Trips 1st January – 7th January

 Trips 1st January – 7th January

Hard to believe it’s been 10 years since I decided that I was going to start logging my various travels across the UK leading into various things over the years.  I might fork out for a 1st Class All Line Rover later in the year for a belated 10th year anniversary trip.  Anyhow here are some more random day trips in the colder month

1st January – Exploring South London

For my first trip of 2024 I was toying with various ideas of what to do, in the end narrowing my options down to some walks in South London which has been on my ‘idea’ list for a while.  Staying within South London made sense with the potential of changeable weather as well.  I find New Years Day strange when it comes to trains, as some operators (GWR) operate a full weekday service and some operators run a Sunday timetable.  Anyhow the first train from Grateley towards London (and hence the 1st train of the year) was with 159108 & 159105 which I took to Basingstoke changing to 165105 on the Reading shuttle for a short walk onto a very lightly loaded 800301 which was running late for some unknown reason.

At Paddington it was a short walk towards the Bakerloo, doing a U-turn when the screens suggested the next Bakerloo for the Elephant was 15 minutes, so I ended up heading to the Lizzy line with 345028 for one stop to Bond Street, followed by the long walk to the Jubilee platforms to find that line wasn’t much better with one train every 10 minutes.  That was a long 8 minutes as the platform got busier and busier before a rammed service with 96097 & 96046 rolled in to take me to Bermondsey, where I exited the underground.  First time I’ve exited LU at this station, and after taking a wrong turn I headed towards the King’s Stairs Gardens leading into the wonderful Southwark Park.

Southwark Park Bandstand, London

I did a little explore of Southwark Park, exiting near Surrey Quays Overground station which was my next destination.  The next southbound service was 378140 which I took to New Cross Gate, exiting the station to begin my next walk which was very much a “make it up as I go along” style heading along New Cross road passing New Cross station before visiting Margaret McMillan Park, then Fordham Park following an old road to Folkestone Gardens.   A visit to Deptford Park followed before crossing the Overground lines on an enclosed footbridge near Silwood Junction (sadly when footbridges over railway lines need to be enclosed it says a lot about the local area that they can't be trusted not to throw stuff onto the railway line).

My walk continued following a path alongside the Overground line for Clapham (sadly no trains as that line was closed for works) taking a brief detour on a path near the Millwall ground, passing South Bermondsey station doing a little loop featuring the closed Bolina Road underneath the various lines near the Bermondsey dive-under.  I headed back towards the Overground track and headed towards Surrey Canal Road (where maybe one of these days the station will get built).  I carried on following a path via the Bridgehouse Meadows, then some roads (passing a vehicle scrap place), before Brimmington Park and some more roads leading to Queens Road Peckham Station.  My idea of grabbing food from the little Tesco outside the station failed as the fridge was broken.  Anyhow I continued, next explore was the Kirkwood Nature Reserve which was an unexpected parcel of quiet within London before heading towards Cossall Park and some more roads (and the Peckham Levels place) to reach Peckham Rye station.

Kirkwood Nature Reserve, Peckham

This is where my rough idea for this walk changed from walking towards Burgess Park to walk the old canal route, to walking via the Holly Grove Shrubbery to reach Warwick Gardens before some more roads to reach Denmark Hill station.  After a brief pause outside Denmark Hill station, I continued towards Ruskin Park (a place I will revisit as it had nice views) before some more roads (and minor footpaths) to reach Loughborough Junction to end the walk where I boarded 700048 for the run to Mitcham Junction giving my phone a much-needed boost of electricity before setting off on my 3rd walk.  This walk took me towards what was shown on the map as the "Old Tramway" path towards Goat Road, where I headed into Mitcham Common along a slightly muddy path within a corridor of trees.  This carried on to a railway bridge where I had good timing with a Dorking bound service passing before I continued along this footpath which took me to Beddington Lane tram stop.  There was a path just after the railway bridge which headed south towards the Beddington Farmlands which is somewhere I will explore later in the year when it should be less muddy.

377603 approaching a footbridge near Mitcham Common on a service to Dorking

Anyhow walking over, it was to the trams with tram 2538 up first to take me to East Croydon where I grabbed a late lunch before sub mile 2532 popped up to take me to Wandle Park where I got lucky with sub mile 2537 back to East Croydon, which cleared the original batch of London trams for a mile (other than for the one involved in that tragic accident).  Just one of the newer trams to hunt down for a mile (2560) but I’m pretty sure I saw it on the depot when I went past earlier but that can wait for another trip to Croydon as I headed into the station and onto 700129 to Farringdon, changing to 345020 for the run to Stratford and 720555 to Tottenham Hale meeting up with a good friend for a brief time and a chat.

Next up was 745107 to Liverpool Street (I always forget how much of a crawl this section is) before 720587 & 720545 to Stratford where we parted ways and I carried on to Romford on 720501 & 720566 to exit the station to visit Tesco for some bits for dinner before returning to the station to board winner 720119 & 720546 on a service from Southend for the trip to Liverpool Street, there were a couple more required 720s floating around on Wickford services but those didn’t call at Romford and connections at Shenfield were a bit ropey so I decided those could wait for another trip as I headed to the underground firing up my list of sub mile LU units.

720512 at Tottenham Hale Station

After a short wait 21071/21072 on a Metropolitan line service took me to Kings Cross St Pancras where I decided to head to the Piccadilly line, getting sets 181, 104, 177, 202, 860, 141 over a mile pinging back between Kings Cross & Caledonian Road a couple of times before linearly to Green Park via Holborn.  I headed to the Jubilee Line to see it was in a state of chaos with delays (again) with 9 minutes for the next train, the crowds getting bigger and bigger before 96027/96012 rolled in as I managed to get on board for the run to Waterloo (who knew what the following service would have been like).  At Waterloo I headed towards 159001 working the 19:45 service for Salisbury, reasonably loaded at least in the front coach, although it did empty out at Woking.  Nothing uneventful happened on the trip back to Grateley, followed by a gentle walk home.

A nice day trip, some more areas of South London explored, some I won’t be in a rush to revisit whereas some I will revisit.  The weather held off as well which was a bonus as the forecast was a bit changeable.  The Tuesday was my last day of annual leave which I did a couple random bus routes in the Salisbury area due to the rain (the 67 from Tidworth to Salisbury & a 37 towards Lockerley via some smaller villages).  Although I regret not doing a 26 to Gillingham when I saw it loading up in Salisbury city centre as that seems to have disappeared from the timetable.

6th January – Canals & old railways in the West Midlands

Today as the weather was decent (after a week of heavy rain) I decided to head towards Birmingham to walk the Titford Canal plus some other bits which have been on my list.  The day began with the 05:59 service to Basingstoke with 159021 & 158888 which were originally meant to carry on to Reading but got cancelled at Basingstoke due to staff shortage.  Next up was a pair of voyagers (220007 & 220005) for the trip towards Banbury, the coach I was in only getting busy after Oxford.  At Banbury it was a short wait before 168328 & 168004 rolled in on the next Birmingham Moor Street service which I took to Solihull meeting up with a good friend (who had already purchased me a Daytripper to save a job).  A short wait before 172219 & 172343 rolled in from Dorridge to take us to Langley Green where our walk began.

We exited the station, heading towards the Titford canal from the Station Road bridge dropping onto the towpath (which was quite decent quality in this section) to walk towards the Titford Pool, partly underneath the M5 motorway.  We did a loop to cover both arms of the canal with a short section of the nature reserve in between the canal before returning to the main canal to head back towards Langley Green, this time continuing pass the remains of Langley Maltings and an old railway bridge which once carried the Oldbury branch line.  We continued along the towpath passing the shorten Tat Bank branch (mostly used to moor boats with no public access) and onto the locks to drop towards the Old Main Line of the Birmingham Canal.  The last section of the towpath turned quite muddy and the junction between the canals is underneath the M5.

Titford Canal in the Oldbury area

Turning left onto the Old Main line we headed towards Oldbury on a section which we walked back in 2022 before heading onto ‘new’ coverage after Round Greens Road where the towpath did get a better quality to give us a short break from uneven ground and mud.  We continued along the canal in the urban area, although there were some nice views along the way but nothing that special as we reached the section I walked back in December when doing the Gower Branch & Netherton tunnel branch.  After the aqueduct over the Netherton tunnel branch we continued towards Tipton, passing a couple dodgy looking youths on off-road motorbikes who looked like the sort who would grab handbags and zoom away safe in the knowledge the police won’t catch them.

Anyhow back to the canal, as we reached a point where I wanted to investigate the Dudley canal as different maps had different things showing as we crossed over a bridge near Baker Street (The so-called Pitchfork Footbridge) to walk along the towpath to reach Tipton Junction where the Dudley Canal branched off.  We followed this canal reaching a gate where I presume the remainder of the towpath is part of the Black Country Living Museum, so we did a little U-turn back underneath the A4123 for a short section along the road back towards the Pitchfork Footbridge (quicker going via the road and avoided a narrow section of towpath).

Dudley Canal in the Tipton Area

Back onto the Birmingham Canal for a short section before another little detour, this time along a path along the remains of part of the old Tipton Green canal before returning to the Birmingham Canal for the last section to Factory Junction where the old main line meets the new main line (which for me marks the completion of the Old Main Line of the Birmingham Canal).  We turned onto the New Main line for a short section coming away underneath the railway and into an area of open land before reaching the car park area at Tipton station.  Going underneath the railway again we had the option of taking the train for a tram to the start point of our next walk or using a bus, so using Google Maps it suggested the bus route was slightly quicker (and had the advantage of being closer to the start) so it was to the bus stop on Wood Street for a Diamond Bus operated route 229 for Bilston (with bus 32126).

This bus went on a little tour towards Sedgley, Hurst Hill & Coseley before reaching Bilston where we alighted at the Industrial Park stop.  We headed along the road to pick up the start of a path along the route of the old Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway route of Millfields Road.  This path was quite new that it didn't even show on my Strava.  This path took us towards Priestfield tram stop, where we continued along the tram track crossing the A41 road and onto the old railway route towards Wolverhampton Low Level (as the tram diverts to run along the road).  This was an unexpected gem of a path, quite peaceful as it ran within a tree lined cutting, although quite a bit of rubbish along the way (popular place for flytipping it seems).  It let us to Lower Walsall Street with the flooded remains of the route heading into a tunnel.  We headed on the road towards The Royal tram stop with tram 46 taking us towards Pipers Row where we walked to Wolverhampton station via Sainsburys so I could grab a late lunch.

Remains of old railway route Priestfield & Wolverhampton (Low Level)

At Wolverhampton station, the next Birmingham train was a service from Shrewsbury with winner 196012 leading dud 196003 for the run into Birmingham New Street, where we exited for a gentle walk towards Bull Street tram stop with tram 46 to Edgbaston Village, returning on the same tram back towards Grand Central where we parted ways with Jan heading back towards Wolverhampton on the stopper and I headed towards the toilets.  Along the way I had noticed 2 winning trams were out, so I decided to give 196 hunting a miss.  I headed to the tram stop to jump onto tram 57 towards West Bromwich Central but my prediction was wrong and tram 40 took me to Lodge Road to waste time before winner tram 50 rolled in from Wolverhampton to take me to the stop at Winson Green (Outer Circle).

Tram 51 returned me towards West Bromwich to the stop at Dudley Street before winner 49 arrived to take me to Bull Street where I had a gentle walk towards Moor Street swinging via the shops outside Snow Hill for dinner items.  At Moor Street it was onto the next Chiltern service formed of 168106 & 168110 to take me to Banbury for a short wait before 221131 rolled in on the next Cross-Country service towards Bournemouth.  I got lucky to grab a table seat in coach B to carry on watching videos on my tablet and was glad at Reading to alight as it got quite busy with some loud drunks boarding.  I had a short wait before 159005 & 158881 rolled in from Salisbury to take me back to Grateley the end of a productive day.  A nice little social catchup as well as some canal walking plus some old railway lines which had been on my list for a while.

West Midland Metro Tram 49 at Bull Street

7th January – “It’s all gone a bit wrong, Plan C it is then”.

The original plan for today was to do a large loop from Reading towards Newport for a TfW to Hereford then a GWR back towards Reading, solely to cover the unusual track on offer due to engineering works (the curve between Heywood Road & Hawkeridge Junction outside Westbury station linking Pewsey & Trowbridge) plus more unusually the Didcot West curve.  I hung back buying the tickets (other than to Reading from Grateley) until the day as following the heavy rain the line via Newbury had been closed.  This turned out to be a wise move as things went a bit wrong (and I’m not talking about the TfW Mk4 loco hauled set getting replaced by a pair of 153s!).

The day began with 159006 & 159013 on a Basingstoke train from Grateley for the short leap to Andover to step back to a busy 159108 on a Reading service.  This took us to Reading, a station which was unusually quiet as due to overhead wire damage at the Paddington end of the route services to & from Paddington had been suspended with a late running IET heading to Slough.  I dread to think how busy the Redhill/Gatwick trains would have been with passengers heading towards London via Guildford (or even Redhill) as I changed my plan to head towards Oxford, plan B would have involved the bus route from Banbury to Oxford, but connections were a bit poor at either end to the trains.

159108 at Reading Station

Eventually a late running 220005 rolled in ECS from Eastleigh (seemed to have got delayed around Basingstoke) which had a large crowd waiting for it.  Thankfully I had a good position to be close to a door and grabbed a pair of non-reservable seats in coach D as the voyager headed to Oxford going the usual route around Didcot (as the engineering works block only came into force in the afternoon).  After a visit to the toilets, we headed to bus 672 working the Oxford Buses X1 for Wantage.  This was a former Park & Ride spec Wright StreetDeck featuring tables and even a sofa on the top deck.

This bus headed away from Oxford diverting from the usual route direct towards the Redbridge Park & Ride via Hinksey due to (I presume) flooding going via Iffley and the by-pass to reach the Park & Ride site.  After the Park & Ride it headed towards Abingdon then Marcham, Hanney and crossing the Great Western Main Line near the site of Wantage Road before going into Grove (lots of new houses being constructed) and finally reaching Wantage Market Place.  The wind had certainly picked up and was quite cold as we headed to a Sainsburys to grab lunch.

Oxford Buses Bus 672 (SK66 HUU) at Wantage Market Place

Next up was the Stagecoach operated S9 route back towards Oxford with bus 10788 (a Gold branded Enviro 400).  This followed a slightly different route out of Wantage into Grove before running a similar route to the X1 until Frilford where it continued along the A338 via a few golf courses and some posh looking houses.  The bus went via Cumnor before heading towards Oxford via Botley and some serious looking floods.  The bus terminated at Osney Island with the works at Oxford station, so it was a short walk along a busy path towards Oxford station in the cold wind.  We had longer to wait as the next train was running late, eventually 802021 rolling in from London, going straight into platform 3 to go back south.  We managed to get seats on this busy service (I dread to think how busy the front coaches would have been with the waiting crowd) with the following Bournemouth bound voyager being put onto platform 4 and following this unit.

Due to engineering works the direct route was blocked (work around Didcot East Junction I think) so this service used the west curve and reversed on the main GWML to go into Didcot on platform 2.  Some delays to northbound services caused by congestion but for this service reversal was quite quick (I suspect driver both ends).  After Didcot the train continued to Reading station, where we alighted, headed across to platform 3 to board the next SWR service for Salisbury with 158887 & 158882, the rear unit was quite busy (the previous GWR for Basingstoke was cancelled to get it back on time due to running hopelessly late).  Nothing unusual along the way back to Grateley, with a gentle walk home in the daylight.  The end of an interesting day trip looking out of the window in Oxfordshire, Wantage seemed a nice enough place for a future explore, but not when the wind was quite arctic.  I think the last time I was on a train which used the Didcot West curve was a diverted HST back in September 2017 when the Reading area was closed for electrification, I think.

802002 at Reading Station