Trips 2nd & 3rd December & 9th + 10th December

 Trips 2nd & 3rd December & 9th + 10th December

Scary to think it’s already December, this year feels like it’s going so fast.  A month where I haven’t really got anything booked up other than a railtour of freight bits around the West Midlands in a couple of weeks’ time so it will be a month of day tripping, trying to make the most of the more limited daylight hours and changeable weather for walking to explore various areas.  Sorry this is a bit later than usual, been fighting some internal demons again which have a nasty habit of appearing this time of year.

2nd December – A cold day in North London

I decided to head to London today, with a focus on walking something which I was previously going to do last month but it got rained off, the walk from Cheshunt towards Roydon with maybe extending it further depending how I felt.  Although the weather was dry it was just a bit cold (resulting in wearing multiple layers of clothes to help).  The day began with the 05:56 service (159015 & 159007) from Grateley towards Basingstoke, where I had a short wait before 165107 took me to Reading (the 06:47 XC service not running I presume due to the overtime ban).  At Reading it was a short walk to board 387170 on a service from Newbury for the nonstop run towards Paddington.

For a bit of a time waster, I headed towards the Elizabeth line platforms at Paddington to jump onto 345039 for the run to Woolwich station, for the short walk to Woolwich Arsenal station where originally I was considering using the DLR but there was no service on the DLR, so it was the first available South Eastern service with 465187 + 465194 towards St Johns (for no reason other than wanting some better photos) followed by 707012 running solo to take me towards Cannon Street.  At Cannon Street I undertook the short walk towards Liverpool Street swinging via a little Tesco Express & Greggs along the way for some supplies (making use of the free sausage roll at weekends offer via O2 for some free food).

159007 at Basingstoke

At Liverpool Street I turned down the first train towards Cheshunt (a dud 720 on a Hertford service) to see what was on the next Cambridge service.  Winner 720518 rolled in for the short turnaround before heading back out, being very busy (even in the front coach).  When I alighted, it seemed like the middle seats on the 3 side were mostly empty with passengers preferring to stand in the vestibule than squeeze into the middle.  I still think the 720s are great trains but ruined by the high density 3+2 seating with narrow aisles.  Anyhow at Cheshunt my walk began as I wrapped up against the cold and headed towards the River Lee Country Park, turning north onto a mixed used path which followed the route of the railway, sandwiched between the railway & and water.

I headed away from the railway around Turnford Brook, heading towards the Lee Navigation & the Stansted Mill Stream, dodging various patches of ice.  I followed this path towards the Wildlife discovery centre picking up cycle route 1 which I followed for the next few miles, skirting around Penny’s Hill, although views were a bit limited due to the fog (maybe somewhere I could revisit on a day where the sun is shining for some views from the higher ground).  This path took me towards Lower Nazeing and some fishing lakes (Nazeing Meads).

Small River Lee within the River Lee Country Park near Cheshunt

The path joined the Navigation for a short section (which by far was the worse section for dodging various patches of ice and other flooded sections) turning away from the Lee Navigation near Dobbs Weir lock to follow a path along the northern edge of the Northern Nazeing Mead, before I picked up the River Lee along a peaceful section where the path I was on was sandwiched between the flood relief channel (on the right) and the Navigation (on the left).  I left Cycle Route 1 near Fieldes Lock, crossing the weir to join the River Stort (Navigation).  The towpath at the start was reasonable but narrow in places, very stop-start pausing for other walkers at passing points.  Very peaceful as I headed along the navigation towards Roydon where I was toying with stopping as I headed to the station, but the next London train was a pair of dud 720s which looked very busy, so I turned them down and decided to push on towards Harlow.

The River Stort Navigation went underneath the railway just to the north of the station and headed into the beauty of Hunsdon Mead Nature Reserve before a section which was quite noisy due to being close to the A414 road, and I was glad when the towpath turned south away from that dual carriageway, towards Parndon Mill and Harlow.  I decided a good place to end the walk was at Burnt Mill lock, located close to Harlow Town station (so close you can actually see the platforms) but due to the layout of the land there is no northern entrance of the station forcing a half mile detour via Burnt Mill Lane for the A414 to cross the railway before dropping towards the station to finish the walk.  The towpath between Roydon & Harlow was narrow in places but had a reasonable surface, wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to have been.

River Stout Navigation, Harlow

I turned down the first London train as that was a Stansted Express service (being run by a Norwich-Spec 745), and onto winner 720113 (along with dud 720558) to take me to Tottenham Hale, where for next few hours I pinged back & forth using Broxbourne as the edge of the Oyster zone getting 720124, 720111, 720544 & 720507 into my book.  I remained on 720507 to Stratford with a trip to Shenfield with winners 720122 & 720130 returning to Stratford on winner 720121 & (dud) 720107.  The temperature had dropped and so I decided it was worth heading back home to avoid the usual Saturday evening chaos.

I jumped onto 345047 to take me to Bond Street, walking the long interchange to the Jubilee line for 96079+96038 to Waterloo, finishing off the day trip with 158881 + 159010 on a Salisbury stopper.  A lot quieter than I was expecting it to be (at least in the front coach).  Quiet until Basingstoke where a group of loud drunks did board at Basingstoke partaking in the usual “I’m the top dog” rubbish drunks have a habit of doing when in a group (needless to say they didn’t have tickets when the guard came round).  Thankfully they alighted at Andover returning peace before I walked home in the very cold air, to warm myself up in front of the fire.

720539 at Tottenham Hale

An enjoyable day in London, all be a bit chilly, but better cold than rain in my eyes.  I’ve made a start with the Stort Navigation (carries on towards Bishop Stortford) as well as enjoying the countryside around the Lee Country Park.  As well as getting 9 winning 720s, my first 720 hunt for a good few months.

3rd December – An unplanned return to a wet London

Originally my plan for today was to head towards Fareham to sample the Gosport guided bus and to walk some of the old railway lines in Gosport (finishing off with a coastal walk towards Lee on Solent) but with the forecast being variable with heavy rain forecasted I decided to put that idea on the backburner and have another trip to London (to try and make a start with getting the list of “sub mile” Underground sets down).  After looking at various options for potential walks within London I settled on something out in the West.

The day began with the 07:36 service from Grateley to take me towards Clapham Junction (a very quiet 159101 & 159014), where I headed towards the Overground platforms for the next Shepherd’s Bush service (morning engineering works I presume), where the train was going from platform 2 (rather than platform 1).  I was a bit surprised when it was a DC only 378 (146) for something a bit more unusual as it terminated into the southbound platform at Shepherd’s Bush station (wearing my BLS hat for the crossover to the south of the station lol).  I exited the station (via the manual barriers because London Overground stations never like the “Sundays Out” Travelcard from Basingstoke).

378146 at Shepherd's Bush Station

I had a gentle walk towards Shepherd’s Bush Market underground, jumping on the next Hammersmith service (formed of 21351/352) going into platform 3 at Hammersmith.  The tiny walk across the road to the other Hammersmith underground station saw me onto a Piccadilly line service formed of 237/132 which I took to Acton Town, stepping back to board 186/123 for the run to Hounslow East, not stopping at South Ealing due to station improvement works (always a strange feeling going nonstop via Underground stations).  Anyhow I exited the station at Hounslow East to begin my little walk.

Following some footpaths took me towards Osterley underground station before Osterley Park (something on my list to return to).  I joined a road for a short distance going underneath the M4 before heading into the “Long Wood” which was a surprising find for being beautiful.  I followed the path via the Long Wood which came out near the Warren Farm nature reserve and I crossed over the Brentford freight line via a foot crossing picking up a path which followed parallel to the railway towards Trumpers field and a steep muddy hill to drop towards the Grand Union canal near one of the Hanwell flight of locks.

Brentford Freight Line from a Footpath Crossing near Trumpers Field, Hanwell

Crossing the canal I picked up the “Brent River Park Path” as well as the long distance Capital Ring, as I followed both paths alongside the river Brent, crossing a main road (due to a flooded underpass) and coming across the beautiful Wharncliff Viaduct, carrying the GWML across the valley near Hanwell station.  Somewhere I will need to return to when the sky isn’t so grey for some nice photos of trains crossing the viaduct.  This path took me into the Brent Lodge Park as I followed the markers (a bit muddy in places, and I had to stop along the way to put my coat on as it had started to rain).

Following the Capital Ring, I soon reached Ruislip Road where I decided on a change of plan as originally, I was going to take the Capital Ring to Greenford but instead followed the Park Path following the river towards an old leisure centre (Gurnell).  The next section was away from the river due to various golf courses as it headed towards Pitshanger Park & Brentham Meadows where the Brent River Park Path came to an end alongside the A40.  The next section was walking along the pavement of this very busy road (which in hindsight I should have gone a bit south to walk along the residential roads as it would have been quieter).

I reached Hanger Lane Underground station, for some photos (although quite hard to do with the location) before carrying on towards Twyford Abbey road to pick up a path via a park to reach Park Royal underground station (on the Piccadilly line).  After pausing for some more photos I carried on along a path towards West Acton, an area which a few nice looking black & white houses.  Originally I was going to carry on towards North Ealing but decided to break my walk up early due to the rain (which had gotten more annoying).  An enjoyable walk (other than the section along the A40), various types of paths and a decent explore.

West Acton Underground Station Building

Back to the trains and a short wait before a Central line service (91197/91161/92174/91099) popped up to take me towards Shepherd’s Bush, crossing over to the Overground station with 378255 for the run to Willesden Junction where I began a little hunt for any sub 10 mile units or 710379.  I did see a couple of low mileage 378s heading towards Stratford, so I formed a plan taking 378205 to Kentish Town West to wait for 378209 on a Richmond service.  Originally my plan was to step back at Willesden Junction for another sub 10 mile 378 to take to Richmond (for something SWR to Waterloo), but this is where things went a tad wrong.

Due to damage to a footbridge near Woking, the railway line in that area was closed so I gave up with the Richmond train following to jump onto a Bakerloo line service (3265/3541) to Paddington.  After grabbing something to eat from Sainsburys I managed to board a busy 800318 on a Great Malvern service (this was the Sunday where GWR was running a heavily cut back service due to the overtime ban).  I took this 800 to Reading and headed towards platform 2, taking a seat as the connections weren’t the best today with the hourly Basingstoke service (no XC running beyond Reading).  The crowd was massive 10 minutes before departure as I made my way towards the area I was predicting the last set of doors would be with the crowd building up.

A busy platform 2 at Reading

Eventually 165104 rolled in running late (the Sunday timetable of 1 train going back & forth is more fragile than some glass with short turnarounds at either end), departed around 10 minutes late extremely busy (I dread to think what it would have been like near the back).  This took me to Basingstoke where I headed towards platform 2, taking a seat and just waited for the next train towards Andover.  Originally it was showing as being semi-fast but soon had extra stops added which was good news for me.  However what wasn’t such good news is that it was a single 3 coach unit (159006).  Thankfully I managed to board, even got a seat for the trip to Grateley, where I walked home to relax for the rest of the night.  Not the best of trips back home but at least I got home, even if 115-odd minutes later than expected

9th December – Buses in Oxfordshire/Berkshire

Today was a day where I had several options at what to do, sadly the poor weather meant walking was out and I didn’t want to head towards London again.  After weighing up various options I decided on dusting off a plan I made for earlier in the year which never happened due to strikes.  The day began with a drive to Andover, parking in my usual spot close to the railway station which has free parking on weekends (every little helps) with a walk in the rain towards Andover bus station.  The first bus being the Stagecoach route 7 to Newbury, although departure time came and went without anything appearing, eventually bus 36920 (An Enviro 300) rolled in to depart around 15 minutes late.  It was only me, mum & another passenger on the bus as it headed away from Andover towards Newbury.  The bus went along the A343 via Enham Alamein & Hurstbourne Tarrant to the Penwood area, doing a loop round a housing estate before heading towards other villages like East End & Ball Hill to reach Newbury.  New coverage for me as when I did a route 7 back in April it was one of the services which went direct to Newbury after Penwood via the A343.  The bus did get busier as time went on, so it didn’t remain quiet throughout.

The next bus was the Thames Travel X34 for Didcot Parkway (bus 622, a double decker).  This bus departed Newbury with only me & mum on board for the trip out of Newbury, doing a loop of Vodafone HQ before a trip along the A34, coming off to do a loop of Chilton (picking up one more passenger) before heading towards the science/business park of Harwell Campus (dropping off that passenger who boarded at Chilton and picking up a few more passengers).  After Harwell Campus it headed towards Harwell village before the housing of the Great Western Park of Didcot, picking up quite a few passengers along the way.  We exited at Didcot Parkway station rather than the terminus on Haydon Road as the connection to the next bus route wasn't the biggest (only 15 minutes) and felt like most of the bus alighted to head towards the railway station.

Thames Travel Bus 622 (BN68 XSO) at Didcot Parkway Station on a route X34

The next bus route on my little tour was the Thames Travel route 23 for Henley on Thames, with bus 442 (a Wright StreetLite).  This was the busiest bus so far as it headed out of Didcot doing a loop of the town before heading towards Wallingford.  The bus had a good turnover of passengers in Wallingford before it continued towards Henley on Thames going via villages like Nuffield & Nettlebed staying on the A4130.  At Henley on Thames, we headed towards some toilets & Boots for some lunch before the next bus route of the day, the Thames Valley operated route 239 for Maidenhead with an Optare Solo (129).

This bus departed with only me & mum on board (only runs twice a day on Saturdays) going towards Hurley (where it picked up a couple more passengers from the nearby mobile home park).  The bus went via the Berks College of Agriculture Campus (no takers) before heading into Maidenhead where it picked up a couple more passengers within the town area.  An interesting route for views and I was glad to have managed to get the timings to work.  When in Maidenhead I had around 90 minutes to waste before my next planned bus, so we remained on board Solo 129 as it formed a route 234, a large loop towards Waltham St Lawrence via a few other small villages to the southwest of Maidenhead.

Thames Travel Bus 442 (SK66 HRO) in Henley on Thames on a route 23

The 234 departed Maidenhead with half a dozen passengers, getting dropped off in some of the villages along the way (another twice a day on Saturdays bus route) before picking up some extra passengers on the way back into Maidenhead in the Knowl Hill area sticking to the A4 most of the way to terminate on the bus stop on Frascati Way.  An enjoyable waste of an hour looking out of the window in an area I’ve never visited before, some nice-looking countryside.  Anyhow in Maidenhead we had a short walk from Frascati Way towards Bridge Avenue, where the Saturdays only Thames Valley Buses route 127 to Reading starts from.  Bus 132 (An Enviro200) was waiting and eventually departed around 10 minutes late, and like other bus routes today it only had me & mum on board as it headed away from Maidenhead.

This route headed towards Reading via the A4 until Hare Hatch before heading towards Wargrave & Twyford.  A little loop into Sonning before heading towards Woodley where it got quite busy as it headed towards Reading town centre (along part of a route shared with other bus routes).  A slightly different way to look out of the window on an oddity of a Saturdays only service.  Anyhow that was the end of the buses for the day as we headed into the town centre to do some shopping (since my last visit to Reading both Primark & Sports Direct has changed locations).  After getting what we wanted, it was to the railway station for a slightly delayed 165106 (delayed due to someone being sick) for the run to Basingstoke before a quiet 159002 + 159005 on the next Basingstoke – Salisbury semi-fast service for the nonstop run to Andover.

159002 at Basingstoke

At Andover, we dropped off the bags into the car and relocated to a town centre car park to visit the local Spoons for dinner (somewhere I hadn’t been to for years), before making our way slowly home, the end of an enjoyable day on the buses.  I can remove some more bus routes from my list of “would like to do”, making the most of the £2 bus fare scheme.

10th December – Brent Cross West & London

Today was a case of heading towards London, visit the latest station to open on the network (Brent Cross West) then have a couple of short walks before the rain moved in.  However, things went a tad wrong due to overrunning engineering works near Woking.  My original plan was to catch the 07:00-odd service from Andover direct into London Waterloo, but when I saw that was only running to Farnborough, I went back to sleep for 15 minutes before heading out to Andover (using Andover solely due to rubbish connections to the Basingstoke – Salisbury stopper from London).

Due to a quirk with the timetable the unit which would normally be ECS to Basingstoke (to form a Basingstoke – Exeter service) has been put in service the last couple of weeks (even with another service 10 minutes behind it).  I decided to board 159005 when it rolled into Andover on a Basingstoke terminator to get out of a cold wind, this proved to be a good move as due to the overrunning engineering works there was nothing heading east of Basingstoke for at least the next hour with two London trains terminating at Basingstoke.  Thankfully there was an escape route via 165121 on the Reading train (which true to form was already running late), not ideal being a 2-coach unit for it was very cosy on board.

165121 at Basingstoke

Arrival into Reading was around 15 minutes late (lost more time along the way) so it was a bit of a fast walk to board 165113 on the Redhill stopper which was departing from platform 15 (first time being on a GWR service via the dive-under giving access to the Wokingham line, pretty sure the only other time I’ve used this bit of track was on a diverted voyager a few years ago).  This turned out to be a wise decision because the next London bound Elizabeth line service only made it to West Drayton due to the failure of the overheads (again).  Anyhow I had a decent seat on this 165 as it headed towards Redhill, where I had a fast walk towards the bus station to catch an Arriva London operated route 405 (double decker HT18) on the next bus to Croydon Town Centre, solely to avoid a 30-minute fester at a station I dislike (due to the habit of “This is a late notice platform alternation” with the trains not waiting for passengers to transfer from P2 to P0).

Back to the bus route, this was an interesting little trip north via Merstham, Coulsdon & Purley to reach Croydon town centre, terminating on Park Street, views from a different angle and allowed me to tick off another London bus route.  Sadly, the rain had arrived as I headed towards East Croydon to jump onto 700124 to London Bridge (where it terminated due to engineering works).  Ironically this would have been the train I would have caught from Redhill, so my little bus adventure didn’t cost me any time.  Once I had managed to get off the platform at London Bridge and towards the Jubilee line, I managed to squeeze onto the next service with 96030 & 96123 to West Hampstead (in hindsight I probably should have used the Northern line to Kings Cross St Pancras) but sadly the delay getting to the platform meant the next northbound Luton stopper had already gone (boo).  So, for the lack of a better plan, I took 700039 to St Pancras (using platform 1), remaining on board for the run out to Brent Cross West to tick off the station.

700039 at St Pancras

This is where I finally had some good luck as the next southbound train was running around 14 minutes late (was late departing Luton) allowing me to make the minus 5-minute connection with ease.  This is a vast station, and an area I will need to return to when the weather isn’t so wet.  Anyhow 700146 rolled in on the next southbound which I took to West Hampstead popping out of the station for some lunch before waiting for 700060 for a little catch-up with my good friend Stu who was back out after spending the night on the underground ticking off the stations (and did the first service from Brent Cross West).  At St Pancras we had a gentle walk (and chat) to Euston where we parted ways as I headed to the Overground platforms with 710272 on the next Watford service.

The train was delayed by around 7 minutes (I presume due to needing BTP to attend for one passenger as they were led away before the train departed).  I took it to Kensal Green, stepping back to board a Bakerloo line service (stepped back to ID a southbound train) with 3534/3299 for the single trip to Willesden Junction.  I relocated myself to the bridge giving a view of the high-level platforms and caught sub ten-mile unit 378217 to Gunnersbury, just enough to push it over ten miles.  Although the next Stratford train was delayed by around 5 minutes which probably would have been enough time to ride this 378 to Kew Gardens but hey-ho.

District Line LU 21546 departs Gunnersbury Station

378230 eventually rolled in on the next Stratford train to take me back to Willesden Junction where I took up residence of the footbridge keeping my eyes on the 710s on the DC lines and for my last 378.  When I saw 378223 rolling in on a Stratford service, I had another fast walk to board my last 378 needed for ten miles.  I was extremely happy as it meant no more festering on the North/East London lines for the dual voltage 378s can pop up in many places.  It was pushed over ten miles by Gospel Oak but the next 710/2 wasn’t needed so I remained on board to Hackney Central, walking to Hackney Downs the idea being to head towards Liverpool Street to see if I could sneak a look at the cleaners’ sheet at the buffers near platform 1 which lists what 710s were out.  Football was on at White Hart Lane so it was all pairs, but sadly I saw my last 710/1 (106) passing through Hackney Downs ECS heading to Chingford for it had worked one of the kickball extras (and hence wouldn’t be back out for a couple hours).

For lack of a better idea, I jumped onto 710112 & 710114 to Walthamstow Central for the short walk to Walthamstow Queens Road on the Gospel Oak – Barking line, where my luck was in as the first Barking Riverside train (woof woof) was sub ten mile 710259, my last of the active 710/2s to push over ten miles.  This was done by Barking as I changed to board a Fenchurch Street bound 357018 & 357038 for the run to Fenchurch Street, going via Stratford and the lesser used Gas Factory chord.  At Fenchurch Street I headed to Tower Hill for a spot of linear hopping to Victoria, firstly with 21498/497 to Blackfriars then 21566/565 to Victoria, both sets I needed for a mile (so some reasonable luck getting two in a row).

710259 at Barking

At Victoria I headed to the Sainsburys Local in the shopping centre to grab some dinner items before boarding a very busy 377429 & 377401 on a Brighton train (when watching a pair of 387s depart for Gatwick Airport containing mostly fresh air).  These 377s took me to Clapham Junction where I boarded 159017 + 159009 on a Waterloo train (you would think with a reduced service between Basingstoke & Woking, SWR would have tried to make sure everything was max length?)  My theory being as these services only had a 15-minute turnaround at Waterloo it was more sensible being on the train before the crowds boarded.  As expected, it was standing room only, even in coach 1 of 6 as it zoomed towards Woking, going via platform 2 to run ‘wrong line’ towards Brooklands to use the crossover to regain the correct line (due to engineering works with the landslip).  Lost some time due to the stopper in front running late so arrival into Basingstoke was around 10 minutes late, not to worry as the train did empty out to some degree before continuing to Andover where I alighted to have a relaxing drive home.

A good day out, the morning wrecked somewhat due to the overrunning works (I worked out I was around 4 hours late in arriving at Brent Cross), the walks I had planned will be pushed back to another trip.  I was happy to have cleared the 378s for 10 miles as well as the active 710/2s (maybe one of these days 710270 will finally enter service), means the end is in sight for the Overground.  More photos from both weekends can be found here: Thanks for reading my random mutterings and I leave you with a photo of a 377:

377401 at Clapham Junction