3rd December – A Sunday day trip to London
Truth be told I didn’t have the best of weeks, so I didn’t fancy another lazy Sunday not doing a lot around the house so after the tour on Saturday I sat down on the laptop and worked out a rough plan to recover a couple branch lines within the London zones which I hadn’t been down in a couple years, plus scoring a couple little bay platforms. When playing with BR Fares I noticed that I can save money by splitting at Basingstoke and benefit from not having an evening restriction (the downside being I wouldn’t be able to use the Andover fast services.
Anyhow, to the trains! A short walk to the station, purchasing my tickets for the day before taking up a seat on 159006 which was leading 159019 on the first stopping service towards Waterloo, I sat in the front with the theory that it would give easier access to the subway at Clapham Junction in order for me to pay a quick visit to Sainsburys for a bacon sandwich, my plan going into the bin as the 159s crossed over to the slow lines after Wimbledon to pause on platform 10 at Clapham Junction, where I alighted for a short walk back along the platform to access the subway
159006 at Clapham Junction
My mission however was a success as I managed to purchase a bacon sandwich for a late breakfast, mmm bacon (in the style of Homer Simpson). Next up was a trip to the Southern platforms for 377162 & 377412 to take me down south, they were bound for Bognor and I alighted at Purley for the sole reason of an easier platform change, as I made my way across to platform 6 for the next Tattenham Corner service. I have never arrived into Tattenham Corner by train, the sole use of this station was back in February 2014 after walking there from Epsom Downs, the last time on this branch was back in September 2015 when I had my little bike to visit the shacks.
455816 rolled in, as I took up a seat in the motor coach of a quiet train, as I had forgotten how rural this branch line gets, it even has a couple foot crossings on, the sky was grey, with light misty rain, as the 455 rolled into Tattenham Corner, the end of the line arriving into platform 2, with several other 455s dotted around the station and in sidings outside (along with a pair of 377/6s), taking the day off. After a brief look around & a couple pictures I took up a seat on the opposite side of the 455 to wait for departure
455837 & 455816 at Tattenham Corner -
455s at a misty Tattenham Corner
Needless to say the inbound working was busier than the outbound working, as I bailed at Purley for 455825 running a couple minutes behind from Caterham for a fast run to the south of East Croydon for the usual crawl waiting for a platform. Some good motor noise on the fast run via Purley Oaks, next up for me was a train bound for East Grinstead, the platform screen was saying “formed of 9 coaches” so I had it down as being a triple 377/3, so I was surprised 10 minutes later when 377111 & 377603 rolled in, I believe the first time I’ve had one of the original 377s paired up with one of the newer 377s. I decided against the comfortable seats on the 377/1 for a plug socket on the /6 for a quick boost of electric on the run down to Oxted, being surprised to see a 171/8 mostly in the bay platform there.
171803 mostly in the bay platform at Oxted
You can probably see why I said mostly in the bay, as bay platform 3 can only hold 3 coaches, as I took a seat in an empty front coach (which remained empty until Crowborough, where due to late running of the previous Uckfield train (another 171/8) it got turned around early leaving around 10 passengers waiting for 30 minutes. A decent little run down the Uckfield branch, another nice little rural feeling branch, a bit of speed here & there, as I spent the trip looking at those nice platform extensions which were installed in late 2015 time to allow use of triple 171s during the peak times. Anyhow on arrival at Uckfield I took a fast walk to a nearby Tesco for lunch before returning to the 171, once more taking up a seat on the opposite side for some more walking of the world going past.
171803 at Uckfield
Arrival into Oxted was a couple minutes late (caused by the other 171 being late departing Oxted due to a late East Grinstead service in front), as I looked at a map, as I had forgotten how close Whyteleafe station was to Upper Warlingham, and the timings worked out (I would have roughly 11 minutes to walk the short distance, to put myself 30 minutes ahead of my plan). The next Victoria service rolled in formed of a nice low density 377106 paired with a horrid high density 377129 (no prizes at guessing which unit I sat in) for the short run via the tunnels to reach Upper Warlingham for a short distance walk (took me less than 5 minutes) to reach Whyteleafe on the Caterham branch, even having time to picture the next London service:
455823 departs Whyteleafe
The Caterham branch was another long term absence from my haulage log, last time I visited Caterham was on a wet Saturday in February 14, the last time on the branch was in September 15 for the shacks, a couple level crossings on another rural branch in outer zone 6 with 455817 taking me to Caterham (like Tattenham Corner, the station had several 455s around being stabled), using platform 2 at the Cat.
455817 & 455835 at Caterham
After another quick look around (nothing much to report other than a Waitrose near by), I boarded 455817 once more (motor coach once more) for the fast run back to East Croydon, for a short wait before a busy 377455 rolled in to take me to London Bridge on a fast service. Noting that a lot of the boards covering up the current closed part of the underbelly have been removed exposing just how large the underbelly will be next month when it is opened up, as I took a short walk up to the South Eastern platforms for a short wait for 376036 to take me to Waterloo East where after a quick PNB I walked over to Waterloo main with a couple ideas. The main one was a trip to Feltham on a Staines bound pair of 450s for some mileage, so it was onto a busy 450089 & 450566 on a semi-fast run to Feltham (emptied out at Richmond), a brief wait for 450016 & 450035 to take me to Twickenham before 455856 & 455873 took me to Whitton for no reason other than for a time wasting move
455856 at Whitton Station
Back to Twickenham (which seems to be having a lot of work done to it, I suspect the track for the old bays will be ripped up with the bays filled in at some point) on 458531 & 458510 before the main reason for heading out this way, mainly for the Sunday only* service which makes use of the bay platform at Kingston (*other than the 00:18 Waterloo to Kingston service during the weeks, plus an early morning service on Saturday mornings), which was formed of 455742 & 455721 reversing at Twickenham before carrying on onto the Kingston loop. I was surprised the guard didn’t mention that for “passengers wanting onward connections to London should change at Hampton Wick and wait on the same platform” to save those passengers having to use the subway at Kingston to get from platform 1 to platform 3. But at long last the bay platform is done, and it looked like a pair of 455s are too long for it
455742 at Kingston Station
455721 at Kingston
Anyhow I was surprised at how busy my next move was, 455742 & 455721 was full & standing after New Malden, I would expect to see trains heading away from London to be busy with shoppers heading home, but not heading into London. Anyhow I was lucky to get a seat for the run to Waterloo, with my final bit of 455 motor noise for the trip, as I headed across to board the 17:15 Exeter service which this evening was formed of 159021 & 159017 (another 159 was in the platform, but I suspect that would form the 17:45 Salisbury service), which due to the issues at Paddington was slightly cosy (but needless to say an Macbook/iPhone user decided that his bag deserved a seat more than another passenger). The train emptied out a bit at Basingstoke for those passengers wanting Reading to play the “how many passengers can you fit on a 2-car 165 challenge”, but it was still quite full, even after Andover. I believe the rear unit was detaching as per normal at Salisbury, however to cope with the extra load a 158 was getting attached to the front, so fair place to SWR.
Apart from the crowds, it was a decent run back to Grateley, where I got a lift home as it had started to rain once more. I would say it was a productive day but I didn’t score anything other than a couple bay platforms, but it was a nice varied day in London, no LU hunting as that will probably wait until the new year before I resume hunting, although I might have a short 95 stock hunt on Saturday morning due to having 75 minutes to reach Euston from Waterloo as I’m having a short visit to Manchester with the goal of scoring at least 3 trams (out of my last 6). But I shall raise my glass (of water) to those absence friends.
I've now finished for 2017 as far as I'm concerned, nothing left to do and, to be honest, almost no time whatsoever to do much anyway. Not that it bothers me, Alicante is not far away!
158884 at London Waterloo
47760 at Newbury
47245 at Reading - -
47760 at Reading
800010 & 800012 at Reading 
