Trip reports
Saturday 12th April
Quite a few tickets in my wallet today for this adventure down to Alton and up to Worcester, so I picked them up the day before during a quiet time at the local station (the good thing with having both trains an hour departing within 10 minutes of each other means that for most of the time the station is dead allowing me time to enter the collection reference without the worry of holding up someone). Anyway up at 6:30 to pick up my travelling backpack pre-filled the night before with supplies, for a quick walk to the station arriving at 6:50, to see that the 6:59 was delayed by 5 minutes, good start of the day, I was hoping it would only be 5 minutes due to a 7 minute connection at Basingstoke.
The delay allowed me to spot some diverted freight trains heading towards the Salisbury direction, 159006 arrived as quiet as a sprinter can, no platform announcements early mornings. Nice short trip to Basingstoke, only person in the half-standard class car until Whitchurch (Hants), nothing much more on that journey, passed another freight train but I was too busy playing cards on the tablet. At Basingstoke I had 3 minutes to get from P3 to P5, which was completed as I jumped onto 165136 for the Basingstoke-Reading shuttle service, 21 minutes later arriving into Reading on P2. Another trip Ive made countless times over the years.
Nice to see the masts slowly appearing at Reading, but it was only a short stay for me as I went via the Pumpkin Shop on P7 to pick up the copy of the newspaper, ready to read during a break, to get onto 458023 (f), 458013 (r) Reading to Waterloo service, Ive been on 458s before, but this would be the first time doing any sort of distance on them (Clapham to Waterloo, and Virginia Water to Staines are my previous 2 trips), nice windows as I was looking at the view before arriving at Ascot. But the door buttons are now active. Getting confused arriving into Ascot as I didnt know which side the doors would open as its a single track with platforms both sides (But I guess like Guildford, one is unused due to the 3rd rail being that side).
Going out of the station to get access to the subway to take me to P3 of Ascot, noticed an overgrown platform further south with track still in place, before taking my seat on the 450569 service from Ascot to Guildford, with the first ticket check of the day. Nice bit of line with some good views, my original plan was to get off at Ash Vale, but the guard said change at Aldershot, so getting off the train at Aldershot to have a look around as I had 20-odd minutes to wait. The station had barriers so it limited what I could do so making my way to the station cafe to pick up a lovely Sausage baguette, to take a seat. The Ascot/Guildford service has a good 10 minutes time sat at Aldershot.
450546 pulled into the station to take me down towards Alton, lot of passengers got off at Farnham, nice bit of single track action passed the sidings (full of 450s) and into Alton. I disappeared down towards the town to try and locate the library to return some items and to see what magazines they had available for rental. After getting lost following the posted signposts, managed to find it and picked up a copy of Stuff magazine, just for something to read for later. Walked back towards the station to find 450546 still there, finding a seat as it pulled away towards Waterloo. Quite a few passengers got on the train at Farnham, with luggage. Anyways the train soon arrived into Woking.
Alighting at Woking P1, it was only a short wait until the Basingstoke stopper pulled in made up of 450040, had my second ticket check of the day (this time I was on Ash Vale to Virginia Water by any permitted route tickets). The train pulled into Weybridge just as the Weybridge to Waterloo train pulled away, but thankfully a couple minutes later train 455726 pulled in, I love the 455s, and during the 25-odd minutes sat waiting for the departure time, I read the magazine picked up in the library, made a change from playing cards (the newspaper having been read at Aldershot). Its a nice trip up towards Virginia Water over the M25 and M3, the M25 was busy as always as the train soon arrived into Virginia Water, onto P3.
A cross-platform interchange to P2 was required, passing some smokers, ignoring the smoking ban, took a seat, the 455 service pulled away after the 458 service to Waterloo had passed, and 458014 (f)/458015(r) pulled in to take me back towards Reading. Another couple units crossed of my list before they are converted into the 458/5s. Back at Reading I had 40 minutes to spare before the next train, so headed out of the station to pick up some lunch from a branch of Sainsburys (making use of a brand-price match voucher which was expiring that day), passed a hotel which had some policemen standing outside with police tape around the entrance, back onto the station to P9, still with 10 minutes to spare and with no available seating, visited the little WH Smiths on the platform to look at the magazines to see if anything took my fancy (and picked up a copy of Rail magazine to give me something to read).
Due to a Cross Country service taking ages to leave, the platform was swapped over to P8 as 166217 pulled in, managing to get a nice bay seat lined up with a window with a half table in which to rest my iPod (the iPod classic has a feature where the audio cuts out if the headphones are removed, however like most other iPod classics, this feature is very troublesome, remove the headphones and the audio stays on, move the wire and the audio cuts out), sat opposite a lady who moaned that her sandwich had too much filling, but my first FGW service with the trolley of various food & drink items. Nice trip along the fast lines towards Didcot, taking the Didcot avoiding line, first stop Oxford.
The Cotswolds are very pretty, the time flown by as Worcester-on-Sea Scrub Hill station arrived, lots of areas of old stations and disused platforms for old track. I alighted to take a nice seat to wait for a London Midland service to take me to Droitwich Spa, this was made up of 172213/172214, sitting in the front car, resting my arm on the window sill, passing along one edge of the Worcester triangle, though a tunnel to arrive at Droitwich Spa station. Nice little station, nice little local shop (sadly closed at the time), where I took a seat on some bike racks. 170635 soon pulled into the station to take me back towards Worcester-Super-Mare Foregate Street station, alighting and going down the stairs, with some idiots ignoring the keep left signs and trying to go up the stairs against the flow of passengers.
Had a quick look outside the station, but couldnt go far as I had 10 minutes, the original plan was to get my network railcard renewed at one of the stations at the extreme edge, but the ticket office was busy, so making my way back up the platform, to wait a few minutes before dud 166217 arrived to take me back down towards Reading. No window-sill to rest my arm, but at least I had a full table this time, but sadly it wasnt a HST . The train waited a few minutes at Oxford as a lot of tourists got on board, carrying lots of shopping bags, back down towards Reading, nice to see the flyover taking shape. Once at Reading it was a bit of a rush to get back over to P1 (from the platform at the far north of the station P15?) to get onto dud 165136 to take me back to Basingstoke, where another quick connection was required to get from P5 to P2 in order to catch the James Bond 159, 159007 to take me back towards Grateley, arriving at 20:05, so a good day spent covering 350 miles of mostly new coverage.
Sunday 13th April
Generally I dont normally do any bashing on Sundays, but as Sunday is the only day the west curve of Byfleet junction is used, so getting some Andover to Virginia Water tickets (Sunday service, 1 train per 2 hours from Grateley so I tend to use Andover as its free parking and I had my gym kit for a gym session afterwards). Arriving a bit earlier to renew my network railcard, I had some time to spend before the 8:46 service to Waterloo pulled in, and it was rather busy, but I walked though the train to find the front car rather quiet, so I took my place on 159016/159014 (as there was a lot of double train sets today, the first set was at the front) for a nice blast to Woking. I ended up playing cards as Ive done this route quite a few times and hardly anything changes, and travelling along the middle fast lines between Basingstoke and Woking at upto 90 mph means its gone in a blink, train sets spotted are normally 159s/450s/444s with the old freight train thrown in.
At Woking, it was a short walk to P3 to sit on 450084/450101 for 20 minutes waiting for it to depart, going around the west curve and up to Virginia Water. Why Virginia Water and not the other stations along that line? All were the same price and all were a 40+ minute wait. At Virginia Water I got off the station to have a look around, returning to the station 25 minutes later to wait the 20 minutes for the service back to Woking, so I made use of the time to read the Rail magazine picked up on the Saturday at Reading. Soon 450561/450088 pulled into the station, sitting at the rear end of the train (and making use of the toilets), getting the message to move forward if I wanted to alight at Chertsey. Soon enough it went underneath the mainline (another crossing crossed off my line) as I alighted at West Byfleet. Bit of an unusual station as its got a side platform for the London bound slow track, the London fast track in the middle, an unused face of an island platform for the Woking fast track and the other face for the slow track, most of the other stations between Basingstoke and London are 2 side platforms with no access to the fast tracks. As I had a good 20 minute wait, I walked down to buy lunch, a not-so-nice sandwich. Why West Byfleet and not Woking you might ask, well it was a same platform interchange, and West Byfleet to Effington Junction tickets permits both routes.
Soon enough 455905/455715 rattled into the station to take me to Guildford, having a little wait at Woking, fast dash to P1 from P3 to get onto Waterloo bound 455728/455866, along the new Guildford line, the part between Surbiton and Effington beind new for me. I guess that is a train shed at Effington? Soon enough the train pulled into Surbiton, where I quickly went to the loo, before crossing over to the other platforms where I might have accidently got on a Guildford train instead of an Alton/Basingstoke splitter *whistles* The Guildford train was 455914, arriving back at Guildford where I quickly crossed over platforms to reach 455737/455863, which was ready to go with a 450 unit by the side, with the guard saying if you were travelling to Clapton or Waterloo to use the 450 train as it was quicker. Upto Woking, where it was a transfer from P1 to P4 to await the arrival of 159013/159101 to take me back to Andover, running fast though Overton & Whitchurch.
Afterwards a nice gym session awaited me, as I crossed off some more 159 units and some minor new coverage.
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16th April
Not really a report for the sake of bashing but a nice trip to London to see Elbow at the O2 Arena, as it was a glorious day I thought it would be an ideal day to cross off the Emiratis Air-Line. Dashing up the stairs at Basingstoke to take a place on a 12 car 450 service, only interesting was a couple girls wearing not a lot of clothing sat a few seats down and a 5 minute wait at Vauxhall waiting for some congestion to clear, not as bad as Euston though. The guard keeping the passengers informed. At Waterloo passengers tried to board the train before the doors had even opened to allow the passengers off the train first. Is the rush to get a seat that important to force your way though the crowd?
At Waterloo it was a short walk to the Waterloo & City line platform for a short trip to Bank, train was rather empty (had an entire car to myself!). At bank it was a game of following the signs to get to the DLR platforms, where I got on the first DLR service out of bank, changing at Shadwell to get on a service heading towards Beckton. I was standing, leaning against the partition looking forward, travelling on the DLR is unusual for me as they are driver-less, tickets checked by the guard on route. Got off at Royal Victoria to cross over to the cable car station, paid using some unused credit on my Oyster (which is hardly used as I normally get travelcards).
The cable car service was busier than I was expecting, but still a wonderful tourist experience, which I took some pictures (
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27666294@N02/sets/72157644102023551/), beautiful day to do it as I could see for miles. 10 minutes or so it had landed on the south bank where I walked to the O2 for the show. After the show it was crowd-control towards North Greenwich station to get on a Jubilee line train back towards Waterloo, arriving at around 23:25. At that time of night, the fastest way back to Basingstoke is on the Salisbury train, which sadly I didnt get the TOPS number as I jumped on with some food, getting a table seat. 45 minutes later it was into Basingstoke where I alighted, walking back to Festival Place car-park for the drive back home. New coverage for me was the DLR from Canning Town to Royal Victoria, and the cable car.
18th April
Good Friday travelling, for some reason I decided to do some more of London today, deciding and making the plan up on the Thursday, I wouldnt like to think what the East Coast website thinks I get upto, but its some more reward points to pay for a nice East Coast service back up north. Anyways it is a return to an early start, getting up at 6:20 to take a walk to Grateley station where collecting the tickets I awaited the arrival of 159101, quite chilly it was standing on the platform, the seats covered in water. A rather uneventful trip to Waterloo it was sat at my table seat. Once at Waterloo it was a short walk to the Jubilee platforms where a waiting train took me to London Bridge, which was partially closed, so 4 trains later the service to Strood arrived, made up of 465240/465179, how I love the networkers for their lack of a window sill. Got myself a nice bay seat sat looking out of the window as it slowly made its way to Strood via Lewisham and Charlton. Between Lewisham & Charlton my ticket got checked by a couple RPOs with Oyster Card readers, shock horror, a ticket check on a Southeastern service! How on earth did that banker get away with it
Anyways, the train terminated at Strood, bit of an odd station, I went outside to have a quick look, but it was full of buses and workmen, so headed back into the station, down the stairs to get to the island platform where 465179/465240 pulled in after reversing down the track a bit. A 395 pulled in beside the 465 set, they are so nice those 395 javelins. Anyways, after 40 or so minutes the 465 service arrived back into Lewisham where I alighted to cross the platform to the SEML loop. 2 trains later, service 465046 pulled in to take me down the main line towards Orpington, some good spotting of 465s/466s/375s & 376s along that line. At Orpington I crossed to the bay platforms for a Victoria bound train made up of 465189 which took me the short trip to Bickley, I was getting a bit hungry now, but everywhere was closed, I couldnt even get a newspaper either. 1st world problems and all that. Soon enough the Sevenoaks bound service made up of 465034 pulled in, some good scenery, pass Bat and Ball station (amazing name for a station) into Sevenoaks, where it was a short connection over the platforms to await 375629/375704 to arrive.
The train pulled into London Bridge (on its way to Cannon Street), where I alighted, to make my way back towards the Jubilee platform where a Waterloo bound train took me to Waterloo where everybody was made to get off due to engineering works. Good to see staff out in force to answer questions for any confused travellers wanting to travel onwards. Coming up the stairs I spotted a Sainsburys Local outside the station, which provided lunch (£3 meal deal and a bag of cookies) and a newspaper. Back into Waterloo station itself to find my way to P4 where 455731 had just pulled in. What would I do if I had a trip which didnt involve a 455?
The Shepperton bound train left, it was quite busy until a lot of people got off at Norbiton, quite a few football tops so Im not sure if that station is near a football ground. The Shepperton branch is nice, its a bit odd that its not included in the London zones seeing as the only way to reach it is from the London zones. Nice bit of the M3 before it gets busy, not sure what happened but the platform displays, displaying which was the next train werent working as the please stand clear the approaching train is not scheduled to stop warnings were up. Once at Shepperton itself, I had a 10 minute wait, walking out of the station to see what it was like, before getting back onto 455731 to take me back towards Teddington.
At Teddington it was a short trip over the bridge to await 455703 to take me to Twickenham which arrived within 5 minutes. Once at Twickenham it was another trip over the bridge via the loo (damn the lack of toilets on the 455s), to await the Hounslow loop line train, made up of 455736 taking me the short distance to Hounslow, where over the bridge I went (are you starting to see a theme here?) to await the Weybridge bound train arriving a few minutes later, made up of 458853 taking along the west curve of the Feltham junction to Feltham, where Oyster cards are not valid beyond this point warnings were announced on the trains PA.
Over the bridge I went, sadly a Waterloo train had already departed, so it was a 10 minute wait for 450101/450549 to take me onwards, rear cars were busy, front cars werent so busy. Nice little trip to Richmond over the Thames, a short walk to the District line platforms where a D-stock train pulled in to take me to Hammersmith, I like the D stock trains as they have proper seating in places, easier to look out of the window. Once at Hammersmith it was a out of station interchange to the Hammersmith & City line station to get on a H&C line train to Paddington, had a short delay due to someone falling on the track at a further station meaning the power had been cut. Once the power was back it was a nice ride to Paddington, made nicer by some slightly drunk young ladies (guess early 20s) practising pole dancing on one of the poles, wearing not the longest of skirts.
Once at Paddington, it was a 25 minute wait for the next Heathrow Connect service to Terminal 4 via 1&3 (Im guessing Terminal 2 is closed at the moment), so I had a walk around Paddington, quite a nice open station (only a couple platforms are gated), and compared to Euston its open air. Even the little Sainsburys in the station does the £3 meal deal, which surprised me. Found the McDonalds to redeem a voucher for a free sundae to pass the time, as the Heathrow Connect was announced as being on P12. 360201 was waiting for me, felt like a 350/380, going towards Hayes along the fast tracks of the GWML (due to engineering works on the slow lines), which was annoying as I was hoping to have used the flyover. Anyways worlds fastest ticket check happened just after Hayes & H, with a Heathrow Express star being stamped on my single ticket (£3.80 ) to get to Heathrow stations, in the tunnel, soon arriving at central.
Getting off the Connect at central station, it was a 10 minute wait before 332005 pulled in, on shuttle duties between T4 & T1,2,3, getting onto my first Heathrow Express train, I found the seats to be rather uncomfy as they could be. Anyways 5 minutes later it was in T4, where I got off the train and had a quick walk before returning to the T4 platform to catch the same train back to Central. Another look around for 10 minutes to wait the next Connect service to arrive, made up of 360204, taking me to T5. Once at Terminal 5 it was up the stairs to get to the lifts to take me down to the Piccy line platform, where a Piccy line train was waiting to take me to Hatton Cross. Cross the platforms for a couple minute wait for a T4 train to pull in so that I could do the loop, waiting 5 minutes at T4 before making its wait back towards central London for a pain staking journey taking longer than I had expected, a quick dash to the Bakerloo platforms at Piccadilly Circus to get onto a Bakerloo train to take me down to Waterloo where I had 4 minutes to catch the 19:50 service to Waterloo.
And for a chance, I made it with 10 seconds to spare, jumping onto 159017 on the first class doors and walking through the empty first class section to find a seat, that dash from the underground caused a rather nasty cough which bugged me until Woking, but finally arriving back into Grateley at 21:07, I wouldnt have minded if I missed the 19:50 as there was a train 30 minutes later.
New coverage lots,
Saturday 19th April
A quieter day for me compared to yesterday, with a couple cheap advances between Reading and Bath, another it was another early start at 6:25, to take the short walk to the station where at 6:57, 159105 pulled in with a very active guard, going up and down the train after the stops to Basingstoke, reminding me to change at Basingstoke, checking for tickets for any newcomers. Plus making a brave attempt at listing the major places you could reach from Basingstoke, still the train clock was wrong.
At Basingstoke a quick detour via the cafe at P4 to pick up my newspaper to make my way to P5 where a slightly bashed up 165118 was waiting for the shuttle service to Reading. Reading the newspaper on the way up, with my iPod which was playing up a lot, I think a replacement for my old friend the 7 and a bit years old iPod Classic is required soon, once at Reading it was a waiting game, I was booked on the 8:29 train to Bristol Temple, so had 30 minutes spare so I sat down on the seating of P8/9 watching the movements, long delays for the 7:57 service to Penzance, 30 minutes late departing Reading it was going to run fast to Bristol (skipping Didcot & Swindon). At 8:34, the HST train made up of 43197 & 43181 pulled in, I was in coach C, and found my seat. To the left I saw an old train going though (coaches carrying the West Coast Railway Company name).
Pretty soon it was zooming off towards Swindon, flying though Didcot, passing the local stations, passing old stations into Swindon, then onto Chippenham, then through the tunnel known as Box, then into Bath passing along the Bath viaduct into Bath Spa itself. I havent gotten off a train at Bath for years, so it brought back some memories for me walking around Bath, its nice the new shopping centre compared to the old Southgate centre looks the part. My return train wasnt to 13:13, but I was back at the station for 12:10, so picking up some East Midland Day Ranger tickets for next weekend, I went up to see at the platform to watch the movements of FGWs 150s & 158s, a SWT 159 and a couple HSTs, until the HST made up of 43122 & 43134 pulled in, my seat was in coach D, but it was on the left hand side, so I moved towards coach E, for a right hand side window seat, the coach was pretty empty. Back into Reading where I spent 40 minutes or so doing some light shopping, before heading back to the station to wait 20 minutes for 165119 to pull in to take me back to Basingstoke, where I had 30 minutes to kill, so a dash down the town to the library to see what magazines they had, before coming back.
The clock on the outside of Basingstoke station gets slower every time I see it, currently 6 minutes slow, but I made it back in time, at around 16:33 there was 5 trains in the station, of which 4 were heading to Waterloo, a couple 450s, a 444 & a 159. The 444 service was still in P2 so the Salisbury service got swapped to P3, which meant I have exited Basingstoke via all means, the service made up of 159019, a nice journey to end the day, and another 218 miles to my total, but afterwards once home I cut the front grass and took the rubbish to the dump, good thing to as the weather today (Sunday) hasnt been the greatest.
New coverage - GWML between Bathampton junction and Didcot Parkway
Tomorrow is my first solo railtour, along the Heart of Wales Line
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