Thankfully most of my shots of the Southeastern and Southern are intact, suspect that the rather dull conditions in the morning didn't help on the South Western, however, my winner count is nice and high in addition to the shacks as you'll soon find out. I'm just composing the report now.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
London- 12/12/15
So one of the final trips of the year was to commence as I made the rather sudden decision to head to London! This meant a tricky split being involved with a change on the southbound leg, but it also left me flexible south of Newark should I have wished to jump on a Great Northern service. However, as it turns out, the delay southbound ruined my one feasible chance of that as you’ll find out!
First port of call in the morning was Sainsbury’s for a Pain au Chocolat and a bottle of water for breakfast before joining dud
91132 on the 0559 to London. This was a welcome set-swap, not so because it was a guaranteed dud, just because there’s far more space on a MK4 in terms of unreserved seating! A peaceful journey south had me into Doncaster for 0721, where thanks to my ticket split, I had to change. I didn’t particularly want to, considering the cold and dark, and the train I’d just alighted being Peterborough only en route with mine being Newark, Grantham, Peterborough, Stevenage, but I stomached the time penalty for the sake of some money saving! At about 0730, I noted something on the opposite side of the station. 144012! The E-Pacer thing was working an Adwick and I now had 5 minute window in which to go have a look at it. First impressions were alright, but the bays of facing seats are now fully misaligned with the windows, progress eh? Meanwhile, it was back to Platform 1 for dud
91104 on the 0736 to Kings Cross. It was busy, but an unreserved seat was again sourced for the irritatingly clunky run south, with us randomly applying the brakes only to get back up to full line speed straight after, resulting in several minutes being lost.
However, it wasn’t so bad as got into Kings X 4 down at 0930, and I instantly ran for the Victoria Line, needing to go get something from a shop on Oxford Street before starting the bash. In other words, I wanted this done as quickly as possible! I formulated a rough plan by starting on the 1059 off Queenstown Road, so I just made a point of getting as far ahead as possible. To test myself, I ran the whole way down and was on a train of 2009 Stock by 0933! I just about regained my breath as I was up onto Oxford Circus, into the shop, out again within 10 minutes and on another 2009 Stock by 0953! Nice, just about an hour ahead as I positioned myself for the first shack scratch by bailing at Victoria for winner
377618 to shack 1, Battersea Park. The first part of the day was focused on stations with a frequent service that I’d never gotten around to, so there were quite a few up for grabs! Short walk later and I was at number 2, Queenstown Road and just making my way onto the platform as a train was ready to leave, however I didn’t quite react quickly enough to board so I let it go and opted for the next service, the 1014 to Hounslow, putting me 45 ahead overall! We had winner
455853 working, and it was a decent run to shack 3, Barnes Bridge. This was a slightly awkward platform change for winner
458526 for the 47 chains back to shack 4, Barnes. It was at this point that I realised that my +3 at Wandsworth Town wasn’t going to work, making a linear bash the only option for me to avoid a fester at Clapham for the Hampton Court service. And with that, winner
455716 carted me along to shack 5, Putney. The rain was now starting to fall as I was definitely in Londoner mode, groaning at the prospect of a 7 minute wait for the next service
Another short wait later and dud
455907 was taking me to shack 6, Wandsworth Town. It was now time to focus on completing the mainline shacks to Surbiton so it was onto double winners
455738/455916 back to Clapham Junction.
Winner
455727 was the next service pulling in to take me to shack 7, Earlsfield. The frequency of this station always amazes me, one hell of a service! It was a mere two minute wait for me to be taken to the opposite end of the scale, shack 8, Berrylands. Winner
455912 was working here. Berrylands only has the Hampton Court trains, so it’s half hourly with a +4 from the London direction or a +26 from the Surbiton direction. Thankfully we were bang on time and I made my way to the other rather rickety platform. It was awfully bleak and the stairs certainly needed some TLC but soon enough winner
455864 was taking me to New Malden, shack 9. A nice linear +3 saw double winners
455725/455850 rolling in to take me all the way back to Clapham. I was also joined by two SWT drivers who were discussing the new timetable and how they were having to re-learn all the stopping patterns for the services. And with that, that was all the mainline shacks to Surbiton complete so I headed to the Southern for fresh dud
377618 to shack 10, Wandsworth Common. I sat in the absolute joke of a first class section too, which was devoid of any antimacassars bar about two seats. You pay for the space and that’s it, clearly. Although on this run, it was a Metro service so declassified anyway! Off at the common and we had winner
377606 to shack 11, Thornton Heath. A delay worked to my advantage here as I was able to make a -1 onto my first 377/7,
377705 back to shack 12, Streatham Common. Now there was a minor blip with the winners as dud
455830 took me to shack 13, Norbury. One more to go and that was all the shacks to East Croydon complete! The final move was dud
455831 to shack 14, Selhurst.
A brief wait here watching the comings and goings saw me take winner
455815 to shack 15 at Carshalton Beeches. A rather interesting journey, as a gent who had joined us at Wallington sat opposite me and produced some rather suspicious looking pills in a clear plastic bag! Definitely drugs, and as I opted to move away, he clearly saw that I’d saw and wouldn’t stop staring! Thankfully we were arriving into my station where a quick dash over the footbridge had me boarding dud
455839 back to shack 16, Waddon. The rain started to fall again a little as I jumped on winner
377604 to shack 17, Wallington. Given the last gent’s appearance I wasn’t too optimistic but I found a cosy little waiting room until dud
455838 carted me back to West Croydon. My work on the Southern was done, so it was time for a tram break! Definitely something going wrong as we had 1 minute for a New Addington, 2 for a Beckenham and 3 for an Elmers End! Winner
2562 took me to shack 18, Sandilands where there was barely any wait at all for another winner in the form of
2554 to shack 19, Arena. And finally, it was a short hop on another winner
2555 to Elmers End. Nice timing here for the 1359 to Cannon Street in the form of double winners
376008/376026 to shack 20, St Johns. Most conveniently, this was an island platform so not too pressing that I had a +3 where the attack on the 465s could also begin. Double winners
465032/465164 were soon arriving to take me to shack 21, Mottingham and the standards compared to the Southern/Southwestern were instantly showing. These trains were certainly not in such good condition, nor were the stations!
It was also new track beyond here and in the end in terms of track, I scored Hither Green-Crayford, not being up for continuing to Slade Green today. Back to the present and double winners
465036/465194 were taking me to shack 22 at Lee. I was greeted with a shattered panel of glass by the doors which was promptly reported. Absolutely awful! Off at Lee I went with SE telling me it’d be reported, hopefully getting attention on arrival at Charing X. Under the platforms I went to join treble winners (makes up for the treble duds last month!)
465012/465023/466043 to shack 23, Albany Park. Platform here was awfully bumpy looking as double winners
465914/465031 were pulling in to take me to shack 24 at Sidcup. First staff presence I’d seen in a while with a lone gateline bod playing with his phone here. First double duds of the day here as
376008/376026 annoyingly appeared again to take me to shack 25, Crayford. The area around here seemed a bit uninviting to be honest, doesn’t help when the station is exclusively painted in a very sterile white! Double winners
465243/465244 then arrived to take me to shack 26, a rather pleasant Bexley. I had no choice but a linear move here, so I headed out to get something to eat from the Nisa in what seemed like a pleasant little town before taking double winners
465024/466019 to shack 27 at New Eltham. Another linear move was again required as the +0.5 (as per the WTT) didn’t work with the crossing service running 45 seconds early! It was a dull, dark +17 here for fresh treble duds
466043/465023/465012 to shack 28, Hither Green. That was all the shacks London-Crayford via Bexley complete, meaning that one of the three sections of the Dartford Loop was complete as well as a solid start being made on the shacks to Orpington.
Double winners
466020/465047 took me to New Cross where the final focus of the day commenced. East London Line shacks! I needed everything north of Whitechapel, and with a 3 minute frequency, a linear bash seemed perfectly acceptable. Winner
378142 took me through to shack 29, Shoreditch High Street. Quite futuristic looking here, with the track still looking remarkably clean! Dud
378224 was next up to take me to shack 30, Hoxton. This had a great view of the London Skyline by night as I stood at the platform end for what felt like no wait at all in order to await winner
378135 to shack 31, Haggerston. A similarly pleasant view was had here until winner
378146 took me to shack 32 at Dalston Junction. Annoyingly, there was now a 9 minute wait with there being a Dalston terminator due in next, but it was a pleasant enough fester before winner
378138 had me along to the final shack, shack 33, at Canonbury. Dud
378223 took me along to Highbury and Islington where I took the tube to Finsbury Park for the mandatory end of trip Finsbury move! Winner
365508 produced and I was into Kings Cross for 1750. Quick Boots move saw me get two salads and a wrap for £1.50 which was a real score, and instead of waiting around I spotted a winning power car on the 1808 to Lincoln, and with that it was winner
43206 trailing dud
43295 to Newark North Gate! It was quite a quiet journey to a freezing cold Newark before dud
91115 appeared for what was a strangely empty run to Newcastle for 2150, 10 minutes late.
A stonking good day!
Total Mileage: 628mi 25ch
Total Cost: £70.25
Total Winners: 42+33 shacks
Doesn't look particularly bad but it's very irritating...