LLR Chase Buffer Puffer 4.0!

[class 313]

(LLR = London Loco Riders)

What a HELLFIRE day!

Starts off late due to a late arr of the 0830 Vauxhall corsa service to St Albans city station calling at my house and St Albans city station, the late service being a hour late finally gets me and Graeme to St Albans City. We buy our travelcards and head for the first city flyer to East Croydon.

Arrival at East Croydon on time where we meet some more photters, then the beasts arrive! 37410 leading creeps into EC then opens up giving some nice clag with 37406 on the back, then a GBRF shed runs LE northbound but doesn't get the same attention as the 37s.

Now on our way to London Bridge we take a 456x2 non stop to London Bridge, where we then decide to go to Waterloo via Waterloo East. We take the first train to Clapham which happened to be a 450 but still, better than a 455

We reach Clapham And go straight to the 47x2 parked up in the sidings, we then make it up to platform 9 to see 2x442 (one being the hybrid) go southbound. We then take the next 377 set to Victoria to meet up with Josh and Ramel. But before that a Eurostar came in and out of Clapham....

We meet Ramel and Josh and head for a line side location which we did and saw Julian G there as well as many other photters, and there the beasts where, just passing us with its idling purr... We then walked back to Victoria too see 37410 depart. BLOODY HELLFIRE is the only way to describe that departure! After seeing it we all relive our selves (we needed a ****, not coz the 37s where sooooo good ) We now head to Blackfriars via the District line to find it had already been and gone!?

We then got a 319 to East Croydon and got the Tram to Wimbledon to then get a 455 to Clapham to THEN get another 455 to Waterloo as we had time to spare, we then walked to Waterloo east to see our train leave so we wait for the next, we then bashed to London bridge to see that the Buffer Puffer route has a red light to allow a 376 so we all group round the signal and the BP rolls in with a Hellfire departure from 37410 again.

We then get to Cannon St where things had to go wrong, 37406 starts to leave as a 376 rolls in. Comments where made such as: "ahhhhh" "Nae Electrostar" *someone on the tour shouts* "Veg!" *I shout* "Wanker" But not all was bad as the 376 journy from Cannon St to Lewisham was ****ing funny with Ramel's prank phone calls!

We then head back to London Bridge to see the tour one last time, then Ramel got his 456+455 combo home whilst me and Graeme got a 319x2 combo back.

All in all what a great day and I would like to say thanks to Ramel, Josh, and Graeme for making the day as good as it was!

 

[Galvanize]

bloody hell(fire), my cheek bones still hurt from laughing sooooo much on that 376!

 

[RJ]

And my bones were under pressure just a bit during that mad bouncy run for the train at Waterloo East!

I left home 5 down at 06:30 due to me misplacing my beanie. Arrived Forest Hill 06:45, then the 06:41 rolled in - the departures screen showed all services on time so I was glad to catch this. Then at London Bridge I caught the tube to Baker Street then on to Paddington, arriving at 07:30. There I spoke to several people I knew including Joy54. 57604 took the sleeper out a few minutes after and 37406 pulled the ECS in bang on time if a minute or so early. The paperwork was lost resulting in a 16 minute delay in leaving. 37410 was hellfire leaving - sounded so different from the DRS tractors I'm used to!

Anyway, me Josh and John took the bus to Olympia. We got access to TRUST there and John checked on the tour - off route at Ladbroke Grove and N/R since. It was later revealed that the tour did not do the OOC flyover.The timings conflicted with the Southern service southbound. It had made up the time and was right behind it. It was looped for our 313 there, so we got our shots and took the 313 to Clapham. We found a good bridge there. After being told that there were problems with the tour at Kenny O, we headed back to Clapham to see Tangmere. En route John checked on the Buffer Puffer, which showed as passing West Brompton! So we legged it back to the bridge where 37410 duly came through 36 late. We headed back to Clapham and boarded the 11:05 to Willesden. As we left we saw the kettle fans waiting for Tangmere which was diverted via Wandsworth Road and Herne Hill.

We took the long way to OOC and went over the canal. We stayed there for a while then took the direct route to Willesden. John stayed there and got 47811 and some bits whilst me and Josh went to Euston. TRUST said the 37s were at Haywards Heath. We took the Victoria line to Victoria where we met Tom and Gez. We had lunch then sought a nearby bridge, bearing in mind the bright sun and the curves outside Vic. We found the right one and the 37s came around 10 minutes later. So we made our way back to Victoria and saw 37410 again!

The 37s did not go to Blackfriars via the Leigham curve in Tulse Hill. However it did do the curve at Brixton which is a very rare piece of track - no passenger trains and next to no tours do that curve.

To wile away the time we did a 319 to East Croydon then a tram bash(!) to Wimbledon!

After that we saw the 37s at London Bridge High Level, Low Level and Cannon Street!

In the end I didn't get the 456/455 home, I took a 465 to Lewisham then a bus home. Many thanks to Tom, Josh and Gez for another top day out as well as John for our trip to OOC and Steven for helping us out with the happenings and locations on the tour.