London Trip 19th October

[90sWereBetter]

So yes, I have planned out another one of my madcap London trips for tomorrow. The difference here: I'm aiming to get the first train of the day from Ipswich to Liverpool Street, and when I'm in London itself, I am trying to catch a service by every TOC in the capital (so c2c, Greater Anglia suburban, Chiltern, FGW, FCC, SWT, Southern, Southeastern, and the London Overground) Am I mad? Quite possibly.

The plan is to first make it to East Croydon, via the Circle line to Farringdon and FCC onwards from there. I have 14 minutes to get off the train at LS, put a fiver on my Oyster, get the first tube heading westbound, and then get to the Thameslink platforms. Tricky, but possible. If not, I have a 15 minute wait for the next train, which considering it will be about 7:15 in the morning, will not be particularily pleasant.

After that, Tramlink will take me to Mitcham, where I have another tight connection, this time with the 118 bus because if I miss one, I have a 20 minute wait for the next one, early Saturday timetables and all that. That will take me to Streatham Common station where I will pick up a Southern service to Victoria.

From there, I will get the tube one stop to Sloane Square, where I will try my luck with the 319 bus, as that route is one of the last bastions of pre-2001 buses (Arriva DLA double deckers). No doubt my luck will fail me, and some new thing will turn up. :roll:

That will take me to Clapham Junction, where I will get a random SWT service to Richmond. There I will complete another little bit of the TFL map by getting the District line to Turnham Green. The plan is then to pick up the E3 bus to Northfields station, once again to complete more of the tube map, this time Piccadilly to Hounslow Central. The 120 bus (which occasionally has a V or W reg on it) will take me to Southall, where I would ideally like to try and get a FGW 165/166 to Paddington. However, it will probably be the Heathrow Connect that will be my journey. Once I get to Paddington, I don't know where I'll go next, and that is the beauty of having a capped Oyster card.

So yeah, I'm looking forward to this.

 

[gnolife]

You're missing London Midland from your list of TOCs, who run a half hourly service to Harrow and Wealdstone (then carrying on out of Greater London to Tring)

 

[90sWereBetter]

And typically, it didn't entirely go to plan. My rather empty train got into Liverpool Street at 7:05, giving me nine minutes to walk the length of the platforms, get some money on my Oyster, find the westbound Circle line platforms and get a train to Farringdon. The absolute worst thing happened; I got to the Farringdon Thameslink platforms at the EXACT moment the 7:14 left the station. Bugger. I then did something even more boneheaded, and instead of waiting for the next one, I thought it would be a smart idea to get the tube a further stop to Kings Cross, and catch the next train from St Pancras Thameslink instead. Completely forgetting of course, that you pretty much have to walk the entire length of St Pancras International to get there from the tube station. But I did just in time, and got a 319 journey all the way out into the sticks, or East Croydon as it's known.

From there though, I got some really good connections, as a Wimbledon-bound tram was pulling into the tram stop as I reached the platform. Considering it was about 7:55, it was packed, and it didn't really empty out until I bailed at Mitcham. A very short wait for the 118 bus followed, which took me to Streatham Common station. I caught the first service to London Victoria, formed of a Class 455 unit from Southern. Nice service this was. At Victoria, I managed to catch a D Stock unit the one stop to Sloane Square where, I hoped, a pretty old Arriva London bus would turn up on the 319.

Nope. A DW-class DAF was on the stand, but being the shrewd person that I can be, I betted that the next 319 would have a DLA on it. And it did, albeit one from 2003 and not the older W/Y registration ones that still run on the route. This was a good run down to Clapham Junction. More good luck fell my way, as a Reading-bound train was the next train to go to Richmond from here, meaning I didn't have to suffer the all-stops suburban loop train. It got me my first Class 458 journey as well. Pity I couldn't sit down, as it was packed to the rafters. But it didn't matter, as 6 minutes later there I was in Richmond.

My second D-Stock journey of the day took me to Turnham Green. The E3 bus that took me to Northfields station was another reasonbly quick bus, blighted only by some imbecile who seemingly wanted to deafen everyone on the top deck with his awful hip-hop music. The Piccadilly line sent me on my way to Hounslow Central, to pick up the 120 bus route. Sadly no elderly (by London standards) bus here, but this was always gonna be a long shot. A hybrid E400 deposited me at Southall station. The next train due for Paddington was the Heathrow Connect, not the FGW Turbo that I wanted. But I found a way around this minor inconvenience, namely get the Connect to Ealing Broadway and then get a Turbo from there. Whilst waiting for the Connect to arrive, I was offered the brilliant sight of an Intercity 125 passing through Southall at full chat (possibly). Unbelievable.

Having changed from a lightly-loaded Class 360 to a busy Class 165 at Ealing, my next port of call was to head back over to London Bridge, for Southeastern. I figured as it was likely I'd get a Turbo on the Chiltern services, that I should leave that for later in the day. It was about midday at this point. The Bakerloo line took me to Oxford Circus, where I picked up the 139 bus route to Waterloo, and then the Jubilee to London Bridge. I decided to basically catch the first service that I saw heading to Greenwich or Lewisham, and a service to Dartford formed of a pair of Class 465s took me to the former.

Now 10 years earlier, I and my father went on the DLR for the first time, in the incorrect belief that the Millennium Dome was nearby Greenwich Station. Having realised that it quite planly wasn't, I spotted the 177 bus route and wished to go on it. My father sadly refused, and until now I hadn't covered the route. But, 10 years later and being 18 years of age instead of 8 , it was time to right this wrong. At this point, the weather took a turn for the worse, very insipid rain indeed. And it was quite humid as well. I got the bus to Woolwich Arsenal, which enabled me to clear another branch of the DLR, which I duly did. At Canning Town, I had a choice of the 69 or 330 buses to Upton Park, as I begun to work my way towards the LTS line and c2c. The 330 turned up first, and having waded through a load of West Ham fans, my third D Stock of the day deposited me at Barking. Time was ebbing away though, it was close to 3 o'clock now. A Class 357 (what else? ) sent me on my way to Fenchurch Street. A quick walk to Tower Hill (by which time the weather had cleared up somewhat) got me my third S Stock of the day, back round to Liverpool Street. I realised I was probably not going to be able to get a Chiltern service, and promptly knocked the plan on its head.

Instead, I realised the time was nigh: the time to try a Borismaster. And being the idiot that I am, I caught the first one that turned up on the 11, when there was a big queue waiting for one. It was bloody packed. It was also a bit of a let down if I'm honest. Too much plastic, the small windows give a feeling of claustrophobia, and the seats were absolutely rock hard. I persevered to Trafalgar Square/Charing Cross, where I bailed to the Bakerloo line. I then changed onto the Victoria line, taking that to Tottenham Hale. There was still time to do the Greater Anglia suburban routes, and to try and get myself either a 317 or a 379, neither of which I had a journey on yet. A 317/8 forming a service to Cambridge turned up, and slowly took me back to Liverpool Street, where I finally decided to call it a day, and catch the first service back to Ipswich.

If I'm honest, the most unnerving moment of the day was having to walk across Ipswich town centre from the university halls to the station at quarter past 5 in the morning. But oh well. If only I had got that 7:14 service, I might have had time/energy to try out Chiltern's services.

Spare time pending, I'm gonna try and do another one of these next month.