Looking ahead to the end of the challenge & 29th Sept - London

Looking ahead to the end of the challenge

I’m currently sitting at home on the laptop, a couple days before I return to Scotland for some unfinished business on the Kyle of Lochalsh line, which got missed out in June due to a car accident writing off my old car meaning instead of heading to Inverness on the sleeper it was a trip on the Chieftain).  But that is all in the past, this weekend was the first dates which were reasonably priced for accommodation & sleeper.

Anyhow since I completed the original challenge to board & alight at every (currently rail served National Rail*) station in Great Britain on the 9^th October when I alighted from 150242 at Roman Bridge, I had a short break when I did random bay platforms before deciding around April time to set myself a new challenge to revisit the stations where I had previously only alighted from, or previously only boarded from.  Either making use of bus services, walking or riding a bike, a little break over the winter time due to the Northern Saturday strikes messing up a few of my plans.  Time passed with more stations being revisited over the course of the past 16 or so months, eventually coming down to my last two in Scotland.  For the sake of arguments, I’m classing Dolgarrog on the Conwy Valley under the “not currently rail served” category until the platform is rebuilt after the flood damage earlier in the year, that assuming it actually gets rebuilt and the station becomes another Barlaston, effectively closed with ticket acceptance on the local bus service.  Similar with Man Utd FC Halt, it’s effectively mothballed as it hasn’t seen a train call there in nearly 2 years and will likely never see another train call there for security & pathing reasons.

In a way, I’m glad the challenge to board & alight at all 2564 (currently rail served) stations is nearly over, no more long festers at rural request stops, no more detailed planning using RTT for those stations with limited service.  I just hope the sleeper is on time on Friday to Inverness, although I do have a backup if it does go wrong, but I want to try and end with an alight as that will make a better picture.

Anyhow, changing topics, a summary of my various moves on the 29^th September, the day after the tour.

29^th September

The day began using a travelcard which I had purchased before hand, with a route 105 bus (VH45266) from the Cranford Avenue area all the way to the Heathrow Central Bus Station; only because I wanted to do the Heathrow tunnel on a bus.  I eventually found the way into the rail station and jumped on 332005 for a short hop to terminal 5, before returning to Heathrow Central for a short wait before 360204 to Paddington.  It might be worth noting that the 332 rolled in from Paddington looking very busy, and it also departed towards Paddington again looking quite busy, even the 360 is slightly busier now than they used to be (a benefit of appearing on the tube map & being in zone 6 I assume).

The main reason for heading to Paddington was to see which 345s were out, because the 9-coach full length units have started to appear on the Hayes & Harlington services, so after a visit to Sainsburys for breakfast (the sausage sandwich looks nice, and I would give it a try if it had tomato sauce rather than brown sauce on) before winner 345030 arrived from Old Oak to form the first Hayes service which I took to Hayes, where the unit doesn’t quite fit (the rearmost set of doors is off the platform).  I returned back to West Ealing for a short connection to winner 345037 back to Hayes, where a 66 passed before I returned to Paddington.

9-coach 345037 in the Bay at Hayes

I couldn’t quite make up my mind where to head for, either Liverpool Street or Victoria, in the end with the sub surface lines being closed, I headed to Victoria for some South Eastern hunting, straight away landing on a Sevenoaks stopper (engineering works in the Hither Green area I believe) formed of a pair of low mileage 465s, with 465046 & 465008 taken to Bromley South, they were cleared by Beckenham Junction but there is more options at Bromley, straight away I was away on a low mileage 700048 which was cleared by Beckenham Hill which is good because it gave me a tight connection to another low mileage 700 in the shape of 700018  which I took to Bickley, the run to St Mary Cray wouldn’t be enough and I didn’t fancy a 20 minute wait.  During my brief stay at Bickley I noticed a pair of low mileage 465s on service from Rochester and a pair of 375s from Folkestone, so I gave chase.

Bickley, one of my first stations to be visited

465013 & 465019 took me back the mile to Bromley South, with 375609 & 375607 for the run to Victoria, it was a gamble in case those 375s were anything of interest.  At Victoria I made my way over to platform 8 where 375926 was leading 375306, the 3-coach unit wasn’t something I was expecting to see out and about on a Sunday, but good because both were on roughly a mile so the run to Bromley was enough, where I was going to cross platform for those 465s but 375923 & 375304 rolled up on the opposite platform so it would have been rude to turn down another low mileage 375/3 for the trip back to Victoria.  Time for some lunch before heading to Denmark Hill on a Dartford bound 465248 & 465156 for a short wait before 465190 & 465247 took me back to Bromley South via the Catford loop with a short fester for 465193 & 465166 to return from Rochester to take me back to Victoria non-stop.

Another short break, with noticing a low mileage 377 & 455 on the Southern side, allowing me time to make a rough plan, deciding to ditch the 455 as it would mean a late finish.  For my next move it was to Lewisham on 465902 & 465934, my rough plan going out of the window as the next Victoria bound service was running 15 minutes late, I was going to catch that back to Denmark Hill to intercept 465156 again.  I headed to Blackheath on 465158 & 465171, crossing over to the opposite platform, turning down that Victoria service which was a good move as next up was 465028 & 465047 which I took to Charing Cross, remaining on the same train back to Waterloo East, just to push 465047 over the ten mile line.  My original idea was to head to Waterloo main for something to Vauxhall, or even Clapham to get to Victoria, but when I was at Charing Cross a pair of 375s on the next Hastings caught my eye, so it was a quick walk to platform C to board 375618 & 375606 for the mile to London Bridge, it being enough to push another 375 over the line.

Reduced service meant it was a walk to the jubilee line via a busy concourse, with a short 4 minute wait for a busy 96106 & 96073 to Westminster, before another 4 minute wait for a very busy 21483/21484 (serious had I fallen asleep and woken up at 5pm on a weekday?).  Back to Victoria where I had the decision between a 377 or a 465/9, deciding on the 377 because they are more free range.  A pair of 73s were on one of the platforms on a railhead treatment train as a 10-coach set departed for East Grinstead, but my eyes were on a Brighton bound 377109 & 377140 which I took to East Croydon, it was completely rammed out, and I was in the 2^nd coach.  I turned down a quiet 10 coach set from East Grinstead (377/4+377/3+377/3) for a service from Brighton as it was another wedged out pair of units (seriously Southern, couldn’t you run 12 coach units on Brighton services on Sundays where there is a reduced Thameslink service).  377475 &377452 were the two I squeezed onto, back to Victoria where it was like 6pm on a weekday, the concourse was that busy.

Not something you see everyday, a 73 in the Southern platforms at Victoria

I was bound for Paddington, deciding to go via the sub surface line to see how long it was for a circle line train, getting lucky as 21489 & 21490 was rolling in as I walked up the stairs, which was very lucky because had I gone via the Victoria to Oxford Circus for the Bakerloo, I would have got stuck as the Bakerloo line had collapsed with a signal failure at Baker Street.  It took me around 10 minutes to exit Paddington underground, due to the overcrowding.  But I had time to check the next 4 departures for Reading, none were off any interest so it was on the first which was 800321, making a tight connection to a busy 158890 working a Reading – Salisbury service which I took to Andover for a short wait before 159003 & 159017 to take me one more stop to Grateley.

Overall a successful day, some more South Eastern units falling, plus my first 2x full length 345s.  A productive weekend all in all.