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…😎👍

Spotting 2024 – Week 10

This was always going to be a bit of an unknown. I came into it with a nasty cold and as I’m typing this post, I seem to have finally shaken it off – Just an occasional dry cough.

This week has been a bad one for the railways around London. Monday saw the complete shutdown of South Western Trains services after an early morning derailment in the Walton-on-Thames area. Fortunately no one was hurt, but there were no trains for the rest of the day as re-railing and investigations were carried out. I had decided to stay in the warm that day and was unaffected by the disruption.

Tuesday I decided to get out and about. I had a plan for the day – Head down to Highbury & Islington and photo some freight moves at stations along the North London Line. Things started well with a chance to photo 387115 passing through New Southgate…

…as I was waiting for my train which turned out to be 717012 – One of my outstanding 717’s for haulage. Only 3 needed now for the set!

My plan lasted about an hour into the journey… I arrived at Highbury & Islington to find all services on the Stratford to Willesden Junction route at a standstill. A truck had struck a bridge near Caledonian Road and nothing could move until it had been removed and a full safety inspection carried out. Time for a rethink… The Services on the East London Line were running. As luck would have it one of the class 378 units I need for a ride, 378140, was forming the next Crystal Palace service, so I boarded that.

There were a lot of different ideas floating around in my head as I travelled south. In the end, I decided to get off at Whitechapel and take a District Line train west to Cannon Street. From there I wasn’t sure what I was going to do but as it was almost lunchtime I could pop across the road to Pret for a baguette.

Pret was busy with City Types queuing for coffee, so having glared through the window, I decided to give it a miss and set off for a walk around the block. Sometimes a trainspotting trip morphs into something else😂 I caught up with another of the Routemasters operating the T15 route on Cannon Street…

…and I took some street shots, two of which appeared in my CWWC post this week. Finally, I got a nice shot of one of the electric buses operating the 43 route on King William Street…

…With the Monument to the 1666 Great Fire of London in the background.

Back to Cannon Street Station and I realised that I could get a train out to Orpington – a terminating point that I need for my Freedom Pass Project. 465928 provided the haulage outbound. Here’s a shot of class 465 units sitting in the bay platforms at Orpington…

…with ‘928 on the right. The services to and through Orpington are mainly operated by class 465’s and class 375’s on the fast services to the coast like 375808 in this shot…

I finally got some lunch while at Orpington – a cheese & onion toastie from the Puccino’s café on the platform – before heading back into London on 707005. Routing home from London Bridge via Farringdon and Tottenham Court Road, I contrived to collect 8 new units for haulage during the course of the day and of the 156 sightings logged I needed 14 – That’s a good day’s spotting😎👍

Wednesday was shopping day but also it was an important day for Alasdair – He was expecting to be told the result of a job interview at some point during the day. I had my fingers crossed for him and as the day wore on, I began to get a good feeling – most companies tell unsuccessful applicants first. Sure enough, when Alasdair was finally contacted mid-afternoon, he was told that he had got the job😀 Initially he was due to start in late March but then they came back to him and offered the opportunity to start next Monday. He said yes!

The days of Computer Support people wandering around in jeans, tee-shirt and sandals while chewing nacho chips are long since past. The company has a dress code of shoes, suit trousers and smart shirt, except on Fridays. Of course Alasdair has few such things so on Thursday, instead of me going trainspotting, we went shopping together – money being the other thing he lacks🙄😂 Five shirts, a pair of shoes and 3 pairs of trousers later, we were on our way home and I chose to peel off at Euston to at least get a little spotting done. I picked up the Watford DC stopper as far as Willesden Junction before catching a North London service across to Gospel Oak and then the Goblin to Upper Holloway. It was only a token gesture at spotting and I only got one new for haulage but of the 32 trains logged I wanted 9! These were mainly new class 730 units parked in Camden Carriage Sidings but I picked up my last 710/3 unit, 710374, on Willesden Depot and my last 710/2 unit, 710270, at Gospel Oak where it also was my ride to Upper Holloway.

I decided to stay in on Friday and I may have dodged an unpleasant experience as a result. I quite often route home via West Hampstead Thameslink station. Tragically, at around the time I might normally have been there, a person was struck by a train. My thoughts are with the family and friends of that person and also with all those who had to deal with the aftermath.

Hopefully next week will be a better one for the railways and I will do more spotting outings than I did this week. I do know that Tuesday is a no-no as I have a football match to attend. Till next week…😎👍