Trips in October 2023, Part 2
I’m trying to keep on top of my trip reports a lot better than previously, to spread the time it takes to upload and insert the various pictures. Anyhow here comes 2 weekends worth of day trips.
14th October – Thanet Parkway & Pretending to be a Train.
Today was going to be the day I visited the recently opened station near Ramsgate called Thanet Parkway, first day where the weather was suitable for walking, there was no engineering works & I wasn’t elsewhere in the country. The day began with a walk in the darkness (beautiful stary sky) to Grateley for the 05:24 service with 159009 taking me to London Waterloo. The usual with this service being reasonably quiet until Basingstoke where it picks up passengers from Southampton. After arriving in Waterloo, I popped to Sainsburys outside the station for breakfast before making my way to the underground to head towards St Pancras.
Due to a large gap in service on the Bakerloo (next northbound service was showing as 13 minutes) I took the northern line a handful of stops to Leicester Square, changing to the Piccadilly line to Kings Cross St Pancras where I had a short walk to the South Eastern platforms at St Pancras, meeting up with a friend who was joining me for the trip along HS1. 395008 took us away from London and along HS1 towards Ashford before turning into the slow train (in comparison to the speed on AC). Emptied out at Canterbury West before we were the only passengers to alight at Thanet Parkway (with one passenger boarding).
Better late than never, 395008 departs Thanet Parkway
We crossed over to the opposite platform (ticking off the lifts) which was busier (although not by much) as a busy 395024 & 395029 rolled in from Margate to take us to Canterbury West where I left Dan to travel back towards London and I stepped back to board a pair of 375s to Wye, returning to Chartham on another pair of 375s. At Chartham my walk began, a walk of 3 (and a bit) parts as I headed towards the Great Stour river picking up a (mostly) tarmacked path which ran alongside the river for around 3 miles to reach Canterbury, with some lakes & marsh on the opposite site. Along the way I went underneath the remains of the Elham Valley Railway bridge over the river before going underneath the Canterbury East line.
I reached the end of the path near the Westgate to the Canterbury city walls, where I headed onto the road towards the university campus, using a couple of footpaths to reach the start of the Crab & Winkle Way path. The first section was via the campus of the university before going into the Kent countryside, where I decided to pause for some lunch on a bench outside the St Cosmus & St Damian Church in Blean which had a lovely view.
River Great Stour between Chartham & Canterbury
After lunch I carried on, passing some farmland before entering some woodland, eventually picking up the route of the old Canterbury – Whitstable railway line nearing the Winding Pond (provided water for the steam engines used to pull trains up the steep hill). Beautiful woodland (Clowes Wood) with a few paths heading further into the woods which I was considering for another explore but decided that could wait for another trip when the ground wasn’t so muddy. The woodland ended as I passed over the A299 dual carriageway and alongside a field to reach a section of road near South Street on the outskirts of Whitstable. A sign marked the sight of the former South Street Halt, but nothing remains due to modern developments.
The next section was mostly flat with an old railway bridge underneath the “Thanet Way” road and soon I reached the end of the railway path near Whitstable station. I went via the station to go underneath the railway tracks and followed a footpath leading towards the harbour & waterfront where the 3rd part of my walk started. After a couple of photos around the harbour area, I followed the roads to join the waterfront path for an enjoyable walk towards Herne Bay. I went via Tankerton & Swalecliffe to reach the short pier at Hampton, where the path continued but behind beach huts, so views of the water were more limited. The views did improve the closer to the pier at Herne Bay I got, which was a suitable end to my walk (leaving a gap between Herne Bay & Birchington via Reculver).
Waterfront in the Herne Bay area (From Hampton Pier)
I headed towards the station at Herne Bay, via a Morrisons & the Herne Bay Memorial Park. At the station I didn’t have long to wait for a pair of 375s to take me towards Margate (the plug sockets coming in useful to give my phone a boost as it had dropped to under 20% after the 18-odd mile walk). At Margate I crossed over to platform 4 (the bay platform) to board 395024 & 395009 to settle down for the trip back towards London. The train getting quite busy at Canterbury (all the tourists heading home after a day trip), after Ashford the train changed to AC and speed shot up as it ran along HS1 to reach St Pancras, where I headed towards the underground with a reasonably tight connection to a Salisbury train at Waterloo (32 minutes).
Thankfully both the Victoria & Bakerloo lines were behaving with short waits and soon I was at Waterloo, with time to swing via the new Sainsburys in the former Eurostar area before heading to board 158888 & 159019 on a busy train for Salisbury. In my eyes these XX:50 trains should either skip Woking or have Woking as a pick-up only call heading away from London to avoid the train getting crowded out with Woking folk wanting to avoid the deluxe 3+2 seating of a Portsmouth train. Anyhow nothing of interest along the way back to Hampshire, other than the temperature dropping once I alighted to walk home. Winter is coming.
An Eurostar (374032) at St Pancras, been far too long since my last Europe adventure
An enjoyable day trip to Kent, finally ticked off Thanet to put me back to 100% of National Rail stations in Great Britain (until Brent Cross West & many others open), still need to tick off the 2 new tram stops in Wolverhampton (a job for a couple weeks’ time). The weather was sunny, bit chilly in the wind/shade but I soon warmed up with walking. I suspect that the gap of the coast will be done over winter time, assuming I can find the time & weather is suitable for a coastal path walk.
21st October – A trip to South Wales
A trip to South Wales was the plan for this Saturday morning, to do some walking & to hunt down some 231s (and 197s). The day started with a morning drive to Salisbury (forgetting about a one-way system in place on the main road from the station towards Sainsburys after swinging to get some breakfast), parking in my usual place on a side street where the single yellow line restrictions are only Monday to Fridays (a good thing as well as I noticed since the last visit parking had jumped up from £3.50 to £5.30 a day. However, this is where things went a bit wrong as the 07:30 Cardiff train was heavily delayed due to overrunning engineering works in the Portsmouth area.
To waste some time, I jumped onto my first refurbished 166 (new seat covers, vinyl floor, same 3+2 seating) for the run to Westbury where it terminated (was originally due to run to Bristol). A short wait at Westbury with various movements before a busy 165132 + 166221 rolled in around 75 minutes late with the following Cardiff train being 3 minutes behind it. I was surprised GWR control didn’t rip out any stops to try and recover some time (I’m not the biggest fan of stops getting ripped out but when the next train is right behind it stops everybody piling onto the late running train delaying it further). This service in particular called at all the stations towards Bristol (other than Avoncliff) and I noticed at Freshford it was modified to terminate at Newport, which is further than I had originally predicted [I was half expecting it to get spun at Bristol].
The train did empty out at Bristol with passengers heading to the Cardiff train which was right behind us (but lost time due to no platforms being available at Temple Meads) meaning the trip into Wales was more relaxing. The train terminated on platform 1 at Newport with a large movement of passengers towards platform 2 for the next available Cardiff train with a 2 coach 197 rocking up from the Crewe direction. Completely rammed on arrival and I think only a tiny handful of the waiting passengers managed to board it.
166221 at Newport, ready to head back towards Portsmouth
Thankfully the next train (166215) wasn’t that rammed in comparison, and it cleared the platform for the short journey to Cardiff Central, where the weather was a lot wetter than was forecasted. Anyhow I popped out of the station to grab some lunch before trying to decide what to do as originally my plan was to walk from Cross Keys on the Ebbw Vale branch towards Hengoed along the old railway route, but I decided with the weather being wet to push that idea back and instead boarded winner 231005 for the run to Llanbradach to clear that 231 for 10 miles.
The next northbound (a Ystrad Mynach terminator) was also a winner, but I was a bit restless so went for a little walk (as I noticed a couple paths showing on the map) into the woods to the west of the station. I was glad I did as those woods were quite nice (path a bit muddy but that’s to be expected this time of year), it even had a couple waterfalls. I went underneath the railway on a steep path leading to the roads where I looped back towards the station, getting lucky to catch a passing freight service from Cwmbargoed.
66015 passing Llanbradach station
Anyhow 231010 returned from Ystrad Mynach as I took a seat for the ride back towards Cardiff, remaining on board to head to Penarth where I started the first of my days planned walks (as the rain had ended and sun had arrived). This walk took me along the remains of the old railway line beyond Penarth towards Cosmeston, before a path via the scenic Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, followed by an old road & various footpaths to reach the main road between Dinas Powys & Eastbrook stations (after crossing the railway on the foot crossing). I decided to head towards Dinas Powys as I had time, even exploring the “step free” access path to the westbound platform.
Walk over, and it was onto
150237 to take me to Grangetown where my fortunes must have aligned as next up
was winner 231006 which I took to Hengoed for a connection to winner 231011
coming the opposite way to leave me with just 003 to locate (and it wasn’t
showing as out today). This 231 took me
to Cardiff Queen Street where for the lack of a better idea I jumped onto
153921 on the Cardiff Bay shuttle (to see how much things are slowly changing
on this branch line, ready for the trams).
Potentially this could be the last time I come to Cardiff Bay on a 153
as I headed out of the station for a shorter walk (amazing how many passengers a secondary guard caught out without tickets on the short journey).
153921 at Cardiff Bay Station. Woofastic
This walk took me towards the Bute East Dock and the Canal Feeder channel to reach the city centre area, where it was a short walk towards Cardiff Central, swinging via Tesco for some dinner items for later that day. I headed towards platform 3 where the next train to Shrewsbury (would have been Holyhead but line was closed north due to flooding) was departing from with winner 197049 pretty much rolling in and straight back out again due to the inbound being delayed. I took this 197 to Newport where I was aiming for what RTT was saying was another required 197 on the Cardiff bound but it must have been swapped over so I waited for 170208 on the next train for a mini farewell to the Welsh 170s. Originally, I was going to stay with this unit towards Bridgend, but it arrived a few minutes early at Cardiff allowing me to board a very busy (managed to get a seat after asking a grumpy lady to move her oversized handbag) 150262 on the Carmarthen train to Bridgend, returning on a late running 150284 (featuring some unhappy passengers as the connection to the Cardiff – Manchester train wasn’t held). Anyhow that 150 was my last Welsh train of this trip as I made my way across to platform 1, sitting on the benches on platform 2 to have my dinner before boarding 166215 on the 19:30 service towards Portsmouth Harbour.
I got a seat in the former first-class area at the front (knowing where the train stops on the platform helps) and spent the journey walking some videos. A couple of hours later the train arrived at Salisbury, a couple minutes early as I made my way back to my car for a relaxing drive home. Nearly had a nonstop drive, all the traffic lights (of which Salisbury had many) were green, only coming to a stop at the last junction. Once home, after making a fuss of my brother’s dog who mum was looking after this week, I sorted my bag out, did a couple bits on the laptop before heading to bed. A partly successful day, some more 231s into my book (along with another 197) but the poor weather [and delay in the morning] forced the Crosskeys – Hengoed walk to be delayed until another trip.
231011 arriving at Llanbradach station
22nd October – Exploring the Capital
It had been a good couple of months since my last visit to London on a Travelcard to do some exploring (and some unit hunting), and with good weather forecast I decided to put some unit hunting on the back burner to do some walking to explore some areas either I’ve never visited before or have only been via by train. I was toying with the idea of doing the walk from Groombridge towards Three Bridges (on the old railway line path), but the timings don’t work out that well with the buses on the current Sunday timetable, so that is a walk I suspect will happen next year. Anyhow the day began with a drive to Andover (as the first couple trains for London were starting from Andover instead of Salisbury due to engineering works) with 159108 taken for the run to London Waterloo, arriving a good few minutes early due to the Sunday timetable padding. I noticed that the car park at Andover station like with Salisbury has been hiked in car parking charges, no wonder why the side road I use was busier.
In London, I grabbed something to eat from the new Sainsburys Local before heading towards Waterloo East to jump on a pair of 707s to take me to Lewisham (South Eastern Metro Unit Bingo) where my first walk began. Originally, I was only going to walk towards Greenwich to change to the DLR but I got a bit carried away and ended up doing a bit of an unplanned walk adding bits on which looked interest. Out of the station and via the bus station area, going underneath the railway to follow the Waterlink Way path next to the Ravensbourne River.
707014 departs Lewisham
This path took me passed Elverson Road DLR & Brookmill Park, arriving at a main road next to Deptford Bridge DLR. It was a section of road walking to take me towards a footbridge over the river which is alongside the railway lift bridge, and I headed towards the River Thames picking up where I ended up last November time after walking the Thames Path from Slade Green, my new aim was to plug a gap in the coverage on the south bank as I followed the Thames with a detour inland before picking up the Thames next to Pepys Park. I followed the Thames with the sun behind me towards Surrey Quays meeting up with a walk I did back in June as a pre-sleeper time waster. I carried on alongside the Thames going via the Surrey Docks community Farm as I missed that short section as the farm was closed.
I headed away from the Thames towards the Russia Dock Woodland doing a loop towards the Greenland dock before heading north via this quite nice area. I headed back towards the Thames near the posh looking Doubletree hotel to do part of the Thames Path I missed in June due to a badly signposted side street. This meant I had finished doing the Thames Path on the south bank of the Thames in the London area where it runs along both banks, I just need to focus on the north bank for the section in West London, which will probably be a job for the winter months as I suspect the path will be mostly roads or tarmac. Anyhow I returned towards the Russia Dock woodland before heading towards Surrey Water.
River Thames from the Thames Path in Deptford
At Surrey Water I picked up the Albion Channel, following this 1980s canal towards the lake at Canada Water. After doing a round trip of the water (although some parts were fenced off for works) I headed back towards Surrey Water along Deal Porters Walk, heading towards the Surrey Basin Bascule Bridge (on a road called Thameslink). After reaching the Thames once more I headed towards Rotherhithe station, the end of the first walk of the day, King's Stairs Gardens & Southwark Park could wait for another day.
Rotherhithe Station Building
I headed towards the southbound platform saying to myself that I would give it around 30 minutes to see if any of my last 4x 378s needed for mileage popped up, just to give me a break from walking (although not the best station for a fester due to no seating). I got lucky as 378140 popped up on a New Cross working, my last DC-only 378, which I took to New Cross, staying on the train as it headed back north, alighting at Whitechapel where the 2nd of today’s walks started as I headed out of the station, via a large Sainsburys for a PNB.
This walk took me north towards Bethnal Green overground station, then via Bethnal Green Gardens to the underground station of the same name. After some road walking, I entered Meath Gardens, crossing over the Regent’s Canal to enter Mile End Park, heading north via some nice woodland to join the very busy Regent’s Canal for a short section to where the short Hertford Union canal joined. I followed this canal towards the Hackney Wick where I had the option of breaking the walk and heading to the station (or even doubling back on myself to visit Victoria Park) but I decided to carry on.
Hertford Union Canal, Bow
I headed towards the Olympic Park, picking up a path which ran alongside the River Lea, heading north towards the Hackney Marshes, the path started off alongside the river but soon moved a bit more inland (after the A12 road bridge) meaning views of the river began more limited, but some beautiful woodland (even if the path wasn’t peaceful due to what sounded like a sporting competition being held on the open space.
The path continued, leaving behind the Hackney Marshes and the river Lea and towards the Lee Valley Park & the Walthamstow Marshes. I will admit this path wasn’t the best for views as parts were between hedges limiting views, but the views where the hedges did open up were quite nice. A change from the last time I walked in the Walthamstow Marshes doing the Navigation towpath where it was all white from snow. I carried on going underneath railway line bridges (the Stratford – Tottenham Hale line & the Chingford branch) as the path ended in Coppermill Fields, near a very low (5 foot of clearance) railway bridge.
A Low (5 foot) bridge underneath railway at Coppermill Lane, London
My walk continued as I entered the Walthamstow Wetlands, passing the Coppermill Tower (lovely old building) and headed up to join a path alongside the East Warwick Reservoir with views of GA trains in the distance. I dread to think how many times I’ve passed this reservoir over the years, and it was beautiful. I carried on north reaching the Engine House, thinking to myself this area is worth a revisit as there are other footpaths available, even to the north of the road (which was part of my original plan, but I ran out of time and energy).
I walked alongside the A503, heading towards Blackhorse Road station for the sole reason of never being outside this Victoria line/Overground station. This was a fitting end to a nice walk, as I narrowly missed a sub ten-mile 710 heading towards Gospel Oak due to the footbridge being busy. So, after resting for 15 minutes, I joined 710264 to Upper Holloway to intercept 710271 on the return from Gospel Oak, taking it to Walthamstow Queen’s Road to push it over ten miles.
Blackhorse Road Station Building
The walk to Walthamstow Central is short (took me less than 5 minutes) as I decided to see if any of my last handful of low mileage AC-only 710s were around, sadly the first couple London trains weren’t needed so I decided to head to the Victoria line for a faster way into zone 1, changing at Oxford Circus for a Bakerloo line service to Lambeth North, where I had another walk with the short walk towards Waterloo, swinging via a Co-Op near the railway bridge for some more drink. I boarded the 17:45 Salisbury train, which was a 158+159+159 combo for the uneventful run to Andover, where I drove home (via a Burger King for a nice juicy burger) to relax for the remainder of the evening.
A good day in London, covering just over 19 miles with some walking in the sunshine. Got to make the most of the sunshine and some more paths within London I can take off my massive list. Anyhow some more photos taken for October can be found here (from page 5 for these trips):Flickr
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