Thanks to everyone for the replies!
I am more of a MU person as opposed to freight. I do jot down LHCS stuff too, saw a Norwich to Liverpool Street at Stratford.
Anyway, I shall fill you all in on my report from Monday. Hope you enjoy!
So on Friday I had the travelling blues and wanted to go somewhere. Looked on Megabus and a return to London was £9. Whilst I'm no means a major fan of Megabus, it was too good to miss out, so I went for it.
On the 0620 from Cardiff to London, journey ran well until Hammersmith where traffic was pretty dire. Driver knew the area well having previously worked on the London Buses years ago, so took a diversion via Chiswick (lovely area), Hammersmith and Fulham. Eventually got to Victoria at 1045.
Across to the tube station and took a Victoria Line to Highbury & Islington (sorry guys, I don't record tube stock, may start doing it but it's just too busy to notice). I do like the 2009 stock, very fast and swift acceleration! Probably my favourite stock on the entire network, followed by the new S7 and S8 stock on the Circle/District/Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Line.
I went to Highbury & Islington, where my aim was to head to Stratford. Whilst the most obvious route from Victoria to Stratford is the Central Line from Oxford Circus, I wanted to go Overground, just to see a bit more, so I opted to change at Highbury. Winner 378204 pulls in with the 1138 Richmond to Stratford (2N38). The journey went smoothly into Stratford. At Stratford, I saw a 360 and a 90 on their way to Liverpool Street.
Needed to pop into Westfield to do a bit of shopping. An hour later I realised I was at the Stratford International end of the centre, so I jumped on the DLR. Before now, I have always just caught it from Stratford main, but I have yet to see International which is only the stop before, so I went from there. Winners 28+79 took me on the journey to Canning Town. The DLR is great.
At Canning Town, I had a swift change onto a Bank service. Winners 105+109+130 arrive. On both units I got the front seat, brilliant stuff! Saw a 357 pulling into Limehouse on a Fenchurch Street to Southend service. At Shadwell, we shot into the tunnel on the last stretch to Bank. Again, the Central Line runs direct from Stratford to Bank but the DLR is more interesting as the views of the docklands are perfect on a clear day.
At Bank, I made a swift change onto the Central Line to Marble Arch. Had a walk down Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road and met my friend for a coffee. Afterwards, I decided to use the bus! I have only been on maybe four London buses at the most; one on the 10, the RV1, the 73, the 281 and a shuttle bus from Southfields to Wimbledon for the tennis years ago. I wanted to head to Victoria to get some EMU spotting, so I walked to Great Russell Street. I have always wanted to go a NB4L too. From here, there is the option of the 24, or the recently diverted 390 to Victoria. A 390 pulled up but I wanted a front row seat, so I waited for the 24 behind. LT104 (LTZ 1104) arrived and off we boarded. These buses are interesting but very warm!
At Victoria, I had to think about what to do ticket-wise, as despite the fact I'd reached my cap on my Oyster I didn't want to get caught out at Clapham Junction as I was going to be there for a while. I purchased a 16-25 single which was only £2.25.
A quick toilet stop now that they are free at Victoria, and off I went to Clapham Junction. Winners 377418+377147+377140 were on the 1718 to Littlehampton (1H40), which despite being formed of twelve coaches, was already pretty loaded (hello rush hour!). I made my way to the second coach and found a seat (I could have stood, but I'm lazy like that!). We set off to Clapham on time.
I was probably the only one to get off on the entire train; I wonder how many people actually make the short journey to Clapham! I got off to a huge crowd waiting to board 1H40, and it left Clapham full and standing.
This place at rush hour is absolutely bonkers! It's mad all day, but at rush hour you certainly feel it! So many 377s stopping and 387s passing, it is amazing! I spent about half an hour on platforms 13 and 14, then made my way platform 9 to see the SWT fast services passing through. 450076+450038+450541 stormed their way through on an Alton fast, and seconds later 450019+450550 stormed through with a fast service to Southampton. Pretty amazing stuff.
I then exited the station with my single with no problems, despite it being almost an hour since I bought it. A quick coffee stop and I tapped through to make the short hop to Waterloo. Winners 450039+450557 arrive on platform 4 with the 1712 Reading to Waterloo (2C56). Journey to Waterloo went smoothly, and we pulled in on platform 19.
I had decided earlier in the day that I wanted to take a train from Charing Cross over the Thames. I've walked alongside on the pedestrian bridge several times before but I hadn't caught a train. Rather embarrassingly, I had yet to lose my Southeastern virginity. Despite planning it earlier in the day, I didn't think I'd have time to do it as I'd spent so long at Clapham, however I thought sod it, and hopped over to Waterloo East for the leg to Charing Cross. This was all brand new territory for me. I made my way to platform D, and winners 375905+375815 pulled in with the 1658 from Dover Priory (2W58). 375905 was a welcome addition as that was one of the earliest SE units I'd spotted years ago, so it was nice for that to be my first winner for haulage.
The journey into Charing Cross was short but interesting. From there, I took the Bakerloo Line to Embankment, where I transferred onto the Circle Line to Victoria, before walking over to the coach station for the Megabus home. All in all, a cracking day!
