16th August – A London Day
I was off work for the next week (and a bit) on some annual
leave, having hit the rails on the Thursday afternoon to revisit Shawford &
Hook for some random platform scratches (after the week I had at work, I needed
to escape and Shawford common allowed me to do so). I was staying overnight in the Walsall area
so I had a good few hours in London, deciding to ask for info on my last few
SWR unit needs, more for the last few 450s (which can work away from London, or
work peak time additional services spending off-peak in Clapham yard).
So when I awaited on news, I headed towards the station with
a busy 159022 &159012 taken to Basingstoke, for 165116 to Reading, my eyes were mainly fixed on a couple late
running services from the West Country (as more likely to be 802s), but before
they arrived winner 802003 rolled in
from Bedwyn. Along the way I got some
news, and it was quite good because 3 out of the 4, 450s were working
Basingstoke/Alton services [calls at Surbiton], with the 4th due to
work a peak time service calling at Clapham later in the evening. Plus I got info on my last couple 458s but my
last 707 was “on depot”. So along the
way into Paddington I made up a rough plan of attack.
At Paddington it was straight towards the Bakerloo line with
3243/3541 taken to Oxford Circus, where I changed to 11009/11010 to take me to
Victoria, for no reason other than to have a look to see if there was anything
of interest floating around, sadly not as I took 377208 & 377474 to Clapham
Junction (passing a low mileage 377 heading towards Victoria & a 455 also
heading towards Victoria, so I made a note of their inbound workings to have a
look at what services they would form to try and allow me to intercept). At Clapham Junction, it was a short walk
across to platform 7 before a triple 450 from Alton arrived, 450001 leading
450016 with 450108 on the rear.
450108 is the unit I had the night before on a Winchester – Shawford leap,
little did I know at the time how those extra 3 miles would come in handy as it
meant it was cleared for 10 miles around the Vauxhall area.
Talking about Vauxhall, that is where I was heading next,
after walking across to the former International platforms to board 458529
& 458507, the mile being enough for 529, and I returned to Waterloo on the
next inbound service, this being 455864/455853/456021, and I headed across to
where a triple 450 from Alton was arriving, and I was happy because 2 out of my
3 requirements featured, and both those 2 were low [one on a Clapham leap, the
other on a Vauxhall leap!]. I took a
seat on 450122, 450020 & 450114 for the non-stop run to Surbiton,
returning back to Waterloo on 450037 & 450005. Had this pair of 450s called at Clapham I
could have intercepted my last 458 as it headed towards Windsor but alas couldn’t
be helped. During the trip to/from
Surbiton I worked out a rough plan of action for those Southern units I saw, so
it was a short walk across the bridge to Waterloo East, jumping on an unknown 6
coach service, little did I know 466006 was leading 465045 and 006 was
on 9-odd miles so the leap to London Bridge was enough to clear it for mileage
(happy days!).
At London Bridge I headed across to the Thameslink
platforms, the first southbound service wasn’t of interest, the next was
heading to Rainham, the third was also of little interest but I decided to take
it anyhow (as the 4th would give a tight connection at Croydon), so
it was onwards to Norwood Junction on 700129, changing to 455804/455831 to East
Croydon (a shot in the dark, the 455s actually beat the 700 into Croydon due to
congestion!) I headed across to platform
1 and awaited the service from Brighton which as expected featured 377108
& 377145 for the run to Clapham Junction, and a short walk across to the Windsor
lines side for 455718 & 455708 to take me to Richmond to intercept the
service from Windsor.
I had my fingers crossed as 458505 rolled in with 458501 on the rear, the run to Waterloo needed
for my final 458 for mileage (I also think 501 was my last 458 to get for
haulage outright a couple years ago when I had it on a Vauxhall leap). During the time I asked about 319s on London
North Western services and got some good news as 2 out of the 3 were gettable,
but to waste some time I headed across to Waterloo East with a busy 465162 being given an extra mile to
London Bridge and 466022, 465901
& 465906 taken back to Charing Cross, where I headed to the Northern line
with 51718/51616 took me the mile & a half to Euston with some time to
spare before the first of the evening 319 operated services.
The 16:04 (ish) to Tring was formed of 319216, 319220
& 319005 so a run to Harrow & Wealdstone was needed for the 319,
sitting in the motor coach (overhearing someone attempting to make a telephone
conversation but was complaining about the noise, surely if they had sense they
would move to another coach). At Harrow
& Wealdstone [seems the building is getting refurbished] it was across to
platform 6, the first service was a pair of 377/2s which were of no interest, followed
by a single unit from Tring, I was happy as it was low mileage 350257, I
even managed to get a seat! Back to
Euston and once more I headed across towards Victoria with 11039 & 11040
doing the honours, time was more limited this time as I had a couple minutes to
spare before boarding 455807 & 455844, the run to Wandsworth Common
would just be enough to push 844 over ten miles (by a mere 3 chains!), so that
is where I headed, making a connection onto 455842 & 455828 back towards
Clapham Junction where I had around 5 minutes to head across to platform 7,
extended by around 5 minutes due to congestion.
My fingers were crossed again as the triple unit from Poole
rolled in, 450101 was on the front, 450554 was on the rear and 450558
was in the middle, happy days. The run
to Clapham was enough for this 450, which was lucky as the next service was
fast outside the zones, but at the start I didn’t think I would get all 4 of
the buggers, so I was in a very happy mood, no longer need I keep an eye out
along the way to London. At Waterloo I
noticed something had gone wrong as the Wimbledon suburban platforms were empty
of trains (and busy with commuters), a train had broken down around the
Earlsfield area causing a lot of delays, oops!
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| Spot the Train... |
Anyhow, I headed across to the former international
platforms once again, this time in the hunt of that 707 which had come out to
play working Hounslow loop services and I took a seat on 707015 &
707018 for the run to Clapham, enough to clear it for ten miles, clear the
class with an uncertain future for mileage and also nearly clears SWR outright,
just a 442 for mileage (and i don’t believe 442409 has re-entered service
yet). At Clapham I headed across to the
Southern side and jumped on 377125 & 377433 to take me to Balham, more of a
time wasting move to board a Milton Keynes bound 377201 & 377212 to Harrow
& Wealdstone; the service would be cut back at Watford Junction due to
issues further along the line. I was
glad I did it this way rather than going back via Euston as the next Tring
stopper was cancelled. The triple 319
from Tring was delayed somewhat but eventually rolled in with 319433 leading 319441
with 319219 on the rear, just leaves me with 214 for the London North Western
fleet.
I arrived to find Euston in a state of chaos (it was the day
there was wiring issues around Rugeley, not helped by the trespassers), so I
leapt on the first northbound service, which was a Crewe (via the Trent Valley)
bound 350370, and was only joined by 2 other passengers in the front
coach! At Rugby I changed platforms and
awaited a Crewe via Birmingham service formed of a busier 350113 to take me to
Birmingham New Street to await the last ‘semifast’ to Walsall service [the
following services would all be stoppers], this worked from Wolverhampton and
the inbound service was late, eventually 350108 appeared to take me to Walsall
running fast to Tame Bridge Parkway via Aston.
A gentle walk took me to the Travelodge in Walsall, where I
checked in, put my devices on charge, had a shower, sorted my bag out [good
thing with being in a hotel for 2 nights is being able to dump some weight],
and headed in for the night. A little
bit noisy from the road, but not as bad as some hotels (and at least with the
AC I could keep the window closed). Overall a very successful day in terms of my mileage requirements.
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