Spotting 2024 – Week 6

I had hoped to join in with one of Cee’s challenges this week but circumstances got in the way – hopefully next week👍 When I was younger, trainspotting just happened – you decided with your mates where you were going and off you went. Now it’s different – Now I take a note of the weather. This week has been controlled by the weather – strong winds on Monday and nasty rain spells the rest of the week. But that’s not the full story and everything will become clear as I proceed with the tale of my week on the rails.

Monday was very windy and I’d rather my cap stayed on my head, so I chose to go haulage hunting – you spend a lot of time in a train rather than on a platform! I’m aware of classes of unit that I could easily complete the set for haulage in my area. The obvious ones are the 717’s that operate the Great Northern services – I only need 5 of those to complete the set. Then there’s the 378s of London Overground. Although I still need 20, they are a relatively easy target. I could also get the Waterloo and City line stock, but I think that will just happen naturally without any targeted action by myself. And there are other targets for the future…

I chose to go hunting for 378’s for haulage on the East London Line and that’s going to be the theme for much of the week with a major curve ball thrown in! So off we go – Windy Monday. Bus to New Southgate and then a dead rubber on the 717’s from New Southgate to Highbury and Islington. There I picked up 378143 – one I needed for haulage – down to Whitechapel. Then I pottered about hoping to get some more new rides. It was a bit of a futile exercise – the luck was against me. I ultimately picked up 378141 from Surrey Quays back to Canada Water. In the meantime I’d logged quite a few that I needed for a ride but they just weren’t going my way – and I’d made my way out to Crystal Palace for a lunchtime bite from Brown & Green. Highly recommended if you’re down that way😎👍Here’s 378144 approaching Surrey Quays…

Tuesday was a time of football – we were due to play a key home match against Chatham Town. It was during my preparation for that game that I had an epiphany… A moment of pure thought. My health isn’t what it was and I really can’t go on carrying the weight of the Canon 5D and associated 70-200mm lens. I realised that the answer was in my train camera bag, at least partially. To put things in a nutshell – I have the lenses I need for the football work but the Fuji X-Pro2 is an artisan’s camera. What I needed was another Fuji that could meet the pace of the game. I went to my preferred dealer – Clifton Cameras – and ordered a Fujifilm X-H2S. That’s currently £2k but I have to weigh that against the Canon options for replacing the 5D mkIII – 5D mkIV is nearly £3K and would not solve the weight issue. The other option was to get one of the latest Canon mirrorless R series and the associated 70-200mm lens – That combination would cost me £6K. The cost of upgrading cameras these days if frightening – probably because most people now spend a lot of money on an i-Phone, or similar, to do everything including their photography. Sadly, I think this is a deskilling of the population and another case of the ‘I want it now’ attitude. Photography needs patience and a willingness to learn throughout ones life. Enough of my wittering – just remember that I bought a new Camera🤣

Clifton Cameras delivered my new Fujifilm X-H2S on Wednesday lunchtime – That was not an expedited delivery, they are that good! I hit a minor user problem – I couldn’t turn the mode dial until the CC guy kindly informed me that the locking button was a toggle, not a press and hold down like every other Fuji and Canon I’ve ever owned😅 So the new camera went into service photting trains on Thursday. Back to the East London Line – a chance to replicate some of my shots from Monday to see how the X-H2S compares with the X-Pro2. It compares very well and I tested its image stabilisation to the extreme with this shot…

…That’s Rotherhithe Station seen from Canada Water using a 200mm telephoto (320mm equiv) hand held at 1/10th of a second!

Much of Monday and Thursday was about understanding which Class 378’s were working where and hoping to get a good hit on the haulage. On Monday I got the two noted above and on Thursday I picked up two more in 378142 and ‘154. I did fit in other visits too on my way to and from – while not a new sighting for me, here’s the doyen of the 2009 Victoria Line Stock, 11001, arriving at Highbury & Islington…

Anyway, I spent 2 days chasing 378’s on the East London Line and all I had to show for it was 4 required rides.

Friday and still some more testing of the new camera to do. The weather was going to be a bit less wet than Thursday but still not great. I decided I should get down to Waterloo and catch one of the new Class 701 units. I had to be there for 10:25 but found myself stuck on the Northern Line at Moorgate because of a passenger alarm ahead at Borough Station. You never know how long that will take to resolve. A simple ‘feeling faint’ might be 2 mins but a full on heart attack could be an hour – Whatever it was, I hope the ill passenger was ok. While the other passengers were sitting waiting, I ducked out and took an Elizabeth service from Liverpool Street across to Tottenham Court Road. You’re probably thinking – ‘How is Moorgate connected to Liverpool Street’ – answer… It’s a long walk in a passageway but definitely quicker than fighting against the people on the pavements above! From Tottenham Court Road, I was able to get back on track and complete my trip to Waterloo where I was able catch my first class 701…

…’028 working a Windsor & Eton Riverside service. Here’s what the interior looks like…

The weather outside was really unpleasant in a drizzly sort of way so, having made my way to Clapham Junction, I got on the next train out to Wimbledon where I photographed one of the District Line’s S7 Stock trains arriving…

From there I took the Tram across to West Croydon. A chance to clear that station off my Freedom Pass list – 377109 providing the haulage from there to Norwood Junction. Norwood Junction gave some photo opportunities like 377610 arriving from the south…

Meantime, I was watching the London Overground 378’s going the other way – they pass, they come back – and I had already noted one that I needed for haulage! From there, with judicious choices of where to get off one train and wait for the next, I initiated a cascade effect! We stopped off at Sydenham…

…where I caught a shot of 378154 going the other way – that’s one that I rode for the first time on Thursday! Then on to Honor Oak Park where the ladies didn’t fancy coming down to the spotter end of the platform😅…

…to watch 171804 pass through. All the time the weight of class 378’s I needed for a ride was building. it seemed that as fast as I took one, another would turn up! Here’s 378154 again, this time at New Cross Gate…

…proving that the trains do indeed come back again🤣

From there I was going back underground – back on the East London Line. Stopping off at Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping I collected 3 more 378’s for haulage which was a great result. That’s 11 new rides over the course of the week not including the other classes. I think I will close this post with a little history – the East London line was born out of a need for a rail crossing of the Thames to the east of London. A number of competing and often bickering railway companies were able to agree on that. The means to cross already existed in a pedestrian tunnel built by Marc Brunel though the history goes back further – check out on Wikipedia. The railway took over the pedestrian tunnel and now we can travel under the Thames every day. I wonder how many passengers even realise that is happening?…

…The Thames Tunnel viewed from the Wapping end.

So – the end of a different week. Almost all my activity surrounding a single class for haulage and getting to understand a new camera. Ultimately I knocked off 11 378’s and I now only need 2 of the 378/1 sub class. It’s good progress👍

Figures – Monday: 106 sightings. 14 needs and 5 for haulage; Thursday: 121 sightings. 9 needs and just the 2 for haulage; Friday: 160 sightings. 14 needs and 13 for haulage. Next week will be difficult because of football – lets see if we can get a trip in😎👍