Freedom Pass Project – Update

I didn’t get out and about much last week for a variety of reasons, so when I went out on Friday I really went to town on clearing some terminal stations and terminating points. If you want to follow my day’s journey, there’s a map here. There’s a lot to cover, so lets get started…

I took the bus across to Arnos Grove – a terminating point on the Piccadilly Line. Here’s a view of the station’s eastbound platform buildings from the westbound platform…

…Through trains use platforms 1 & 4. Terminating trains use the single centre track accessed from platforms 2 & 3. Here’s my train arriving from the west…

…It will form a service to Northfields in West London and I’ll be taking it as far as Piccadilly Circus.

At Piccadilly Circus I changed onto the Bakerloo Line. You may recall my recent trip out to Harrow & Wealdstone to visit the northern terminating points of the Bakerloo. This time I’m heading south to Elephant & Castle…

…where I took this shot of my train standing in one of the two Bakerloo Line platforms. Above ground the station, which is also served by the Northern Line, has quite a modern aspect…

…It is currently surrounded by building works following the demolition of the adjacent 1960’s shopping mall. There has been a lot of new building in the area and sometime I will have to visit to get some more general photos but now it’s time to go back underground and onto the Northern Line.

The rest of the day’s objective was to visit the outstanding destinations on the Docklands Light Railway – I recently crossed off Lewisham and Canary Wharf. So, from Elephant, I took the Northern Line to London Bridge and then changed to the Jubilee Line heading east to Canning Town.

Canning Town has 4 DLR and 2 Jubilee Line platforms. Platforms 1&2 are served by Stratford International to Woolwich Arsenal services and are the reversing point for trains operating the Beckton branch…

…Platforms 3 & 4 are above the Jubilee Line platforms…

…and are served by Tower Gateway – Beckton and Bank – Woolwich Arsenal trains.

My first trip was out to Beckton…

…An area of London once dominated by Beckton Gas Works. The station is pretty spartan…

…But at least there is a large supermarket across the road which is handy when needing to relieve oneself and to get some lunch😅

Fed and watered, it’s back to Canning Town where I pick up a northbound service to Stratford International station. I often share shots from Stratford on my blog so it’s time to point out that there are actually 3 stations in Stratford and the one I’m going to is only served by the DLR. It’s hidden away below ground in a concrete trough…

…and located in the middle of the 2012 Olympic Village! In keeping with much of the DLR, it’s utilitarian to a fault!..

…It also connects with the other Stratford International – The one that is truly international, being served by Eurostar trains to France, Belgium and The Netherlands.

Time to head south – back through Canning Town, Silvertown…

…and London City Airport before diving under the Thames to terminate at Woolwich Arsenal…

…Which is next door to the National Rail station of the same name…

For those of you who have followed my journey so far, I then went home. Southeastern from Woolwich Arsenal to London Bridge. Then Thameslink on to Kentish Town where I picked up the Northern Line back to East Finchley😎 And that is all the Docklands Light Railway Termini cleared from my list along with the Bakerloo Line👍

Freedom Pass Project – Update

I have had a bit of a break from this project between July and Christmas because of a mix of strikes by railway staff, a bit of ill health and the start of the new football season. However, beginning in January, I have started nibbling away at the termini once more.

In January, I went out hunting for photos of things for a Midweek Madness Challenge post. That took me into the City of London and I picked up Aldgate, terminus of the Metropolitan line…

…that’s an old picture, taken before I started this project but it’ll do😎

Another early January trip was to one of the southern extremities of the Northern Line. This was a trip along the newly opened extension to the Battersea Power Station development. It also means that we have an awful case of repetition – Battersea Power Station Station 😂

The new stations on the extension are rectangular box type structures unlike the tubular ones on the existing deep level Underground. Here’s a shot on one of the platforms…

…With a 1995 stock train waiting for its time to head back to High Barnet. Short escalators connect to the ticket hall above…

…which is spacious…

Like the interior, the outside of the station bears no resemblance to London Underground designs of the 1930’s. It’s appearance if quite striking…

…Visible in the background are some of the new housing and retail blocks that surround the power station which has been converted into a retail facility too. I will visit again to get some more photos from the area for a future post. Finally, back on the station, here’s a plan of the whole Northern Line…

The rest of January was a washout with bad weather and some knee troubles.

February has been a busy month with football matches every Saturday and Tuesday. It was also a bit of a rebirth for me – the knee got better again and, courtesy of a younger member of the Twitter railway community, I discovered a website for recording train sightings. Called trainlogger, it has really given me a new impetus to get out and about! Here’s a screenshot from the site…

…As you can see, since Feb 13th I’ve been out on trips 4 times and I have three trips planned for the coming week😀 I’ll probably post a bit more about trainlogger in future.

22nd of Feb was a very damp day and I opted for a tube and termini trip out. One of the locations visited was the terminal station of the Hammersmith and City line…

…S7 stock unit 21401 waits at the platform with the next departure to Barking.

That brings my progress on the project up to date. I still have 70 termini to visit on terminating services, so there’s a lot to do. I’ll also be out and about on normal spotting trips, so the hobby is going to keep me very busy and active this year 😀👍

Last on the card – September 2022

Today I’m catching up with Brian’s Last on the Card Challenge. This was something I’d intended to do back on Saturday but there is a problem. Brian has lost his connection and has been unable to post the challenge. However, Christine of Stine Writing has started the ball rolling on Brian’s behalf, so here’s a link to her post. I’ll add a link to Brian’s when it appears😎

UPDATE! – Brian has now posted his Last on the card Challenge 👍

Starting with the Canon EOS5D we have the obligatory football image…

…The last shot from a London Senior Cup match on Tuesday, September 27th, between Wingate & Finchley (Blue) and Clapton.

Turning to The Fujifilm X-Pro2 and this time the subject has come to me!..

…A Volvo FMX 460HP Grab Truck parked outside my house on the 29th 😎

Finally, from the Moto g50, also on the 29th…

…Northern Line unit 51525 leads a 6-car train into Brent Cross station. There’s a short story behind this one. I was coming out of Brent Cross Shopping Centre when I was approached by a lost young lady from somewhere in Eastern Europe. She needed to get to the Underground so that she could travel to Mile End but, of course, she couldn’t find the station and her mobile map wasn’t much help! The route from the shopping centre to the station is a tortuous one, so I realised I wouldn’t be able to describe how to get there and she’d probably get even more lost. Instead, I walked her through the maze of footpaths across the River Brent and over the North Circular Road to the station. That was my good deed for the day and some healthy exercise to boot 😊

All photos unaltered except for resizing for the web.