The last weeks of the football season rather tied up my time with matches and an awards night to photograph and publish. So, I wasn’t able to progress the project. However, one of my footballing away trips did produce a couple of termini for my target. Travelling out to Hornchurch’s ground meant a train across from Upper Holloway to Barking which is where the Overground services from Gospel Oak terminate. Then I caught a C2C service out to Upminster which is where the District Line terminates along with Overground services from Romford. It was a case of 2 out of 3 ain’t bad though as I had hoped to route via Romford on the outbound journey and clear that off too. Unfortunately, engineering works on the Northern Line made getting to Liverpool Street problematic🤨 That’s one I’ll have to do another day. As I was set up for football photography, I didn’t take any photos, so I do have a reason to go back again👍
Thursday May 5th and I’m finally back on a dedicated trainspotting mission 😎 The plan was to go to Beckenham Junction and then see how the day went from there. One reason for the choice of destination was the impending withdrawal of the Southern Railway Class 455 units. They have until May 14th then they’ll be gone. The other was to clear it off as a Terminus for my Freedom Pass Project.
I travelled down to London Bridge using the Northern Line to Kentish Town and then Thameslink. A quick check of the destinations displays and then I was on board 455815 on route to Beckenham Junction. It’s quite a convoluted route travelling via Peckham Rye, Tulse Hill and Crystal Palace. An amusing thing to note as we passed through Dulwich was that East Dulwich station is quite a long way north of North Dulwich station – I do sometimes wonder how the railway companies chose some station names😉Sometimes, as I travel, a photo opportunity presents itself, like a group of prospective passengers on the platform at Tulse Hill…
We duly arrived at Beckenham Junction on time after a journey of nearly 40 minutes. Here is 455815 sitting in the bay platform…
Beckenham Junction is not only the terminus for Southern Services from London Bridge, but also a terminus for Trams operating the route to and from Wimbledon. This is where the trams terminate…
…adjacent to the railway station. There was also a bus waiting at the stop outside the station on the 162 route…
…That’ll take you to Eltham via Bromley and Chislehurst. I spent 1.5 hours at Beckenham Junction during which time I logged a number of Southeastern Railway services, like this Class 375 unit on a Victoria to Dover Priory service…
And the trams rumbled in and out on their segregated track…
There were also a couple of Southern Railway trains to note as I waited for the next ex-London Bridge Class 455 service to arrive. 455815 was running with 455829, so when they returned at 12:39, I boarded ‘829 to travel back as far as Crystal Palace. As this post is already quite long, I think Crystal Palace and the rest of the day out will make for a separate post tomorrow 😎👍
Images from Finchley 