/51629 on the next southbound service, arriving around 23:00. The 23:15 Havant was departing from platform 5 featuring 450544 & 450035 and was already busy. I was lucky in getting a seat in what Quinn would say is a bay of 2, but what most others would say was an airline seat
)), in coach number 2. On departure passengers were standing down the aisles, after Clapham Junction I think the service was weekday peak style crush loaded (as in people standing in the actual bays).
The service emptied out at Woking as I walked to the front, managing to get on board the first Basingstoke fast bus with the driver counting the number of empty seats to make sure he was fully loaded. It was a SWT branded stagecoach coach, fleet 52657 (PSU 787) which after 50 minutes (made worse by a RTA on one of the roundabouts in Basingstoke), arrived into Basingstoke. A short walk to my car, changing my shoes and I set course to home, going by the backroads due to being more interesting than the M3/A303.
A couple more LU units into my book (58 to go excluding that D-stock), plus a required 153 into the book, but today was mainly about clearing those 3 limited served shacks towards Hull, although I feel I missed a trick in not trying to visit Hessle or Ferriby when I was out in that area, but that is a job for next Saturday.
Anyhow some pictures:
Colas 67027 on route to Hull:
Broomfleet:
Gilberdyke
Its that Colas 67 again:
Eastrington:
Wressle:
Howden:
