Hold on! This is gonna be a long one! April was looking a bit too quiet for my liking. So far I had only been out once (and that was with my wife so it wasn't strictly a day trainspotting!) and with my next possible day out looming into the middle of the month I decided a trip to the capital was needed. This would be my first trip to London that was for the sole purpose to train spot this year. I decided that I would maximise my day by getting there as early as possible and leave as late as possible. To achieve this would mean my first trip on the Night Riveria from Plymouth. I finished on Tuesday night and this gave me about 45 minutes at home before the walk to the station ready for the 2345 to London Paddington. 57602 was doing the honours.
I had a brief plan to achieve the following on my trip to London. Get as many 378s in as possible, get the 172s that were running and get as many 450/5s on the Windsor/Hounslow commuter runs.
I started off leaving Paddington on the first Underground train to Willesden Junction where I would alight to get onto 378s. My plan was to capture all the trains on the Watford Line. This went out of the window when the first train that came in I saw was heading to Stratford. This enabled my to get from Willesden Low Level onto the North London Line. A new bit of track without even planning. I stayed on the train until Gospel Oak as nothing was connecting properly. From here I spent the next hour getting the 172s that were running. I have had haulage on one 172 before and as usual with my haulage luck it was the one i already had that was waiting at Gospel Oak! Anyway I proceded to pick off the remaining 172s working with a little break of a 378 from Gospel Oak to Kentish Town and back. This meant i didn't have a repeat haulage on a 172.
After the 172s were ticked off it was as many 378s as possible. Now I had nearly done them all when they were first delivered but most 378/2s have had an extra carriage inserted (a few already had four from the start) so in hindsight I did this wrong. I shouldn't have bothered with them so much before. Anyway I spent most of my time in the area where the NLL and ELL are now connected via a spur from Canonbury and Dalston Junction. This meant if any of the remaining few 378/1s I needed were around I would get them too. Most 378/2s were now required again. I did mini moves for about 2 hours with break for breakfast at The White Swan Wetherspoons.
I again abandoned my plan early. I was getting pretty bored with the same thing so decided to head to Stratford where there was more variety and freight. If any 378s I needed came in I decided I would catch it from there and then back. This was a very wise decision.
Startford was alive with freight! In fact I don't think i have ever been when it was so busy! I saw 11 frieght trains during my time here 6 of which were new for sight. Two of these were 90s, my last two Freightliner ones. I now only need two 90s to complete the class. I finally got a second picture of a Class 70 (I have seen a few now but never in any way shape or form photographable!).
I was going to head to the Goldengrove Wetherspoons for lunch but a 90 heading to Liverpool Street came in and stopped so I jumped on. I attempted to get Lunch at The Hamilton at Liverpool Street Station. However the kitchen was closed so a quick pint and back to my original plan (although about 45 minutes behind plan now). I did spot my first sighting of the newest train in Britain, the Class 379 at Liverpool Street which was good.
During lunch I discovered that my last EMT HST power car was on hire to East Coast and was seen heading south earlier in the day. I couldn't find any conrete evidence of what diagrams it was running on but made a guess and if i guessed correctly it would be back in London that night at 2130ish!
After lunch it was time to head HS1 for a bit of Javelin riding. I still wanted to do some 450/5 bashing so i made sure that I would be on the relevent train from St Pancras to London Bridge at the planned time. So a few trips on the Javelins (all new for haualge) was completed. Then i headed to Kings Cross to see if any my remaining East Coast power cars were present. None were nor either of my last two 91s. The Thunderbird was 67017! This rolled in whilst i was there as a light engine! I know Peter was pleased when i told him as this meant it was unlikely to be on a tour he was due to go on this coming Saturday!
It was then over to Waterloo via London Bridge. I then spent one and half hours on trains in the Clapham area. I managed to spot my last two 450/0s which was good and am now down to just two 450/5s. I had dinner in The Asparagus Wetherspoons (and scarily met an old house mate from about 5 years ago in Bournemouth who i have not seen or been in contact with since! And she now lives in Witney!). After that i decided to head to Wembley, then Euston then Kings Cross and hope for the best!! Whilst waiting for my train to Wembley from Clapham I saw what i thought was a train in store! A Class 460 was approaching Clapham. Now i needed one of these before I read that there were going into store as the Class 442s were repacing them on Gatwick Express duties. So as this approached I saw it was number 7. I couldn't remember which was my last so a quick look at my sheet and it was what i wanted! Brilliant! I didn't think i would get them all as there was another rumour that there were to be broken up and inserted into the 458s. This meant i would be unlikely to see the driving cars as these couldn't be inserted so i was pleased about this spot!
Over at Wembley I saw a new 92, a new 66 and a couple of dud 67s. Then off to Kings Cross. How pleased was I when I arrived and saw the EMT hire in. And there was my last EMT power car. Also present was my penultimate Class 91 and a winning Class 180.
I wasn't really sure what to do now. I had about 2 hours till I needed to be at Paddington. So I took a longish way round. I went from St Pancras International - Stratford International - Startford - Liverpool Street - Paddington. When I arrived I got a very pleasing photo of 57602 which would be returning me home ready for my 0730 start at work! A long long long day but very worthwhile. Plenty of photos and big wins for sight. And plenty of new trains for haulage.
The trains I went on (winners in red)
57602 1A40 (2351) PLY - PAD
UG 3364
378209 2L06 (0611) WIJ - GPO
172004 2J03 (0635) GPO - CRH
172002 2J98 (0645) CRH - UHL
172008 2J05 (0654) UHL - CRH
172006 2J00 (0700) CRH - GPO
378228 2L64 (0707) GPO - KTN
378218 2Y01 (0722) KTN - GPO
172001 2J11 (0735) GPO - CRH
172007 2J13 (0757) CRH - BHO
UG 14037 Blackhorse Road - Highbury and Islington
378149 9A15 (0840) HHY - DLJ
378137 9B12 (0848) DLJ - HHY
378207 2Y11 (0855) HHY - CIR
378219 2N25 (0901) CIR - CMD
378221 2L40 (0912) CMD - HHY
378233 9A18 (0925) HHY - DLJ
378144 9B15 (0933) DLJ - HHY
378136 9A19 (0940) HHY - CNN
378209 2N33 (0949) CNN - HHY
378140 9A22 (1025) HHY - DLJ
378135 9B19 (1033) DLJ - HHY
378215 2N38 (1039) HHY - SRA
378214 2N49 (1136) SRA - HKW
378209 2N46 (1151) HKW - SRA
378220 2Y27 (1221) SRA - HKC
378229 2W52 (1232) HKC - SRA
90013 1K59 (1239) SRA - LST
315823 2W98 (1350) LST - MYL
315843 2W01 (1436) MYL - SRA
395017 1F41 (1500) SFA - STP
395005 1J42 (1512) STP - SFA
395001 1F43 (1530) SFA - STP
319452 1T43 (1610) STP - LBG
376008 2L50 (1629) LBG - WAE
450544 2R47 (1645) WAT - VXH
450559 2S51 (1656) VXH - QRB
450563 2R43 (1701) QRB - VXH
5726 2O49 (1705) VXH - QRB
5720 2V49 (1714) QRB - CLJ
5705 2O96 (1723) CLJ - PUT
450549 2R49 (1731) PUT - BNS
450117 2V47 (1741) BNS - PUT
450547 2R47 (1752) PUT - CLJ
450555 + 450557 2S55 (1802) CLJ - WNT
450568 + 450554 2S54 (1810) WNT - CLJ
450558 + 450569 2V53 (1817) CLJ - WNT
450543 2R49 (1825) WNT - CLJ
377206 2M62 (1939) CLJ - WMB
UG 3444 Wembley Central - Willesden Junction
378202 2L46 (2032) WIJ - EUS
UG 4059 Euston - Kings Cross
395001 1F68 (2155) STP - SFA
315858 2W95 (2234) SRA - LST
UG 6070 Liverpool Street - Paddington
57602 1C99 (2345) PAD - PLY
The total mileage for the whole trip was 585, boosting my yearly total to 11606.
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