28th September – The Cottam Farewell

28^th September – The Cottam Farewell

Cottam power station is located in Nottinghamshire, near Retford.  When this tour popped up for booking I booked on it as it would be the last chance of a railtour around the loop at Cottam before the station closed (and the first tour for many years).  The tour would start at Clapham Junction so I booked up a room in the Easy Hotel in Croydon for the Friday night, noticing a few weeks ago that there was buses between Woking & Basingstoke that weekend so to prevent messing around with replacement buses I did some booking and ended up at a Travelodge near Heathrow (Heathrow Central)

The day began in Croydon, with a supply raid at one of the Sainsburys for lunch & breakfast, before heading to East Croydon with three options to reach Clapham, the first couple weren’t needed (with a triple 387 from Gatwick passing between the pair which appeared to have one person on board), so it was onto 377117 for the run to Clapham Junction, where the empties had arrived from Wembley.  Winner 66199 was leading the Mk2 coaches, with 66118 on the rear, as it was a long day for me I decided to pay extra for first class non-dining, my first time in first class on the Mk2s.  I prefer the first class seats on a Mk1, these large seats angled sharply at the rear so I couldn’t quite get comfy.  Table of 4, of which the person sat opposite was a bit quiet and the other two seats were taken up at Leicester.

66199 at Clapham Junction before departure

The tour departed Clapham Junction, heading towards Barnes, taking the curve before Kew Bridge to reach Acton Central, carrying on to the freight only Dudding Hill line to join the Midland Main Line, before carrying heading northwards, further pickups were made at St Albans & Bedford.  It was the slow lines north of Bedford, giving me a chance to notice the pace of the overhead wiring (as it had been over a year since I was last on this line).  Seems complete in parts, and part complete in others, the new 4^th track appears to be in with the new platform at Wellingborough being plastic blocks.  Due to earlier issues with cows on the line the train was delayed heading north of Kettering for the last pick up at Leicester.

A detour via Humberstone Road goods loop and the reception line at Mountsorrel quarry before going via Toton (via the high level bridge), passing the line of dead 60s (always sad to see).  Onto the goods line north of Toton (the one which goes behind the platforms at Ilkeston & Langley Mill), before going via Pinxton to join the Robin Hood line for the run towards Worksop, going via a goods loop before Worksop allowed me to notice a 66 dragging the latest set of off-lease MK4 coaches & DVT to their resting place, along with the various 710s & 345s stored.  A brief pause at Retford, before a trip to the Gringley Road loop, and before the tour turned right to do a loop around Cottam power station, pausing a few times for PR pictures, sadly as a condition of entry any pictures taken were for private use only so I can’t post a picture of the cooling towers so this DVT will have to do instead.

Off-lease 82224 at Worksop

After the loop, it was back to Worksop for an hour break, which considering I’ve been on some track tours in the past which have had little or no break was a nice luxury.  My first time in exiting the station at Worksop so I headed to Tesco for some more supplies in between showers, returning to the station for a bit of a delay as the empties were around 30 minutes late, eventually they passed to reverse beyond the station before the fun and games of boarding everybody in the front 4-5 first class coaches via a couple doors due to a short platform and level crossing.

66118 passing through Worksop to reverse

The tour departed again, heading towards Shireoaks before turning right onto the South Yorkshire Joint Line, a line which is both slow and hasn’t got a lot of interesting features.  A trip via a loop near the old Maltby colliery branch before the tour continued to join the ECML, doing a loop around the yards south of Doncaster before turning left to reverse for 66118 to get the red pen treatment for the short trip into Roberts Road depot.  66199 was back in charge for the run back towards Clapham, using the Kilnhurst cut-off line, before going via the “old road” to bypass Sheffield city centre, rejoining the Midland Main Line around Chesterfield before taking the route towards Toton.

Locos at Doncaster

Darkness had fallen as the tour continued heading south, the train emptying out at Leicester for a spirited run southbound, into the goods line after Kettering, getting caught up in some chaos as the MML had fallen over due to a damaged track forcing northbound services to all use the slow line.  We got put ahead of a Brighton bound service at Bedford which was extremely lucky as that unit had issues at Leagrave (looked like it was there for over an hour, causing some backing up of EMR services).  Due to the issues the train was kept on the fast lines which meant as an extra bonus it did the Hendon chord to join the freight lines around Hendon, going via the Dudding Hill line and somehow managing to get back on time by the time it joined the North London Line before heading towards Clapham Junction, the end of an enjoyable tour.

66199 at Clapham Junction after the tour

I had time for a bit of fresh air, I headed back to bound a Hounslow bound service, seeing “formed of 8 coaches” I was expecting it to be a pair of 450s, but no, it was 455918 & 455731 to take me to Isleworth where Google Maps suggested was the best place for bus moves which avoided a long walk in the rain.  It was onto a route E8 bus (VW1043) to the Hounslow Bus station area, a short walk to the “School Road” bus stop for a route H98 service (SP40033) to arrive first to take me to “Cranford, The Avenue” where my Travelodge was located (served by 3 bus routes and is around 3 quarters of a mile from Hounslow West LU station).

Checked in complete with an upgrade to a “super” room due to having no available double rooms and it was very nice.  I was on the road side but heard hardly anything and slept like a log.

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27^th September – The Day before the tour

Just in case anybody wants to know, the Friday was another day spent in South Eastern land, I will do a summary of my moves with notes.  Underlined units mean they are now in the ten mile club (5 mile club in the case of the metro 376s)

Grateley – Waterloo, 159106 & 159107 (this was running around 10 minutes late and the coaches came from out West but due to various issues on the West of England Line meant it got cancelled at Salisbury before forming a new service, called additionally at Clapham and raced a pair of 444s from Basingstoke)

Waterloo East – Orpington, 375830 & 375919

Orpington – London Bridge, 377508 & 377503

London Bridge – Orpington, 375604 & 375706 (a positioning move to do a 376 from bay platform 1)

Orpington – London Bridge, 375922, 375611 & 375614 (Cannon Street platforms)

London Bridge – Waterloo East, 465929, 466020 & 465026

Waterloo East – Charing Cross, 376012 & 376003 (the pair I was aiming for at Orpington)

Charing Cross – Waterloo East, 376003 & 376012

Waterloo East – New Eltham, 465241, 466042 & 465007

New Eltham – London Bridge, 465004 & 465027 (non-stop service)

London Bridge – Hither Green, 465183 & 465158

Hither Green – Lewisham, 466022 & 465191

Lewisham – London Bridge, 465159 & 465003 (a random throw of the dice)

London Bridge – Orpington, 375628 & 375809

Orpington – Hither Green, 465049, 465017 & 466039 (leaving 465017 pretty much bang on 10 miles

Hither Green – Sidcup, 376017 & 376022

Sidcup – London Bridge, 465004 & 465027

London Bridge – Charing Cross, 465168 & 465012 (This was lucky as it had departed Hither Green before the units overtook it after Hither Green when the lines split to Charing Cross/Cannon Street services)

Charing Cross – Victoria, 21537/21538

Victoria – Clapham Junction, 455805 & 455828 (the original plan was to catch a low mileage 377/3 on a London Bridge service, but that got swapped out due to a set fault, and after coming up with an idea on how to intercept this 455 back from Epsom Downs)

Clapham Junction – East Croydon, 377153 & 377107 (noticing that SWR had collapsed nothing new there).

At East Croydon, it was a short walk to the hotel, checked in, devices on charge and a decent(ish) shower.  I started the day with a target of 10 units, ended up with 15 which was a good result.