12th March – Another Trip to Kent
The plan I had for today changed at least 4 or 5 times in the week before the trip, mainly taking in the good weather forecasted and a want to have a nice walk somewhere (walking in the countryside helps me clear my head). Eventually I settled on a rough plan, but even then, I changed my mind.
The day began with the 05:32 from Grateley towards Basingstoke, I noticed there was a new passenger information display getting installed at the station near the entrance to platform 1 (London bound) which will be useful when it gets switched on. Anyhow due to engineering works around Woking the 159 terminated at Basingstoke, where I headed towards platform 5 to board a busy 165 on a Reading train. At Reading I made a connection onto a 9 coach 800 from Wales (a few sleeping French rugby fans on board), for the run into Paddington.
The sleeper train from Penzance and the sleeper train from Wales ;)
I was originally going to head for the Bakerloo line, but when I noticed the display saying the next service wasn’t for 10 minutes I decided to go to the sub surface line platform for a circle line for a slow roll towards Victoria (bonus being a sub-mile S7 set). It was a bit hit & miss if I would make a connection to a Gillingham stopper, but I made the single 377/5 with a couple minutes to spare. As a bonus I got a seat in the former first-class area for a quick boost of electricity. This 377 took me via Denmark Hill towards Meopham, where I had a 15-minute wait for a Dover stopper which was following.
This pair of 375s took me to Newington, a station I missed a couple weeks ago due to a mess up when the stopper went ahead of a fast at Faversham. A short wait before another pair of 375s took me back one stop to Rainham, making a connection to a Ramsgate train for the run to Sittingbourne. I noticed the next London train was a 11 coach 375 formation, I guess designed to cope with the large numbers travelling towards London.
395s passing Newington
At Sittingbourne I had a short wait before boarding a 3 coach 375 for the run towards Sheerness on Sea, some of the local passengers reminded me of the nickname of this place. I had a short turnaround at Sheerness (it is on my list to have a decent explore one of these days) before the 375 took me back towards Swale, where I started my first walk of the day. When heading towards Sheerness I saw 2 passengers alighting, but on the way back I was the only passenger alighting at the former least used station in Kent (I believe Kemsing on the Maidstone East line has ‘overtaken’ it for being used least used).
A 375 departs Swale
I walked towards the Kingsferry bridge, noticing that some steps which led down to what should be a public footpath and marked route (Saxon Shore Way) had been fenced off. I guess access for that path requires a small detour towards a roundabout, which is the way I went carrying on along an unpavemented road towards the village of Iwade (road was reasonably busy, but had a wide verge for when I needed to move away from traffic).
At Iwade I carried on my walk, going via a little nature park, carrying on over the main road to reach the settlement of Kemsley, swinging via the station for a few photos, before continuing to reach a path which ran alongside a waterway to reach the Milton Creek Country Park. I did a loop of the country park before crossing over the track of the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway reaching the banks of the Milton Creek. I followed the bank of this pretty waterway, eventually ending up in an industrial estate in Sittingbourne.
Milton Creek near Sittingbourne
I continued my walk along the road, swinging via Morrisons for some lunch before heading to Sittingbourne station, the end of my first walk of the day. I turned down a pair of 375s to wait 15 minutes for a pair of 395s behind, sadly neither 395 featured on my list of needs for mileage, but I took them to Rochester, giving my phone a little boost of electricity (using the GPS does eat battery life). It took me a few minutes to exit Rochester due to a revenue block with a few passengers in front getting penalty fared due to not buying before they boarded.
Once out of the station I headed towards the grounds of Rochester Castle and then the banks of the Medway for another riverside walk. I carried on heading along the river reaching Baty’s Marsh and carrying on underneath the Medway Viaducts (2 carry the M2 and the 3rd carries HS1). My original plan was to walk across one of the Medway Viaducts to head to Cuxton, but that plan changed as I decided to stay on the riverbank, following a path on the OS Map. However, I did decide to wait 10 minutes at a viewpoint to photograph a 395 heading across the viaduct towards London (sadly there was no Eurostars due as one of those would have been a much better image).
A 395 crossing the Medway Viaduct
The views along the river path were quite good, cliffs on the western bank (Cuxton area), hills to the left and a reasonable path. It was grass but wasn’t that bad in terms of mud. I reached a point where the path went in-land to reach the village of Wouldham but had to come away from the river path as it was blocked. Wouldham is nice little village as I carried on reaching the site of “Peter’s Village” a new(ish) development of houses, which did include a handy bridge across the river (considering the next bridge wasn’t until Aylesford it was very handy!).
I also crossed over the Medway Valley line, passing a newish McDonalds/Costa Coffee on the Snodland road. I headed on a footpath which went underneath the railway coming out in the Holdborough Marshes area, turning right to follow a path which ran alongside the railway line coming out into Snodland, where I paused to take some photos of the station (which looked like had a revenue block on one of the entrances as a group of kids were moaning about being forced to pay.
Platforms at Snodland
After Snodland I carried on along another path which ran between the railway & a body of water called Brookland Lake. I crossed over the railway on a foot crossing and carried on along a path coming out in an industrial estate near New Hythe. I swung via the station for some photos, before returning to another footpath, this time running between the railway and some wasteland, including going over a little freight line which hasn’t seen a train for many years based on how overgrown it was.
This path took me out onto the main road near Aylesford, my legs were starting to moan at me at this point, so I was glad to reach the station at Aylesford for a few more photos and a sit down. I had around 15 minutes before the next Strood train would arrive, and it was formed of a low mileage 375302 (which was a nice bonus as it clears the 3 coach 375s for mileage).
375302 arriving at Aylesford
I took this train to Strood for a short wait before a pair of 395s arrived to take me the next step to Gravesend (same pair I had to Rochester, so in the same time it took me to walk to Aylesford they had gone to St Pancras, then back to Ramsgate before returning). I changed over to the bay platform at Gravesend where a 465+465+466 combo was waiting on the next Charing Cross train. I just collapsed in a seat in the front coach, waiting the world go by before darkness fell. Although this train did feature someone who boarded at one of the stations on the Sidcup line, feet straight onto seat opposite when vaping & emptying out their pockets of litter. Some passengers have no respect, and I suspect they also didn’t pay anything as they were off before Hither Green.
Anyhow I arrived at Charing Cross and headed towards the Bakerloo line for a train to Paddington. When I was coming out of the Underground, I was torn between going to Sainsburys to see if they had anything left or jumping on the first train towards Reading. I decided to go straight for a late boarding 800 on a Newbury service for the run towards Reading, which turned out to be a good move due to signalling issues between Hayes & Slough meaning delays as everything went on the relief lines.
Ah 395005 nice to see you again
I arrived at Reading with time to spare and after a photo of a 387/3 & the 165 in the western bays (the 387 unusually being on platform 3 rather than platform 1). The 165 was very busy (I was right at the front and that was full & standing), I suspect it was Basingstoke passengers not wanting to use the magical bus (and who can blame them?). At Basingstoke I popped out of the station to grab a KFC before waiting for a pair of 159s to roll in from the sidings to form the next stopper back towards Grateley.
An enjoyable trip, I managed to walk over 16 miles over those 2 walks, plus some more South Eastern stations revisited for photographs.
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