30th November – A trip to Barlaston &
Wedgwood
Visiting these two stations has been on my “to-do” list for
the last couple years, but I never got around to doing them (although the one
day I did have it pencilled in in 2018 the weather was shockingly wet so it got
ditched). Barlaston & Wedgwood are
two stations between Stone & Stoke on Trent, the services were removed back
in 2004 when the line was closed for engineering works but services never
resumed. There are rumours of Barlaston
regaining a regular service at some point but for the time being the only way
to visiting them is via the service bus, where rail tickets are accepted.
The day began on a freezing cold morning walk to Grateley
station, where a nice warm 159008 rolled in to take me to Basingstoke, followed
with a voyage on 220005 to Banbury, where due to my gold card I had to change
over to Chiltern. A few minutes later
168216 & 168322 rolled in to take me to Leamington Spa, where I had a silly
plan to revisit Warwick for a photograph, so it was onto 165021 working a
Stratford Upon Avon service for the ~2 miles to Warwick, followed a few minutes
later with 165012 & 165011 on the stopper to Solihull, where I purchased my
Daytripper. I wasn’t expecting a pair of
165s on the Leamington – Moor Street local service, maybe Chiltern had put on extra
coaches to cope with the Christmas shoppers.
 |
| Cold and Frosty Morning at Solihull |
A short wait at Solihull before 172337 & 172213 rolled
in from Dorridge to take me to Snow Hill, where I picked up something to eat
from the Tesco outside [both the Co-Op & Sainsburys were a bit bare
bones). A gentle walk to New Street,
with 350118 taken on a linear hop to Sandwell
& Dudley (station photo), followed by 390128 to Wolverhampton. I was prepared for a busy XC service to
Manchester, but when 220029 rolled in, I was very surprised that coach F had a
few spare seats for the trip to Stoke on Trent.
Needless to say it probably didn’t have any spare seats after Stoke as
the platform was very busy, all the Christmas shoppers!
I met up with Paul (TrainStationsUK) outside Stoke, and we
headed to the bus stop to wait for the route 14 bus service to Stafford. It was a “D&G” operated, and was
174. Due to the kickball at the stadium,
it was a bit slow getting out of Stoke due to traffic congestion, but
eventually the countryside arrived and eventually the bus reached the Orchard
Place bus stop in Barlaston village.
The first thing I noticed is a sign pointing towards the
“railway station”, which seems pointless.
A few minutes later we had arrived at the station itself, and it looked
to be in good state. The totem pole was
still standing, with Central Trains era platform signage. The entrance to the platforms are locked
closed with information about the timetable of buses, and after a few trains
passed (sadly the sun was shining to prevent a decent shot of a Pendo at tilt
going round a curve south of the station), and we moved onto the nearby pub for
a drink.
 |
| Add caption |
 |
| The disused station of Barlaston |
After the drink, we set off for a gentle walk along the
canal towpath, pausing for passing trains, before reaching the station of
Wedgwood, unlike Barlaston this one looked to be in poor repair, with signs on
the platform access gates saying “Access to platform prohibited due to
condition” and it did look rough from a footpath behind the Stone bound platform
[featuring a platform sign at an angle].
Another couple photos of passing trains with the level crossing, before
heading back towards the main road for the bus back to Stoke. It was the same bus as before, and like
before the kickball traffic made for slow progress before reaching the station.
 |
| Wedgwood Station |
I noticed the Crewe bound EMR service featured my last East
Midlands Railways 153 for mileage, so it would be a shame to turn down the
chance of grabbing it (because they do work over a large area), so it was to
Kidsgrove on 323236 and a gentle walk to the canal for a photograph of a
passing Virgin train (they look so different all white), before heading back
the station. I said farewell to Paul who
was heading to Crewe, before boarding 153383 leading 153355 for the run
back to Stoke, before waiting for 220001 which again to my surprise wasn’t that
bad for overcrowding, I even got a pair of seats to charge my phone up. The voyager did get busy after Wolverhampton,
but nothing unusual there.
 |
| Kidsgrove |
Once in Birmingham, it was a short walk to Moor Street where
I was aiming to board the next Marylebone service. I was shocked that on a Christmas market
Saturday Chiltern could only bother to put on a single unit, a single 2 coach
168323. To say it was cosy on departure
would be an understatement, remained busy until Warwick Parkway, but when I
bailed at Banbury it looked busy again [dread to think how bad it would be
after High Wycombe]. A short wait at Banbury
before 221136 rolled in, and yet again it wasn’t that bad. At Basingstoke I had time to pick up bits for
dinner before a busy 159014 rolled in from London to take me home.
Overall, it was a nice relaxing day, the weather improved
for the walk along the canal, plus I’ve visited the two ‘open’ stations. I suspect if anything happens Wedgwood would
close with Barlaston served by the West Midlands service, but demand might be
limited due to lack of parking. Who knows
what the future will bring.
 |
| Trent & Mersey Canal with a Pendo in the background. |
----------
29th November – Getting lucky with a Friday in
London
My original idea for this little evening trip to London was
to focus on Heathrow Express units, but earlier in the day I put a request in
for my last active 321 and GA 90 and for a longshot my last LNER 43 (for
mileage needs), just on the off-chance that 43 would be on a service which
called at Stevenage. My luck must have
been in, as not only was my last GA 90 was working a service which called at
Stratford heading towards Liverpool Street (I know these are technically set
down only in the timetable, but they get advertised at Stratford), which would
give a nice connection to my final 321 [which called at Stratford, as there is
a couple services in the evening which are fast to Chelmsford]. The icing was my final 43 was on the Kings
Cross – Lincoln service which called at Stevenage, so I would be able to grab
something which avoided me when I was in the North East* and Yorkshire.
With my last 802/0 still out of action, it was straight to
Waterloo after a drive to Andover, one of the schools in Sherbourne must have
broken up for Christmas judged on some luggage and kids on this service
(159104, 159006 & 159015). This is
when news broke about the incident around London Bridge which changed my route
due to issues on London Underground.
3559/3242 took me to Oxford Circus on the Bakerloo, followed by a long
walk and long wait for 91073, 92226, 92062 & 91239 on a
Central line working to take me to Liverpool Street, where I headed to the
mainline station to jump on 345047 for the trip to Stratford, giving me a good
ten minutes spare before the train from Norwich was due. In rolled 90014 with the usual
selection of coaches with DVT 82136 bringing up the rear, so I jumped on board
for the short run back to Liverpool Street for a quick photograph before
heading over to check a triple 321.
 |
| 90014 at rest at Liverpool Street |
321341 was leading, 321347 was on the back, with 321330 sandwiched in the middle, my last
active 321 required for ten miles (I missed out on 321448, but to all accounts it
has moved from Clacton to Ilford, so maybe it will be returning to
traffic). It was the traditional
Stratford leap, where I left it and headed over to the inbound TFL Rail
platform, the first couple services weren’t of interest, but low mileage 345039 popped up, so it was a case of
taking the unit to Liverpool Street, remaining on board for the ten minute
turnaround in order to push it over ten miles with the run back to
Stratford. I headed over to the London
Overground platforms and board a low mileage 378203 for the run to
Highbury & Islington, where I headed to Finsbury Park on winner 717024 (one I will need to return to
for mileage needs). Time to pop out to a
nearby Tesco for some food before returning to watch 43238 passing, before
jumping on a low mileage 700033
giving it a little mileage boost (every little helps). This was the danger zone in case the HST got
swapped over, but thankfully it was sitting on platform 8.
 |
| The Flying Tomato at Kings Cross |
I took a seat on 43238 (43316 was on the rear) for
the trip to Stevenage, happy that it had been covered, just in case it wasn’t
one of the powercars not heading to East Midlands. At Stevenage I exited the station for a short
while before returning as there was a service from Leeds which was meant to be
an Azuma, and my luck was in with my first pair of 801s with 801103 leading 801102. In terms of inside,
nothing really of note, similar to the 800s, and 20 minutes (or so) later, I
was back at Kings Cross. I wanted to get
across to West Ham as there was a low mileage 357 due, so it was a linear hop
with 21023/21024 taken to Farringdon,
followed by 21093/21094 to Liverpool
Street, both were sub mile S8s which was a bonus (I suspect that will be a job
for over Christmas to create lists of LU stuff needed for a mile). 21397 & 21398 took me to West Ham for a
short wait before 357046 & 357034 rolled in to take me to Fenchurch
Street.
A gentle walk over to Tower Hill with 21513/21514 taken to
Embankment, followed by 51588/51714 on the northern line to Waterloo, before
waiting for the stock to form the 22:20 Waterloo – Gillingham service to
appear, for it was running a few minutes late due to earlier delays. Eventually 159008 & 159002 rolled in
(with a third unit which was detached, and looking on RTT would attach to the
22:50 Salisbury local) and I took a seat in a mostly empty carriage for the
fast spin back to Andover, where it was a short walk to my car which was
covered with frost. Part of me was
tempted to leave the car where it was and come back to it on the Saturday, but
in the end I de-iced the windows and drove home. Sign of the times with the cold weather, but
it was the end of November, winter had arrived.
Overall a very productive evening in London, certainly my
luck was in with both 43238 & 90014 in being on services easy enough to do.
 |
| Random picture of Andover station in the daylight |
----------
I was looking at my logs for the last time I had a spin on
High Speed 1, and was shocked to see it was back in October 2017 (when I had a
short spin to clear my last 395s), so I decided to have another spin as it
would score me a crossover in Gravesend as due to engineering works Thameslink
services were running as a shuttle, also it will give me a chance to revisit a
couple of the stations in that area for photographs. The trip will also be a farewell to the “Andover
Express” services on Sunday evenings, as they get changed from the new
timetable to provide Salisbury stopper services.
The day began like Friday ended with me deicing my car for
the drive to Andover, parking up and walking to platform 1 where 159103 was
sitting waiting [starting from Andover due to engineering works]. It was a good run to Waterloo, where after
grabbing breakfast it was onto the Jubilee line (96116/96029) to Green Park,
followed by the Victoria line to Kings Cross St Pancras [11051/11052], where it
was a short fester before heading to the South Eastern High Speed platforms. The first option was an Ashford bound service
which wasn’t of interest, so it was onto 395001 for the run to Gravesend. I think next year I will try and do the
full run to Ashford on HS1.
 |
| A high speed dash from London followed by a low speed potter round Kent |
A short fester at Gravesend before 700040 arrived from
Rainham to reverse on platform 1, this took me to Higham for a 30 minute fester (photograph stop), next up was low
mileage 700001 getting some extra
miles for the run to Strood, and next
up was 395019 to take me round the bend to Chatham
returning to Rochester on
700040. The next Cannon Street (engineering
works around Victoria) was formed of 7 coaches, but my eyes caught a Canterbury
East bound service as being a pair of networkers, both being ultra low mileage. For me it was non-stop to Swanley on 375304 leading on 375304 leading 375902, before 700034 took
me to Ravensbourne, before returning
to St Mary Cray on 700032.
 |
| A 700 departs Ravensbourne |
Another short fester before 466024 & 465187
returned from Canterbury to take me to Cannon
Street, using the reversal chord to the slow lines at Chislehurst (was
expecting it to use the various chords to join on the fast line side). At Cannon Street it was a short hop back to
London Bridge on 465185 & 465190 for my plan was to head to Heathrow for
some 332 hunting, but my eyes caught on a low mileage 465 heading into Cannon
Street and I gave chase with 376019 & 376023
taken back to Cannon Street, taking up a seat on 465192 leading 466032
on the next Hayes service. I decided to
take these to Ladywell as the next
service from Hayes was running a couple minutes late allowing me to make the
tight connection with ease. 376036
& 376012 were up next, with the 376 getting cleared for ten miles with the
run to London Bridge.
 |
| Ladywell has a nice footbridge |
On the approach to London Bridge, we were running alongside a
pair of 375s, where the rear one took my attention as it was a low mileage
375/9, and knowing how hard the high density units can be (there is a few which
only do one run in the evening peak, and some of those run fast from London
Bridge to High Brooms or even Rochester).
Needless to say I gave chase, turning down the first service before
boarding 465177 & 465018 for the
run to Charing Cross. Time for a spot of
lunch before I returned to board 375916 & 375825 (needless to say I
sat in the 375/8 because I dislike the 3+2 seating). It was a nice run to Orpington, where I had a
few options, noting a low mileage 465 on the next Charing Cross stopper, but
also the next fast services being not required, so it was a short wait before
465018 & 465177 arrived from earlier to take me to Knockholt for a short fester before
465030 & 465028 rolled in to take me to Orpington before 375717 &
375615 took me to London Bridge.
A short fester at London Bridge before the next Sevenoaks
stopper, with 465022 leading 465249, this needed a run to at least
Hither Green to be cleared for ten miles, but as there weren’t any good
connections I decided to remain on board to Elmstead
Woods for a station photograph.
465246 & 465193 took me back to Lewisham where I jumped between the
London bound platforms a couple times before a ten coach set rolled in with 466015
leading 465250 with 465010 on the
rear. The run back to Waterloo East
wouldn’t be enough for 465250 but would give it a nice boost. After swinging via Tesco, I took my seat on
the 18:45 Salisbury service, formed of 158886 & 158880, nice private table
in the leading unit and oddly no ticket check.
I know these are fast services, but not that fast as they catch up with
services in front (mainly the Southampton bound service), but going non-stop allows
for a more relaxing trip.
At Andover, it was a short walk to the car, and a nice drive
home. I know I had hoped to reach
Heathrow, but I got carried away on the South Easte7rn Metro again, oops. More South Eastern units took over the ten
mile line anyhow which is always a good thing.
I will leave you with a picture of a single 375/3 on a Tunbridge Wells
service, yes it did look busy!
 |
| 3 coaches to Tunbridge Wells... |
No comments:
Post a Comment