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A LIFE SPENT CHASING TRAINS

  2. Trains
  3. 2012

April - sunshine and showers?

On April 1st (a rather appropriate date) I cycled from home in North London to Newhaven in Sussex, primarily to see whether I could do it as I'm riding with colleagues from London to Paris in May and the first leg is to Newhaven. I took my camera with me with the intention of taking as many pictures of moving trains on the lines I crossed en-route. No freights I'm afraid but it was a Sunday in deepest Sussex. Leaving home just after 07:00 I arrived in Newhaven just in time to catch the 17:00 back to Brighton.

The 2012 Easter weekend was about as different as last year as it could possible be, the only decent weather in East Anglia was early on Good Friday morning (and late on Saturday afternoon). I went out for a couple of surprisingly rewarding hours at Ely early on Friday morning in, to begin with, sub-zero temperatures. Last year on the same day it was 20C+

Tuesday the 10th was most definitely a day of sunshine and showers, I stopped off at Willesden Green on my way home to shoot the new Arriva Trains Wales DVT currently in service with Chiltern on the Banbury set (18:13 ex-Marylebone) taking a few pictures of the Met and Jubilee Line in the process.

The weather didn't get any better as the month progressed, indeed at times it got decidedly worse, feeling more like October than April. A range of pictures during the last half, mainly Chiltern Trains loco hauls and Brighton Line stuff, with some Goblin thrown in.
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08:26, running to its Saturday times 66715 Valour on the 4M26 to Manchester Barton Dock taking the Peterborough Line through Queen Adelaide, with the King's Lynn line in the foreground,
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08:26, running to its Saturday times 66715 Valour on the 4M26 to Manchester Barton Dock taking the Peterborough Line through Queen Adelaide, with the King's Lynn line in the foreground,

Progress Rail JT42CWRQueen Adelaideeast anglia66715

  • April 1st, North London to Newhaven by bike!
  • An hour on from Wandsworth Road I crossed the Croydon Tramlink at Phipps Bridge between Wimbledon and Mitcham Junction. This was all new ground to me, I went to Morden once with my mum and grandmother when I was a small boy but, until today, that was the only time I had ever ventured down the bottom end of the Northern Line.
  • A further hour from Phipps Bridge and I was in Chipstead, just in time to witness the arrival of the 10:29 arrival from Tattenham Corner en route to London Bridge. I've watched these trains from the Brighton mainline for almost five decades but this was the first time I've ever seen the Chipstead Valley line. I like the single aspect LED signal, shame they can't put a round hood on it.
  • Bluebell Railway
  • ...the driver shutting off steam as it crested the grade. the dining train consisted of two Pullmans,a six wheel full brake and a kitchen-restaurant car where the food is prepared. The diners looked as though they were enjoying themselves.
  • The service train, which had to await the arrival of the Pullman at Kingscote had the look of an authentic Southern Railway branchline train, with LB&SCR E4 radial tank 473 (formerly Birch Grove) looking splendid in Southern green, leading a pair of Southern open thirds (1933 and 1935 respectively) and a 1935 corridor brake composite. Having hung around for almost 30 minutes it was time to get going again,
  • But not too far, I stopped at Freshfield, where my route left the course of the railway and waited for first the returning lunch train...
  • ...and then the 14:00 departure from Sheffield Park with, once again, E4 473 on its Southern Railway rake.
  • Beyond Haywards Heath the South Downs become a prominent feature on the horizon but after all the ups and downs of The Weald the going gets a bit easier. After a stop to refill my water bottle at the Plumpton Plough I reached Cooksbridge on the outskirts of Lewes. It was 15:52 as the 14:47 from Victoria sped through the station. Despite Cooksbridge only seeing a handful of trains in each direction Monday to Friday the automated 'Please stand back from the platform edge, the approaching train is not scheduled to stop at this station' rings out for every train.
  • And so to the last picture of the day, taken at 16:23 on the Brighton side of Lewes its a class that I've not encountered in Southern garb before, a refurbished 313 on a Coastway East service. 35 minutes later I had reached Newhaven and was buying my ticket back home just as the 17:00 to Brighton (ex-Seaford) rumbled in. I must say Southen have done a good job on the 313s, replacing those mean low 3+2 seats with high backed 2+2.
  • And here we are on the 17:00 to Brighton, stopped briefly at Southease, the intermediate station between Newhaven and Lewes.
  • April 4th, Harringay Park Junction
  • April 6th, Ely
  • The 05:54 Nottingham to Norwich arriving at Ely
  • Queen Adelaide
  • 08:26, running to its Saturday times 66715 Valour on the 4M26 to Manchester Barton Dock taking the Peterborough Line through Queen Adelaide, with the King's Lynn line in the foreground,
  • 66715 heels to the curve as it heads northwestward towards the Ouse Washes, March and Peterborough.
  • The 06:33 Birmingham New Street to Stansted Airport is framed by a pair of transformers on the Ely to King's Lynn line...
  • ..as the 170 speeds towards its scheduled stop in Ely at 08:52.
  • A pair of 365s from King's Lynn, including celebrity 365 510 Cambridge and Ely, on the 08:30 to King's Cross (which only stops at Downham Market between Lynn and Ely).
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