14th
September - The Breckland Freighter Tour
I was booked
onto the latest BLS railtour this Saturday, what was formally called the Bow
Bells but got renamed when part of the tour got declined due to no path being
available (for it was meant to go towards Stratford and into the Bow freight
yard, before returning towards the ECML via Carpenters Curve & Canonbury
Curve, which would have been a highlight as it’s one of the few bits of track I
need within the London area). Anyhow
those things happen as the tour was due to some freight bits around Norfolk, it
was starting from Nottingham, calling at a few stations with the last pick up
being Peterborough, so I decided to select Peterborough as it would be the
cheapest place to reach as I could stay overnight in London on the Friday and
head up in the morning.
What I did
on the Friday evening in London will follow, but the day began in the Croydon
Travelodge after a not-so good sleep, I had things on my mind and got woken up
around 4am when some drunken youths arrived causing a lot of noise (so much
they were requested to leave after multiple complaints). I grabbed breakfast from the busy 24 hour
McDonalds before heading to board the 05:40(ish) service towards Bedford, due
to engineering works it was going via Selhurst & Tulse Hill so journey
times were extended, but I had a private declassified first class area on
700151 for the slow trip to Blackfriars where I popped out to grab some
supplies from the nearby Tesco (which turned out to be a good thing). The Cambridge service wasn’t anything of
interest, but behind was a service towards St Albans which was low mileage 700016 which I took to St Pancras
getting a small mileage boost. I crossed
over the road to Kings Cross, headed to platform 8 to board a low mileage 700103
for the run to Sandy.
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| An Aberdeen bound HST passing Sandy. |
Half an hour
later (with some pictures, although the position of the sun meant most were a
bit rubbish), I continued my trip to Peterborough on 365536 & 365538, the
rearmost coach of 538 was empty, this was the first time I’ve departed
Huntingdon heading north, and probably the first time I’ve gone into platform 1
at Peterborough from the south. I had
around 25 minutes to fester before the tour would arrive from the New England
yard area, so I did some pictures of the various locos/units around
Peterborough, noting a 156 had escaped Nottingham on a Norwich service. The time for the tour arrived as winner 66088 rolled in with some Mk2 coaches
(mix between the repainted ones and some old Anglia coloured coaches) with
winner 66041 on the rear. I was happy for it being Mk2 coaches because
it meant half decent seats, but also meant dodgy AC (which kept being turned on
& off throughout the day due to diesel in the generator van). I said good morning to the 3 others on the
table which was responded in a deadly silence, and a part of me resigned to
being another of those tours where the people on the table were more interested
in watching videos on their phone than communicating. (It got better nearer the end with a couple
of the people on the table opening up, but all I got out of the 3rd
was muttering underneath his breath and the odd “excuse me”).
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| 66088 arriving into Peterborough |
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| 66041 bringing up the rear |
Back to the
tour, 66088 was in charge for the run towards March, using the goods loop after
the station to be looped by a XC service, before carrying on heading east. The next bit of unusual track was the Ely
West curve which meant the train could continue heading towards Norwich without
needing a reversal at Ely, and the train came to a stop just after Brandon
station into a goods loop, where 66041 popped into life to take the tour into
the DBC sidings, looked like stone loading.
66088 was back in charge, re-joining the mainline before a sudden halt,
news filtered through the carriage that the loco was having issues and 66041
hauled the set back into the goods loop with some wrong-line running. 66088 was declared a failure (something with
traction motors), and this point I was expecting the tour to be declared
cancelled with 66041 hauling the stock back towards Nottingham, but to the
credit of the on board team they came up with a new plan to run 66041 around,
dumping 66088 in the Brandon sidings. So
it was back into the sidings where 66041 ran round to the front, and 66088
left, getting back on the move around 2 hour late.
The tour
passed at the little served Eccles Road as expected,
before reversing into the Eccles Road Exchange Sidings and around the curve to
the little used Johnston grain loading sidings for some more new track. Another propelling movement into the other
exchange siding before it was back on the mainline and heading towards Norwich
where the tour went into the carriage sidings to the side of the station
(carriage siding 9 I believe), with the stock being propelled backwards to the
Riverside freight area where the stock could be watered and drivers having
their break.
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| A 90 nearing journeys end at Norwich |
Half an hour or so later, the tour continued
to go back into the carriage sidings with 66041 running around to attach to the
rear of the train and back onto regular passenger metal, pausing at the loop
before the junction to allow a 158 to zoom past, before the train resumed with
the run towards Ely, going via the goods loop behind the station, and via the
Chesterton freight yard (which is behind the platforms of Cambridge North). The train came to a rest in the new Cambridge
reception sidings (number 2), between various 317s & 700s stabled for the
weekend. 66041 ran around via the
station to the opposite end of the train as it departed back north, a couple
freight loops were dropped, but the train did go via the other loop at Ely before
heading back towards Peterborough, losing the trip to Littleport which allowed
some time to be clawed back. The train
went via a loop before March station, but that was about it as it arrived into
Peterborough on platform 4 a mere 15 minutes late (although a lot of time was
made up by not having a break in Norwich, much to the annoyance of some who was
hoping to use the break to score some beer).
I said
farewell and left the train at Peterborough, my first option was cancelled
(19:24) so with 40 minutes before the next Thameslink I popped out to walk to a
nearby Tesco Metro to grab dinner (and something cold to drink), returning to
take a seat on a low mileage 700 which would form the 19:54. Departure time came and went and 10 minutes
later it was announced that service as well was cancelled due to not having a
driver. Over to platform 2 where the 700
was taken to the sidings to get it out of the way for a 153 from Spalding to
arrive, taking me back towards London was 365506 & 365504, a bit loud at
the start with some youths playing music, but they got off at Huntingdon
allowing peace to return to the coach (other than for the motor noise).
The train
kept good timing all the way as I alighted at Finsbury Park (because it’s an
easier interchange to LU), and headed to the Victoria line platform, hopping
into the front coach of set 11049/11050 for the 5 and a half mile run towards
Victoria, connecting into 455829/455845 working the first available service to
Clapham Junction, followed by 444038 to Basingstoke (handy plug sockets) and
then by a busy 159009 & 159016 back to Grateley, where I had a gentle walk
home, arriving around 35 minutes later than expected.
Overall the
day turned out well, even with one of the locos breaking down which for some
operators would have been the end of the trip, but to everybodys credit they
pulled it around with only losing a couple minor bits (I think the trip towards
Littleport was mainly to get 66041 working back towards Nottingham for some
part farers to be parted with some money between set down points).
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| 66041 running around the coaches at Norwich |
--------------------------
13th
September – Another trip in South Eastern land
Staying
overnight in Croydon got me thinking what to do in London, eventually deciding
on another evening with South Eastern units.
I went via Reading to pay in a cheque at my bank before continuing
towards Paddington, for reference purposes my moves are in a summary form.
Grateley
->Basingstoke: 159014 (not sure if this service has gone back to being a
single unit as it was a pair of units before the summer)
Basingstoke
-> Reading: 165116 (with failed Air cooling)
Reading
-> Paddington: 802004 &
802005 (after paying in the cheque I returned to the station around half past
three, this was a service from Plymouth)
Paddington
-> Charing Cross: 3264 & 3548 (quite busy)
Charing
Cross -> Orpington: 377505 & 377506 (took me by surprise seeing a
pair of 377s at Charing Cross, last fast to Orpington for a couple hours
Orpington
-> London Bridge: 375612, 375704 & 375802
London
Bridge -> Charing Cross: 465031, 466023
& 465154
Charing
Cross -> London Bridge: 376036 & 376006 (misread the carriage number of
the rear unit, oops)
London
Bridge -> Hither Green: 465154, 466023 & 465031
Hither Green
-> London Bridge: 466040, 465164 & 465024 (via Lewisham)
London
Bridge -> Lewisham: 465003 & 465189 (positioning move for an unusual
service)
Lewisham
-> London Victoria: 376024 & 376025 (runs non-stop, only
time 376s visit Victoria in Passenger service outside engineering works)
London Victoria
-> Bromley South: 375715 & 375830 (nice pair of very low
mileage 375s)
Bromley
South -> Orpington: 700044 (first
time to Orpington on a Thameslink service)
Orpington
-> London Bridge: 465194, 465188 & 466026 (the rear 466
was empty!)
London
Bridge -> Abbey Wood: 465908, 466032 & 465907 (via
Lewisham, I could have bailed at Woolwich but Abbey Wood has a handy island
platform and gave a +2 to the next service
Abbey Wood
-> London Bridge: 465174 & 465180 (the Thameslink I was hoping to
catch was heavily delayed and was running fast from Dartford)
London
Bridge -> London Blackfriars: 700028 (Extra mile for this RLU 700)
London
Blackfriars -> East Croydon: 700130
At East
Croydon, the station was in a state of chaos due to various issues caused by a
trespasser earlier in the day, delayed trains, cancelled trains etc.
I set myself
a target of 10 units for mileage, I ended up with 15 units being pushed over
the line, plus a little boost for a couple RLU 700s, an enjoyable evening with
some nice Networker based noise.
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| 377s depart Orpington |
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| 376s at London Victoria |
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