14th July – A return to the Isle of Wight

14^th July – A return to the Isle of Wight

Time to make a confession, when I was doing a mini-audit of my moves list a couple months ago when doing my random platform requirements I spotted something which I wasn’t happy with, basically I had only boarded an Island Line train at Smallbrook Junction, never had I alighted from a 483 there.  It wasn’t picked up due to my moves with the Isle of Wight Steam Railway on the same sheet.  So it was time to put things right and remove this ‘fudge’ from my records.

Firstly I checked to make sure that the steam railway was in operation; as if that is closed trains don’t run the station is closed, but it being summer the trains were running so I came up with a rough plan, with a later start than normal driving to Romsey arriving around half ten (just in time to see the little community minibus arrive to take a handful of passengers towards Stockbridge & national trust places).  I headed over to the southbound platform and waited until the 10:50 service arrived, formed of 158955 for the slow trip towards Fratton, where I decided to step back a train for 377118 & 377106 to Portsmouth Harbour.  More of a time wasting move as I already had lunch from stopping off in Stockbridge earlier in the morning.

At Portsmouth Harbour, I noticed the silly new barrier layout, limiting access to the ferry terminal, as I headed down to the terminal, to wait 15 or so minutes before “Wight Ryder 2” arrived from Ryde, ticket was checked and I was on board taking a seat on the Sunshine Deck for the trip across the water to reach the Isle of Wight.

Once I alighted from the boat, it was a short walk to Ryde Pier Head station to watch as the little former tube train ran across the pier to reach the station (sadly my picture was a bit rubbish).  483008 was the unit in question which I took to Ryde St Johns Road for firstly a platform score, also to have a noisy to see what was on the depot.  004, plus the remains of 002 & 009 were outside, so I would guess 007 was hiding in the workshop getting repaired/repainted.[On the picture below, 004 is at the front, 002 in the middle & 009 at the rear]

20 minutes later 483006 returned from the Pier head to take me the mile to Smallbrook Junction, the station only existing as an interchange between the Island Line and the Steam Railway, with no outside public access, I would guess the steam railway was running a bit late as just as the 483 departed towards Shanklin a steam service arrived, the next service which called heading south wouldn’t be for another hour and a bit (so passengers were told to board the next Ryde train and double back on themselves).  Anyhow it wasn’t long before 483008 reappeared to take me back to the Pier Head, for a short walk to board Wight Ryder 2 to take me back towards Portsmouth Harbour.  With time to kill I jumped on 377438 for the short run to Portsmouth & Southsea, where I noticed a new Tesco Express had opened up underneath a Premier Inn (along with a coffee shop), I bet the takings at the Co-Op opposite has collapsed since that Tesco opened up.

Back at the station and towards platform 4 where 450011 was working the next Southampton stopping service which I took all the way to St Denys for a random platform score, slightly better timetable here than during the week as the two trains an hour towards Southampton are roughly half an hour apart (and the two trains from Southampton are similar, as during the week the two trains to Southampton are within a minute of each other, with a gap of around 9 minutes heading away from Southampton).  A brief photo taking time with some passing trains before 158885 took me to the other side of Southampton Central to Millbrook for a half hour wait before 158884 took me the short distance back to Southampton Central for 158954 to take me back towards Romsey.

After walking back to the car I decided to go a different rough home, one which goes via Dunbridge, timing my arrival right for the 2 hourly Sunday service at Mottisfont & Dunbridge (and judging by the number of passengers waiting for the train towards Southampton, deserves an hourly service).  This is one of those stations which are ‘managed’ by a TOC which doesn’t serve it, this case (like Dean) it’s managed by GWR but only served by the Romsey ‘figure of 6’ services run by SWR.  Although this hasn’t stopped the appearance of stop boards for Turbo services “do not release doors, local door only”.  A pleasant little stop-over on the drive home, the end of a good little day trip to the Isle of Wight, the 483s are old but have character, but are in serious need of replacement. 

 

Thanks for Reading :)