Met Driver
Established Member
- Joined
- 8 Jun 2005
- Messages
- 1,734
I left my house at 0730 and caught a Piccadilly Line service as far as Hammersmith. At Hammersmith, I boarded a District Line service (blinded Tower Hill). To my surprise, it was a refurbished unit. Presumably it was operating on the main line because the Olympia service wasn't running. I'm sure there was something wrong with the line breakers (equipment which makes a distinctive 'POP' sound), as they were going off upon departure from every station (albeit only in one of the UNDMs).
At Blackfriars (arrived 0800), there was nothing in the bay platforms. I witnessed the arrival of several Thameslink services, followed by a Sevenoaks service which terminated in Platform 3. The slammer (VEP Nos 3471 & 3590) pulled in to Platform 1. joy54 arrived at some point between 0810 & 0830 IIRC. We sat down in a FC compartment (declassified) and waited for yorkie and London Tube. They had found another compartment with cleaner windows, so joy54 and myself walked back to it.
Upon departure from Blackfriars, I grabbed a place next to one of the driver's vestibule windows in the middle of the train. I remained there all the way to Margate, where there was a photo stop. We got back on, and continued round the coast to Deal via Ramsgate.
At Deal, we bought some lunch and watched the train arrive on the other platform, having just performed a shunt move. We then travelled back up towards Ramsgate, but instead we took the route towards Minster at Minster South Junction. It was then on to Canterbury West, Ashford, Maidstone East, back to Swanley and then up to Chislehurst where we reversed once again.
We departed Chislehurst, and turned right at Swanley and took the route to Bat & Ball at Otford Junction. We passed Sevenoaks and Hildenborough before passing through Tonbridge. We then proceeded to Ore, where the train reversed and took us back to Tonbridge, then on to Edenbridge, Redhill and into London Bridge.
London Tube & his younger brother went home from London Bridge, whilst yorkie, joy54 and myself decided to do the Hayes Branch. At Hayes, we took a bus to Addington Village, then a tram to Croydon, where joy54 went home. yorkie and myself remained on the tram to Wimbledon, where we caught a Thameslink CityMetro service. I alighted at Blackfriars and caught the tube home. yorkie continued to Kings Cross in order to catch his train home.
At Blackfriars (arrived 0800), there was nothing in the bay platforms. I witnessed the arrival of several Thameslink services, followed by a Sevenoaks service which terminated in Platform 3. The slammer (VEP Nos 3471 & 3590) pulled in to Platform 1. joy54 arrived at some point between 0810 & 0830 IIRC. We sat down in a FC compartment (declassified) and waited for yorkie and London Tube. They had found another compartment with cleaner windows, so joy54 and myself walked back to it.
Upon departure from Blackfriars, I grabbed a place next to one of the driver's vestibule windows in the middle of the train. I remained there all the way to Margate, where there was a photo stop. We got back on, and continued round the coast to Deal via Ramsgate.
At Deal, we bought some lunch and watched the train arrive on the other platform, having just performed a shunt move. We then travelled back up towards Ramsgate, but instead we took the route towards Minster at Minster South Junction. It was then on to Canterbury West, Ashford, Maidstone East, back to Swanley and then up to Chislehurst where we reversed once again.
We departed Chislehurst, and turned right at Swanley and took the route to Bat & Ball at Otford Junction. We passed Sevenoaks and Hildenborough before passing through Tonbridge. We then proceeded to Ore, where the train reversed and took us back to Tonbridge, then on to Edenbridge, Redhill and into London Bridge.
London Tube & his younger brother went home from London Bridge, whilst yorkie, joy54 and myself decided to do the Hayes Branch. At Hayes, we took a bus to Addington Village, then a tram to Croydon, where joy54 went home. yorkie and myself remained on the tram to Wimbledon, where we caught a Thameslink CityMetro service. I alighted at Blackfriars and caught the tube home. yorkie continued to Kings Cross in order to catch his train home.