Spotting 2025 – Week 26

Last week didn’t go as planned and I only got out on the rails on the Saturday. There were a number of reasons for this but the main cause was waiting for a parcel that disappeared in the GLS/Parcelforce tracking system leaving me unaware of where it was until they finally updated all the steps on the morning that they actually delivered. Very poor performance Parcelforce 😠 It being a very expensive item, I had little choice but to hang around at home for it.

What was I waiting for? One of these…

…A Steam Deck. This is effectively a handheld PC centred around gaming but capable of doing many other PC things if you decide to use it in that way. With a 7 inch screen it’s very portable and can run some very graphics intense games. I probably will use it for games like The Precinct – seen in play above – and Dave the Diver. You can expand its capabilities further by getting a docking station and connecting it to a tv allowing it to behave like a console handheld controller. Over 3 hours of gameplay are expected with a maximum of 12 hours on a full battery charge but you can play with the power supply plugged in. My initial experience has been good.

If you’re wondering why… Alasdair and I need to swap rooms this autumn and that will mean taking the main PC offline for around a month. It will allow me to have some gaming entertainment during that time. I will also need to look at possibly getting a Laptop for my photo-processing.

Back to the Spotting – It had been a sunny and hot week but Saturday dawned overcast and a little cooler. It was expected to get very hot later in the day when the Sun broke through. There was a rather unusual special running – ‘The Bakers Dozen – Rebaked’. This was a rerun of a railtour visiting each of London’s mainline termini. This sort of trip requires a lot of use of reversing loops and freight lines. So there was a good opportunity for photographing locos in unusual places. With so many reverses, the train would have a loco at each end as well as two sets of driving crew. Lets get to the photos 😅

The train started its run very early in the morning and I calculated that the earliest point in its journey that I could catch it would be on its way in to Fenchurch Street. The viable locations were Limehouse and Shadwell – I chose the latter despite the risk that my shot could be obstructed by a Docklands Light Railway unit. I’ve never photo’d from there before and it’s nice to get a new location 😎 When a special with heritage traction is running you can expect there to be quite a few other enthusiasts out looking to get their shots too. I thought Shadwell would be unusual enough to have the place to myself but I found there were 4 youngsters down one end of the platform and a 20-something guy waiting at the other! Neither would be a problem for me as I intended to use the centre of the platform for my shot to avoid having the fence between the DLR and C2C lines in the way. Here is Class 33 D6515 ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ leading the train into Fenchurch Street…

Next stop for me was Harringay where several other enthusiasts also gathered. This time the train was led by 66754 ‘Northampton Saints’…

…with the 33 bringing up the rear. By the way, the red coaches between are a 4TC unit – built for push-pull services on the Southern Region and often paired with 33/1’s which were equipped for such operations. D6515 isn’t hence the need for 66754 at the other end. From here I was heading down to Finsbury Park where I got another shot of D6515 before hopping on the Victoria Line down to Euston.

The plan of action then was to travel out to South Hampstead and catch the special there. I haven’t been to South Hampstead since 2014 and before that it was 1986! Not a common venue for me. The station footbridge provides the only viewpoint and back then had a roof with thick pillars that you had to lean around to get a photo like this one of a Class 82 electric, 82008, on an empty stock train in July 1986 and soon to be withdrawn from service…

Since then, the roof has been removed from the lower section of the footbridge making photography a bit easier although photographing the Pendolinos on the fast lines is now reliant on avoiding the weeds and bushes growing out of the remains of the disused platform…

…390118 heading north on an Edinburgh service. Fortunately, the special would be using the slow lines and I was lucky to find myself alone at this location so this shot of D6515 was unique on the day…

After this it was back to Euston to capture 66754 as the special arrived…

Then I was off to West Hampstead via Baker Street where, with some time in hand, I grabbed some lunch. West Hampstead provided a final opportunity to photograph D6515 but before that I captured one of the resident class 222’s, 222017, on an empty stock working from Cricklewood into St Pancras…

…D6515 certainly caught the attention of quite a few enthusiasts here…

…I found myself in a group of three and you can see quite a few others dotted around the platforms.

By now the Sun was out and it was getting hot. I took a trip out to Dudding Hill Junction in Gladstone Park but with a lot of other enthusiasts present it wasn’t a great shot. By that time it was getting too hot for me and I decided to head home.

That’s the first time I’ve followed a special around part of its route to get multiple photos. While it was fun I don’t think I’ll be making a habit of it! Another week ahead and I already knew Monday and Tuesday would be too hot to contemplate getting out there spotting. Lets see what happens later in the week 😎👍