A Last Look – Southern Railway 455’s

by 2e0mca on May 29, 2022May 29, 2022

A miscellany of images to remember the Southern’s Class 455 units 2 weeks after they were retired from service.

Freedom Pass Project – Update

by 2e0mca on May 23, 2022May 23, 2022

Last Friday’s outing was dual-purpose. I wanted to clear off Bank station for my project and I also wanted to catch the Belmond British Pullman on its trip out to Gillingham.

The meeting point for the Northern and Central underground lines along with the Waterloo & City. Add in the Docklands Light Railway and a connection to Monument Station on the District & Circle lines and it should come as no surprise that Bank Station is a maze of pedestrian tunnels. Bank Station opened in 1890 as part of an extension to the City & South London Railway – the world’s first deep-level tube line and now part of the Northern Line.

The platforms at many stations on the Bank branch of the Northern Line were not built with modern levels of use in mind. The proximity of passengers to trains in the rush hour is best described as concerning. Angel Station, once the northern terminus of the City & South London Railway, was particularly bad with its island platform – so bad that it was completely rebuilt in 1992. The northbound tracks were realigned in a new section of tunnel and the original track bed filled in to widen the southbound platform. This year it was the turn of Bank to get a bit of a rebuild. The southbound tracks were realigned, and a new platform built…

…The original southbound platform became a new Concourse area. Unfortunately, it’s only a partial rebuild – the northbound platform is still very narrow. I think I shall have to return to Bank on another rainy day to do a more comprehensive photo survey.

Back to the reason I’m here – Bank is a terminus for the Waterloo & City Line and the DLR. The Waterloo & City opened in 1898, was absorbed by the London & South Western Railway in 1907, became part of the Southern Railway in 1923 and British Railways in 1948. It was only transferred to London Underground in 1994! Known as The Drain to regular commuters, it only operates on weekdays and Saturdays because, as every one knows, the City is closed on the weekend😉 Here’s one of the two platforms at Bank…

The W&C is unusual in that it has no connection with other lines nor any section that is at ground level. All normal servicing of the stock is carried out at a depot beneath Waterloo station…

When stock is in need of major work, it has to be lifted out using a crane! Fortunately, that is a rare occurrence😉

Now to the other reason for my trip – photographing the Belmond British Pullman. This train runs regularly, so it was really included as a makeweight for my day out. I will almost certainly catch it on more occasions through the summer. Rain was forecast and rain it did – Convenient for my CMMC entry this week😂 You can see the effect of the rain in these two shots of the train approaching Wandsworth Road…

..The locomotive is 67005 ‘Queen’s Messenger’.

Now I have to decide where my Freedom Pass is going to take me next 😎👍

CMMC – May Pick a Topic from my Photo

by 2e0mca on May 21, 2022May 21, 2022

Cee has once more provided a photo for her Midweek Madness Challenge with loads of options to illustrate with our own images. Some of those suggested are business, awning, bar, mocha, black, green, chair, table, reflection and rainy-day 😀 Yesterday was ideal because it was a rainy-day and that is going to be a theme in my entry.

Here is Dan & DeCarlo’s Coffee Bar opposite East Finchley station…

…I know they serve a mean Mocha because I’ve had one. That’ll count for business, black, bar, chair, table, there’s even a green bag as well👍 There’s also a reflection of the white door on the wet pavement. It’s still raining, and you can see some of the falling drops against black of the shop front. Ok – Job done – I can post now 🤨 But I won’t, because there is more that I want to share 😎

That shot was taken on my way home from a Freedom Pass project trip – one which was somewhat damp🙄 I’ll be telling the full story in a different post but here I’m going to share a couple of other rainy-day shots from my outing, going backwards in time. So here are two City of London Police Officers on Poultry…

…I must clarify for anyone who is confused – they’re on horses on a street in the city called Poultry😂 The female Officer is riding a black and white piebald. The cyclist on the left, is wearing black and riding a black bike. I wonder if he’d be waiting at a red light if the Police weren’t there?😂 The rain had eased off at this point but the roads and pavements are very wet.

Earlier on and this was the wet scene at Clapham Junction where it was raining quite heavily…

…something you can see against the red of the train on the left. Most passengers are sheltering under the platform awning. The front of unit 5915, one of South Western Railway’s surviving class 455’s, shows the black rubber surround of the gangway connection.

Finally, the epitome of a rainy day. At Wandsworth Road, everything in the distance is blurred by the amount of water in the air…