Spotting 2024 – Week 12

This week started on Tuesday with an outing to one of my freedom pass boundaries – a trip on the Southwestern to Feltham. I had hoped to start with another Class 701 ride but didn’t make it in time after choosing to take the bus to Brent Cross West and pick up a Thameslink to London Bridge from there. From London Bridge I took the short hop across to Waterloo East and walked across the bridge into Waterloo station, arriving at 10:33. With the Windsor service that the 701’s are working gone I picked up a Class 458 unit out to Clapham Junction.

At Clapham Junction, I know that there is an engineering train booked through platform 2 at around 11:20 so I made my way over to platform 5 with the intention of photographing it. On the way to the end of the platform I was accosted by an estate agent! No, he wasn’t trying to sell me part of the station😅 In fact, he spotted me swapping lenses on my camera and approached me for some photography advice. He has to do a mix of drone views and still photographs of the houses he is selling and was wondering about ISO settings and how they work. We had a friendly 10 minute chat while he was waiting for his train and then I completed my stroll to the end of the platform.

The engineers train duly turned up with recently built 69010 in charge…

…Back in Steam days, newly constructed locomotives were painted in workshop grey for their ex-works photograph before being painted in the company livery prior to entry into service. GBRf (GB Railfreight) however, seem to be quite happy to send out a locomotive in undercoat! These ‘new’ class 69’s are being painted in a variety of colour schemes, so it may be a case of having to enter service while the corporate mind decides what livery the loco will ultimately receive! I have used the term ‘recently built’ and ‘new’ about the Class 69’s but they are actually re-engined Class 56 locos. If you want the full story, look up Class 69 on Wikipedia.

I continued my trip out to Feltham…

…Where I caught a shot of 701043 working the Windsor and Eton run on its trip back to Waterloo…

I wandered back to Clapham with a stop off at Richmond for lunch where I caught this shot of a District Line train passing the 1940 built Southern Railway signal box…

Back at Clapham I was pleasantly surprised to see 378229 – one of the two outstanding 378’s I need for haulage, so I hopped on that to West Brompton before doing some London Underground spotting and riding on my way home. Totals for the day – 162 logged of which I needed 15. I made 12 trips and every one of those was a Winner!

Thursday was another Freedom Pass run – This time to Swanley on the Southeastern…

…Where I photographed 375922 on a fast Ramsgate to London Victoria service. The trip also coincided with a Belmond British Pullman special and I was able to photograph that too…

…although it’s not the most inspiring of images. There are a couple of other vantage spots that I didn’t get to try out but that will give me an excuse to visit again in future.

I broke up my trip home to add some more units for haulage, initially catching a train to Bromley South. I walked across Bromley, picking up some lunch on the way, before boarding 465186 at Bromley North for the short trip to Grove Park. I then train hopped to Hither Green, Lewisham and London Bridge before heading home via West Hampstead and Gospel Oak. Totals for the day; 93 logged of which I needed 11 and 6 new for haulage.

Saturday was a football awayday with Wingate & Finchley visiting Billericay Town. With many of the players living on the east side of London there was no coach to the ground so I decided to turn it into a trainspotting trip. I made my way to Stratford where I spent around an hour and a half spotting before boarding a Southend service to Billericay.

The match was a hard-fought affair in which Billericay took the lead on 10 minutes. They then spent most of the rest of the game protecting their lead – a risky strategy. I was doing my usual photography role and caught this foul on Matty – more fitting to Rugby than Football…

…It earned the ‘Ricay player a yellow card although it must have been borderline red as it looked like he denied a clear goalscoring opportunity. It was still 1-0 to the home side on 90 minutes and the Ref indicated there would be a minimum of 8 minutes of Injury time. One thing our Manager seems to have instilled in the side is the importance of playing to the very end of the game. On 90+5 Zack equalised…

…and on 90+9 we took the lead with Joseph Boachie slotting home. There was just time for ‘Ricay to make a last ditch attack which ended with our keeper gratefully clutching the ball. A 2-1 away win of the ‘Smash & Grab Raid’ variety! Both keepers were seen flaked out on the ground in the aftermath…

It was a very happy group of Wingate fans who walked back to the station to catch the Southend to Liverpool Street train operated by 720’s 524 & 560…

It was an excellent day out for me – An away win, 113 trains logged of which I needed 15 and I also picked up 5 new for haulage😎👍

Week 13 is ahead and it will be a disrupted week with a football match on Tuesday and again on Saturday, so I think I will only get in a single spotting trip. See you soon😀👌

CWWC: March 21, 2024

Friday and time to catch up with Cee’s Which Way Challenge 😎

Some archive shots and one taken only yesterday👍

Ridley Road Market, Dalston…

Station Approach, Hayes…

Carter Lane, City of London…

Confluence of tracks, Swanley, Kent…

Spotting 2024 – Week 11

This week kicked off with a Mothering Sunday trip down to King’s Cross to buy Epi a new tablet. The weather was awful and I just logged what I saw on the trip to and from on the Northern Line. There were none I needed but I did pick up a new 1995 stock unit for haulage on the way home.

My next trip out had to wait until Wednesday. This was another attempt at fitting in some freight photography on the North London Line, so I travelled from New Southgate down to Highbury & Islington. This time there were no issues when I got there and the day rapidly became a joint photography and haulage expedition. Highbury and Islington is where the East London Line terminates, so I had the possibility of getting my last 378/1 unit there while catching 378/2’s that I need working the North London Line Services.

I should make a brief mention here about the proposed naming of the London Overground lines so that they have separate identities. Under the scheme, the East London Line will be called the Windrush Line while the North London Line will become the Mildmay Line. I think it is a shame that the names applied by the passengers to these routes have been shuffled to one side but I guess in a couple of generations younger passengers will just use the new monikers. I will take the opportunity to introduce the other new names during my travels, and I will try to use the correct name once they’re rolled out on the network maps but you will have to forgive me if I occasionally apply the old name that I have always known these routes by.

Second freight of the day at Highbury & Islington – 66170 with a train of aggregates empties…

…This was an odd service running from Acton Yard to Bow Depot. It isn’t in the normal working timetable and appears to have been a VST (Very Short Term) addition possibly for just the one day to allow some hoppers to be relocated. An interesting human thing to note in the photo – the passengers on the near platform are ignoring the freight while a lot of those on the platform it’s passing through are watching it😅

Not long after, I picked up 378217 for haulage across to Caledonian Road & Barnsbury where the next train going back east was 378216 – another I needed for haulage. 2 down and back to Highbury & Islington👍 Not long after that 378152 popped up on the East London Line operating a service to West Croydon – I noted that for later as I wanted to remain on the North London for the time being. I also let 378234 pass westbound before picking up 378207 west once more to Caledonian Road & Barnsbury.

The island platform at Caledonian Road & Barnsbury is not very good for photography, but there is another platform used only for access to the station that allows for better shots. Here are 90043 and 90049…

…with a Felixstowe North to Trafford Park intermodal service.

I already knew that another 378 I needed, ‘220, was going to be coming through soon after, so I wandered back to the island platform and caught that to Camden Road where I planned to wait for ‘234 returning from Clapham Junction. While there I picked up shots of 66506 eastbound…

…with the Wentloog (Cardiff) to Felixstowe North intermodal and 66556 westbound…

…on a Chelmsford to Willesden aggregates service. Then I was back to Highbury & Islington on 378234. If you’ve been keeping count, that’s five 378’s for haulage so far😀

Back at Highbury, and another freight…

…Doesn’t look like a freight you’re probably thinking! This is a new service set up by Varamis Rail using redundant class 321 units to transport parcels and similar goods. Their first route was from Glasgow to Birmingham. They have now added Wembley and Liverpool Street to their network, permitting fast delivery of packages to the heart of London. Whether the venture will ultimately be a success is unknown but currently things look promising.

I stayed at Highbury until 378152 returned and then I caught that down to Whitechapel before making my way home. That was six of my outstanding class 378’s for haulage and now I only need two to complete the set! During the day I logged 80 individual loco’s / units of which I needed 6.

Last trip for the week was to Dollis Hill – Not somewhere I’d usually be going to do some spotting. The station is served by the Jubilee Line and passed by the Metropolitan Line services as well as Circle line stock going to Neasden Depot for maintenance like S7 unit 21323 in this shot…

Alongside the Underground tracks are the lines into London Marylebone that are served by Chiltern Trains such as 165034 in this shot…

…If you look closely, you can see the Wembley Stadium arch above the tower block on the right. Why was I at Dollis Hill? This year Marylebone celebrates 125 years since it was opened by the Great Central Railway. As part of that celebration, last friday saw Retro Railtours running an HST set recalling the prestigious Master Cutler express that ran from Marylebone to Sheffield. Dollis Hill was one of the few locations easily available to me where I could hopefully get an unimpeded view of the train with its RailAdventure provided class 43 loco’s. I was in luck – no Underground trains in the way…

…Though the Sun had gone behind the clouds once more.

After that I went back to West Hampstead Station, hoping to catch the same train departing from Marylebone on a return run to Banbury. That was always going to be a gamble because the Jubilee Line service is more intense at that point. Unfortunately I would be disappointed along with two other rail enthusiasts who had taken the same gamble. Never mind – I did get the shot I initially went for and I also got this shot of Jubilee Line 1996 stock unit 96116 approaching West Hampstead from Finchley Road…

Back to Baker Street and a short walk in Regents Park…

…where I ate my lunch and also bumped into a gentleman in a morning suit😅…

One of my convoluted trips home completed the day and the week’s activity on the rails. I logged 214 individual trains of which I needed 35 and I picked up 11 new units for haulage (partly because of my odd route home)! I wonder where week 12 will take me😎