London Calling - 18/02/17
The inspiration for this trip had come through perusing the forum and reading the many trip reports with long lists of shack scratches, haulage scores and sighting cops. I'd done many trips to the capital over the years, bust most of them concentrated on getting winners for sight and any locos for haulage. Any unit moves either on the mainline or on LUL were usually done because I had to, or to clear the odd branch line for track. I had barely scratched the surface with LT, recording sets only when having haulage, so it was high time to make an attempt to get started on them. Most of the suburban lines had been done, but there were a few omissions still - the most glaring being the Enfield & Chingford lines. Thus a plan was roughed out over several lunches out and much to the amusement of my family and friends I used a couple of napkins to connect the various ideas and gen for a day out. The final decision on where I went would be done on the move as things developed.
The day for the trip was set, and to make the most of the day I planned to be on the first train out of Norwich. With the mainline shut for engineering works, and given my aversion to rail-replacement buses, I had decided to go via Cambridge. Where I would end up was going to be down to what was available south from Cambridge. First move of the day fell to dud 170202 on the 0537 Cambridge train, which I took through to the end, before getting a one day travelcard from there. Initially things didn't look promising, as the first few trains were dud units, but then I saw that all round winner 387115 was on the delayed 0655 to Kings Cross, no driver being available. The man for the job was being briefed on plat 4 as I was deliberating my moves, so I quickly followed him across to plat 7 and eventually we headed south, missing intermediate stops on the ECML to catch up time. On the way, we passed double winners 313060/313061 at Stevenage, so on getting to Finsbury Park, I fired up RTT and worked out a move to get them in. Another pair of double winners 313024/313033 got me to Alexandra Palace and I intercepted 313060/313061 there for a short hop to the first new shack of the day Hornsey. My luck was still in as another pair of winners 313027/313035 appeared for the move to the next new shack New Southgate. Here I had a choice, wait 25 minutes for a 313 south, or try my luck on the Piccadilly line. The chance of clearing the northern section of the line was a pull, so I strolled up Bowes Road via a quick stop-off for some sweets to Arnos Grove for the following moves:
120 + 151 ARNOS GROVE - COCKFOSTERS
134 + 161 COCKFOSTERS - HOLLOWAY ROAD
864 + ??? HOLLOWAY ROAD - ARSENAL
103 + 252 ARSENAL - KINGS CROSS
251 + 148 KINGS CROSS - FINSBURY PARK
Returning to the overground network, the next series of moves saw me scratch Drayton Park and Essex Road with winners 313047, 313036, 313058 before landing on solo winner 313046 for a longer ride up to Enfield Chase. The plan was to walk to Enfield Town and go from there, so after sourcing lunch from Waitrose I made my way through the town centre, noting the Brexit protesters on the way. Needing just the short piece of track from Enfield Town to Bury St Junction, I took 315812 and as I'd already done Arsenal, it seemed a good idea to bale at White Hart Lane. A leap to Edmonton Green, thence Hackney Downs netted 315805 & 315807, before turning my attention to the Chingford branch. When 315812 reappeared on the next Chingford service, I decided to go via another route, and so it was 317650 to Tottenham Hale, before the last bit of the northern section of the Victoria line was done to Walthamstow Central. 315811 appeared to take me to Chingford, where a welcome coffee was sourced. I let 315811 go to wait for the next service which was 315805. Settling down, I was soon in conversation with a local chap who seemed surprised that the police had taken exception to him walking along the North Circular Road! His excuse was that he had walked along A-roads in Gloucestershire, so London was no problem!! Trouble is an A-road in London probably qualifies as a motorway in Gloucestershire - it certainly does in Norfolk!. He moved on to the next carriage, so I had a quiet return to Hackney Downs. I had seen several 8 car 317 sets running around, so fancying a bit of that it was back to Tottenham Hale on 317885, for 317507/317661 to an unusually quiet Liverpool Street. With the GEML shut, the only way to get to Stratford was via the Central line. Engaging L.L.M (linear leaping mode) it was the following:
91099 + 92082 + 92022 + 91303 LIVERPOOL ST - BETHNAL GREEN
91049 + 92122 + 92246 + 91321 BETHNAL GREEN - MILE END
91127 + 92126 + 92032 + 91169 MILE END - STRATFORD
96093 + 96034 STRATFORD - WEST HAM
I now needed to head south of the river, and so headed for the East London line via West Ham (footy theme again), Limehouse and Shadwell netting 357021, 357038 and triple DLR winners 35, 72 & 79 along the way. Full L.L.M was resumed at Shadwell as 378135, 378152 and 378144 were sampled to Crystal Palace via Canada Water and New Cross Gate. I wasn't at Crystal Palace long, as when winner 377611 presented itself it seemed rude not to head for Sydenham, returning whence I'd come on 387149. I wanted some Thameslink units to finsih off with, so having found the well hidden platform 2 at Crystal Palace, it was 455s time as 455829, then 455839 deposited me at East Croydon via Norwood Jn. No surprise, that Southern were up the creek again as an earlier signal failure at Preston Park was having a knock on effect still. After a quick sandwich for tea, it was 377210/377516 to Blackfriars for the following 319 pair of 319426/319440 to City Thameslink. My records I had with me indicated that 319440 was required, but somewhere in my mind I seemed to recall that 319440 was had on the way to Uckfield a while ago. Anyway I decided to err on the side of caution so treated the latter as dud until I could check the master records later. A succession of short leaps on the central section netted more winners 319447, 700104, 700105 and 319008 before I transferred to LUL for a Farringdon - Barbican leap, thus ticking off one of the last two stations between Liverpool St and Paddington on this part of the Circle line. Returning to Farringdon I was just in time to leap on 700031 to St Pancras, where I had a good nose around the Eurostar and Southeastern platforms. Picked up winners for sight 4020, 4008 and 395021 before wandering back to Kings Cross for the 1952 to Cambridge, my last but one move of the day. A fitting way to round off a cracking day was double winners 387108 & 387120 and while I did the maths and updated the moves book, we had a good ride to Cambridge.
Previous experience had taught me that the 2112 Cambridge - Norwich was sometimes a 156 vice 170, so I was pleased when a three car 170206 turned up. Securing a table to myself I was all set for a nice quiet, uneventful ride back to round off the day. Sods law dictated otherwise for on leaving Brandon, the front engine stuttered and then cut out altogether, dimming all the lights. At Thetford, the driver managed to coax the engine back into life, but on applying power, the same thing happened. This time, the recalcitrant engine refused to start, so we coasted on with only 2/3 power. At Wymondham we lost all lights in the coach, so it was touch and go whether I would make it home. In the end we made it home with only a 15 minute delay and I was soon back home for a much needed shower and some rest.
Scores on the door were:
New sights - 80
Haulage winners - 66
Shack scores - 22
New track - Kings X - Cockfosters (LU), Enfield Town - Bury Street Jn, Clapton Jn - Chingford, Black Horse Road - Walthamstow (LU), Stratford - West Ham (LU), Surrey Canal Jn - New Cross Gate & Sydenham - Crystal Palace
The inspiration for this trip had come through perusing the forum and reading the many trip reports with long lists of shack scratches, haulage scores and sighting cops. I'd done many trips to the capital over the years, bust most of them concentrated on getting winners for sight and any locos for haulage. Any unit moves either on the mainline or on LUL were usually done because I had to, or to clear the odd branch line for track. I had barely scratched the surface with LT, recording sets only when having haulage, so it was high time to make an attempt to get started on them. Most of the suburban lines had been done, but there were a few omissions still - the most glaring being the Enfield & Chingford lines. Thus a plan was roughed out over several lunches out and much to the amusement of my family and friends I used a couple of napkins to connect the various ideas and gen for a day out. The final decision on where I went would be done on the move as things developed.
The day for the trip was set, and to make the most of the day I planned to be on the first train out of Norwich. With the mainline shut for engineering works, and given my aversion to rail-replacement buses, I had decided to go via Cambridge. Where I would end up was going to be down to what was available south from Cambridge. First move of the day fell to dud 170202 on the 0537 Cambridge train, which I took through to the end, before getting a one day travelcard from there. Initially things didn't look promising, as the first few trains were dud units, but then I saw that all round winner 387115 was on the delayed 0655 to Kings Cross, no driver being available. The man for the job was being briefed on plat 4 as I was deliberating my moves, so I quickly followed him across to plat 7 and eventually we headed south, missing intermediate stops on the ECML to catch up time. On the way, we passed double winners 313060/313061 at Stevenage, so on getting to Finsbury Park, I fired up RTT and worked out a move to get them in. Another pair of double winners 313024/313033 got me to Alexandra Palace and I intercepted 313060/313061 there for a short hop to the first new shack of the day Hornsey. My luck was still in as another pair of winners 313027/313035 appeared for the move to the next new shack New Southgate. Here I had a choice, wait 25 minutes for a 313 south, or try my luck on the Piccadilly line. The chance of clearing the northern section of the line was a pull, so I strolled up Bowes Road via a quick stop-off for some sweets to Arnos Grove for the following moves:
120 + 151 ARNOS GROVE - COCKFOSTERS
134 + 161 COCKFOSTERS - HOLLOWAY ROAD
864 + ??? HOLLOWAY ROAD - ARSENAL
103 + 252 ARSENAL - KINGS CROSS
251 + 148 KINGS CROSS - FINSBURY PARK
Returning to the overground network, the next series of moves saw me scratch Drayton Park and Essex Road with winners 313047, 313036, 313058 before landing on solo winner 313046 for a longer ride up to Enfield Chase. The plan was to walk to Enfield Town and go from there, so after sourcing lunch from Waitrose I made my way through the town centre, noting the Brexit protesters on the way. Needing just the short piece of track from Enfield Town to Bury St Junction, I took 315812 and as I'd already done Arsenal, it seemed a good idea to bale at White Hart Lane. A leap to Edmonton Green, thence Hackney Downs netted 315805 & 315807, before turning my attention to the Chingford branch. When 315812 reappeared on the next Chingford service, I decided to go via another route, and so it was 317650 to Tottenham Hale, before the last bit of the northern section of the Victoria line was done to Walthamstow Central. 315811 appeared to take me to Chingford, where a welcome coffee was sourced. I let 315811 go to wait for the next service which was 315805. Settling down, I was soon in conversation with a local chap who seemed surprised that the police had taken exception to him walking along the North Circular Road! His excuse was that he had walked along A-roads in Gloucestershire, so London was no problem!! Trouble is an A-road in London probably qualifies as a motorway in Gloucestershire - it certainly does in Norfolk!. He moved on to the next carriage, so I had a quiet return to Hackney Downs. I had seen several 8 car 317 sets running around, so fancying a bit of that it was back to Tottenham Hale on 317885, for 317507/317661 to an unusually quiet Liverpool Street. With the GEML shut, the only way to get to Stratford was via the Central line. Engaging L.L.M (linear leaping mode) it was the following:
91099 + 92082 + 92022 + 91303 LIVERPOOL ST - BETHNAL GREEN
91049 + 92122 + 92246 + 91321 BETHNAL GREEN - MILE END
91127 + 92126 + 92032 + 91169 MILE END - STRATFORD
96093 + 96034 STRATFORD - WEST HAM
I now needed to head south of the river, and so headed for the East London line via West Ham (footy theme again), Limehouse and Shadwell netting 357021, 357038 and triple DLR winners 35, 72 & 79 along the way. Full L.L.M was resumed at Shadwell as 378135, 378152 and 378144 were sampled to Crystal Palace via Canada Water and New Cross Gate. I wasn't at Crystal Palace long, as when winner 377611 presented itself it seemed rude not to head for Sydenham, returning whence I'd come on 387149. I wanted some Thameslink units to finsih off with, so having found the well hidden platform 2 at Crystal Palace, it was 455s time as 455829, then 455839 deposited me at East Croydon via Norwood Jn. No surprise, that Southern were up the creek again as an earlier signal failure at Preston Park was having a knock on effect still. After a quick sandwich for tea, it was 377210/377516 to Blackfriars for the following 319 pair of 319426/319440 to City Thameslink. My records I had with me indicated that 319440 was required, but somewhere in my mind I seemed to recall that 319440 was had on the way to Uckfield a while ago. Anyway I decided to err on the side of caution so treated the latter as dud until I could check the master records later. A succession of short leaps on the central section netted more winners 319447, 700104, 700105 and 319008 before I transferred to LUL for a Farringdon - Barbican leap, thus ticking off one of the last two stations between Liverpool St and Paddington on this part of the Circle line. Returning to Farringdon I was just in time to leap on 700031 to St Pancras, where I had a good nose around the Eurostar and Southeastern platforms. Picked up winners for sight 4020, 4008 and 395021 before wandering back to Kings Cross for the 1952 to Cambridge, my last but one move of the day. A fitting way to round off a cracking day was double winners 387108 & 387120 and while I did the maths and updated the moves book, we had a good ride to Cambridge.
Previous experience had taught me that the 2112 Cambridge - Norwich was sometimes a 156 vice 170, so I was pleased when a three car 170206 turned up. Securing a table to myself I was all set for a nice quiet, uneventful ride back to round off the day. Sods law dictated otherwise for on leaving Brandon, the front engine stuttered and then cut out altogether, dimming all the lights. At Thetford, the driver managed to coax the engine back into life, but on applying power, the same thing happened. This time, the recalcitrant engine refused to start, so we coasted on with only 2/3 power. At Wymondham we lost all lights in the coach, so it was touch and go whether I would make it home. In the end we made it home with only a 15 minute delay and I was soon back home for a much needed shower and some rest.
Scores on the door were:
New sights - 80
Haulage winners - 66
Shack scores - 22
New track - Kings X - Cockfosters (LU), Enfield Town - Bury Street Jn, Clapton Jn - Chingford, Black Horse Road - Walthamstow (LU), Stratford - West Ham (LU), Surrey Canal Jn - New Cross Gate & Sydenham - Crystal Palace
