23rd December – A return to Southern, Brighton Main Line

23^rd December – A return to Southern, Brighton Main Line

Little did I know at the time this would be my final trip of 2020, parts of the country were already in tier 4 which had already changed my plans, however with the announcement that the rest of Hampshire would join the highest tier from Boxing Day meant my plans for the week between Christmas & New Year were effectively mothballed until future notice.

 

This trip was originally going to be a trip to Ipswich, with the Thursday spent in Essex, but with Essex in tier 4 I shifted that idea back until later in 2021, so I had a free Wednesday (having finished work for the year on the Tuesday).  After some consideration I decided on a trip to the Brighton Main Line to revisit those stations as well as the smaller stations between Barnham & Horsham, finishing the day with the novelty of a Thameslink service to Littlehampton.

 

The day began with the 10:06 service from Grateley to take me to Salisbury, followed by a 166 to Southampton Central, spotting a new 10 coach 701 (future SWR suburban units) on test at Southampton (guessing it’s doing the fault free mileage running).  It looked unusual at the station, and my first chance to have a nose at what they were like inside.  “Ironing board” style seating with no tray tables for the airline seats but little cup holders for the bays, with a couple toilets, they look nice and I can’t wait to try one out in the New Year.

 

701 at Southampton Central

 

Anyhow back to the trains, as I boarded a Brighton bound 377 service, which is one of those unusual Southern services which goes via Eastleigh (I could swear a couple years ago this was more common, especially on Saturday afternoons).  Anyhow as expected the train was lightly loaded for the trip to Barnham, skipping Fareham (which felt odd), as I waited for the unit from Bognor to come next.

 

"Was I meant to turn right at St Denys?"

 

This 377 took me to Billinghurst, with time to grab lunch from a nearby Tesco before heading back to Pulborough and then the hourly served Amberley, before heading to Horsham, passing many flooded fields, for it has been raining quite a lot in recent days, something which it started to do a few minutes later when I was at Horsham waiting for the unit from Portsmouth (I think) to attach to the 377 from Bognor, to take me to Crawley, followed by a 700 to Three Bridges.

 

Just a tad wet

 

 A short connection saw me onto a Brighton bound 700 to take me one stop to Balcombe, where I started some linear hopping (also an engineer who was looking at fixing a flood on the footbridge showed me an image of some writing on the cliff walks from a strike many years ago, which was interesting to see it zoomed in).

 

Next up was another 700 to Haywards Heath, followed by an Eastbourne bound pair of 377s to take me to Wivelsfield, followed by another 700 to Burgess Hill where the heavens opened with heavy rain.  A short wait before a Littlehampton bound service took me to Hassocks where I popped out of the station to a nearby Sainsburys for some dinner items before taking the next 700 to Brighton, doubling back to Preston Park in order to board the next Littlehampton service.

 

Just a tad of rain...

 

In the current timetable, Thameslink run a couple services to Littlehampton in the evening peak, so like the services to East Grimstead a bit of a novelty.  I took a seat in the rear declassified First Class area for the run to Littlehampton, calling at many stations with short platforms, but an enjoyable run (even though it was dark).  Sadly when I was at Littlehampton my phone camera played silly and couldn’t focus on anything (think the camera lens was wet) so I had to break out the camera on my tablet.

 

700 by the seaside

 

Next up was a 313 to take me to Barnham for a short wait before a Southampton bound service arrived to take me to Southampton, for a short wait before a Salisbury bound 158 to take me to Salisbury.  Along the way I noticed that the final Salisbury – Basingstoke train was showing as cancelled, so after a chat with the station staff they were kind enough to put extra stops in on a train from Exeter which got me home around 30 minutes earlier than expected!

 

Anyhow that pair of 159s from Exeter would be my final train of 2020, 159019 & 159002 having the honours.  I was tempted with heading out during the week to visit some of the stations on the line towards Horsham, but a landslip put those plans in the bin.   Who knows when my first leisure train of 2021 will be (excluding any trains taken to Salisbury for the purpose of shopping for essential items as there is no local shop in Grateley).

 

Stay safe, and remember We'll Meet Again

Don’t know where, don't know when

But I know, We'll Meet Again

But for now, the train has departed the station:

 

Signals at Littlehampton (P1/2)

Now where did I put my OS Maps and walking boots...