How difficult is it to arrive or leave at all timetabled platforms. 5 year project to achieve this.

Day 606: Monday 12/10/2026 - Island Line Day Ranger - £7.00 - valid after 8.45am on Weekdays. Car Park - Barnham continued...
Total time today 914 mins - time on trains 217 mins and time waiting 697 mins. Stations completed today 4. Total completed 2581. Platforms completed at completed stations 5990.

" A day for patience"

The Island Line day Ranger kicks in after 8.45 so i had a very leisurely start for once, so much so i even had time for a hot breakfast to psych myself up for the near vertical start to the walk to the station. Constant light very fine rain - mizzle i guess, would be my constant companion today and not fun to be in after a few minutes. Don't get me started again on the dearth of covered seating at most of the stations on this line after the Ryde trio. It was dismal coverage essentially. Even the metal seating in the double depth shelter on the platform for Rye was insufficient, as the whole length of it was wet from the rain. No covered seating on the Shanklin platform. Anyway, i timed my arrival at Sandown pretty well, and just a few minute later i was alighting at Brading, the other 2 platform station on the line after Sandown and St Johns Road.

40 mins later (yes i was sat down under cover for once) i was off to the end of the line and tick number 2 at Shanklin. Not much time (or inclination in the rain) to explore here and was slightly baffled by the old bloke who ambled in and asked all aboard in a loud voice "is this the Ryde train" With hindsight perhaps i should have said Yes, and asked him if he had a ticket to Ryde (ride) as the secret answer to his question. Ho hummmm..

My last new station of the day would be Lake, and it was here i think that my patience was tested most today. I am trying to recall if i have ever been to a station before that literally has no seating at all - so inside or out. Bordesley i think for one but that is a least used station so perhaps just forgiveable, but Lake receives services every 40 mins or so each way on this singled part of the line, and so really should have something more than it has. Not a happy bunny and my back was starting to protest as i boarded my last IOW service for the ride to Ryde and onto the ferry for the sail back to Portsmouth Harbour.

I had intended to drive up to Eastleigh for the rest of the day and try and catch a service doing the Slow line from Shawford, but cover from the rain is at a premium there i seem to recall, so not wishing to risk a long wait in perhaps uncomfortable surroundings i switched my attention to Worthing instead. Ironically as it happens all but 2 services towards Southampton stopping at Shawford used P3 today!!! Argh..... Most unusual that... All was not lost however. I changed my ticket at Portsmouth & Southsea and was issued an excess ticket to Worthing East for just £3.00 (i was originally going to Barnham). I should have clarified as i also needed to get back from Worthing East but when i purchased that at Worthing i got charged £6.05. No biggie in the scheme of things but there it is. Oh i should have mentioned that i went via Portsmouth & Southsea as i wanted to check in to my hotel as i wouldn't be back till post midnight. I have found you can get your room card earlier than advertised if you say you are not needing the room till much later. Not sure if this is universal but that is my third successful request this year for an early keycard.

Now, waiting for ever on the off chance a train will divert into P1 at Worthing is not the greatest fun in the world, and you have to keep an eye on the boards every half an hour or so to see if a late stopper turns up there (10 mins late is the ideal) I was prepared to wait it out for 8 hours and did start to wonder if security would clock this strange guy who has been here for hours. Thankfully their observational skills were sadly lacking in this area and i did go and have a wander up and down the platform every now & again to keep my interest going. As you might guess i got through a big chunk of my latest book which was preferable to staring at the four walls of the main waiting room. Eventually i got lucky and the required late stopper turned up on the boards and i transferred platforms in anticipation. Yup it got changed to P1 and i now have the full platform 1 loop under my belt as a result. Everything was going well today for a change.

My last target of the day wasn't until late evening so i decided to travel up to Barnham, where i regained my car, locked the doors and proceeded to have a couple of hours sleep after first setting my alarm for 10pm. I can sleep pretty much anywhere but the uncomfortable thin metal seats in some shelters so i just took advantage. i would be getting not much more than 3 hours kip in the hotel so decided to bank some now. Late supper courtesy of Tesco and a transfer to the platforms to eat it. Interestingly the gates at Barnham were still manned even though it was well past 10pm. So what was so rare that i did another 4 hours wait before gaining the last (i think) Southern service into Portsmouth where it was supposed to terminate in P1. I think this is the only scheduled service to do the crossover into P1 hence my late night vigil. We were progressively late as we inched towards Fratton which had some signalling problems and i was starting to fret we would miss our P1 slot. It was with a huge sigh of relief everything went to plan in the end. Perhaps we were so late the next service into Portsmouth Harbour was breathing down our necks and we had to still do the move. To bed with a relieved smile....

Day 607: Tuesday 13/10/2026 - Fratton to Barnham - £13.20 - Anytime Single. Car Park - still at Barnham
Total time today 57 mins - time on trains 26 mins and time waiting 31 mins. Just one section of track was targeted today

"A brief encounter with some rare track before heading for home"

The previous days have been very different to my normal style, but today had one focus only - a P2 start from Fratton on the first service of the day. This would use my last remaining crossover in the area and was another one off for a few days this week only. It was about 15 mins to walk up to Fratton station and i timed it well after i negotiated the bridge to gain P2. This was the first London service of the day but very few folk had got up as early as i had to ensure i was on the service. I was very glad of the extra hours sleep in the car last night, and i didn't feel tired all day despite a 5 hour drive back home negotiating the rush hour and post rush hour traffic. The usual M5/M6 interchange hotspot but apart from that it was fine. Earlier we left Fratton on time and gained the Up line and just like that i had a perfect score for the 3 days. That is a super rare thing and it was so worth the trip down because of this. Hampshire is now complete for stations, and only 6 stations remain that i have not yet visited. 3 of them are new stations which i will get around to before the end of this year, one i am saving for the end, and also Rannoch and Roy Bridge on the line up to Fort William. I hope to be out again on Sunday to complete another station, so i am whittling them down slowly.

Very fortuitous to get Worthing P1...nicely done.

I wasn't aware it was your good self that was now running unusualtrack, and would like to thank you for taking it up; especially if having no previous knowledge of SQL or PHP!! If I come across any moves that are not currently scripted, I'll be sure to drop a DM.

On a separate note, I asked google's AI about Woodford P1 (LU bay platform) and it replied it's not in common use, but gave me an option to set a task that if engineering or another reason brought it into use, it would notify me. Not sure if it will work, but could be a useful experiment.

@gazr Woodford P1 sees a single arrival late on a Sunday evening (22:37). Screenshot of the working timetable with the P1 terminator within the box.

No clue how successful it will be mind