19th August – A long day in London
For the previous few days I was trying to decide between
using Oyster for today, or buying the full-fat Anytime Travelcard, in the end I
decided for the travelcard, I know it was more expensive than the Oyster daily
cap, but would give me a lot more flexibility without the need to remember to
tap in/out every hour or so to avoid maximum charges. Today was mainly some random platform scores,
plus some microgricing around London
The day began in the Hackney Travelodge, located a stone’s
throw from Hackney Central station so an ideal base for the first Liverpool
Street – Enfield Town service, which is the only train booked to use platform 3
at Enfield Town. I missed the chance
last year when I was overnight in this area (after doing the Woodford Bay LU
service) as I forgot about the Enfield service, and I was going to do it a
couple months ago but was too tired.
Anyhow it was a short walk to pick up my travelcard from the TVM outside
Hackney Central and use the walkway to Hackney Downs. Sadly my planned linear hop failed as the
previous Cheshunt service was cancelled, so when 315811 rolled in, it was a bit
busier than normal.
7 and a bit mile later, I felt the train use the crossover
outside Enfield Town to terminate in platform 3, and I had a short walk across
to platform 1 to board 317732 & 317891 to Silver Street, double backing to
Bush Hill Park on 315815 & 315817.
315811 was back to take me to Bruce Grove where I had to fight my way
off the train due to the crowding (platform 3 at Enfield can only take a single
unit unless additional staff are used due to the positioning of the platform
equipment). I noticed the next
southbound service was another single unit which looked to be wedged out, as I
doubled back to White Hart Lane on 317888 & 317887. 315817 &315815 returned from Enfield to
take me a couple stops to Stamford Hill, returning to Seven Sisters on 317891
& 317732. The reason for the linear
hops was for platform scores as I did a few of these stations linearly.
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| A train in Platform 3 at Enfield Town |
Time for me to leave London Overground and head underground,
expecting a crush but I managed to get a seat on 11027/11028 (must have been a
Seven Sisters starter), got crush loaded after Highbury & Islington, and
the crowds heading towards the underground at Euston when I alighted were
massive. I had time to grab breakfast
before spotting my last 350/2 for mileage working ECS to Tring (damn you wee
350240!) before boarding 378221 for the run to Queens Park. Crossing over to the Bakerloo platform for
3567/3240 to take me one stop to Kensal Green, returning to Queens Park on 3243/3541
before heading towards Wembley Central on the 4-coach 378206 (the
shorten trio are working on the Watford DC lines as a temporary measure when
the 710s bed in). After a visit to the
toilet I headed outside to catch a route 92 bus (TE1995) for a few stops to
reach Sudbury & Harrow Road, spotting a lot of route 18 buses floating
around the station. After a short walk
around, I headed up to the island platform at one of London’s least used
stations, where I was joined by around half a dozen other passengers for the 3rd
(of 4) London bound services, formed of a busy 165007 for the non-stop trip to
Marylebone.
Back to the Underground with 3261 & 3548 taken to
Charing Cross before I headed to the main concourse to have a look at what was
around, I needed a few odds & sods of South Eastern stations within the
zones, the first option was a triple 465 bound for Dartford via Welling, formed
of 465048, 465039 & 465159 which I took to Welling, heading back
towards London with 465191/465190 to Eltham, 465034 & 465919 to Kidbrooke
before 465161 & 465236 to
New Cross. I made a tight connection
over to board 465929 & 465193 for
the leap to Hither Green, with a track machine passing northbound before 465179
& 465160 took me to Chislehurst, with 466028, 465042 & 465018 taken to Grove Park, where I made my
way across to 466035 working the Bromley North shuttle, which as expected went
into platform 1 at Bromley North (majority of services use platform 2, but
there is a couple hours during the middle of the day which use platform
1). Back to Grove Park on 466035 with 466033, 465185 & 465154 taken to
London Bridge, where I just miss a Hayes train so it was plan B with 465171
& 465016 taken to Woolwich Dockyard where it started to rain. 376035 & 376007 took me back to London
Bridge where I decided to change focus with 455830 & 455826 taken to
Forest Hill.
I crossed over to the opposite platform, turning down a 10
coach 377 formation before 378145 rolled in to take me to Wapping (very
narrow platforms!) to start some linear hops.
378215 to Shoreditch High
Street, 378139 to Hoxton, 378150 to Haggerston & 378211 to Canonbury, sadly
211 was running a couple minutes late which meant a connection to a Clapham
Junction train was lost, as I hung back for 378207 for the run trip to South
Acton, where it terminated. I remained on
board for the reversal back towards Acton Central (scoring the crossover at the
northern end of the station), and made a connection for 378201 to Gunnersbury, followed
by 21501 & 21502 to take me to Richmond.
I made a tight connection onto 707014 & 707003 forming a Waterloo
bound stopper which took me to Clapham Junction. A short walk over to the Southern platforms
as 377422, 377142 & 377419 rolled in for an East Croydon run (enough
to push 422 over the line, plus I needed the toilet after a couple hours on the
Overground!)
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| Trains & Cranes at Hoxton |
377463 & 377148 were up next to take me to Sanderstead,
where I popped out of the station to buy my next ticket, just as the heavens
opened, so I took shelter to await for the next East Grinstead bound service
which was formed of 700042. This is when
I noticed I made a mistake as I needed platform 1 at East Grinstead and had
assumed that is where the peak time additional Thameslink services would use,
but it seems they use the more regular platform 2 with the Southern services
having to use the lesser used platform, so I alighted from the 700 at Dormans,
for 377101 & 377424 to take me the final step to East Grinstead, where it
was a gentle fast walk over the footbridge to reboard 700042 to take me back
towards East Croydon. Yes having a 700
in this part of the network felt a bit unusual.
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| Heavy Rain |
At East Croydon, I awaited the next Victoria bound service
formed of 377133 & 377416 to take me to Clapham Junction, for 444033 &
444026 to take me to Basingstoke. I was
going to step back to the 442s at Woking, but they were behind the sprinters [which
are pick-up only at Woking so would probably be busy]. A short wait at Basingstoke before 159101
& 159018 rolled in to take me home, where I could relax after a busy day
within London
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