20th August – Another trip to London

20^th August – Another trip to London

Originally on my rough idea for my week off, this was going to be a 802 hunting day with a Thames Valley rover, but I decided that hanging around Reading for what could be an hour+ between services wasn’t my cup of tea today so I decided to head to London to carry on with some random platforms in overhead wiring land.  Also gives me an excuse to try out two new classes of trains, the 717s on Great Northern and the 710s on London Overground.

A walk to the station for the 08:59 service towards Waterloo, formed of a busy 159108 & 159005 (when commuters meet families on day trips, never a pretty sight), where I changed at Basingstoke onto 165117 for the run to Reading, popping out of the station for some brunch, before heading towards platform 10/11, taking my usual seat underneath the overbridge for some unit watching.  Straight away I spotted a required 802/1, which was heading towards Penzance and wouldn’t be back until much later.  A few minutes later I spotted another required 802/1 on an Oxford fast service, so I made a note of that one for later.  There was nothing of interest on the London bound and I waiting for a pair of units from Penzance as a pair of units rolled in from Bristol, the unit number of the front 800 caught my eye, for it was winner 800002, on the first day of service.  800007 was on the rear as I took a seat in 002 for the fast run into Paddington.

My time at Paddington wasn’t long before jumping on winner 345029 to take me to Hayes & Harlington where I made use of a TVM to purchase my BZ ticket to Slough to intercept that 802 later.  387150 & 387148 rolled in to take me to Ealing Broadway giving me a chance to ID the other 345 out, which wasn’t of interest so it was onwards to Slough on 387136 for around a 10 minute fester before 802110 returned from Oxford to take me back into Paddington.  It was straight to the Hammersmith & City line platforms, with 21339/21340 to take me to Moorgate where I made a tight connection for a Hertford North service formed of winner 717008.  Inside it is very much like a 700 in terms of seat layout, with plug sockets located underneath the seats.  Decent WiFi once it left the tunnels and felt nippy between stops as it took me to Enfield Chase, a required platform and also just over 10 miles from Moorgate.

717 out in the Open

 I crossed over to the opposite platform, nearly got knocked over by a prat on a bike who decided to ride it along the busy platform instead of pushing it, my next few months were for some platforms, just to get them out of the way to save having to come back when I eventually get round to hunting down the 717s (which will probably be over winter time).  313061/313057 to Bowes Park, 313035/313059 back one stop to Palmers Green, 313064/313122 to Alexandra Palace, 313044/313039 one stop northbound to New Southgate & 313037/313033 to Harringay.  During this time I only saw one other 717 floating around so in a way I guess I was lucky with that Hertford service at Moorgate.  But it was time to leave the 313s along and go for a gentle walk down a street to reach Harringay Green Lanes on the Gospel Oak – Barking line, with a short wait before winner 710266 rolled in to take me to Leyton Midland Road.  First impression of the new Overground stock is that it seems to be nippy, the AC was ice-cold.  Seats were a tad hard (like a 345), but they seem to work well with the loadings.

At Leyton Midland Road, I crossed over to the opposite platform to get a short hop on 710264 to Walthamstow Queens Road, for a walk to Walthamstow Central (via Tesco for something to eat), I will have to return to this line at some point to get both those units over 5 miles (using my “works mostly within London Zones” rule), plus to sample one on the overhead wires for the remaining part of the line.  At Walthamstow Central it was a short wait for 317732 to take me one stop northbound to Wood Street for a short fester (this station has many benches!) for 315858 & 315810 for the run to Liverpool Street, time for a short hunt of 321s, and straight away my luck was in with 321355 & 321365 on the next Southend service, a leap to Stratford to allow me to try and ID any inbound ECS workings, plus anything heading towards Liverpool Street.  I noticed both my remaining TfL Rail 315s were together (which was too good of a chance to get them both), but first I returned to Liverpool Street on 321425, 321343, 321324, the middle unit getting a mileage boost.

Take a seat...

A short turnaround at Liverpool Street before I was back out Stratford bound with 321444, 321336 & 321317, giving me time to intercept the return of 315837 & 315824 to take me back to Liverpool Street, which means I no longer have to keep my eyes out for the 315s.  A short turnaround at Liverpool Street before heading back towards Stratford with 321407, 321305 & 321422, before one final move to Liverpool Street with 321333 & 321358, before I made my way towards London Underground, with a regret that I couldn’t return to Stratford to take 321358 over the line, but that will have to wait for another day.

First up at Liverpool Street was a Metropolitan line service formed of 21059/21060 to take me to Farringdon as a Hammersmith train was 1 minute behind it, which was 21333/21334 which took me back to Paddington, where I was aiming for 19:22 Hereford service which is one of the first non-stop services to Reading where off-peak travelcards are valid, and I was in luck as it was winner 802101.  At Reading I had a fast walk from platform 8 to platform 3 to board 221144 for the run to Basingstoke, giving me 28 minutes to pick up some supplies from Tesco for the Wednesday and also to pick up my ranger for the Wednesday, just to save a job.  I returned back to the platforms with 159011 taking me home, the end of a good day in London.  I even got to sample some 37 based noise...

"The train approaching doesn't stop at this station"