This has been a hectic week during which I’ve been out on the rails 4 times in 5 days. I’ve been telling the previous 7 weeks as a report but I don’t think that will work this week – not least because you all have homes to go to! So, I’ll keep the factual to a minimum and try to give a flavour with a mix of photos and written cameos.
Monday, 19th of Feb… Decided to take a trip down to East Croydon with a view to knocking off some Southern units that I haven’t seen through Clapham. Routed via New Southgate down to Kings Cross and then Thameslink to London Bridge. My intended travel from here was to take a ride on one of the Uckfield services out to East Croydon – that would give me a Class 171 for haulage. But when I got to London Bridge, the destination boards said ‘Uckfield – Talk to a member of Staff’! The cause was… and I am thankful for this… A train had struck an obstruction on the track and services were currently suspended. Why was I thankful? Obstruction is so much preferable to person. I took a different route out to East Croydon, riding 377317 via Tulse Hill. I’d been at East Croydon about an hour when 171812 arrived at the station from Uckfield and decamped all its passengers. This was the unit that had hit the obstruction and it was now going into the depot for a full check over and to have a front panel replaced. If you look very closely, you can see the cracks in the fibre glass…
…on the side closest to the platform. The detrained passengers only had to wait a couple of minutes to board 171803, also from Uckfield, which followed it in.
Tuesday… I went on my East London trip – Barking followed by Stratford. If you read my last report from Barking you may recall a chat with security. Well, this time they were very busy around the station dealing with fare dodgers, smokers (not permitted on any UK station) and other forms of anti-social behaviour. As for Trainspotting, they left me well alone😅 At Stratford, I was trying to get some shots from a different angle and got this one of 66523 approaching on the late running London Gateway to Leeds intermodal…
…of which, more in a minute. While I was hanging around I was approached by a middle-aged guy in working clothes for some help. He was candid about his situation – he found Stratford and London intimidating and he was worried that he might miss his train or be on the wrong platform. This could be one for the staff but I always feel that if I can help, I should. So I explained what was going on and confirmed that he was on the correct platform. I also explained what could go wrong so that he would be prepared for the next week (He was going to be passing through again due to work requirements). I saw him onto his train and we shook hands as a farewell. As for 66523, here she is again…
…going the other way an hour later. Because of re-signalling work, the East Coast main line was closed north of Potters Bar and Hertford, so the train had to turn around in Temple Mills Yard and route round via Ipswich and Ely to get back on its normal route at Peterborough – a rare working.
Wednesday is shopping day, so we move on to Thursday but in passing lets mention that Wednesday was wet… Very Wet! And that weather carried through into Thursday. It rained all day – heavily. I decided that Thursday would be an Underground day and chose to go out to Uxbridge in order to clear off that station for my Freedom Pass project…
…Uxbridge station forecourt in the rain and Metropolitan unit 21047 arriving between the shrubs that adorn the platforms…
On the way home I stopped off at Baker Street for lunch and found a fashion photo-shoot on the northbound Met platforms…
…Strike a Pose 😎👍 The model realised I also had photographed her and gave a wink and a smile – which I shared. It’s quite common to find fashion shoots on Baker Street – I think there is a College nearby that has photography and fashion courses. My thoughts? The suit looks great but not so sure about the boots.
Friday I decided to take the long drag out to Reading on the Elizabeth Line. Reading is an excellently engineered station for trains and passengers but less so for the enthusiast photographer, especially at the western end. There are only a couple of locations where a normal photo can be taken, like this one of Cross Country unit 221134 arriving…
…Or 66619 waiting for the green light with its train of empty Cement tanks…
…on the way back to Derbyshire. With a little ingenuity and a long lens it is possible to get some pleasing mid-station shots – 165127 departing for Basingstoke…
…And with a sensor that allows for vigorous cropping while meeting the desired image size, you can even prise a nice shot from within the forest of catenary at the west end…
…802016 with failed nose doors approaching from Great Malvern. It should be noted that several attempts with other trains failed as bits of the furniture were in the way🙄- So you have to work hard to get results!
That was my week on the rails. For those who are interested in the stats, I logged 683 units/locos of which I needed 81. There were 29 new for haulage. Hope you all had a good week too 😎👍
2e0mca.uk 
Leave a comment