15th May & 16th May Trips

 15^th May & 16^th May Trips

15^th  – A trip to the Sunshine Coast, Essex

 

Originally my idea for today was to walk from Walton on the Naze to Clacton on Sea via the seafront, oh! I do like to be beside the seaside.  But due to the weather forecast this idea got pushed back until a future date.  Instead I threw together a plan B which involved a potential walk later in the day if the weather improved.

 

My day began on the 06:30 service which took me straight to Waterloo, where I made my way towards Stratford via the Jubilee line.  To waste some time I took a pair of required 720s to Shenfield, followed by a pair of 321s to Chelmsford before a required 745 took me to Manningtree where I had around 25 minutes to kill before the next Harwich Town service so I popped outside the station for a fresh air break (away from the mask).

 

745 at Manningtree

 

The 321 on the Harwich train rolled in as I took a seat in the motor coach for the ride along the Mayflower line (which I always forget how scenic it is when it runs alongside the River Stour, passing the stored 317s in the sidings (both before International and on the “long siding” beyond International station, first time seeing that long siding being in use).  I alighted from the train at Dovercourt as I needed a photo, waiting the short time for the train to return from Harwich Town to take me back to Manningtree.

 

A short break for a passing freight train before a pair of 321s (including one of the former Northern units) rolled in to take me to Marks Tey, where I returned to Colchester on the following Ipswich service (which I suspect would have gone towards Colchester Town in a normal timetable).  I took another 321 for the short run into Colchester Town itself, taking a seat in the declassified first class area.

 

"This is the Northern service to..."

 

Another short break at the station before the following Walton train rolled in to reverse which took me to Wivenhoe before the following Clacton train arrived to take me to Thorpe-Le-Soken allowing me to change back to the Walton 321 (as it’s timetabled to wait at Thorpe to allow for connections to be made).  I took this unit to Frinton on Sea before heading back towards Weeley, taking the following Walton train back towards Kirby Cross where I had a short walk during a break in the rain.

 

After my little walk, it was back onto the 321 (today is full of dusty bins!) to Great Bentley where I had an hour wait, which I made the most of the time to visit a near Tesco for some lunch and did a little loop via a little used footpath which crossed the railway close to the station, before going up the side of a field to connect with a bridleway near a building site.  Just something to waste some time as this is an area I plan to return to one day to walk part of the old Brightlingsea branch line.

 

A pair of 720s passing Great Bentley on a Clacton - Liverpool Street service

 

The sun was trying to come out when I was at Great Bentley so I decided to do my walk from Wivenhoe so I took the 321 to Wivenhoe and headed towards the start of the “Wivenhoe Trail” which is a shared use path running between the railway line & the River Colne, giving some good views of the river, passing an university campus with a bridge over the railway which has a 3 storey ramp (going round and round).  I continued along the roads to reach Hythe (Colchester) station for some photos before carrying on another shared use path underneath the railway line, following the river into Colchester itself, before I turned off to follow a route towards Asda for some dinner items before reaching Colchester station itself.

 

I had good timing with that walk because 5 minutes after I arrived, the rain returned!  I turned down the first couple options of 321s on stoppers (one from Clacton, another from Ipswich) to chance my luck with the 745 (again from Ipswich as the line was closed beyond), getting lucky with a required 745001 for the run back towards Stratford, where it was onto a busy Jubilee line service to Waterloo, followed before joining the sprinters on the 19:20 service back towards Grateley.

 

Overall a productive day in Greater Anglia for station revisiting for photographs, some stations I will revisit, and others I will need to get back to.  Walton to Clacton can easily be done on a Sunday (engineering works dependent) so that is something to fit into my rough calendar.

 

River Colne near Wivenhoe

 

16^th -1066 Line, East Sussex

 

Another idea where I was going to do a walk between a couple of the stations on the 1066/Hastings Line, but got binned due to the frankly rubbish weather (which couldn’t make up its mind), however the chance of getting some of the stations on the line which normally are only hourly but were half hourly today was too good to turn down.

 

The day began with the 07:37-odd service to Waterloo, where I noticed a 07:33 service towards Salisbury departing, something which in a normal timetable doesn’t run, the first westbound normally being the 08:33 towards Exeter.  It would be nice if that service remained in the timetable as it gives me an extra hour to play with if I headed towards Exeter.  Anyhow the London service was a single unit and got busy after Woking, with the usual Sunday morning dwell at Clapham Junction (timetabled for a 2 track railway).

 

Soon enough I was at Waterloo and crossed over to Waterloo East, I had a couple options before the next Robertsbridge train arrived, but they didn’t match my mileage requirements list so it was onto a pair of 375s for the run into Kent then into East Sussex as I alighted at Frant, in the pouring rain.

 

Rainy Frant

 

A few minutes at Frant before I headed back up the line towards High Brooms on a pair of 377s (former Thameslink units, I was a bit surprised that they worked this line).  Anyhow at High Brooms I made the connection to the next southbound which I took to Wadhurst for a 30 minute fester, time I spent having a little walk along the road then to a footpath towards a foot crossing on the “Sussex Border Path”, returning to the station just as the rain returned.

 

Another pair of 377s took me down the line towards Etchingham, where I had a short wait before doubling back to Stonegate and another short wait before the following Robertsbridge train (due to engineering works the line beyond Robertsbridge was closed for engineering works).  A 3^rd set of 377s arrived which took me to Robertsbridge where I had around 25 minutes before they would head back to London.

 

377/5 at Robertsbridge.

 

I looked at the engineering works poster, noticing that the “North Kent” line was closed (the one which goes via Woolwich), as well as the line between Swanley & Rochester, giving me an idea to look at RTT for the chance of some EMUs on unusual lines (i.e. Thameslink 700s via Lewisham as well as South Eastern 375s along the same route), also a chance to revisit a couple stations in Medway which I needed for photos.  With a rough plan in my mind I took a seat on the 377s in the declassified first class area for the enjoyable run back towards Kent (ticking off the crossover to the north of Robertsbridge station as it departed from platform 2) carrying on to London Bridge before heading over to platform 4.

 

A low mileage 700 rolled in for Rainham, so taking up my usual seat in the rear first class area (got to have a little luxury on the slow trip), with the train going via Lewisham, then the Bexleyheath line, skipping a couple of the stations along the way but not the fastest runs due to being sandwiched between Dartford stoppers.  Anyhow once the train reached Dartford it picked up a bit of speed calling at the usual stations towards Strood, where I stepped back for a pair of 465s from Victoria on a Dover service (non-stop Victoria – Strood).  I took these 465s towards Gillingham to allow me to grab a photo, and a short wait before the next Victoria train arrived.

 

I will admit when the first unit arrived being a high density 375/9 I was hoping it wasn’t going to be a pair of the 3+2 seated examples, thankfully the rear unit wasn’t a /9 so all was good as I took a seat in the 2+2 unit.  I had a couple others in the coach from Strood before it went non-stop towards London, although after Dartford it was following a stopper (it went around 7 minutes ahead of a Dartford – Victoria stopper, the same stopper arrived 10 minutes afterwards at Victoria, to say how slow the route was).  Although I did get lucky at Lewisham with a photo of a 700 for an “2 unusual visitors passing at Lewisham*.

 

Two unusual EMUs visiting Lewisham

Anyhow at Victoria, I noticed a Ramsgate via Maidstone service was quite busy (although how much of that was due to Bromley passengers), as I had a couple options, deciding on a pair of 465s to Denmark Hill, before a low mileage 700 getting a small top-up of mileage to Blackfriars, before heading towards Waterloo East via London Bridge, taking a seat on the 18:45 service towards Salisbury, taking me back home after a busy (if not wet) day.