24th August – Oxfordshire & North Downs

24^th August – Oxfordshire & North Downs

Due to the various engineering works happening around the network due to it being a bank holiday weekend, I decided to stay local to knock out some required platforms, the idea was for it to be a nice early night (for being on the rails with some long days had started to catch up with me).  For only the second ever time I was using an Oxfordshire Day Ranger, plus some day returns towards Redhill.

Sunrise

It was a beautiful sunrise when I walked to the station for the 05:59 service formed of 159106 for the ~ 25 mile trip to Basingstoke, where my original plan to head to Reading on the GWR service was binned as that unit was cancelled, so I made use of the delay to purchase my rover from the ticket office at Basingstoke.  Back on the platform it was a short wait before boarding 220008 for the run to Reading, for a brief fester before 802113 took me to Oxford where it terminated, spotting a required 802/0 on the next Oxford – Paddington service was a bit annoying as once that one arrived at Paddington it disappeared to the depot (either not to appear for the rest of the day or to appear later on another service).

A short fester in the sunshine, noting that the Chiltern services were 5 coach Turbos [although at the time it didn’t see unusual as I know some morning services are run with 165s], before I boarded a very quiet 165105 for the run to Kings Sutton where I met up with the resident revenue protection cat, although not that good at checking tickets but very friendly, and kept me company for the 20 minutes before 165014 & 165002 rolled in on a Banbury terminator, which I believe is the first time I have gone into platform 4 from the south.

"Welcome to Kings Sutton, please have your tickets ready for inspection"

Back to Oxford on a Southampton bound 220002, before a short wait for 165121 to arrive with the next Didcot Parkway shuttle to take me to Appleford.  This station gets a 2 hourly service on Saturdays (same with Culham), and it doesn’t really serve anywhere, so I was surprised when there was a good half dozen boarding the train both ways (nobody else alighted).  15 or so minutes at Appleford before 165121 returned from Didcot to take me back to Oxford where as a time wasting move I took 165007 & 165030 out to Oxford Parkway, returning to Oxford with a tight connection on 165039 & 165017, so what I noticed earlier seemed to be happening with all the Marylebone – Oxford services being formed of 5 coach 165s rather than the more usual 168s.

A busy 802007 took me to Reading, where I had time to grab lunch before boarding a busy 165116 (with failed Air cooling) on a stopper to Ash, a few minutes at Ash before 450107 rolled in to take me to Guildford, before 165107 appeared on the next Gatwick Airport service to take me to Reigate.  I needed to collect my Southern Daysave ticket from the TVM so I had planned to head to Redhill on the next Southern service and head back towards North Camp on 165107, but for whatever reason 165116 was delayed in departing Redhill, so after crossing over the level crossing, picking my daysave for Monday up, I reboarded 165116 for the run to North Camp.  I noted the sign at Reigate could do with some TLC and that Network South East lives on!

Turning back the years at Reigate

Earlier in the month when I was on the Alton line, I failed in my attempt to grab the northbound platform at Ash Vale due to the Ascot train being cancelled due to a train falling, so this meant a rejig of my plan, and after a leisurely walk in the sunshine (via Tesco for something cold), it was a short fester at Ash Vale station for 450565 to take me to Ascot, along a line I haven’t done for a few years and can remember when it was operated with pairs of 456s.  The AC on the 450 felt so nice after the heat, and I didn’t have too long to wait at Ascot for a Reading bound 458518 & 458534 to take me to Reading.

I had one last station to revisit today, and that was Pangbourne, so it was over to the high numbered platforms at Reading for a surprise with 165110 & 165102 rolling back the years and working a Didcot stopper, I knew there was a pair of turbos out during the week to cover for the 387s which have gone to Heathrow Express, but I was surprised it happened on a Satuday.  Never the less it was a short run to Pangbourne, spotting a lovely old Rolls Royce in the car park, before 387174 & 3871725 took me back to Reading.  In all fairness I should have now called it a day and head home, but there was some unfinished business with Chiltern as I had spotted a low mileage 165 floating around earlier in the day.

Turning back the years at Pangbourne

And so after a brief fester at Reading, keeping my eyes open for any required 802s, it was onto 800005 to Oxford, with 165027/165034 taken to Oxford Parkway, returning to Oxford with 165033/165010 for a brief turnaround before returning back to Oxford Parkway before low mileage 165031 & 165019 appeared to take me back to Oxford, where it was straight onto 800317 from the Cotswolds Line to take me to Reading, 165135 (with some feral kids playing loud music & kicking the seats) back to Basingstoke and finally 159106 back home to Grateley.

Overall it was a nice relaxing day in Oxfordshire with detours to Surrey, but I needed a lazy day on the Sunday, just to recover.  Getting those 2 Chiltern Turbos were a bonus, and that takes me down to only needing 3 of them, and as they have a habit of not running within the London Zones [fast to Gerrards Cross etc] they can be hard to track down.  Today was getting some little oddities out of the way for my random quest for random platforms.