Help me plan an "outgoing stock" day out in London!

[antharro]

I'll be up in London for a few days next week. I'm keeping one day free to spend on the trains. This will probably be a weekday. My aim is to get as many of the "outgoing" stocks as possible while staying in the Oyster ticket area. So far I have:

SWR
455 on the Kingston loop (Kingston / Strawberry Hill / Richmond)
458 - Waterloo to ...

GA: 317 - Liverpool St to Hertford East

TFL: 315 - Liverpool St to Shenfield

Southern: 455 - Victoria? to ... Tattenham Corner? Epsom Downs?

Can I get a 91+Mk4 set within the Oyster area?

What else should I try to get? Suggestions appreciated!

 

[JonathanH]

Can I get a 91+Mk4 set within the Oyster area?

No. At the weekend, there are very cheap LNER only fares to Stevenage though.

 

[APT618S]

GA 321 / 322 out of Liverpool St ? You can travel on these to Stratford.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I'll be up in London for a few days next week. I'm keeping one day free to spend on the trains. This will probably be a weekday. My aim is to get as many of the "outgoing" stocks as possible while staying in the Oyster ticket area. So far I have:

SWR
455 on the Kingston loop (Kingston / Strawberry Hill / Richmond)
458 - Waterloo to ...

GA: 317 - Liverpool St to Hertford East

TFL: 315 - Liverpool St to Shenfield

Southern: 455 - Victoria? to ... Tattenham Corner? Epsom Downs?

Can I get a 91+Mk4 set within the Oyster area?

What else should I try to get? Suggestions appreciated!

455s are not booked to work to Tattenham Corner. Planned replacement May 22.

Potentially, you might like to travel on a LNR Class 319 from Euston, but you’ll need to travel on a weekday. Travelling to Harrow & Wealdstone falls within the Oyster area. Planned replacement Dec 22.

During peak hours, you can take a 222 to Luton Airport Parkway using contactless, but not Oyster, unless you get a fairly cheap extension. Planned replacement 2023+.

Fairly cheap extensions and advance fares are available for the 40 minute run to Milton Keynes Central, where a 221 can take you. Planned replacement 2023*.

If you were feeling adventurous, you could buy a return to Milton Keynes, take a doomed 319 to Watford, an Avanti 221 to Milton Keynes, hop over to Bedford on an ex-London Underground 230, and then pick up on of the peak evening 180/222s down to St Pancras.

 

[JonathanH]

GA 321 / 322 out of Liverpool St ? You can travel on these to Stratford.

Or potentially Romford on a Travelcard and Shenfield on Oyster / Contactless.

 

[Kite159]

I would recommend using a travelcard over oyster, at least you don't have to worry about remembering to touch out every 90 minutes or so. Or worry that the system will get confused and link journeys together.

Although you loss the benefit of being able to take 321/2s to Shenfield & 317s towards Hertford East unless you get extra boundary zone tickets.

I don't think any Southern 455s work towards Tattenham Corner, that is normally a 5 coach 377. They worked the stoppers towards Caterham (assuming those stoppers are still running). Epsom Downs should be 455.

 

[Royston Vasey]

458s and 455s are both currently doing the Kingston loop so you can do a Waterloo to Waterloo circular on both or get off one and onto the other somewhere on the way round. 8 coach 455s and 10 coach 458s between the old Eurostar platforms and platform 5.

 

[50002Superb]

Will be interesting to see what you ultimately do, will you let us have a list of what / when you travelled on?

I’m planning something similar on 2 April but want to include 313s as well.

 

[Watershed]

It depends on how you structure things and where you stay overnight, but an outboundary Travelcard (such as this one from Milton Keynes) may be suitable for what you want. The one I linked to would be valid for a journey from Milton Keynes to London via Bedford, as well as direct, allowing you to experience a few different types of stock as suggested above.

Alternatively you could buy one from Cambridge North - a Weekend Super Off-Peak Travelcard, route GA only, is only £19.80 vs £14.40 for an Off-Peak Day Travelcard. Careful timing should allow you to take 317s on GA and 315s on LO.

For £14.40 you can get more than just an Off-Peak Day Travelcard - a Travelcard from as far north as Brookmans Park costs the same. Or you can get an LNER only Travelcard from Stevenage for just 50p more. Equally you can get validity in Zones 7-9 for 90p more.

 

[antharro]

As requested (and sorry for the delay), here's the write-up of what I actually got up to that day. I didn't end up having the whole day in the end; I started mid-afternoon. I used Oyster PAYG, touching in/out as appropriate.

Headcodes [in brackets] denote that I've looked up the headcode after the fact so while it's probably the same as it was on 28/3 it may not be.

1536 1601 2F68 321303 + 322483 London Liverpool St - Shenfield (to Colchester Town)
1605 1629 1K81 321302 + 321315 Shenfield - London Liverpool St (from Southend Victoria) *
1647 1653 [1F36] 720539 + 720537 London Liverpool St - Stratford (to Braintree)
1717 1808 [2O48] 317347 + 317881 Stratford - Hertford East
1825 1843 [2O51] 317881 + 317347 Hertford East - Broxbourne
1905 1934 1O57 Broxbourne - London Liverpool St **
Central Line to Bank
Waterloo and City to Waterloo
2012 2020 2H61 455742 + 455733 London Waterloo - Clapham Junction (to Shepperton)
2021 2028 1H57 377401 + 377450 Clapham Junction to London Victoria (from Littlehampton)
2100 2159 2B34 455843 + 455802 London Victoria to Epsom Downs
2209 2309 2B45 455802 + 455843 Epsom Downs to London Victoria ***

After that I got the bus home!

* This pair later seen at Stratford on 1701 1K72 LST - SOV
** I was the only person on this train!
*** Ran fast from Sutton to Balham due to earlier disruption, arrived Balham 11 early. Had a good chat with Driver Tim while he waited to find out what his calling pattern was!

Thanks to @JonathanH and @High Dyke for helping me fill in the gaps in my notes.

I was not overly impressed with the 720s. Perfectly competent train but the seating follows the "modern" thinking of far too hard and far too upright. SWR's 455s are more comfortable imo, and that's saying something. It was great to get a fast run on a 317; sat in the MSO for some good sounds! Overall it was an enjoyable afternoon/evening out, tho I wish I'd been able to start earlier than I did.

I'm probably going to go out and about either today (21/4) or tomorrow to try and get another fast run on a 317 and some more time on a Southern 455.