A summary of what trips I ended up doing in June of this year
2nd June:
The
extra bank holiday due to the queen reaching 70 years on the throne, I decided
to give London a very wide berth for the long weekend, and with the weather
being quite nice I headed towards Cholsey for a nice walk along the Thames
Path, eventually reaching Reading, a nice rural walk along a busy river (in terms of both the path & on the water itself)
3rd June:
Another bank holiday, and this time I took my mum on a little day trip to Worcester, via the Cotswolds Line. In Worcester we had a gentle walk along the canal to reach the River Severn followed by heading towards Foregate Street going underneath the railway viaduct. A bit of a farce heading back home due to the Basingstoke train developing a fault at Reading West, meaning we had a very tight connection at Basingstoke for a Salisbury stopper.
A 172 crossing the River Severn in Worcester
5th June:
I decided on this Sunday to make a start with the Basingstoke Canal, taking the train to West Byfleet (changing at Basingstoke & Woking), along a very pretty canal. I had a pause around the Frimley Lodge area to take a ride on the Miniature Railway. After the little trip I carried on along the canal to reach Ash Vale, where I switched from the Basingstoke Canal to following the “Blackwater Valley” path, which roughly follows the River Blackwater. I took this path (which was OK, very noisy as it runs close to the main A331 road) to the Farnborough area, making my way from North station to the main station, breaking my record for longest single walk (which was only set on the Thursday at 19 miles!).
11th June – Reston:
A weekend away (which was quite rare in June) with a night in a hotel in the Whitley Bay area, same place I used in 2019 (don't worry I didn't leave my phone on the Metro this time!). I did change my original plan for today due to the uncertainly over TPE running to/from Reston, but thankfully both services I was booked on hadn’t been pre-cancelled the night before.
An early start with the 05:25 to Waterloo, followed by a trip to Kings Cross via London Bridge (South Eastern then Thameslink). A bonus of a required 801 on my booked train to Newcastle (which was nice and fast), although I was glad, I alighted at Newcastle as it got cancelled beyond with any passengers told to wait for the next Edinburgh service.
For lack of a better plan, I had a gentle walk towards the waterfront to walk along the Tyne towards the Ouseburn where I headed towards the viaducts, but sadly no real decent views to be had of the railway viaduct or the Metro viaduct. I carried on to Byker to join up with the former Riverside Branch Loop of the North Tyneside Railway which I followed towards the Wallsend area.
Not really much evidence of the stations, a busy cycle route. I carried along the cycle route signs to reach Percy Main metro stop, going alongside the railway viaduct over the Wallsend Burn. At Percy Main I took a Metro service to Whitley Bay to get checked in before heading back out. I kept my eyes out for any of my sub mile Metro cars, but no luck, so I headed to Newcastle station to board the Edinburgh train.
Willington Dene Viaduct, Howdon
A lightly loaded (at least in the front coach) 802206 took me the 77-odd miles to Reston, allowing me to tick off Scotlands newest station. I had roughly an hour before the next Newcastle service, so I did a small loop from the station alongside the Eye Water on a Riverside path, returning via the road passing the small village. Back at Reston station I dodged the rain as 802213 arrived from Edinburgh which I took to Morpeth, for there was a Lumo due a few minutes behind. The gamble was worth it for winner 803004 for the 16-mile run into Newcastle. When I was at Morpeth, I saw 803005 heading towards Edinburgh which gave me a rough plan for the Sunday.
802213 at Reston Station
At Newcastle, I jumped back on the Metro to take me to North Shields for another walk, this time along the coast towards Tynemouth, then along the beautiful Long Sands beach, passing Culllercoats before returning to Whitley Bay as the sun was setting. It was an enjoyable walk to end the day.
12th June
A Spoons breakfast at the Whitley Bay Wetherspoons (not really a lot of options that time of the morning) before I headed towards Percy Main. My aim this morning was to walk along an old coal waggon way route, starting off parallel to the North Tyneside Steam Railway route, before heading in a rough northernly direction towards the Shiremoor area, as I ended up with a little loop via a large Sainsburys outside Northumberland Park metro station before heading towards the city centre.
I wanted to intercept 803005 at Morpeth which gave me 3 options, a XC, a LNER or another Lumo, I decided to originally take a seat on the XC service but that got delayed allowing the LNER service to pass it at Newcastle. I turned down the Lumo due to a tight connection, and if it was required, I could intercept it later on. At Morpeth I had a short wait before 803005 rolled in from Edinburgh, quite busy but I managed to get a seat for the run back to Newcastle. Sadly, I couldn’t ID what the northbound Lumo was as it was delayed due to that XC service.
At Newcastle I took a spin out to Heworth on a Northern 156 just as something to do, returning to Newcastle on a 158. I had a short wait for the next Lumo service, which was a required move due to a required 801 coming south. I was over the moon when required 803002 rolled in, allowing me to clear the 803s. Back to Morpeth for another short wait before 801221 arrived to take me back to Newcastle.
803002 at Newcastle
I changed over to a pair of 158s on the next Carlisle service, having a silly idea to have a walk back from Metro Centre, but decided to carry on to Blaydon, switching over to a 158 back towards Heworth for a short Metro hunting session, but my luck wasn’t with me for the Metro units. Although I could have stayed out for longer as my booked train was running a bit late (lost time between Haymarket & Edinburgh as it came from Aberdeen).
Eventually the 800 arrived, I got my seat for the fast run to London, sadly the delay was only around 20 minutes so no money back. I headed straight towards Waterloo to take the 19:45 service home to Grateley, the end of a successful weekend. I was very worried that my hour at Reston would have turned into 3 hours but thankfully TPE actually behaved themselves!
18th June
The idea of today was originally going to be to walk the old railway route from Braintree towards Bishop Stortford, but the weather forecast didn’t look promising for the afternoon, so I put that walk on the back burner, instead headed towards the Crouch Valley line to have a riverside walk. I took a few trains along the way eventually reaching North Fambridge where I started my walk, heading towards the river bank and a very scenic riverside walk towards Burnham on Crouch. A walk I would recommend, but probably not during winter as it would probably get muddy.
At Burnham on Crouch, I took a required 720 to the end of the line at Southminster, before returning to Wickford, then spent the next few hours dodging the rain showers (which were heavy at times) ticking off various 720s with runs between Stratford & Shenfield (I bet the oyster system was completely confused at the end of it all!), with a couple runs on 345s.
I switched
over from Shenfield to head towards Northumberland Park as I needed a better
photo of the station, before I headed towards Highbury & Islington as I got
news my last couple 717s were out. A 717
took me to Gordon Hill where I had a short wait for winner 717021 to arrive
from Stevenage which I took all the way to Moorgate, remaining on board for the
trip out to Hornsey, allowing me to intercept 717018 which I needed for mileage, the run to Highbury & Islington would be enough to clear it for ten miles
I took this to Highbury, making my quick way across to Waterloo for the 21:50 service, happy that I had cleared the 717s as well as a good number of 720s, plus a couple more 345s.
720578 & 720538 passes at North Fambridge
19th June
Back to just using the train for walks today, with a walk from Taplow towards Slough, starting with the Jubilee River path before making my way towards a path which runs alongside the Dorney Rowing Lake (although not many views of said lake) before following the Thames Path towards Windsor, before making my way to Slough along a path which runs next to the Windsor & Eden Central branch line viaduct.
I avoided a delay when at Reading as I noticed the last Reading – Salisbury train hadn’t made it past Basingstoke, so I quickly jumped on the Basingstoke stopper, before an Exeter train which had extra stops added, so I got home earlier than expected!
Thames
Path wasn’t the really the best in this section, not a lot of views of the
river in places due to thick woodland, but nice to be out along the river once again.
26th June
A sprinter took me to Basingstoke, followed by a 450 on an all-station stopper to Surbiton where it terminated due to engineering works (first time I’ve called at the likes of Hersham on a 450). A short break before another 450 took me to Hampton Court station, crossing from platform 1 at Surbiton all the way to the Hampton Court branch line (random crossover of the day!)
I walked along the Thames Path from Hampton Court, heading towards Richmond area, not as long as my previous walks but as I did a 20-odd mile walk the day before my legs were starting to moan at me. I headed towards Paddington for a Elizabeth Line service to Heathrow Terminal 4, before deciding to fork out for a Heathrow Express ticket just to a decent run on an Airport 387 (also to tick off the track for 387 coverage).
After getting to Waterloo, it was a triple 159 on the slow trip via Staines to take me to Andover for a short wait for the Salisbury service. A nice day in London, and another section of the Thames Path covered.
450038 at Hampton Court
More photos taken throughout the month - More Photos Here
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