A capital day out
As the title says, this would be a capital day out. Can you guess which? 1 in 3 chance!
Nathan and I had arranged to meet
Cactustwirly on the 9th of July in...
...London! This was a Saturday and a week since seeing my last train so I was most certainly looking forward to it. This would start, as always, with the 08:25 cat to Marylebone before heading over to Paddington to meet up with Cactus and then heading to Greenford and continuing on the plan that he'd put together. The plan included quite a bit of underground but included lots of winner track for me (on both silver worm and heavy rail) and Nat.
On the morning of the 9th, I was up to my alarm at 06:50 as usual and after getting ready, I had a bit of time to pop on the forum before heading out at 07:50, picking Nathan up en route Leam. We went to buy our tickets and, as Nat is now 16, he's on adult fares. We have a family and friends’ railcard though so attempted to buy using that but were told by one of the regular ticket clerks (they all are to me to be honest!). We were then told that for that day only, there was an offer on travelcards, making it £24 for an adult and £1 for each child! Score! We split the £25 equally (each paying £12.50) and it was certainly a large saving! We were very happy at this but weren't as happy when we saw that our train to Marylebone was running 13 late. Darn it! This meant that the ex Stratford stopper (which is all shacks to Wycombe and then quite a few after there) would get in the way of ours making an even longer journey. Damn! We kicked our heels on the station for a while, glad that the read death that comes through at 08:18 won't be causing an absolute stagger fest between Leam and Banbury. The ex Stratford left Leam right time and, about 5 minutes later, we saw a DVT coming up the hill from the Warwick direction. We noticed that the cat was blue so would either be 8 or 9. It was
68008 this morning, much to Nat's disgust (he was hoping for a different one) but I was happy enough with the mileage boost, clearing it for 700 en route. I actually wrote this when Tech needed it so had to edit out the taunting
. It was good to race between Leam and Banbury but just before Bicester, we came to a stop. Let the stagger begin...
It wasn't as bad as I thought and we only arrived at Marylebone 25 late although it did mean that our plan had been scuppered as there was no way we'd make it across to Paddington in time for the Greenford. I'd been texting Cactus while on the cat and we arranged for him to come to Marylebone and then we'd make up the plan as we went along. We were at Marylebone for less than 5 minutes, a lot of which was spent going to the cat for a minute or so and walking down the platform to the barriers (and obviously going through them).
Avenger at Marylebone by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
We were at the concourse for only a couple of minutes before Cactus found us and we all headed for the Bakerloo line after deciding to first head for Charing Cross. The first one along was a pair of winners for me,
3238 and
3551 and they were taken straight to Charing Cross where we left the tube and headed for the heavy rail. I wanted to head out to Waterloo East to get a couple of winners so we scanned the departure boards and immediately headed over to the platform that had the first departure, the 10:24. This was double winner
465036 and
465028. We were on the lookout for 465/2s and /9s as they had the original traction package but didn't see any on the ride over the river. We were now going to head back to Charing Cross to get onto a departure for Lewisham where we'd change onto the DLR to get to Stratford. Nathan had requested this and I think you can guess why. I hate the AGA skodas!
Consecutive double winner
465195 and
465196 took us back to Charing Cross where we only had a minute or two to get onto the Lewisham bound train. We all ran it and I got on the train and just before Cactus and Nathan did, the doors shut and locked! Damn! Double winner
465160 and
465010 were the units and I immediately gave Cactus a call to say that I'd bail at Waterloo East and go back to Charing Cross so I told him to wait for me. As planned, I bailed at Waterloo East and checked at when the next Charing Cross one was due and found that it was in 5 minutes. I saw the PIS on the platform and smiled as it said 'formed of 12 coaches'. Sure enough, after only 2 minutes of waiting, treble winner
375901,
375927 and
375818 arrived. Not only were these all winners for haulage, but they were all scores for sight too! I was thoroughly glad at this, as I'd scored 5 winners in less than 15 minutes on a mere Charing Cross-Waterloo East leap! When I got back to Charing Cross, it was easy enough to find Nathan and Cactus and we all decided to get to Stratford now by taking the Jubilee line from Waterloo. I didn't think of getting it from Southwark until we were already on the platform for the Northern line, Cactus's last line to clear every line on the LU. We took double winner
51542 and
51543 to Waterloo where it was an easy enough change onto the Jubilee line where winner
96039 and dud(!)
96004 took us away from the centre and out towards Stratford. As we had a while until the awful skoda was due out of Stratford to Liverpool Street, we decided to bail at Canning Town to get the DLR the rest of the way. We did so and after navigating the maze that is Canning Town, we got onto the DLR platform with a wait of just under 10 minutes before the next one to Stratford! This is due to engineering works but it's still a very long wait for the DLR! When it did arrive, I wasn't too happy as it was a busy service with winner
137 and DUD
151! I'd only had 14 of them before today! We still went for them and, although I wasn't looking out of the front, I was looking out of the back of 137...
... Straight into the front of 151! Oh well! Nathan (or was it Cactus?) didn't even have a seat.
We arrived at Stratford after an uneventful run and were soon walking across to the platform that the 11:46 to Liverpool Street would go from. The grotty skoda was soon arriving with winner for both Nat and I,
90014. It was wedged and I was sorely tempted to flag it (****e traction and a wedged service) but was persuaded to get on and barely have room to move in the vestibule. Nathan managed to do some window hanging though so at least he got that. It was good to get off at Liverpool Street.
We had a quick trip to M&S here before heading to the Underground once more, this time the sub surface lines. We wanted to head for Thameslink now and do the Sutton loop so winner
21075+21076 was had over to Farringdon where we had a short wait for a Thameslink heading towards Blackfriars. This was a Brighton service with winner
377520 and dud
377501 on so I was glad that I'd managed to score something on the run to Blackfriars where we all had a wait on the same platform for the service around the Sutton loop.
377501 at Blackfriars by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
This was a single 319 which I wasn't to keen on (I don't like the 319s), especially after seeing that the unit was dud
319426. We got in the declassified 1st class section at the back of the busy unit but it was still an awful interior there. Conversation turned to a discussion about tram MK3 interiors (Cactus hates the original interior which Nat and I think is the best) and the long journey didn't seem so long and we were soon leaving at shack score 1, Mitcham Junction. There is an interchange onto the Croydon tramlink here, something that none of us had done before so I was certainly looking forward to it. We left the heavy rail platforms and crossed the road bridge to get onto the Wimbledon bound tram platform. The PIS was being ridiculous here, saying that the next tram was in 21 minutes when, in reality, it was only 4 before my very first Croydon tram for haulage,
2555 arrived.
Croydon tram 2555 at Mitcham Jcn by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
This was one of the new ones (a stadler) so it was good to get and it was a fun run on the tram down the old railway line to Wimbledon. I didn't see the only one of the Croydon trams that I'd seen previously so every one that we saw was a winner. We stayed on to Wimbledon, which was shack score 2, and then headed for South West Trains and got on the first available service towards Waterloo. This was a single 455 but it was a winner so I was OK with
5864 for the two-stop ride to Clapham Junction. Seats were found for Cactus and I but Nathan opted to stand and we were soon arriving at Britain's busiest railway station. We got off here and Cactus went for a coffee as we got some numbers. After getting his coffee, Cactus joined us and we had a few minutes spotting before deciding where to go. I wanted to do Southern to Croydon and then across to London Bridge on it for something to Cannon Street so we decided to do this and left the platform we were on at speed up the footbridge as a pair of 159s were coming. Well, I was the only one running up the stairs of the footbridge from them as Cactus was walking and Nathan staying on the platform to get the numbers (!). We went across to a departure board and saw when the next service for East Croydon was. It was cancelled (showing that we were in Southern land) but the next few would also go from this platform so we went down and waited for one of those. The 'cancelled' service wasn't actually cancelled though and it arrived a minute or so late with double winner
377133 and
377424 so we got on board for the ride to East Croydon.
After a fun enough run, spotting lots of units en route, we were arriving at East Croydon. We wandered up to the footbridge while here to see a departure board that revealed that all Southern services to London Bridge were caped so we couldn't go on that! There wasn't much else about either, with lots of Victoria services being caped, so we went for the Thameslink service that was due out a minute or so after we checked the board. We got onto the platform just as dud
377516 and winner
377207 arrived. Not only was 207 a winner for haulage but it was also a score for sight, it being my last Thameslink 377/2! This left me just needing 377213 to clear the lot of them for sight. We got on board and easily got a bay of 4 on the right hand side for our journey to Blackfriars. En route we came to a stand somewhere and, after 10 minutes, someone (I'm guessing the driver) came over the PA and said that there was a problem on the line ahead and that we'd hopefully be moving shortly. Darn it! Luckily we were moving shortly as after another 5 minutes the 377s were en route central London again. As planned, we left at Blackfriars, the plan being to get the tube two stops to Cannon Street so I could get the track out of there (dad also needs it!). We went through the barriers and, just before walking away, I turned around and saw a red 387 approaching. At first we thought it was going into the bay but as soon as we saw that it wasn't, we headed straight back onto the platform, having to be let through the barriers due to the darn things not accepting our tickets. This was my first Southern 387 (in Southern's 'Gatwick Express' branding) and was winner
387201 which was leading winner
387113. We obviously got in the new unit and it has a pretty nice interior but has the same rubbish seats. We didn't want to go one stop on this (to a required shack at City Thameslink) but instead went through to Farringdon where a platform change saw us on a pair of 387s that we'd seen earlier, winner
387127 and dud
387125. These were taken to Blackfriars where we were back on plan (not that we really had one) and headed to the circle/district lines.
387125 at Blackfriars by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
A linear hop to Cannon Street was had, winner
21405+21406 working for the District line taking us to Mansion House for a shack score before winner
21511+21512 took me forward to yet another shack score at Cannon Street where we headed to the heavy rail once more. We wanted to head to Lewisham but there was a pair of 376s heading out first so we all quickly headed for them and got onto my first ever 376s, winners
376032 and
376007, for the short ride on winner track out to London Bridge.
Once we got there, a PIS was noticed to be saying that there was a late running train that called at Lewisham a couple of minutes behind the one we were to get so we decided to go one or two stops on the first one and then get the one behind forward. We were pleased to see a /2 leading the train as they had the 'old' motors so we clambered aboard winner
465241, which was leading winner
465029. We hopped off one shack down the line, New Cross, only to see that the PIS said that the one behind was 'delayed'. We quickly got back on board the pair that we had from London Bridge and it was good that we were able to as the one behind never left Cannon Street and was caped. We continued to Lewisham where we had a decision to make. We were thinking about going on a train past Hither Green as 66084, Nat's last required DBS 66 for sight in the UK, was reported to have been stored there for months. Neither of us thought that it was viewable though as there had been no reports of anyone seeing it. We still decided to head there but found that the service to Bromley North that we were planning to take was a single, pretty busy 465 so we flagged it an instead went for a Victoria bound that was a couple of minutes later. This gave me more good luck as it was double winner
465178 and
465176 on this. We were on this all the way to its terminating point at Victoria where we alighted a few minutes later. A quick photo was had before we wandered over to the concourse.
465178 at London Victoria by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
I quickly popped into Smiths for a drink and we then all headed over to the platform that a slightly delayed Southern service was leaving from. This was a single unit but was winner
377137 so I was happy enough with it. It was a busy service and had some problems leaving but eventually departed. A pnb was had on here and we took it out to Clapham Junction where we were to change over to SWT for Waterloo.
After getting back to Clapham for the second time that day, we checked a departure board and found out that there was a service that would be a 458/5 and one that would be a 450. My 450s were certainly lacking and I hadn't been on them for ages, unlike the 458s. Cactus hadn't tried one of the 'new' 458s so wanted to go for that so we arranged to split up for a couple of minutes and meet up again at Waterloo. Both services were due out at the same time so it made no difference and double winner
450085 and
450567 conveyed Nat and I to Waterloo where we headed over to the platform that Cactus's single 458 was due to arrive on. He met us at the barriers and, as we didn't have too long until our train back to Leam now, we couldn't do much so it was a case of deciding what to do. Cactus wanted to get a 165 out to Ealing Broadway from Padd and then head back in so we went for that and headed to the jub-lee line for winner
96076 and dud (I'm not having much luck with the Jubilee line today!)
96025 out to Baker Street where a change onto the sub surface lines got us onto winner
21341+21342 for the rest of the journey to Paddington.
Nathan has this weird rule that he won't get a DMU out of Paddington (an EMU is fine for some reason) but it seems that this is easily broken (if you call winging and idle threats about not going out to Ealing easy) as he eventually got on winner
165111 with mucho complaining. What is even weirder than Nat's rule though? GWR 165s are Cactus's favorite traction! I'll not go into that now as I’ve done so enough times
. It wasn't a pleasant ride out to Ealing but I scored a 165 and a winner shack at Ealing Broadway. We wanted to get a Heathrow Connect back in but if we waited for one then we wouldn't make our train back from Marylebone so winner
165120 was taken back instead, much to Nat's disgust. Oh well - at least it's a winner (for me that is).
Back at Paddington, we had to say bye to Cactus here as his train back home would leave shortly. It had been a great day out with him and we are planning to meet up again soon but in a different location! Nat and I headed back over to the tube platforms and onto the first available one to get us to Baker Street, winner
21552+21551. It was then the usual annoying transfer to the Bakerloo line for winner
3552 and dud
3262. Had my luck run out?
The answer to that question? No! We got onto the platform for the 18:10, the usual DVT at the back and I leapt into the air after seeing the cat that was on the front. Nat wasn't too pleased but I was over the moon (not literally - I'm not an astronaut) to see
68014 on the front of our train. Gingertom thrash!
We didn't get wedged out in the usual bay of 4 and it was a brilliant run with some excellent thrash, ending at Leamington an hour and a quarter/89 miles later. When we got off at Leam and headed to the front of the loco, several photos were taken (by me. The '4' on GT had faded but a different one has been put on now so it is 68014 instead of 6801diagonalline.
68014 at Leamington Spa. by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
Nat's mum was waiting in the car park and we clambered into the car after a great day out. Thanks to Cactustwirly for helping to make it brilliant - I'm pretty sure that if I was solo the day would have comprised solely of Charing Cross-Waterloo East leaps!
Manchester Metrolink by fishquinn1, on Flickr
The Airport pub by fishquinn1, on Flickr
The Airport pub by fishquinn1, on Flickr
The Airport pub by fishquinn1, on Flickr
