Around the coast
On the 11th of February there was a forum meet, taking in the Kent coast on a 395, using a rather odd loophole. This loophole is known by TOCs (and has been for ages), including Southeastern, but they haven't shut it for some reason. It would be a stupid one to pass up, as I'd need all of the track after Stratford International all the way down HS1, around the coast and back to Ebbsfleet, so for the cost of a single from Ebbsfleet International to Gravesend, it seems rather worthwhile
. Right, I'll give you more details now. For ages now, an Ebbsfleet to Gravesend ticket (or the other way round) with a via point of Ashford (it seems you don't even need to put the via point in on some websites) will give you an itinerary on one of the 395s that do St Pancras-St Pancras via Ashford, Dover, Ramsgate and Gravesend, including NRE. As a return on this section is only £2 for a child (I needed a return to get back from Gravesend to Ebbsfleet), it's an absolute bargain! Anyway, the 11th of Feb was decided and I had arranged with Dom395, who was also coming on this meet, to do a little spin in London after, as our train would get us back to St Pancras at 15:07.
I booked my required tickets for Southeastern the night before - an expensive (£8.35) child return from St Pancras to Ebbsfleet and my return from Ebbsfleet to Gravesend with an itinerary for the 11:55 from Ebbsfleet, getting to Gravesend at 14:42. I decided to get my travelcard from Leam at the station on the Saturday morning. Nat had decided against doing this trip due to the cost, but he came round on the Friday evening, saying that he was going to do a Cherwell Valley day ranger on the Saturday, getting a lift to Banbury for the 07:55 221, and then getting the 17:10 Marylebone-Snow Hell cat from Banbury back to Leam in the evening. I was to be on the 18:10, and I'd be heading to Leam in the morning anyway, so I offered him a lift to the station for the 08:25, which would get him into area an hour later, but told him to get the 19:07 from Banbury back to Leam instead, the one an hour later than he was planning. This would give me company from Banbury, as it's the 18:10 from Marylebone. He was happy with this idea, so I told dad and I was soon getting to sleep with my alarm set for 07:00.
A dire night sleep was had, and after being awake from 06:00 to 06:30 trying to get back to sleep, I just decided to get up. I then got ready and headed on the computer for a bit, seeing that our cat to Marylebone was running 15 minutes late due to a stock problem at Stourbridge. Because of this, I decided to stay on slightly longer, and we left the boats for Leam just after 07:50. Nat was picked up en route, and we were soon parked in the place that dad would usually park for a day at work. Why didn't dad just drop us off at the station? He'd decided to come to Marylebone with me and go back on the 11:10, after brekky, as it was completely free for him. Chiltern operate a scheme saying that if you have a monthly season ticket worth more than £150, or an annual worth more than £1500 starting from a Chiltern station and valid on Chiltern services, then you get free travel anywhere on Chiltern at the weekend. Dad's annual season from Leam to Brum (Chiltern only) costs over £1500, so he'd be crazy not to get a few free return trips to Marylebone in the book!
When we got to the station, it was already after 08:20. I headed to the TVM to collect my first lot of tickets while Nat got his own, before heading up to the ticket office myself to get my return to London with a travelcard. I could hear that the 08:23 to Brum had arrived as I was finishing off at the ticket office and, knowing that Kite159 was on board, I headed up to see if he was visible. Nat and I waved him off after seeing that he was in the back coach of the 168 pairing, before heading over to platform 3 to wait for our cat, which was now running about 10-late. We were all really hoping that they hadn't replaced the cat for a unit due to a stock problem, but a text from Kite calmed us all down, as it told us which cat we'd be getting. A DVT was soon in view as it climbed out of the dip, and we were soon getting on board a set pushed by
68011, a dud for 1000. An annoying person decided to come out from the canopy down the platform as the train was arriving and get in my way of the door. Because of this, when I got on board behind him and found out that the train was rather busy (with only one visible bay of 4), which the guy in front of took, I decided to wedge him out. Both dad and I were sat down next toe the, now rather annoyed, person, before Nat pointed another bay of 4 down towards the other end of the coach, so the three of us moved there for the journey ahead.
We knew that the ex Stratford stopper was 5 minutes ahead of us out of Leam, so we really hoped that it'd be looped at Princes Risborough, if not Banbury. This annoying service stops (between Leam and London) at Banbury, Kings Sutton, Bicester North, Haddenham, Princes Risborough, Wycombe, Beaconsfield, Gerrards Angry, Wembley Stadium and then Marylebone. When you think of our calling pattern (Banbury, Wycombe, Marylebone) I think you can see why I wanted it to be looped!
It wasn't an especially great run to Banbury, where Nat left the train for his 221 to Oxford, and we found out that the 168 hadn't been looped there. Even though the run wasn't brilliant we'd gained 2 minutes between Leam and Banbury, where we eventually left 8-late. We slowed after Kings Sutton, and came to a stop just after Aynho Junction. This is where the signaling changes to Marylebone operated, so we assumed that it was just because they'd forgotten about us. We were moving again a minute later, but had lost 3 minutes through the guff. We were soon up to speed again though, next stop High Wycombe.
We both hoped that the ex Stratford cart be sat in the platform waiting for us to pass at Risborough, but it unfortunately wasn't. 08825 was still sat in the Chinnor and Princes Risborough railway siding, and we didn't lose any speed until the approach to Wycombe. We thought this was weird, as we'd surely have caught the ex Stratford cart by now, so I went onto RTT, and found that it was due to arrive at Wycombe over 5 minutes after us! Is there some weird portal that I don't know about on the route? I went onto the cart's RTT entry and checked where we'd passed it. I saw that it was right time out of Bicester North, but was 4 late at Bicester South Junction. They must have been using the bi-di then, and crossed it back onto the correct line where the Oxford line goes off! Excellent thinking!
The rest of the journey towards London was uneventful, and I was soon watching Wembley depot flash past. 68002 and 68018 were on either end of the Banbury set, due to a shortage of AAR fitted cats, but they were the only things of interest viewable. We passed loads of Jubilee line sets on the way into the capital, but only one metropolitan (because there were engineering works, it seems). It was then into the Marylebone tunnels, and we were soon arriving on platform 3 at 09:51, 12-late. We were soon off the cat and I bade farewell to Custard before walking down the platform with dad and exiting the barriers. We headed to a cash machine at Marylebone before crossing the road and going into the usual cafe, which was rather busy. We then placed our brekky orders (a menu B with an extra fried slice for me, a menu B with extra black pudding for dad), and headed to a table for 4 that only had 1 person sat at it. He had finished before our brekky came, so we changed sides of the table to be against the wall and waited for the absolutely brilliant breakfast. It had soon arrived, and was as excellent as usual, and a complete bargain at less than £7 each (including drinks). When we'd finished, it was back over to the station, where I said bye to dad (who had about 50 minutes to wait for 68011 to take him back to Leam) and headed for the Bakerloo line, with 50 minutes to get to St Pancras for my own train. With this in mind I decided to do a bit of tube bashing, getting the first Bakerloo line set to appear heading towards Baker Street. This was double dud
3231 and
3567, but I wasn't on board for long, getting off at Baker Street. I then decided to take the Jubilee line, simply because it's so easy to get onto from the Bakerloo line. Less than 2 minutes after getting off the Bakerloo line set, I was on board double winner
96055 and
96028 for the journey to Bond Street.
After getting off at Bond Street, I navigated the station in order to get to the Central line. There was a train arriving as I got down the stairs and, even though I didn't know which direction it was going, I leapt on anyway. It isn't far to Marble Arch if it was heading the wrong way, after all. It turns out that quadruple winner
92127,
92126,
92032 and
92169 was heading towards Marble Arch, but I scored a winner shack by getting off there. It was then a 3-minute wait for the next one heading back towards Bond Street, quadruple winner
92209,
92194,
92212 and
92133 taking me to Tottenham Court Road. My plan was to head to Holborn for the Piccadilly line up to St Pancras, but I had time with the next set being only 2 minutes behind. Quadruple winner
92325,
92168,
92020 and
92157 was soon arriving, so I got on board for the one stop ride to shack score 2, Holborn. It was then time to follow signs, soon getting onto the St Pancras bound Piccadilly line platform. I then found out that the Piccadilly line had severe delays, with the next service not being for 4 minutes, and the one after that not for 12 minutes. I wandered down the platform at got a seat on a bench while waiting for one to appear, and double winner
163 and
168 was soon arriving, this pairing putting an end to my underground bashing, with 16 winner units and 2 winner shacks in 35 minutes.
I headed straight for the HS1 platforms when I got above ground again, with 10 minutes until my preferred train was due to depart. I was expecting a single unit, so was very glad to see 12 coaches stretching down the platform, so I walked down to the very front coach of winner
395021, which was leading winner
395010.
St Pancras by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
I'd only ever had one 395 before (027), and that was only from St Pancras to Stratford, so it was good to get other members of the class. I gave dad a call as soon as we left, bang on time at 11:09, finding out that he had also just left (his departure was at 11:10). We chatted for a few seconds, before I entered the tunnels out towards Stratford, and accelerated a lot quicker than dad did on his cat. I hadn't been on one of these since 2013, so I forgot how much like a plane it feels when you're accelerating, and it was a good feeling being the only one in the coach for the short journey to Stratford International, where I bailed for the one 15 minutes behind forward to Ebbsfleet.
During my fester at Stratford, I decided to get a drink for later in the day. There is a WHSmith on the station, so I decided to go there, and emerged with a 1.5L bottle of water £2 later. It was then back down to platform level, where I got to see a Eurostar race through on its way to St Pancras. The speed they do at this point is pretty crazy considering that they're about 5 miles away from a major London terminus (with a fairly slow approach). Anyway, I decided to get a photo of a 395 that had presented itself on a St Pancras service before my one to Ebbsfleet arrived, and my one was arriving not long after that had left.
Heading for London by
fishquinn1, on Flickr
I knew that it was a single winner, having seen it at St Pancras, and
395008 was soon pulling in on the 11:32 to St Pancras via the Kent Coast (via Gravesend first). I headed to the front coach and managed to get a bay of 4 for the journey along the winner track, and we were soon leaving Stratford International and getting up to speed rather quickly in the tunnel. The tunnel seemed to last a while and, due to it being dark, I couldn't tell how fast we were going, so it felt really weird to suddenly come out into the outside world at 140mph. If this is 140mph, then think what 225 will be (with HS2)! We were soon racing past Dagenham, where I scored a winner 08, and after a very fast ride, we were slowing for Ebbsfleet, and went over to the Gravesend platform. After getting off, I noticed that there was another 395 due towards St Pancras from the Gravesend direction in 2 minutes, so I waited to see what that was, noticing Yorkie, Blindtraveler and Starmill get off it. I headed over to them and we had to wait at the barriers for a minute or so before someone came to let us out, as we wanted to keep our tickets. Once through, we wandered over to the HS1 platforms, and we were glad to see that the Ebbsfleet to Gravesend ticket worked these barriers. It was then down an escalator onto the platform, where we met up with the other members, who were already on the platform. Dom395, who I'd be going around London with after, was among them, and we were soon watching our 395 for the next 3 hours arrive, winner
395016. We got on in the front coach and found out that it was rather busy, with no decent bays of 4 free (the only one free had no window whatsover), and few pairs of seats. Because of this, we headed through to the next coach, and found that it wasn't as busy, so we spread ourselves over several bays of 2, me being sat next to Dom. We were soon zooming through the Kent countryside, on a 33-mile storm on HS1 through to Ashford.
A ticket check took place not long after leaving Ebbsfleet and I was the first one of the group to be checked. I had an itinerary for this service though and, on checking my ticket, the guard asked where I was going. I replied with Gravesend, to which he said that this service didn't go to Gravesend. I got my itinerary out and showed it to him, and he got his own service planner thing out and looked at it. He then apologized, saying that it does go to Gravesend, but goes a different route and takes a little longer. Apparently a little longer now means 2 and a half hours!
As we were arriving at Ashford, I noticed a bay of 4 being vacated, so 4 of us moved to there. We were soon leaving Ashford, still on winner track, and headed onto the classic lines towards Folkestone. A eurostar was arriving at Ashford as we were leaving, which is one of the few that stop there, but the bridge stopped me getting the rear number, so I was just left with 3012 as the leading one. Anyway, I identified quite a few units as we went, and the bay of 4 next to us was left empty after Folkestone, so 8 of us could sit together (we were 10 in total). We continued past Dover, where we took a right and headed towards Martin Mill. At some point in the journey, we were tricked into moving into the front coach, which also had two bays of 4 free, because the window alignment was apparently better. It was identical to the other coach! It didn't matter though, as there was no change and all 10 of us could be together at this point. People who had sarnies on them started eating around Sandwich, which I think was through co-incidence. I didn't have any lunch, and was still full from brekky so didn't want any. We continued and were soon getting to Ramsgate, where there was a large number of stabled units, and 37800. This was the point that we started heading back towards London, and we had soon reached Faversham and Sittingbourne, where the line to Sheerness goes off. There wasn't too much left until Gravesend now, and we were soon passing Hoo Yard, which took me by surprise. It had loads of stuff in there, including the best 66, 66135. It was good to see that again, having last seen it 10 days previously at Wembley. Anyway, after that it was the approach to Gravesend, where only Dom395 and I stayed on the unit. Everyone else headed either home or onto the ferry to Tilbury.
The third ticket check, as we were arriving at Ebbsfleet, went fine (as did the second, at Margate) and we were soon back on the 140mph track for a storm back towards London. After an excellent trip around the coast, with great company, we were both getting ready for St Pancras, where we had three minutes to get onto a Thameslink service towards Croydon.
We were at the front door as we stopped, but weren't first in the queue. I wanted to keep my ticket, so I'd need to go to the manned barrier, but our running meant that I was soon through the barrier and down the escalator. We (carefully
) ran across part of the massive station and I got through the Thameslink barriers without any fuss. Don unfortunately didn't as he had got into 'ticket mode' and tried to put his ticket through the barriers instead of tapping in with his oyster. This luckily didn't cause us to miss the train, which had just opened its doors when we got onto the platform. We were soon both on board winner
700016, which was working the 15:10 Brighton. It was a rather busy service, but we managed to get a bay of 2, and we were soon moving through the core. It wasn't until Blackfriars that we found out that we were in the busiest coach according to the display thing on the 700s! We wandered through, but found out that the display must have been wrong, as there was little or no difference in the other coaches (except 1st class, but you can tell why). We got in a bay of 2 further towards the front of the train and then relaxed for the stagger to East Croydon.
At some point on the journey, Dom pointed something out to me that I'd missed. I was very glad that he had, as it was a test train going over a bridge above us. I only saw the rear coach and loco, 73965, so couldn't do a gen check to see what was leading, which was annoying as it was required for sight 73964. Just a couple of seconds earlier and I would've seen it! To make matters even worse, 73965 is the only of the 73/9s in GBRF that I've seen! Typical!
I'd done an RTT check while on the 700, so found out that we'd have a +3 at East Croydon onto a 377 towards Clapham. This would easily be doable, and we ran over the footbridge and down onto the platform for it, seeing that there was a delayed (by 10 minutes) one in front of it. I got my unit book out and, after seeing that the two units arriving on the delayed 15:41 to Victoria were required, we got on.
377448 and
377108 had the honour of carrying us to Clapham.
It was a busy service, so we tried to walk through the train, but one of the corridor connection doors wouldn't play ball and open, so we couldn't walk far. We just wedged a couple of people out instead - it isn't a long journey, after all. The reason I wanted to go to Clapham was because of the 707s. Dad had suggested it, and I know that there are now more there than last time, so it'd be good to get some more crossed off in the book. When we left the 377s, having checked the times for a 444 to Waterloo on RTT before hand, we headed over towards the Windsor platforms and peered over the bridge, seeing only two 707s in there. What makes that worse? Both were at the back of the shed, making identifying them impossible without a pair of binoculars. Damn.
I collected the other numbers that I could get of various other classes (all duds, unfortunately) before we both wandered down to platform 7, with 10 minutes until the 444 from Weymouth. The PIS on the platform was, as always, not working, simply saying 'Welcome to Southwest trains', but the moment we got onto the platform I could see a 450 arriving. I got my book out and found out that it was a pair of winners, so gave the choice to Dom - do we take them or wait for the 444. The 450s were chosen, so we soon had a pair of seats on winner
450020, which was leading winner
450561. Now it's time to plan what to do next!
Wanting to avoid the silver worm, our choices came down to SWT back out of Waterloo or SE out of Waterloo East. The latter was chosen, so when we were on the concourse of Waterloo, it was up the escalator and along the corridor, running, to Waterloo East. The plan was to head to London Bridge to see how the improvement work is going, so we sprinted down the ramp when seeing that there was already a service in. That put us on board a pair of 375s, just in time. I got the numbers from the coach number, but the one that we'd boarded in looked oddly familier. We walked through the train into the front unit, me identifying the leading unit from its cab number - winner
375823. The rear one was way too familiar for my liking as dud
375818. I've only had 10 out of the 112 of these!
We were soon at London Bridge, where I walked down the escalator to get to the concourse, Dom sliding down the bannister on the stairs, which was actually rather funky to watch. When we reached the bottom we looked at the concourse and I tried to call Yorkie, because he'd mentioned about going to a pizza buffet thing for some tea at Victoria earlier on. It went straight to Voicemail, just like it had when someone else had called him earlier, so we just went with it, and Dom gave his dad a call to ask what we should do - head for Victoria or flag it. Meanwhile we ran up to the Charing Cross bound platform just as another pair of 375s was arriving.
I don't believe it. I really don't. I'd just got another dud 375, this time
375927! My first 375/6 was on the back to soften the blow, winner
375606, but why when I needed over 90% of the fleet do I get yet another dud? We got on board 606 and stayed on for one stop to Waterloo East, at which point we knew what we were doing. The plan was to head for Victoria and see if we could find them. I was highly skeptical about this plan, which I doubted would work considering we had no idea if they were going, what time they'd be there or where the restaurant was, but I went along with it anyway. We were now to head for Charing Cross, but the reason we bailed was so I could have another shot at a potential winner, which came off 3 minutes later when double winner
465243 and
465023 arrived for the ride across the bridge, with some good motor noise from the former.
Once we'd got to Charing Cross, it was simply a walk over to Embankment. We were soon there, and on the tube platform for the Victoria direction. We didn't need to wait for long before a District line service arrived, winner
21481+21482 providing the traction. We hopped on board and alighted two stops later at St James' Park, because I needed the shack. We only needed to wait for a minute until the next one appeared, but it seems that it isn't just 375s that aren't keen on me today, as it was dud
21351+21352 taking us the one stop forward to Victoria.
Once we were above ground again, it was time to look for the pizza place. As I expected, we couldn't find it, so plan B (that I thought of) came into action. Head to Paddington for some 1st class lounge time until my train!
We re-entered the silver worm station, and checked the display that said where the line closures were, as there were quite a few today. Unfortunately the closures included the circle and district line to Paddington, so the routing had to change. The plan was now to take the Victoria line to Oxford Circus for the Bakerloo forward to Paddington. I went through the barriers first but, after going through, heard a call of my name and turned to see that Dom couldn't get through, because he had no money left on his Oyster. This was because he'd been overcharged for a journey, so his whole £1.50 that should have completely covered him had gone. He also had no cash on him, so I went over to the oyster machine and put another £1.50 in so we could get through the barriers and down to the Victoria line.
We'd just missed one when we got there, but it was only a minute to wait for the next. Winner
11005+11006 greeted us and we were soon arriving at Oxford Circus. I thought it was quite a way to get to the Bakerloo line here, but it turns out that I was wrong and that you just need to cross to the other side via a snaking corridor. When we got there, we saw one in the platform, but its doors had just shut and it was gone. Damn! Still, not too long to wait for the following one, which was heading for Queen's Park. Double dud
3533 and
3238 was soon arriving, and we got on board and found seats for the screechy ride to Paddington. It felt longer than it was, but we got there in the end, and headed straight for the TVMs to get our required 1st class tickets, which I got for both of us. I noted the powercar numbers down, including 43020, which Nat really wanted to get today. The indication that it was out meant that he may have, so I'd just need to remember to ask him when I saw him on the cat later on.
We had soon got entrance to the lounge, and when we got there we found that the excellent cakes get packed away at 17:00
. It was now 17:30, at which point it was wine (yuck) that was on offer, so I just got myself an orange juice and a pack of crisps (the coffee machine was broken so I couldn't get a hot choc) to start with. I also ate quite a few packets of biscuits in there, and put a few in my bag along with some popcorn for later. I was on the 18:10 from Marylebone, so didn't want to risk leaving Padd any time later than 17:45, so we both headed out then and went over to the underground, me seeing a winner for sight 387 en route. We were soon on the Marylebone bound Bakerloo line platform, and we had to wait 3 minutes before one arrived. I couldn't belive my eyes when I saw which one it was. The same freaking set that we'd had from Oxford Circus to Paddington! It must have got to Queens Park; turned around and got back to Marylebone in the time we'd been at Paddington. We still got on board
3238 and
3533 and, after an earpiercing departure from Paddington, it was an uneventful ride to Marylebone. We both headed upstairs here, Dom saying bye on the concourse and heading back to the tube, me going through the barriers and walking past the DVT that would be on the back of my cat home. I already knew which one it'd be, as Kite had told me earlier, so I wasn't disappointed to see
68015 up front. I wouldn't have been disappointed even if I hadn't known though - out of the cats it could have been, 015 was the one that I wanted the most. I got a bay of 4 up front, and got wedged out before departure by 3 soche guys. I read my book for the journey, stopping as we went through Kings Sutton to be soche when Nat gets here. I let the 3 guys have the bay of 4 from this point, as another had been vacated for Banbury that Nat and I could use. I took the seat and Nat had soon joined me when we arrived at Banbury, and started saying how his day had gone. It had apparently went very well, and he'd seen a pair of 707s on test too! Typical - Nat goes to a place without 707s and sees 2 of them, I go to the home of 707s and see the same amount, but neither were identifiable. He also saw 68025, a winner for sight for both of us, and he got a good number of HST sets, but 020 avoided him as it came from the West Country. It was good to have some company for the last little bit to Leam, where we watched Topcat thunder away before heading out into the carpark and going over to where Nat's dad was waiting, for the journey home.
A terrific day was had, with loads of soche, and loads of winners, both track and units. HS1 was really good fun too, and I'm really glad I went.
Titan by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Marylebone mog by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Marylebone by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Stratford by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Stratford by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Hoxton by fishquinn1, on Flickr
357 away by fishquinn1, on Flickr
D stock by fishquinn1, on Flickr
Soon to be gone by fishquinn1, on Flickr
New kid on the block by fishquinn1, on Flickr
GWR 387 interior by fishquinn1, on Flickr
