It’s a stones’ throw away from me but also a bit further than an arrow’s flight… Haringey – The boundary with the London Borough of Barnet is just about a mile away from my house but Harringay Station is around 4 miles. Both names, along with Hornsey, have a common historic link to the Saxon settlement of Haeringehaia – haeringe being the old English for a ‘meadow of Hares’ (According to Wikipedia at least). You’d be hard put to find any Hares in the area these days although there is a lot of green space to wander through😎
On Sunday I treated myself to a new pair of walking boots for my photographic / trainspotting expeditions. So, on Monday it was time to try them out. When you’re trying new boots a degree of sense is needed – not too far to start with.
I have been thinking about visiting Harringay Station for a while as it looks like it could be a good photo spot – the tracks curve quite sharply through there. So off I went – Bus to New Southgate and then train south to Harringay. It proved to be a worthwhile visit and I have added it to my local photo locations for future short day’s out.
The Station is on the mainline from Kings Cross to Peterborough, York and Edinburgh. It is served by Thameslink Great Northern trains from Moorgate to Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage and Hertford North. These services are operated by Class 717 units…
Express services pass through without stopping and are mainly operated by Class 800/801 units operated by London North Eastern Railway…
…Which is in the hands of the Department for Transport currently as the privatised franchise has failed (more than once). There are also ‘Open Access’ operators like Hull Trains and Grand Central – here’s one of their Class 180 units on its way to Bradford…
There is a small amount of freight – here’s an intermodal service from Leeds to Southampton hauled by a Freightliner Class 66…
…being overtaken by a Lumo Class 803 with an express service from Edinburgh.
And – like on any trainspotting outing – sometimes there’s a surprise…
…A Rail Operations Group Class 37 taking two Class 379 units from Ilford off to storage at Worksop after they were replaced on the Stansted Express services a few months ago. That locomotive, 37611, will be 60 years old in September!
A pleasant Monday’s trainspotting😎 And the boots? Chafed a little bit on my right shin just above the ankle but generally very comfortable👍
Images from Finchley 
When I saw the title I fully expected little bunnies. I am still thinking about your fox waiting for the train. 😉 I very much enjoyed learning about the origin of the station’s name, Martin.
Thanks Debra – I had always wondered why there were different spellings of Harringay and now I think I understand how that came about 😅😎👍 You asked about meeting fellow enthusiasts a few posts ago. Well, while I was at Harringay a guy arrived purely to get a photo of 37611 (in my last shot). We had a friendly chat and arranged ourselves so we could both get shots without getting in each others way. He’s an example of the modern, post mobile-phone app, era – enthusiasts will see a specific movement that they want to photograph on their app and will go to somewhere just to photograph it. My approach is much more old school – go somewhere and enjoy whatever turns up🤣👍
What an interesting description of two entirely different techniques for experiencing a photo shoot! I like your way best, Martin. I would appreciate the potential for surprises while exploring. 😃
Transport enthusiasm is a very broad church – something that people outside of the hobby rarely appreciate😅 I think I’ll add in some discussion on the subject in my next Freedom Pass post😎👍