Trips on 5th & 6th October (Trent & Mersey + London)

 Trips on 5th & 6th October

5th October – Trent & Mersey Canal in Derbyshire

I had a good number of ideas for this Saturday, in the end deciding that finishing the Trent & Mersey canal would be better than walking a bit more of the Leicester Arm of the Grand Union or doing another canal walk.  As finishing something I started in January last year would be good considering my walks along this canal over the summer.  My final section was from Willington towards the end of the canal where it meets the Trent at Derwent Mouth with a short section along the Trent to the Erewash canal to finish at Long Eaton station.

The day began with the 05:24 service from Grateley with 159007 working this quiet service to Waterloo where I transferred to the underground (after grabbing some supplies from Sainsburys) with the Bakerloo line & Victoria line to Kings Cross St Pancras (sets 3558/3245 on the Bakerloo & 11060/11059 on the Victoria).  I made my way across to the EMR platforms at St Pancras, probably one of my least used major London terminus stations to jump onto 222012 working the 07:32 service for Sheffield, first stop Leicester before calling at Loughborough, East Midlands Parkway, Long Eaton and finally Derby where I alighted, exiting the station for some fresh air.

222012 departing Derby

I returned to the station and managed to grab a seat on 170638 working the next service towards Birmingham which called at the underserved Willington station, the next Birmingham train wouldn’t be for another 4 hours, no wonder why there was a large crowd waiting for this 170.  I exited the station (passing a recently installed TVM) swinging via a Co-Op to grab some supplies for lunch before making my way to the canal where I picked up where I ended up back in April, something which felt like a lifetime ago but a day I will remember as the day I got invited for my assessment day after radio silence for 4 months.

Anyhow to the canal as I walked along the towpath leaving Willington behind going underneath the railway line towards Uttoxeter heading towards Derby with the towpath running close to the railway before going underneath it near Stenson where it follows the route of the Castle Donington freight line (with a couple of freight services heard along the way).  The canal in this area is quite rural skirting around the smaller settlements along the route (like Barrow Upon Trent) with the towpath a mixed bag for quality.  The tarmac soon returning in the Swarkestone area where the cycle path alongside the former Derby Canal joins and runs along the Trent & Mersey before picking up the former Melbourne railway line.

Trent & Mersey Canal

Once the cycle path departs the towpath returns to being rural with some lovely woodland, I presume Donington race track had some sort of race going on due to the noise of vehicles from that general direction with the canal weaving & skirting round the edge of Weston on Trent & Aston on Trent before reaching Shardlow, passing the zero mile marker at Shardlow Wharf, a good place to pause for lunch before I continued with the last mile of canal to where it meets the River Trent at Derwent Mouth (also the mouth of the River Derwent).  Trent & Mersey Canal, tick.

Now onto the River Trent I did a little detour towards Cavendish Bridge (the limit of navigation) before continuing towards the Sawley cut, crossing the river on a bridge alongside the railway viaduct (carrying the Castle Donington line).  The next section ran alongside a golf course with the river hidden from view by trees, but the occasional opening giving a nice view of the closed Ratcliffe power station, a sight soon to be resigned to memory when the cooling towers are blown up.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station overlooking the River Trent in Sawley.

My walk along the Trent ended where it meets the Erewash Canal on a junction near the Cranfleet Cut & mouth of the River Soar Navigation.  I joined the towpath of the Erewash canal walking towards New Sawley and finishing my walk at Long Eaton station.  Originally, I was toying with a spin to Nottingham for a tram hunt but based on the time (it was around half three) I decided it probably wasn’t worth it (as I didn’t want a late finish) so I took my chance with the next London train (which just happened to be the next arrival at Long Eaton) with a busy 222012 (again!).  I got lucky to get an unreserved seat in coach D (as I did have the potential of jumping off at Leicester to chance the 222 from Nottingham had I not got a decent seat).

Anyways around 90 minutes later the 222 arrived at St Pancras and I made my way to the underground with a reverse of the morning’s move with 11055/11056 taken on the Victoria line to Oxford Circus for 3245/3558 (again!) on the Bakerloo to Waterloo where I made it onto the 17:50 service for Salisbury, a busy 159022 & 159008 for the run to Grateley where I had a nice dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening, that early start catching up with me.  An enjoyable walk along the Trent & Mersey canal in some beautiful sunshine, it’s coming into the time of year now where sadly rural canals are removed from my list as the towpaths do get muddy in places, especially after heavy rain.

6th October – Cole Green Way & London Day

The Cole Green Way is the name given to the mixed-use path which makes use of the former Hertford & Welwyn Junction Railway route running from Welwyn Garden City to Hertford (shocker that!), a route I’ve been meaning to do for a while but either gets rained off or engineering works popping up.  Anyhow the day for me began with an early morning drive to Andover to catch the 06:58 service formed of 159002, 159017 & 158880 for the fast run towards London where after swinging via Sainsburys for breakfast I headed to the underground with 3537 & 3240 taken on the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus for 11072 & 11071 on the Victoria line towards Tottenham Hale, where I got to the booking office level only to do an U-Turn back down to the trains as there was a broken rail near Hackney Downs with Greater Anglia services using Seven Sisters.

11085 & 11086 took me to Seven Sisters, a station in a bit of chaos with delays with a couple of Stansted Express services before the next Hertford East service, something which RTT was suggesting was going to be a winner (720129) but 720136 rolled in, just one of those things with the incorrect data not reflecting any late swaps.  Anyhow I turned down this unit for winner 720541 on an Ely service (no trains between Ely & Norwich so GA were extending their services to Ely rather than Cambridge North).  This service took me to Broxbourne where I stepped back to a busy Cheshunt on 720572 with reports that the line around Hackney had reopened so winner 720519 arrived near enough on time on the next Hertford East service, taking me to the end of the branch line where I had a short walk to the bus station (although it’s nothing worth shouting about).

745009 arriving into Seven Sisters

It was onto the hourly route 324 service for Welwyn Garden City, a private bus from Centrebus (South), an Enviro 200 fleet number 502.  This took me out of Hertford with some fast running along the A414 before dropping me off in Welwyn Garden City near Heronswood Road where my walk began.  The first section was via a park before a path alongside the B195 before picking up the mixed used section near Cole Green Lane.  Some nice woodland on the first section of this walk.  As it headed towards an underpass of the A414 with the tarmac path ending with the section via some lovely woodland passing the remains of Cole Green station as the path skirted closed to Letty Green & Birch Green heading towards Hertingfordbury and Hertford, the path coming to an end with the viaduct carrying the Hertford Loop line close to Hertford Town football club.  Certainly, a nice short walk on decent service.  The next section was a case of heading towards Hertford town centre before making my way to Hertford East station where I jumped onto 720519 once more.

This 720 took me towards Tottenham Hale where I swapped over to board winner 720133 towards Broxbourne with an extended dwell at Cheshunt due to an incident further north.  Eventually it did reach Broxbourne with the previous train from Hertford East blocking platform 2 with dud 720136 taken back to Tottenham Hale.  Annoyingly a winner 720 I saw out earlier that morning on an Ely got swapped over at Cambridge but never mind, 3 more are into my little book.  The next 90 (or so) minutes was spent on the Underground, mainly on the Piccadilly line getting 1973 stock over a mile, ending up at Arnos Grove (where I did consider walking to New Southgate for a 717 to Moorgate but the rain had started).

Cole Green Station

I exited the underground at Liverpool Street, where after a trip to Tesco for some dinner supplies I took a seat on winner 720138 on a Chelmsford service (with dud 720533 on the rear) to Shenfield, swapping platforms for winner 720135 behind dud 720545 on another service from Chelmsford taking me to Stratford where for the lack of a better idea I headed towards the westbound Central line/Elizabeth line platforms with the first Central line service featuring a sub mile trailer (92252) for a nice bonus.  I took this Central line to Mile End where it ran in alongside a sub mile District line service (21387/21388) which I took to Whitechapel turning down the next Hammersmith service for another District line formed of 21405/21406 for another sub-mile S7 cleared with the run to Embankment (having checked the ID of the service starting from Tower Hill).

My last leg on the Underground was with the Northern line (51618/51617) to Waterloo, before boarding 159107, 159104 & 159020 on a busy 18:20 service for Exeter St Davids which took me back to Andover where I had a gentle drive home (giving my car a little run out).  A successful day with a good number of LU stuff cleared for a mile as well as getting 5 more GA 720s and walking the Cole Green Way.  Another disused railway line walk removed from my big list.  More photos can be found on my Flickr album for October, link is  *here*.  Thanks for reading, and remember to always read the small print...

Read the small print ;)