23rd October – Gerry’s 313 Farewell Railtour

23^rd October – Gerry’s 313 Farewell Railtour

When this tour popped up as available for booking, I booked on it near enough straight away, just to say farewell to the 313s on Great Northern network, as it was a Wednesday  my original idea was to book into a hotel on the Tuesday night to avoid paying out for the full fat fare in the morning (as Grateley – London anytime costs quite a lot), however when my original search highlighted nothing of real benefit (£45 for anything reasonable) I looked into seeing how much the train fare cost, coming away being very surprised that I found some £8.50 advance tickets on the 06:57 service from Grateley which is probably the busiest trains into London (hence why it is 10 coaches), plus returning on the 18:50 service.  For those fares my idea of staying overnight disappeared.

The day rolled round and I was out of the house by 06:35, for a walk in the dark to the station along a busy road, and I took my position at the Salisbury end of the station as the train rolled in a couple minutes late formed of 158880, 158887, 159106 &159001, the rear of the last unit was off the end of the platform so it was entry via the 3^rd unit, but as those doors won’t be released until Basingstoke it is where to go for a better chance of a seat.  The train filled up along the way with my coach being full after Basingstoke where it was a non-stop run towards Waterloo (there is always something nice about running fast through Woking).  With time to kill before needing to be at Kings Cross, I walked over to Waterloo East to board 375619, 375910 & 375909 for the short hop to London Bridge, making my way over to the Thameslink platforms for 700121 to be up first, every little helps with the 3 and a bit mile run to St Pancras, followed by a very slow run to West Hampstead Thameslink on 700024 where due to a broken track near Hendon services were collapsing onto themselves so it was onto a full & standing 700012 back to St Pancras , where after a quick toilet visit I headed over to Kings Cross where the farewell tour was departing from.

313134 was leading 313064 for the tour, one of the driving coaches of 313064 had been done up in Network South East colours, with the centre coach saying “I’ve seen a lot, but my time us up, Thank you for the memories, 1976 – 2019”.  I had the choice of either the low back seats of the 313/1 or the high back seats of the 313/0, deciding to board the 313/1 sitting opposite a gentleman who I can only describe as part of a dying generation (very rude to anybody who was standing in the doors enjoying themselves, very racist & sexist and moaned about pretty much everything).

313064 at Kings Cross

Anyhow back to the tour, it was a nice run towards Welwyn Garden City, a bit slow at times due to following another stopping service, where there was a short photo/toilet stop at the station before the tour continued heading north, the motors making a nice noise on the fast run via Stevenage, slowing down at Hitchin to take the ‘old’ route to the Cambridge line (the crossovers, rather than the flyover), this was to allow a Thameslink service to overtake us, the idea was to go via the reception lines at Letchworth sidings, but that was rejected due to paperwork issues so it was non-stop to Royston for the first reversal of the day.

An unusual view of a 700 heading towards Letchworth via the Hitchin Flyover, long train!

Back towards Hitchin, the units getting up some nice speed, rejoining the ECML and exiting after Stevenage to head onto the Hertford loop for a lunch break at Hertford North.  There was some confusion as the timings had the units going ECS into the sidings but the booklet mentioned “you can stay on for some rare track”.  I believe everybody was forced to alight for the trains to go into the sidings, but for me I had a gentle walk into the town centre, eventually ending up near to Hertford East station for a Tesco (also gave me an excuse to grab a picture of the station so I could tick it off my list).

Back to Hertford North station, and back on board for the run southwards towards Moorgate, via a photo stop at Alexandra Palace and via one of the lines at Hornsey depot, before a trip down the hole, a brief photostop before departing Moorgate for the last time on 313s and into the Hornsey Reversing Siding for a reversal over the flyover passing Finsbury Park for the last time (the driver was very horn happy) and into Kings Cross for the final time.  Felt like an end of an era when I alighted for the last time, but I didn’t hang around due to the crowds so this picture of the units at Moorgate will have to make do.

The final 313s at Moorgate?

 

With a few hours to kill before my booked train home, earlier in the day I asked for gen on my last few 321s, getting good news that 2 should be gettable outright, sadly another couple weren’t gettable (one was first stop Chelmsford, the other didn’t come out to play until half six).  So for me it was a fast walk to the sub surface line platforms to jump on the first available eastbound service, which happened to be 21033/21034 on a Met line service.  At Liverpool Street I made my way over to a Southend service which was 321317 leading 321343 for a short hop to Stratford, returning to Liverpool Street on 345008 to make a nice connection to 321439 leading 321427 for the run back to Stratford, where I had a quick break from the station and headed to the shopping centre for a toilet break.

15 minutes later, I returned with nothing in mind until I noticed heading towards Liverpool Street ECS on P5 was a low mileage 321, so I gave chase with 321446, 321308 & 321429 for the run to Liverpool Street, giving me time to board 321342, 321330 & 321425 for the run back to Stratford, not enough to push 330 over ten miles but meant it was on 8 miles so the next time will simply be a Stratford leap (sadly this service didn’t call at Shenfield).  A short wait at Stratford for any required 345s to be spotted heading towards London before I gave up and headed to North Greenwich on 96046 & 96001, I was pushing 90 minutes so needed to exit the system to avoid getting extra charges.  Besides it allowed me to take a picture of a big tent.

Nobody expected a picture of the O2!

Returning to the station (via the loos), and it was onto a rather busy 96054/96053 to take me to Waterloo, where it was a short wait for my booked train to arrive, for it was late heading inbound, but it was onto 159005 & 159001 where it departed pretty much on time, regaining the bulk of the late running by Woking.  Back to Grateley and a short walk home, the end of a nice day to celebrate the life of the 313s on Great Northern, for it won’t be the same travelling on the ECML without seeing the PEPS floating around

313064 at Herford North, goodbye!

Farewell old faithful.