21st September – A Trip to the West Somerset
Railway
The West Somerset Railway has been on my list of things to
do for a while, although like many other heritage lines I just don’t get round
to looking into doing them outside railtours.
When GWR/West Somerset announced that on selected Saturdays they would
run a shuttle from Taunton to Bishops Lydeard and hence putting Bishops Lydeard
on my list of stations to visit (although it is a bit of a grey area as you can’t
buy tickets to Bishops Lydeard which are valid on the train from stations other
than Taunton, unlike Corfe Castle or Okehampton). Anyhow with the list of dates the shuttle was
operating I looked up my calendar and picked an available Saturday, and ticket
options reviewed.
After a productive Friday in London (mainly pushing 321s
over ten miles) it was a later than usual start on the Saturday with a gentle
walk to board the 07:51 service to Weymouth, only as far as Salisbury on a busy
159018 where I popped out of the station to visit a nearby Sainsburys for supplies,
returning to await the arrival of the service from Cardiff, where due to engineering
works the line from Salisbury towards Romsey was closed. 166218 rolled in and I grabbed one of the
seats behind the cab for the run towards Westbury, where I had around 12
minutes to wait for the Exeter service to arrive, rolling in alongside a
Weymouth bound 166 which for me looked strange.
Anyhow it was a busy 802110 to take me to Taunton, pausing at Castle
Cary. It was another same platform change
for the 2nd Bishops shuttle which was formed of 150221 for the 5
mile trip onto new track, passing the featureless platform of Norton Fitzwarren
to Bishops Lydeard.
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| 150221 at Bishop Lydeard |
I had a brief look around the station before boarding the
next Minehead service, as it would have been foolish to turn down a trip along
a new line, this one was diesel hauled by a class 14 loco D9526 for a gentle
potter towards Minehead via some nice countryside and some beach front
views. At Minehead I didn’t have long
before jumping onto a service hauled by steam engine 9351 to the request stop
of Donford Halt. I had around 15 minutes
here before the next Minehead service arrived, which was hauled by steam engine
7828 and was quite busy (due to the glorious weather). This time I had a little look around Minehead
itself, taking a few pictures before returning to board a very busy service
back to Bishops Lydeard, and quite warm due to the low speeds.
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| The Steam Engine running around at Minehead |
Back at Bishops Lydeard it was a short wait for 150221 to
arrive, empty out and depart back to Taunton, causing confusion with the
signalling system as it delayed a Paddington bound service, but for me it was
onwards to Exeter with 802110 (again), with around 55 minutes at Exeter (time
spent popping out to Tesco for dinner and some drinks). The reason for going via Exeter was due to
the rubbish connections if I went via Westbury.
Anyhow it was onto 159104 & 159007 working the 18:25 service to take
me to Grateley, the train emptied out somewhat along the way, and was a
relaxing end of a relaxing day (compared to other Saturdays).
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22nd September – A trip to Oxford & London
For the first time in a while I was having a little Sunday day
trip to London, the main aim was the novelty of a Chiltern service going
non-stop to Aylesbury via Amersham on a divert due to the mainline being
closed. I drove to Andover in time for
the 07:03 service to Waterloo which today was formed of 159011 which was
starting from Andover due to engineering works.
I alighted from this busy unit (as it forms the first service from
Basingstoke) at Clapham Junction, grabbing breakfast and boarding 377138 for
the run to Victoria.
Eventually I reached the Victoria line (I had forgotten how
bad it is to reach the Victoria line now at Victoria) with 11011/11012 taken to
Oxford Circus with 3537/3299 to Marylebone where I purchased my BZ6 – Oxford ticket
up from the ticket office (having failed to buy one with the TVMs at Andover,
Clapham & Victoria, the dancing new TVMs at Marylebone no longer have the
option available). I took a seat on the
09:12 service to Birmingham Moor Street formed of 168322 leading 168112, and
the front unit was very lightly loaded (I would imagine the rear unit was
busier). A slow start with a pause
around the junction south of Wembley before the units picked up speed entering
LU rails at Harrow on the Hill where it was very close to stopping, after that
it was full speed ahead towards Aylesbury, bit of a delay outside the station
waiting for the next London service to depart the platform, and a trip along
the rural backwater line to Princes Risborough for another reversal where I
alighted at Haddenham & Thame Parkway for a 20 minute fester for the next
Oxford train.
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| Chiltern Turbos at Oxford |
A mostly empty 165039 rolled in from High Wycombe, which for
me was good as it meant some high speed 165 based noise for the long section
before the new junction to Bicester village where the train filled up, before
carrying on to a wet Oxford. I looked at
the number of passengers waiting on the platform and sighed as the next
Paddington was a 5 coach unit, as 800005 rolled in from the siding north of the
station and departed Oxford pretty much full in the rearmost coach, after
Didcot the couple remaining seats had gone and it was standing room only at
Reading. A little dance onto the reliefs
from Reading to Slough before arriving into Paddington on time, giving me a
couple minutes to jump across to 345029 working a Hayes shuttle. This took me to Ealing Broadway where my plan
was to intercept the other unit which was showing on Iris Tiger as “formed of 9
coaches” but that had broken down at Hayes, so 10 minutes later it was back to
Paddington on 387161 & 387170. This is
where I made a small mistake as it would probably been just as quick to board a
Central line service at Ealing to take me to Liverpool Street but hey ho.
The Hammersmith & City line was closed for engineering
works so it was a walk to the Bakerloo line with 3234 & 3567 taken to
Oxford Circus, with a longish walk to the Central line platforms with the next
eastbound service being formed of 91071, 92230, 92428 & 91259 to
take me to Liverpool Street. After a
quick scan of the platforms it was onwards to Stratford with 345003
pushing it over the ten mile line, before 357322 & 357043 taken to Barking
where my plan was to play with some 710s.
That plan changed when I spotted a low mileage 357/2 on the Grays bound
so when I was on winner 710262 I
formed a rough plan, I changed from this 710 at Blackhorse Road (safety putting
it over 5 miles which is what my target for the 710s will be), before winner 710257 rolled in to take me back to
Barking where my idea was to wait the 20 minutes for that 357 to return from
Grays...
...That plan went out of the window with the next Liverpool
Street service being low mileage 357209 & 357033 so it was a trip to
Liverpool Street, jumping to Stratford on 360116 & 360103 (mainly to use the
toilet as the loo on that 357 was out of use), due to the football on at the
West Ham stadium I decided to take 357033/357209 back to Barking to jump onto
357025 & 357203 to Limehouse. A short
wait before 357204 & 357016 returned from Fenchurch Street to take
me back to Barking where I successfully made a tight connection onto winner 710258 for the full run to Gospel Oak,
changing onto 378234 which was starting from platform 2 due to engineering
works (BLS Hat time). I took this to
West Hampstead where I decided to head to the Jubilee line with 96099/96100
taken to London Bridge.
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| A 378 at Gospel Oak |
Earlier in the day when heading to Victoria I had spotted a
low mileage 377/3 working on Victoria – Brighton services, so I wanted to
intercept it to get it out of the way, I had the option of going via Victoria
or a London Bridge – Horsham service, due to engineering works (which I’m using
a lot of today, sorry) Thameslink services from Bedford/Cambridge were going on
a tour of South London. I decided to go
for London Bridge as it was more chance of something needed, a good decision as
it was low mileage 700146 (which I believe is the one which escaped last
Saturday at Peterborough) for the speedy run to East Croydon.
At East Croydon it was a short wait for a delayed 377438,
377303 & 377325 to roll in from Brighton to take me to Clapham
Junction, sadly missing a Poole bound pair of 444s, so it was onto a busy
159002 on the Andover train, yep a single 3 coach unit on a service which would
normally be 9 coaches. Thankfully it was
pick up only at Woking which limited the overcrowding but I was lucky to get a
seat for the run back to Andover, where it was a gentle drive home.
Overall it was a nice weekend, Minehead was nice on Saturday and I had a good Sunday.
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