2024 Spotting – Week 2

After writing about my first trip I thought I might make more regular posts on the subject of my trips out. Lets see how that goes over the next few weeks.

On my first trip out for 2024, I was unable to spend time at Stratford because a tragic event out at Shenfield had brought operations largely to a standstill. On Tuesday, I decided that I would go and try again…

There are several ways for me to get to Stratford, the simplest being to take the Underground from East Finchley to Tottenham Court Road and then the Elizabeth Line from there. Being me I opted for a slightly less obvious or direct route: East Finchley to Archway, a brisk walk to Upper Holloway, then the Goblin to Wanstead Park followed by another brisk walk to Forest Gate where I caught an Elizabeth Line train back to Stratford. Choosing to take an alternative to the obvious meant that I was lucky enough to see a timetable variation run of the Dagenham Dock to Mossend Ford Cars train at Upper Holloway – hauled by 66305, a new sighting for my collection👍

New sightings, once a flood back in early 2023, are now reduced to a trickle. The first day when I didn’t record a single new sighting was back on November 6th but that was not a planned trainspotting trip. So far every planned trip has produced a few loco’s and units that I’m seeing for the first time. But, I digress…

Stratford was back to being its usual busy self but the day was both bright and chilly with a gusty north easterly wind. Fortunately, I know a sun trap that’s out of the wind on platform 10a 😅 I had hoped to log a number of new class 720 sightings but in the end only got 2. I still need 30 of this class and it seems that quite a few of them are still pending delivery. The freight trains also turned up mainly loco’s that I had already logged, like 90007 & 90016…

…Leaving platform 10 after a short pause to allow a passenger train to pass. They’re on their way to Trafford Park in Manchester. Ironically, so was my only other new loco sighting of the day, 66736 ‘Wolverhampton Wanderers’…

…seen approaching in the shadows at the east end of the station.

I returned home by another circuitous route, taking Greater Anglia’s 720115 into Liverpool Street and London Overground’s 710126 out to Seven Sisters. A brisk walk from there allows connection to South Tottenham on the Goblin, where 710265 took me back to Upper Holloway. Total new needs for the day including DLR and Central Line sightings = 12.

The same day I was at Stratford, South Western Railway were celebrating operating one of their ‘new’ class 701 units (701037) on a public service for the first time. As one tweeter noted – ‘4 years late’. It was a significant moment but it will be some time before a widespread introduction into service occurs. There is a lot of crew training to do. Here’s sister unit 701039 on a testing/training run at Barnes back in December…

I had intended to do a second trip out on Thursday but decided to take the day off and instead go out on Friday – A visit to Clapham Junction for the first time this year. As usual, it was a convoluted journey out. The easy route is East Finchley to Waterloo and then Waterloo to Clapham Jct. But I caught a bus over to New Southgate, then Great Northern class 717, 717024, down to Finsbury Park where I changed to Thameslink’s 700133 for a trip down to London Bridge. From London Bridge I took a trip on South Eastern’s 707002 across to Waterloo East and a short walk across the bridge to Waterloo itself. If you’re wondering why I choose such odd routes, think extra sightings and trains logged for Haulage!

If I was expecting to get a ride on a 701, I was disappointed🙄 It was one of the sturdy old 455’s, 5859, that took me on the final stage of my journey. In fact I didn’t see a 701 in service during the course of my stay at Clapham. I think it will be a while yet before they form a significant part of the active South Western fleet. So the 455’s like 5864, photographed in late December, will soldier on for a little longer…

Another consequence of the 701’s expected entry into service has been the departure of the class 707’s over to South Eastern – you’ll recall that I travelled on one of these earlier in the day from London Bridge. Only 2 of the 30 strong class remain on the South Western and I caught a shot of 707030 waiting to depart…

…With 701’s now reputedly picking up 2 daily duties next week, I would be very surprised in 707030 and sister ‘024 will still be on the South Western by the end of the month!

I spent around an hour and a half on Clapham Junction before heading home via another convoluted route. There’s an hourly service that goes to Watford Junction and I rode 377707 as far as Wembley Central. This trip gives me a chance to see what’s on Willesden Euroterminal – 08605 (Photo taken back in February last year)…

…and in Wembley Yard – On this occasion 4 loco’s and a tamper. There are also a number of out of service class 321 units stored in the yard but I wasn’t able to check which ones due to wagons obstructing the view. From Wembley Central it was Bakerloo Line unit 3267 back to Willesden Junction and then London Overground’s 378255 on the North London Line across to Gospel Oak. The final leg of the journey was a ride on Overground’s 710266 to Upper Holloway and a bus home from there. Total new sightings for the day was 15. Now I have to decide where to go next week😅