Middle of the month and it’s time to join in with Clare’s Share Your Desktop Challenge once more😊
As usual, we have two desktops. Let’s start with the Gaming PC…
…This is a screenshot from Farming Simulator 22 taken during some activity for a series that I’m currently running on my blog called Fresh Fields. This shows my fictional character in my farmyard driving the elderly Bolinder-Munktell Terrier tractor surrounded by early-Autumn flowers. I’ve just finished some haymaking and it’s time to put the tractor away. Those readers who follow the series will find out in the next update that I have now sold this tractor and the small trailer behind. It may be gone from my game-save, but it will live on as my desktop for a few weeks more. Who knows… When my farm is making lots of money, I may buy one of these again to keep for annual farm shows and give kids a ride in the trailer! – The joys of the fantasy world of Osada, Poland😂👌
On the Photo PC…
…A photo taken on Feb 27th of a Lumo train exiting the cleaning facility to run through Alexandra Palace. It will reverse at Bowes Park, to the north, before running back south into Kings Cross where it will form the 10:45 service to Edinburgh. It is formed of a Hitachi AT-300 5-car set – UK class 803 number 803004. Behind, a pair of LNER Class 801/1 units await their turn to move out. Alexandra Palace is one of the closest mainline stations to me and I visit or pass through quite often on my trips out on the rail network.
Last week was cold and wet most days which put a bit of a dampener on things. However, on the Monday I decided that I could go and visit the northern terminal points on the Bakerloo Line – the locations where trains terminate their journey. The core section of the Bakerloo Line runs from Elephant & Castle in South London to Queens Park, passing through the West End on the way. Half of the northbound trains terminate at Queens Park, a quarter continue north to Stonebridge Park and the final quarter of the trains that worked through the core section carry on to Harrow & Wealdstone. The line is worked by 1972 stock…
…Now the oldest trains, at over 50 years, in regular passenger service anywhere in the UK (not including preserved lines). For fuller details of the line, I suggest looking it up on Wikipedia.
On my day out I travelled on the Northern Line from East Finchley to Euston where I took the Victoria Line to Oxford Circus. At Oxford Circus I boarded a northbound Bakerloo Line train to my first terminus for the day, Queens Park. This is the station where the line first comes to the surface. Queens Park is unusual in having sheds to house trains at both ends of the station. This is the view looking back in the Elephant & Castle direction…
…There is a 2 road shed visible through the arch of the bridge which carries Salusbury Road over the line. The running line can be seen curving to the right and beginning its descent into the tunnels. At the opposite end of the station is a 4 road shed used for reversing trains…
…trains travelling beyond Queens Park join the Watford DC lines and share the route with London Overground. To do that, they have to travel through the shed!..
…A unique situation on the London Underground network. Apologies for the quality of the photo – the window was in a bit of a state. I’m on my way to Stonebridge Park – our next terminating point.
Stonebridge Park station sits on the north side of the North Circular Road – you can see the bridges that carry the line over the road in this view looking south-east from the northbound platform…
…Looking north-west, terminating trains leave the through lines and use the lines to Stonebridge Park Depot to reverse…
…The buildings behind our reversing train are Alstom’s Wembley Train Care depot which services mainline stock. The Bakerloo Line depot is hidden behind those buildings. You can get a clearer idea of how things are laid out by viewing Stonebridge Park on Google Maps.
I mentioned that the Bakerloo line north of Queens Park shares the tracks with London Overground. Here’s one of their Watford to Euston services…
…formed of a Class 710 Aventra unit. Here’s a final view of Stonebridge Park station before I move on…
…showing how bleak a location it can be in cold weather! The next train in will be a Bakerloo Line service taking me on the final leg of my journey to Harrow & Wealdstone.
Harrow & Wealdstone station is ‘proper’ – it’s a real railway station served by express and local services for passengers and it sees a lot of through freight trains too. This is the furthest north-west that the Bakerloo Line trains go. They did once go all the way to Watford and you can still see the 4th rail lying derelict between the tracks beyond. Our driver checks back for the all clear to close the doors and move into the headshunt…
…And this is the headshunt with a reversing Bakerloo Line train sitting in it…
…The tracks passing on either side go on to Watford. The 4 lines on the right of the photo are the mainline from Euston to the West Midlands and Scotland. This is a view of the Bakerloo and Watford platforms…
…As I said, a ‘proper’ railway station with awnings and waiting rooms😎
After a bit of spotting, I’ll be heading back to Euston on a fast service like this one operated by London Northwestern Railway Class 350’s…
…Another 3 termini cleared off my Freedom Pass Project list😊👍
Between planned trips to get termini for my Freedom Pass Project, I enjoy days out doing more general trainspotting and photography. I took 5 trips out and about in late February. I twice visited Stratford in East London. Stratford is always busy with regular passenger services to East Anglia and it sees lots of freight services to the ports of Harwich and Felixstowe along with other locations. There are also some unusual workings – one such that I photographed was 47749 ‘City of Truro’ hauling East Midlands Railway unit 360118…
…This was to return the unit, after maintenance and a repaint into EMR colours at the Siemens facility in Northampton, back to EMR’s depot at Cricklewood. A delivery that entails travelling south from Northampton on the Euston mainline to Primrose Hill; traversing the North London Line eastwards to Stratford; picking up the line northwards towards South Tottenham; then joining the Gospel Oak – Barking line westwards to Junction Road Junction in Tufnell Park; finally joining the Midland mainline north to Cricklewood. Quite a tortuous route!
Almost all the Greater Anglia services through Stratford are now in the hands of the Class 720’s Only a few of the old Class 321 units survive now and their days of service are nearly at an end. Here’s 321323 running through platform 10a…
…in tandem with 321313.
Another location that was visited twice in February was Alexandra Palace. I was surprised there, on an early morning visit, by two freight workings – usually there are very few freights and they tend to pass in a cluster around midday. I checked and found that one is a new working related to the HS2 construction work and the other was a variation of the usual timetable. So I decided to revisit and try to and photograph them. The HS2 spoil train didn’t run on the day of my second visit but I caught up with the southbound Peterborough West Yard to Bow service in the hands of DB Schenker’s 66084…
…This is often referred to as the Plasmor service because it carries their specialised building materials down to their depot in Bow.
Alexandra Palace may lack freight services but it makes up for that with a lot of high speed passenger services to the East midlands, the North East and Scotland. Here’s a Hull Trains service picking up speed as it heads out of London…
…This is one of the Hitachi AT-300 units in the ‘800’ series – specifically 802303. The Class 802 version are bi-mode, operating on 25kV and having diesel engines for sections of their route that are not electrified. The future may see the diesel engines replaced by batteries if trials planned by the manufacturer and other operators prove successful.
I often pass through London Bridge – a station served by Thameslink, Southern and Southeastern trains. It is a busy station even in the middle of the day. Here is a Southeastern Class 707 unit…
…on platform 6. There are 30 of these units that were originally delivered to South West Trains. I wrote about the long running saga of the bid to replace the ageing Class 455 units over on South Western Railway as long ago as last February. At the time, around half of the 707 fleet were still being used by South Western rather than being transferred to Southeastern. A year on and nothing has changed! The 455’s still run many of South Western Railway’s suburban services assisted by the remaining 707’s and some Class 450’s. Their replacement Class 701’s? – They’re still sitting on the ‘Naughty Step’…
…701047 and 701028 stored at Clapham Junction.
I could write a lot more but I think that’s enough for this post
Images from Finchley 