Spotting 2025 – Weeks 23-25

After an enforced break due to some knee issues compounded by chores related to my late Brother-in-Law’s worldly goods, I have taken some tentative steps back to photographing trains. Sometimes less is more or so they say. I also fitted in a 3 hour walk over Hampstead Heath to check out the birds of which more later in this post.

First up on Friday June 6th I took a trip to Acton Town riding on the Northern, Victoria, District and Piccadilly lines to get there. The purpose of my trip was a visit to the London Transport Museum Depot. Unlike the main museum at Covent Garden, the Depot is a working store where the Museum’s curators and volunteers look after the collection of historic objects and vehicles. It only opens to the public 3 times a year although it can be visited on special guided tours on other occasions.

There are all sorts of items here from signalling and power equipment to station signs and maps. So much to see that I can’t do it justice in this post. Photography is difficult in the limited space and with a lot of visitors on site. And then there’s the transport. Some buses and trams that operated London transport Services for example…

…many with innovative features for their time.

I mentioned station signs. This one from Golders Green station shows the route north to Edgware where the line currently terminates…

…And the extension north to Bushey Heath. Work on that proposed extension was begun in the 1930’s but ceased during WWII. Lack of funds and the Metropolitan Green Belt legislation put an end to the project in 1950.

Here’s a Metropolitan Railway map from circa 1908…

…As much an advert as a map! As one might expect, the Museum has a plethora of Roundels🤣…

But most visitors are here for the vehicles and trains. The Museum collection has several cars of the ‘Standard Stock’ type. These were produced for several tube lines between 1923 and 1934 to replace older types. L131 is a 1934 example originally numbered 3693…

…that, after withdrawal from passenger service, became a Pilot Motor Car for the Engineers Dept. Restoration to running condition is underway on this car along with L134 (a 1927 example once numbered 3379) at the other end of this line of vehicles. Sandwiched between are Standard Stock trailers 5297 in maroon undercoat (1925) and 7296 in bare metal (1923). Ultimately it is hoped to run the 4 cars on special tours like those that the Museum’s 1938 Stock set…

…operates. It’s due to run on the Piccadilly Line in July and I’m considering booking a trip – I used to commute to work on these back in the early 1970’s 😎 The fly in the ointment is the modernisation of signalling systems that may make such excursions impossible in the future. However, I’m sure the Museum is looking at ways to allow these trips to continue.

Sub-surface stock is also represented – Here’s Q38 stock car 4416…

…Once more, the museum has plans for a 4-car operational unit though this may be a very long way off!

All in all my visit to the Museum Depot was a fun trip out earning me 26 new sightings for my log. I also spotted current S7 unit pairing 21469/70 sitting in the back of the adjacent Ealing Common Depot. Covered in graffiti, this pair look to have been out of service for quite some time which explains why I haven’t seen them on my travels! I picked up 6 new units for haulage as well, so a good day out👍I recommend a visit to the depot if you can get to one of the open days – check it out on the London Transport Museum website.

On 13th June I took a long walk over Hampstead heath for a mix of exercise and to try out the Merlin Bird ID app that is available for mobile phones. There are no photos as I didn’t take a camera except for a selfie😅…

The app worked very well, identifying many of common species inhabiting the Heath. In some cases I recognised the song but there were a several that I don’t hear often enough to be familiar with. In all cases I did my best to locate the singer and visually id them – This worked for 22 species. The one’s that got away were Mistle and Song Thrush – Both hiding in the tree tops in the middle of the day. I’ll need an early morning visit to catch them feeding on the ground. There were several Blackcaps singing but they can be really difficult to spot as their basic grey colours blend very well with tree trunks. Ultimately I got lucky as one came down to a drinking fountain for water near the end of my walk – ‘Grey camouflage ain’t gonna to help you there mate.’, I was thinking🤣 Other nice sightings aided by the app were Goldcrest and Long-tailed Tit. Throughout, the app proved very accurate and only made an error once. On that occasion a young child made a sound very similar to that of a Lapwing which the app identified the sound as but marked it with a yellow spot to indicate that this was potentially incorrect as the app knows where you are and recognises that Lapwings aren’t likely on Hampstead Heath! Having enjoyed my walk and using the Merlin Bird ID App, I decided to head home. I’d had my ears blown off by several of the Heath’s Wrens who are scared of no one and nothing, so I needed the respite 😅

Saturday June 14th was a local trip early in the morning to catch a photo of 60163 Tornado. I have photographed this steam loco before but it predates my new spotting collection and in that context it would be a new sighting for me. I took the bus to Whetstone and walked down to Oakleigh Park station. This location is quite changeable. Sometimes there are other spotters there and sometimes you’re alone. Sometimes the Buddleia threatens to block your shot and sometimes Network Rail have removed it. On this day, neither the Buddleia nor other spotters were there to present possible issues. My brief visit kicked off with a shot of 801226 ‘Together’…

…wearing Pride Flag livery and operating the 07:30 King’s Cross to Edinburgh service.

I didn’t have long to wait for Tornado. Here she comes running to time on the climb…

…passing under a footbridge on which some other fans had gathered to photo and video her passage. Here she is in a closer view…

…as she heads through on her way to Skegness. A quick note for those who may be unaware, 60163 is not a preserved locomotive but a new build that was completed in 2008 to the A1 Class design by A.H.Peppercorn of the London & North Eastern Railway. The loco is operated by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust.

Week 25 was exceedingly hot – way too warm for me to be out and about. I did fit in a very quick trip on the morning of Saturday 21st – just a bus ride down to Upper Holloway to catch the preserved Hastings units on another of their runs. This time they were routing from Hastings to Wymondham in Norfolk – a trip necessitating circumnavigating outer London using the Mildmay and Suffragette routes. Last time I photographed one of these trips it was just the unit painted as 1013 but on this occasion the second formation, 201001, was attached to the rear making a 9 coach formation. Here is that unit passing through Upper Holloway…

…and surprising some of the locals waiting for the Gospel Oak service. I said at the start that sometimes ‘Less is More’. I saw that there was a Tescoliner due through in the other direction a few minutes later so I swapped platforms to wait for it. I was rewarded with 88002 ‘Prometheus’…

…Only the second of these I’ve seen and the first I’ve actually been able to photograph! On a day when I only popped out briefly before getting on with some prearranged household chores, I may have logged just 5 but I came away with a new sighting and with some nice photographs for the collection 😎👍

Next week should see me becoming more active on the spotting front so hopefully I’ll have some nice photos and tales to tell 👌