Once a year my wife and I take separate holidays.
She generally heads to her favourite spot in Bridlington and I go to my favourite spot - the railway.
We usual do this around June as that sits nicely between our April and September holidays.
This year the first day of my move was Monday the 11th of June.
I was heading to London and my targets were EMUs, EMUS and more EMUS.
Also, one or two new station visits would be nice.
I started at Wakefield Westgate and was booked on the Skipton to Kings Cross service.
As this goes a little later than my train of choice I had time, once I reached Wakefield in my car, to make my way to Leeds for it.
322485 was my first traction of the week and I was on the platform at Leeds in plenty of time to view my London service arriving from North Yorkshire.
It should come as no surprise when I say I was hoping for a low mileage 91.
Equally unsurprisingly, it wasn’t one.
91106 was today’s disappointment.
Once at the Cross I made my way over to St Pancras and headed downstairs for my first winner of the move.
This was
700149 and I used it to get to East Croydon.
I was going to be in the capital for four days; I had two nights booked at my favoured Croydon Central Travelodge and a third at a different one just outside the zones.
My aim was to fill my book with units that work on the former Southern Region.
The biggest attraction for me was a class of unit that I’d yet to experience.
Nearly new, but with an uncertain future; I had to get a few in.
These were the SWR class 707s and there was no way I would leave London without a few in the book.
Thus, I went from East Croydon to Victoria aboard
377415 and
377124.
I did this so that I could change from one set to other and then head back out to Clapham Junction.
Once I’d left the 377s I made my way over to the Windsor Line platforms and waited for my first 707.
It wasn’t a long wait.
707025 was the first member of the class in my book.
EMU 707025_2018.06.11_1_Waterloo by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
I took it into Waterloo where I only had to stroll across the platform to get my second and third ones.
These were
707023 and
707022.
I went in the former as far winning shack number one,
Hounslow.
Next up was
707014, on its own.
This was sampled as far as Vauxhall where I left it in order to re-join the pair from earlier, which I knew would be right behind.
On this occasion making sure I travelled in 022.
Four 707s rode in, three of them for over ten miles.
I was happy with my start.
The next couple of departures were 707014 and 22/23.
I had seen a few others about and had spent the journey on 14 working out a plan.
There was time to have a quick spin on the Waterloo and City Line for some 482 action.
I’d only had one recorded run before, when I’d done 482509/482510 a few months earlier.
There was some disappointment, therefore, when it was the same pairing that pulled into the platform shortly after I arrived.
On my previous visit I had sat in 509, so at least I now had the chance to ride in its conjoined twin.
There was no great hurry to get to Waterloo; so, I rejected another run on it and waited at Bank.
I had time to get a quick snap:
EMU 482509_2018.06.11_Bank by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
At least I knew the next one would be a winner.
This time it was
482503 and
482504.
Once back at Waterloo I made my way back upstairs and an appointment with another pair of winning 707s.
These were
707029 and
707003.
Another new station beckoned, this time it was
Whitton.
It was also time for a different class, one that I also had my eye on for this trip.
Required
458513, leading dud 458530, took me back to Waterloo.
Now it was back to the theme of the day.
Not only were
707030 and
707008 added to the day’s tally, they also provided me with my first domestic run from one of the former Eurostar platforms.
My first run on a 707 had been fairly short and I hadn’t forgotten it.
Now I had the chance to edge it a bit closer to membership of the ten-mile club.
Not only could 30 and 8 join that club, the swap from one set to the other could be done at another new station.
This was
Barnes Bridge.
When 707025 arrived, I was somewhat surprised to see it had been joined by
707021, which was nice.
My idea now was to leave this set at
Putney.
The intention was to meet 707003 and 707029 on their way back from Windsor.
The reason for this was that I wanted a ride in 003.
However, on this occasion my calculations were amiss, it was
458533 and
458520 that arrived to take me to Clapham Junction.
Here I met up once more with 707008 and 707030, for the same reason that I’d gone after 3 and 29.
This time my working out was accurate and I managed to get a seat on 707008.
It was now well into rush-hour and it was time for me to start my winding journey to the hotel.
I could get there via a new station, with a couple of winning units.
458522 and
458524 provided the traction and
Hampton Wick was the destination.
455s
5920 and dud 5724 then enabled me to make the five-mile trip to Wimbledon.
EMU 455920_2018.06.11_Wimbledon by
Phil Wood, on Flickr
After reading about how other contributors approach shack scratching I decided before I went to count how many stations I had only boarded or alighted at.
That number was just over fifty, so I’ve decided to reduce that total whenever possible.
Now I had the chance to get one off that list.
When I had done my first ever trip on Croydon Tramlink there had been work going on at Wimbledon, so I’d been forced to walk to Dundonald Road and pick up my first tram there.
I’d never revisited the stop; thus, I’d never alighted there.
That was put right with a quick trip out on 2535.
I crossed over and returned to Wimbledon on 2549.
I then did the same tram all the way to Wellesley Road, reflecting on a very successful day.
Only, I didn’t.
When 2549 arrived at Therapia Lane the driver announced that there were overhead wire problems and we would be terminating there.
The entire tram emptied and people milled about.
The PIS was saying there would be nothing Croydon bound for the foreseeable future.
What to do?
Many people made their way to a nearby bus stop.
Not me.
I looked on Google Maps.
Two miles to my hotel.
A walk it is, then.
I’ve done many scenic walks in my life.
Therapia Lane tram stop to Croydon Central Travelodge is not one of them.
Even the bit through Wandle Park was marred by a gang of youths with two of their number arguing furiously.
Once in the centre I went to Sainsbury’s for some supplies before going to the hotel, checking in, phoning my wife and having an early night.