08/05/2019 - Don't Stop Bashin'
Ey up, welcome to this write-up for a fairly last minute London trip! I booked this late in the evening of 5th May
2019, a long story all in but the saying 'all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' certainly applied to me in recent times. For a round trip at just £
23.20 including booking fee, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to go to London and cheer myself up majorly! An intense red pen session would certainly help do just that, even though I wouldn't be in London for too long (as I typed this up I realised just how little time I'd have!) so a major clearout on LU would have to do!
It was up and about rather early for the coach at 05:05, and I was soon aboard National Express' route 445 to London. I was the only passenger all the way to Gloucester, and by cripes wasn't it wet outside today. To my surprise, we didn't go via Cheltenham and headed straight for Birdlip Hill! I spent almost the entire journey to Heathrow Central Bus Station reading, voting to stay on and alight at either Earls Court or Victoria Coach Station. When we did indeed call somewhere in the Earls Court area (West Cromwell Street I believe), so after arriving about 10 minutes late I jumped off and got moving by foot to the LU station. Via Pret next to Earls Court station of course, as I had a major need for coffee.
It was less than 10 minutes waiting for a score, with winners
21566+21565 taking me to everyone's favourite S7 hunting spot, South Kensington. It was a bit cold in London, so thankfully it wasn't too long before winners
21397+21398 took me to Sloane Square. Unbelievably, the next train 2 minutes later was formed of winners
21332+21331! Considering my S7 needs are rather low, to get 3 pairs of half-sets in less than 30 minutes was excellent!
However my joy was not to last long. We were held for quite some time before Victoria, due to a signal failure on the westbound line at Tower Hill causing much congestion. So much for hunting S7 pairs today then, when we eventually reached Victoria it was off the train and onto the Victoria line northbound to try my luck on the north side of the Circle line. Especially as there are a good few S8 pairs to hunt. However, upon seeing the crowds for the northbound line I changed tactics and got on
11077+11078 south to Stockwell, with the idea now being to try my luck on the Northern line. To be fair, that idea only came about when I saw it on the route map!
It took a few waves of the magic wand to get a winner, but the first leap fell to dud
51640 and winner
51641 to Clapham North. While here I had got to work to scribbling into my notebook my needs for the Northern line, which got interrupted by a winning pair with
51701+51501. No chance was I turning that down, so off to Clapham Common I went! A few minutes of waiting on the narrow platform got the needs list finished, and I pulled out Juliano's Magic Wand again. This time winning pair
51542+51543 produced for a leap back to Clapham North.
Duds were floating around a fair bit again, but next up to take me back to Stockwell were dud
51626 and winner
51627. By now I was also scribbling down into the notebook my Piccadilly, Bakerloo and Central needs too, if the lists weren't used today they would be there for next time. The idea was to save constantly running Word, where my digital versions of the needs lists are, all day. I actually found it handier to have it all in my notebook, quicker for referencing against that's for sure.
To Oval next, with winner
51630 and dud
51720, continuing soon enough with dud
51726 and winner
51672 to Kennington. It was time to leave the Bank branch of the Northern line alone now, and over on the Charing Cross branch platform there was a less than pleasant smell. Thankfully I was escaping that after nearly 10 minutes, which on the deep level lines can feel like an eternity. To Waterloo next, with winning pair
51591+51592 taking me there.
By now the need for a comfort break was getting significant, after all I'd been on LU for about 90 minutes by now. I couldn't help hearing Abba's Waterloo in my head as I approached the surface, which I blame on hearing it at work a few days ago! Another coffee was deemed essential, so to Pret I went before I decided the winning option was to do some SWR moves. This was settled on when I saw a winning 450, so to Vauxhall I went with dud
450040 and winner
450545. I'd seen another winner due 7 minutes behind me, and sure enough
707001 produced to take me to Clapham Junction. The plan had been to get onto Overground next, but no...
Upon arriving, there was an evacuation alarm going and people were being directed to the nearest exit! Not that many people seemed bothered, I wasn't taking the chance and marched to the city centre exit immediately. This presented an opportunity to have lunch, and I ended up at Subway for a footlong turkey, ham and cheese sub. The staff were some of the most useless I've ever seen in Subway as well, I'd not be willing to return to that one if I lived in London that's for sure.
By the time I returned, the alarms had stopped so it was back to business. This time I was after some 455 and 456 action, and thankfully the 10-car set I just missed had been all dud anyway. The next one was not much better, with double duds
456024 and
455873 leading winner
455918 for a leap to Vauxhall. Much better luck was had for the next leap to Waterloo, with double winners
455901+455712 leading dud
456003. My luck with 456s didn't get any better on the next move, which was dud
455705 with winner
455719 and dud
456010 to Vauxhall.
The very un-predictive weather (later on it was hailing. In May!) started up again with a breeze blowing rain my way, so thankfully it wasn't long before my next score. Someone must be sympathising with me and my luck, as it was onto double duds
455913+455851 with winner
456012 back to Waterloo. 6 more 456s to go then! It took a while to work out the next best choice, and after another comfort break it was back to the Northern line. Thankfully Juliano's Magic Wand was back to being charged, as I had tremendous fortune with winning pair
51590+51589 to Embankment.
No sooner had I celebrated that, it was multiple duds for about 15 minutes. The silver lining was that I had time to count my LU needs and they were starting to come down nicely! Eventually winning pair
51685+51686 took me to Charing Cross and I briefly considered doing some Southeastern stuff. No, no more distractions, I must soldier on and get these 95ers worked at! Patience paid off, as I got winning pair
51587+51586 next to Leicester Square.
While here I was noticing how fast time was going by, and I had a particular objective I wanted to achieve. So my time on the Northern line was brought to a close with winning pair
51566+51565 to Warren Street. I didn't realise just how evil the interchange to the Victoria line is here, one to avoid in the future. So why the Victoria line? You may recall last time I was in London I did the new line out of St Pancras Low Level that joins up to the ECML. This route is effectively two single line sections, one north and one south. I didn't do the south one last time, so it was time to deal with that.
11066+11065 took me on the usual fast run to Finsbury Park, and I had just missed a southbound train towards St Pancras. No matter, as it gave me time to stretch the legs in the 30 minutes I had to spare. I also ended up in Pret, and back upstairs I still had time to fill. A Moorgate service rolled in first though, and I could not resist a longer run on a 717 so took winner
717009 to Old Street. Why there? Purely to claim coverage of the rest of the route from Finsbury Park to Moorgate, having done the short distance from Old Street to Moorgate on
717006 last time. I'll no doubt do the route again anyway, but it made sense to have a longer journey on one to see if I still liked them. Which I do, the 717s are still deemed a good replacement for the 313s in my eyes.
I'd never been outside here, so with 9 minutes before the next northbound train, I ventured outside to have a look about. Unsurprisingly I noted nothing of interest, so back downstairs I went and still had 2 minutes before joining
313033+313038 back to Finsbury Park. Plenty of time before the next train to St Pancras, and I discovered Puccinos has returned to Finsbury Park, now on the p1/2 island platform. Definitely something to remember for when I start chasing 717s en-masse!
I nearly joined a winner 717, but ensured I stuck to the plan with winner
700113 to St Pancras. While on the ECML I noted a few HSTs passing, with the impending entry into service of the IET sets that will soon be a sight resigned to the history books! With the new track now finally done, and with Kite159 reminding me of that new diveunder in the London Bridge area which needs doing, I made my way to the Piccadilly line. Much to my surprise, I got a score straight away with winner 239 leading dud 144.
As time was getting on, these were taken to Green Park as the odds were it could be a while before another score. The interchange to the Victoria line took longer than I remember it doing here, and it was onto
11053+11054 to Victoria. A visit to Sainsburys Local was deemed mandatory, so a meal deal and some low-sugar chocolate was sourced. I had no idea what that chocolate would be like, but I fancied trying it anyway. Before too long it was time to board the 16:30 route 445 home. It took ages to get to the M4, and while there was some fast running there was also a lot of slow-moving traffic.
When traffic is sensible it's a nice run down the M4, but today was clearly not my day for a max power thrash down the tarmac! Indeed, in the Slough area there's upgrade work to Smart Motorway operation which is currently due for completion on this section in August
2020. The whole lot of works, between Junctions 3 and 22, is due for completion during
2022. So much like my recent-ish experience in March
2019 on the M6, it's going to be a long wait for it to be finished. I must confess to having no idea what a Smart Motorway is, something I must look up actually.
So, let's have some stats shall we? In the 6 hours of productivity in London, I managed a rather decent 34 scores. A lot of progress made all over the place, granted the scores were mostly on the Northern line but the 95ers have really grown on me, so I'm happy to have a go on them. One day I may well make some real work on the Bakerloo needs, and that is already in the pipeline for a proposed multi-day trip to London. That's all to be confirmed though, so no more spoilers! I'm now down to just 206 requirements on LU as well, which breaks down as:
8 Bakerloo
58 Central
53 Northern
51 Piccadilly
18 S7 half-sets (2 of which,
21463/21464, still have not yet been seen!)
18 S8 half-sets
Not bad really, and yes as I trekked up the M4 I really was looking forward to my next London visit. I do not, as I type this, know when it will be but I am adament I will not be waiting too long! Oh, the chocolate got devoured in the Swindon area, it was OK but not all that recommended. As for the trip title, it's an S Club 7 reference to Don't Stop Movin'. I was trying to find a good title but couldn't so that had to do.
My expected fast run did get better eventually by the way, then we had to go via Cirencester. It was still fast after that to Stroud, but a fast run up a dual carriageway is preferable to bouncing along a single carriage twisty road! If this is the standard route for the 16:30 coach I may avoid it next time. I'd never even heard of Chalford before, some little village between Cirencester and Stroud. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty area, but by now (it was almost 19:30) I just wanted to get home and not tour the English countryside!
We were running early into Gloucester, so had nearly 20 minutes there before continuing via Corse and Ledbury to Hereford. I'd not done National Express that way before, so that achievement is finally done. Arrival into Hereford was thankfully a couple of minutes early too, with work beckoning at 5am I was more than glad of that!
No idea when my next trip will be, before you ask. Japan in November is going to take up a lot of money after all...
