Spotting 2024 – Week 32

After the Covid induced hiatus during the second half of July, the beginning of August found me finally back on the rails. It was going to be a busy week as the start of the football season was just a few days away. With Thursday already allocated to a football activity, I opted for getting out and about on Monday and Wednesday.

During late July, a South Western Railway driver who I follow on X dropped a hint that time was now rapidly running out for the Class 455’s and that anyone wanting to photo them should do so soon. With that in mind I decided to visit some of their haunts. I still needed 5915 anyway and I hoped that I would track that unit down during my travels. Of course, I would also pick up some 455’s for haulage.

On Monday I initially went to Raynes Park, a junction on the South West mainline where trains for Chessington, Dorking and Guildford via Motspur Park branch off. Here’s Class 455 no 5916 arriving with a Guildford service…

…The young lady with the bib is one of the Trespass and Welfare team. I made a point of introducing myself to her, explaining my activity so she wouldn’t worry if she saw me near the end of the platforms.

Some local services continue along the mainline a little further like this Waterloo to Hampton Court service with 5719 on the rear…

…It’ll leave the mainline just after Surbiton.

Trains returning to Waterloo from the Motspur Park branch pass under the mainline to avoid conflicting movements – You can see the rounded girders of the bridge over that line in this shot of 458535…

…on a Shepperton to Waterloo service. The 458/5’s are also disappearing – 28 of the 36 units are being converted back to 4 car units and being redesignated 458/4. Reading between the lines 458535 is one that will not be converted and will probably go to storage.

Trains from the Motspur Park branch use platform 1 – Here’s 66124 coming into the station round the tight curve…

…with empty aggregates wagons from Tolworth on the Chessington branch, bound for Cliffe Brett Marine in Kent.

The nature of the junction at Raynes Park means that the up and down platforms are staggered and the footbridge that connects them is at around a 45 degree angle. You can see the bridge and the end of platforms 3 & 4 in this shot taken from halfway down platform 2…

…158890 is leading two class 159 units on a London bound service from Exeter.

I spent the rest of Monday hopping around various stations and claiming 7 455’s and 3 other types for haulage in the process. I logged 176 on the day and was pleasantly surprised to find that I needed 9 of those. But 5915 was still eluding me🙄

Wednesday was a bit of a rinse and repeat – Once more I was going out to photo 455’s. As luck would have it 5915 was at Waterloo when I got there – that’s all of the active class logged now! This time my initial destination was Wandsworth Town; a station on the Reading line just past Clapham Junction. It’s another station that I have been meaning to visit for some time. I timed my arrival there to allow me to get a shot of the Eastleigh yard to Hoo Junction engineers train…

…in the capable hands of 69004 with 66715 dead-in-train.

Wandsworth Town has a wonderfully skewed station building on platform 4, seen here in this shot…

…with 5728 arriving on a Waterloo to Waterloo circular service.

My next destination was Strawberry Hill – one of those places on the network with a delightful name and not much else! Here, 5856 is seen arriving on another of those Circular services…

…These route Waterloo-New Malden-Teddington-Twickenham and back to Waterloo. There is a reciprocal counter-clockwise service.

I took the short hop to Teddington on another 455 and got some lunch from the station shop which I shared with a bold Wood Pigeon😅 I photo’d another 458 whilst waiting for my next train…

…458533 on the Shepperton run.

Then it was time to head back, pausing a Clapham Junction for an hour where I photographed 59001 ‘Yeoman Endeavour’…

…on a Hanwell to Tolworth aggregates run. Delivered in 1986, the 59’s were the first US-made diesel locomotives to operate regularly on British mainline railways and 59001 carries a bell in recognition of this.

Totals for Wednesday: 184 logged of which I needed 7 – I also picked up 6 new for haulage.

Thursday was Wingate & Finchley Team Photo day. It was an overcast early evening and quite dark but we got the job done and no one was squinting 😂…

We had our first match of the season on Saturday, beating Dulwich Hamlet 3-2. Next week’s spotting begins on Monday with an evening away game at Carshalton.