Spotting 2024 – The Lost Weeks

I’ve lost track of which week we’re now in… A check suggested that I’m going to tell you about weeks 23 to 25. Even so, much of my time was absorbed by the needs of Truck simulator and also some family matters. The latter will help to tell the story with a degree of humour.

One of the core venues of this tale is Peckham Rye – a station on the Southern Region. Those who have read my previous Spotting posts will recall me visiting there back in April. Epi wanted to visit because we have an important event to attend in late July where she will need to wear appropriate African clothing (and so will I) for one of her Godchildren’s engagement ceremonies. So, a trip down to Peckham Rye to view the clothing shops…

In between this new challenge and the peaceful passage of my train enthusiast world, our Son decided to tell us that he has a girlfriend. Now, in truth, we had already concluded that something was going on. I spotted that he was wearing nail varnish in a photo back last summer. His explanation was ‘When you have girls as friends they want to paint your nails’ – I let that be because there is some truth to it. But now we have a young lady in his life called Isis and he’s admitting she is his girlfriend. It sounds like he is late coming to the party in understanding that! I would guess the nail painting was her ‘marking her territory’🤣

Anyway – back to the trains and other activities…

Firstly lets take a look at one of my favourite Peckham Rye shots from a previous visit – no trains in this shot of the Rye Lane entrance to Peckham Rye Station…

…There is much to see and enjoy about Rye Lane and Peckham High Street – lots of great market stalls and clothing shops. We came away with a lot of good ideas for the engagement party.

Just a week later and I’m back on Peckham Rye station because we have a steam special going through – Cue Clan Line to provide the joy…

…Designed by Oliver Bulleid, these Merchant Navy Class locomotives are stunning to behold and still exciting for anyone graced by their presence. Of the mainline express locos built in the UK these are one of those that I think are best looking. On it’s home turf, Clan Line is just relaxing as she drifts through Peckham but never forget that these locos were capable of over 100mph.

Between the train spotting Epi and I met up with some of Epi’s Uni friends for a bit of a reunion. We went to see the stage production of Boys from the Black Stuff at the Garrick Theatre. What a fantastic and engaging event – so full of tragedy laced with humour. Alan Bleasdale’s screenplay brought to the stage very effectively.

Then, last Thursday found me making my way down to Orpington. Of course, it wasn’t a simple trip – I routed to Stratford initially because I couldn’t catch the train I wanted to photograph in the morning and had some time to spare – Stratford is a good place to get lunch! Normally Stratford can be expected to provide lots of freight activity but on this occasion it was as quiet as the grave – an intermodal service had derailed on Tuesday evening between Trimley and Felixstowe cutting off the docks and causing major disruption to freight distribution for the whole of the UK. No wonder Stratford was quiet! This is not a good thing – Currently that’s cutting off services from the docks for a couple of weeks and affecting supermarket shelves in the UK.

After enjoying my lunch I took the Elizabeth Line (which was experiencing its own issues) down to Moorgate and then I rode the Metropolitan Line to Aldgate. There I was able to get a nice shot of London Underground’s S7 unit 21568 on a Circle Line service…

On we go, round to Cannon Street and a trip to London Bridge before catching a train out to Orpington.

I had a lovely hour or so at Orpington… Approached by members of Southeastern platform Staff – “Is there something coming through?”, I told them that I was expecting a Steam special at 14:53 on platform 4. Apparently, no one had told them! From this point on I want to say how great they were. Informing other passengers of the impending ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ event. The positive attitude of the staff really added to the fun. When the train was held at Sevenoaks it became clear that it would probably conflict with another service and that could ruin our photos. The staff were keeping us informed throughout as we all shared our anxiety. In the end, we all had to squeeze into a small piece of space at the end of the platform and surrounded by a couple of fellow enthusiasts and a plethora of staff brandishing mobile phones, I got some nice shots of 46100 ‘Royal Scot’ like this one…

…The Royal Scot’s are one of my favourite steam locomotive classes. They are real performers. In the 1948 loco trials they out-shone the best from all of the pre-BR companies in the head to head tests. A small locomotive with superb abilities – always a pleasure to see out and about😎

Back to the usual diesel drudge for my next report – Felixstowe derailment type issues permitting…😎👍