9th March – Ferry across the Thames & Exploring the Thames Estuary Path

 9th March – Ferry across the Thames & Thames Estuary Path

It was another day trip where I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do until later in the week.  In the end deciding on a trip to London to sample the Gravesend – Tilbury Ferry before it gets withdrawn at the end of March, fitting in a couple short walks on the Thames Estuary which had been on my list for a while as the weather was looking promising.

The day started with the 05:59 service from Grateley, formed of 159014 & 158888 for the trip to Basingstoke where I swapped to 221122 on the next Manchester train to take me to Reading, where a fast platform change saw me onto a quiet 800320 for the run into Paddington.  At Paddington I headed towards the Bakerloo line to take the first service (formed of 3237 & 3557) to Charing Cross where I changed to the National Rail station to jump onto the Gravesend via Sidcup service (rather than a Gravesend via Woolwich) formed of 465014 & 465181.

Along the way I decided to look at the connection between the station & the ferry terminal on the Town Pier, noticing that annoyingly I would hit Gravesend just as there is a gap in service due to, I presume a crew break so decided to alight from these 465s at Crayford as I wanted to get some better photos.  Crayford is one of those stations where the entrance to the London bound platform has barriers but there is a wide-open side entrance on the Dartford bound platform (which is better suited for anybody wanting to visit the town centre), an open invitation for those who think payment is strictly optional.

465181 departs Crayford Station

Anyhow, after watching many passengers entering via that side-gate to make their way across the footbridge I boarded 707003 & 707022 for the short hop to Bexley where a new footbridge/lift combo has been built (looking nearly ready to enter service, I presume the existing narrow subway will then get closed off).  A short wait at Bexley before the next Gravesend service rolled in with 707005 & 707002 to take me towards platform 0 at Gravesend where I exited the station via the entrance on the south side (noting that the barriers were wide open).  After swinging via Tesco for some lunch items I headed towards the town pier where the ferry to Tilbury was waiting.  Vessel Jacob Marley was on the route today as the waiting crowd boarded to buy tickets from the member of staff and I decided to sit outside as it was quite warm inside the main area.

Jetsteam Jacob Marley Boat on Gravesend - Tilbury ferry at Gravesend

The sailing took around 5 minutes as it crossed the river from the south bank to the north bank at Tilbury Riverside, where I began my walk heading towards the historic Tilbury Fort and then onto a cycle path running along top of the sea wall.  The decent tarmac path soon came to an end as the path went down some steps with warnings that “path floods at high tide” and along a footpath at the base of the wall, dodging via river related debris which had been washed up.  Quite a strange feeling walking along this path with a tall wall to my left-hand side and river to the right, but thankfully the solid path returned as the footpath continued in this industrial landscape with a couple of ships getting loaded (or unloaded) at the Tilbury 2 container port before the landscape changed to waste-land, with what I think was a landfill site (thankfully not smelly at all).  Very bleak before the landfill changed to grass before the path reached Coalhouse Fort which is another historic port.

After doing a little detour of the fort I carried on towards the Grassland Nature Reserve, the path along a wall moving away from the waterfront giving some excellent views of countryside & nature before returning towards the waterfront for the last section towards the end of the Estuary path as it moves in-land due to Mucking Marshes.  The first section of this footpath was reasonable, bit narrow in places before it turned into a horror show with flooding, I walked slowly through one section before stopping when I saw the next section was even worse, the path completely underwater (and looked like there was a fallen tree) so I did a little U-turn back via the first section before going a bit rogue following an unmarked path via the marshes (which seemed to get used based on the footprints).

A very flooded footpath in East Tilbury (link path from Thames Estuary Path)

I followed this path before it reached a muddy hill which needed to be climbed (not the easiest but I made it up), I was back on the path of the footpath, but the next section seemed to have disappeared as I headed in the general direction thankfully the footpath reappearing and being back to reasonable quality as I turned away from the England Coastal Path to head towards East Tilbury where I had a 25 minute wait for the next train, so time to sit down on a nice bench putting my phone on charge and had my lunch.  The next Fenchurch Street train was formed of 357028 & 357013 and was quite busy as I took it for a couple of stops to Grays, a station which featured some confused passengers due to engineering works (trains towards Upminster were starting from the bay platform and there is no subway access between platforms at the moment.

Exiting the station at Grays, I headed towards the waterside following a path towards the ‘Grays Beach riverside park’ before doing a U-turn back towards the wharf area before continuing along the path in the residential area of the town.  Accommodation gave way to heavy industrial units as the footpath continued being between the river Thames & a high security fence (changing in places to a flood protection wall).  This was quite a strange footpath for the location, but I continued along going underneath the Queen Elizabeth 2 bridge (part of the Dartford Crossing) where I had a bit of a tumble, my foot caught a large stone, and I wasn’t paying full attention so went down quite hard on my left knee causing a bit of pain (ouch!)

Queen Elizabeth 2 Bridge over River Thames in Purfleet

I picked myself up from the ground, tried to wash some of the blood from my hand which had introduced itself to some thorns, had a quick break before continuing the walk at a much-reduced rate.  This section of the walk wasn’t as enjoyable as the first section as I was now behind the flood wall with only a few occasions of seeing the river Thames.  It was interesting to see the various industrial places, along with some old railway tracks.  Soon the industrial units changed to some wasteland between the footpath & the railway as I was nearing Purfleet.  Not the easiest to exit this path as it hasn’t got the best signs and a steep climb to reach the road.  Certainly, it was an experience of walking somewhere which felt like you weren’t meant to be there, the path was reasonable quality with several bumps and stairs (including a very wobbly bridge).

Had I not had my little tumble I was planning to carry on towards Rainham to make a small start with the London loop long distance path but decided to call it a day and head to the station, to board 357015 & 357025 (I think) on the next Fenchurch Street service to take me to Barking where I left the train, thinking about hunting for my last 710/2 which had recently entered service.  Just as I was thinking about the plan to where to fester, it rolled in on a Barking Riverside service.  That was a lot easier than I had hoped but before boarding it I headed out of the station to visit a couple of shops before boarding 710270 for the long trip to Gospel Oak (making use of the USB sockets to give my phone a nice boost of electricity along the way).

710270 at Barking Station

At Gospel Oak I headed onto a very busy Stratford bound 378231 originally planning to take to Stratford for a spot of 720 hunting, but after searching on RTT highlighted nothing of interest I changed focus to the West Anglia line which was diverting via Seven Sisters today and had some required 720s floating around on Cambridge trains.  I changed plans and alighted from this 378 at Hackney Central for a walk to Hackney Downs to board 710117 to Liverpool Street to board 720550 & winner 720123 on the Cambridge train to take me (slowly) towards Broxbourne (fitting GA services around a 4tph Overground stopping service on the line via Seven Sisters will always be a slow journey).  A short visit at Broxbourne before I took 720111 & winner 720127 back towards Seven Sisters where I had a short break (watching a large crowd trying to squeeze onto a single Enfield bound 710) before taking 745106 back to Broxbourne (solely for the slight novelty of a 745 via Seven Sisters).

This is where I made a bit of a mistake with boarding 720540 & 720560 as for some reason, I had 560 down as being wanted on my list, but I had it 18 months ago on a Broxbourne starter, but whatever reason didn’t remove it from my list.  I took it to Hackney Downs before taking 710120 back to Seven Sisters.  I turned down a required 720 (as my body felt like it had, had enough and also the slowness of the running where it was taking 15+ minutes to reach Liverpool Street from Seven Sisters) for 745001 (sitting in declassified first class) with the slow run towards Liverpool Street where it felt like it crossed over to the ‘fast’ lines after Hackney Downs to cross over to the tracks via Bethnal Green station before crossing right across to terminate at platform 17 (for a set swap).

720518 at Broxbourne Station

I headed towards the Central line to jump on the first westbound service (formed of 91313 leading 92058, 92428 & 91309 with 91313 also being needed for a mile as an unexpected bonus).  I took this service to Tottenham Court Road changing to the Northern line with 51539 & 51707 to Waterloo, exiting the underground and swinging via the little Sainsburys in the old Eurostar area to grab some dinner before heading to board 159002 on the 20:50 service to Salisbury.  Heading home earlier than planned but that early start twinned with a bad night sleep had tired me out somewhat.  No surprise that a 3 coach 159 departed Waterloo very busy (I was in the front coach and barely saw any empty seats) before a lot more passengers boarded at Clapham.  In my eyes the Salisbury stoppers should simply skip Woking as the train emptied out a bit there (those passengers for Woking will simply need to use a 450 on a semi-fast).

Nothing else unusual happened along the way, arriving at Grateley near enough on time for a gentle walk home to relax for the remainder of the evening.  An enjoyable day trip with 2 unusual walks (other than the tumble), a bonus of my last 710/2 popping up without having to hunt it down along with 2 more 720s into my book.  Greater Anglia being on RTT does make things a bit easier when it comes to hunting for 720s.  Anyhow thanks for reading, more photos are on my Flickr.  I shall leave you with a photo from the seawall near East Tilbury.

View from Thames Estuary Path in East Tilbury

(Post script – thankfully after a restful Sunday where the only railway activity I did was visiting a local pub which has an old railway carriage in the garden my knee hurts no longer, shame the same can’t be said for my hand/arm which has a few scars which will probably take longer to heal).