Freedom Pass Project – Update – Images from Finchley

Thursday was a day when my initial plans were subverted by circumstances. In fairness, those plans were never set in stone anyway and I switched to ‘lets see where the day takes us’ mode. I had Shenfield in mind as I left the house. I was thinking ‘Northern Line down to Moorgate, then a walk across to Liverpool Street’. But the first train in was via Charing Cross – the other side of the Northern Line – so I thought I’d go to Kentish Town and get Thameslink from there to Farringdon. At Kentish Town I just missed the Sutton service that would have taken me to Farringdon and seeing as I had a 20 minute wait for the next one, decided to do something else🤨

So, I took a Luton bound service one stop up the line to West Hampstead Thameslink and crossed over to catch a London Overground service to Clapham Junction. The joys of being flexible and not on a schedule😉 I need Clapham Junction for the project as it is the terminus for London Overground services from Stratford and from Dalston Junction. Most of these services terminate at platforms 1 and 2 respectively. Here’s a Dalston Junction service on platform 2…

…Class 378’s operate this service and 378142 is a member of the 378/1’s – 750v 3rd rail only sub-class. The other sub-class is the 378/2 – these are dual voltage units and can operate on 25KV overhead as well. My train from West Hampstead was operated by 378225…

…and was one of the few services each day that terminate on the other side of Clapham Junction at platform 17.

Now I was back on Southern / South Western Railway territory so the logical move was to get another nearby terminus and I opted for the short trip down the line to Wimbledon. London Underground District Line trains…

…and London Trams…

…terminate here. A visit to Wimbledon is not complete without a photograph of its Streamline Moderne style signal box…

…designed by the Southern Railway and opened in 1948 after nationalisation by British Railways.

Catching the Tram took me across to East Croydon which actually has some services from London Bridge that terminate! I’m not sure if that is a temporary arrangement but I’ll count it for the purposes of my project 😂 Currently those services are operated by Southern’s Class 455’s…