Dungeness to Rye the way along the Beach

Many years ago, more than I care to remember as a family we walked the Saxon Shore Way from Gravesend to Newhaven, my girls were six and three when we started and it took as a couple of years going out at weekends. Recently Beverley and me have been walking along the south coast between Eastbourne and Rye and whilst doing this I thought it would be a good idea to fill in the missing coastline not covered by the Saxon Shore Way, that involves the Isle of Thanet from Reculver round to Sandwich, and the Dungeness peninsular. 

Well we have already "done" Rye to Hythe which was quite straight forward, drive to Hythe, park at the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway and catch one of it's trains to Dungeness and walk back. This we did back in May, minus the children as they are now 22 and 26 but we did have Flosi our dysfunctional first generation farm collie.

So that left the section from Dungeness to Rye, the problem is that Lydd Ranges occupies a large slice of the coast here and the path is only open about 65 days a year and not that often on weekends. Fortunately at the August Bank Holiday the range was open on both Saturday and Sunday so we planned to walk this section on the Sunday.

So the logistic planning kicked in, how to do an end to end work and get back to beginning. Simple, the answer was leave home at 07:45 and drive to Ashford International! We got there in plenty of time, but even with half an hour to spare we were barely able to sit down on the platform before our train arrived having to locate the car park, ticket office, toilet, Pumpkin for coffee and crossiants, and finally ensure Flosi was trussed up as she enjoys giving grief to Trains.

The train was then 09:05 to somewhere but we were only going as far as Sandling, from here it is approximately a 2 mile walk into Hythe which we did in double quick time giving ourselves plenty of time to catch the 10:05 to Dungeness.

Having arrived at Dungeness we visited the cafe opposite the old lighthouse and the nuclear power station for bacon sandwiches and tea before setting of on the 12 mile walk into Rye.

Now there's not much information on the web about the path between Dungeness and Rye apart from the fact it goes along the Range and is on loose shingle and you are restricted to a single path, but it doesn't say where it is. The OS Explorer map shows a path along the coast high water mark, well I think it's a path, whilst parallel to this is a track of sorts. However when I looked on Google maps the track did not look very accessible, although when we arrived at Jury's Gap at the end of the Range this track was very obvious, being rough aggregate concrete and stretching off back the way we came How far you can walk along it I don't know, although a chap was walking along it very confidently looking as if he knew where he was going and what he was doing.

Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself, Re-wind back to Dungeness. Needless to say Dungeness, which I understand is Britans only designated desert owing to the amount of rainfall it receives, is dominated by the Nuclear power stations. Which did have four reactors, two old ones in Dungeness A which ceased power generation in 2006 and two newer ones in Dungeness B which began operating in 1983 and 1985 respectively. 

It's quite a sight, and I was amused to note that the internal roads in the complex have funny names such as Outfall Avenue, Transformer Avenue and Turbine Hall Avenue. 

Our route took as along the sea side of the site, right along the perimeter fence along an access road and then a concrete plinth, this being a newer construction the concrete still being very clean and very bright reflecting the sunlight.

There was no obvious security apart from the high fence, no obvious CCTV but I expect there was, I took a few photos and half expected a security operative to appear saying "Oh! you can't do that mate" but they didn't, well it was Sunday after all.

Having passed the Nuclear site without obviously being nuked or radiated, the scene opened up with a large flat shingle area in front of us with a high shingle embankment on the left and the beach, ahead was a huge B&Q type building with power lines going in one side and coming out the other end and heading off across Dungeness on huge pylons, quite an impressive sight really.

About half mile further on we came across a fence, which I thought would be the start of the firing range, but I was mistaken as it was ramshackle and serving no real purpose. We could now see a lookout tower ahead which is were the range commences. 

On arrival there were the normal signs about this being a dangerous area, don't pick up any unexplored bombshells and don't enter when the red flag is flying that type of stuff. There were a number of people here as there's an access road, they were all fishing, I've never ever seen anyone catch anything in all the times I've passed people fishing on the beach.

There was another sign that made me chuckle a little! Surely it would be easier to go directly to the dump?

Now it was here that I expected to get directions as to where the path was but there was nothing so we just continued along the beach, this was tough going, so we moved inland slightly and walked along the scrub, as this made the shingle firmer but after a while this died out so we returned to the top of the beach and walked in the tracks of a vehicle that had be driven along here earlier, I expect this was a military vehicle of some sorts, most probably with tracks as opposed to wheels and a turret and canon.

Walking in these tracks was slightly easier as the shingle was slightly more compressed, but it was tough going but not as tough as when we walked along the stones at Pevensey Bay as they were larger.

I had read that it was best to walk along the beach at low tide but unfortunately it was high tide and we could not do this. In the distance we could see another lookout so we made that our next destination and our lunch stop.

I did expect see more people taking advantage of the open range walk, but apart from the lookouts where there is road access the only other people we saw apart from the chap at the end of the range was a couple beach-combing, they had collected a fine collection of buoys and what appeared to be a body board, I asked if he had found that on the beach which he confirmed, and said he also found a box of treasure but was unable to carry it so had left it for us. Unfortunately we never found it, although Beverley did make a collection of sundry shells and a lump of sea shaped tile which she explained could be used as a coffee pot stand, whilst the shells will be displayed in a nice pot in the garden "And when will all this happen Beverley?" I asked "When you've done it" was her reply. Currently they are on the raised bed in the garden.

Having arrived at the second lookout tower we stopped for lunch, from this spot you could actually see the ranges, range towers, and range markers, big letters on poles.

After lunch, the tide had gone out sufficiently to enable us to walk on the beach where the shingle was more compressed by the action of the sea. Flosi found this easier and paddled in the sea. In fact we all found it easier.

From time to time I would walk up the beach and look across the ranges, where there were a number of old tanks, armoured cars and trucks, targets I expect.

As we neared Jury's Gap and the end of the range there was an enclosed mock village used for urban warfare and house clearance exercises.

At this point we had to divert onto the Road as there was sea defence work going on along the coast as far a Camber, fortunately the road was not to busy so we could walk along it and make good progress, moving onto the verge when cars came along, which could be seen well ahead as the road was very straight.

It was still very flat here. I was looking forward to re-visiting Camber Sands, I think the last time I was here was when I about 12 or 13, my Mum used to take me there.

I'm afraid my childhood memories took a knock as there's now buildings and car parks on the beach which never used to be there, and what's more people enjoying themselves on the beach, outrageous, there never used to be any one here. I used to spend hours in the sea on a lilo with my best friend Mike Nichols, I wonder whatever happened to him.

We walked along the beach so, far but had to divert up the dunes as dogs were not allowed until 30 September, this wasn't surprising and indeed was fully expected. But not before stopping for a cup of very enjoyable tea obtained from one of those building on the beach, I wasn't complaining now!

Walking the dunes was marginally more difficult than the shingle, but I remember running up and down these playing Desert Rats versus the Africa Korps as a kid.

The final few miles took us through Camber, the Golf Course to join up with the track along side the River Rother, and when I say track I'm referring to the old Rye and Camber Tramway. Where the path joins the track there's an old corrugated shed which was the Golf Links Tram stop, I didn't have the wherewithal to photograph it unfortunately and neither did I realise this is a permissive path into Camber across the golf course using the old tramway route.

There's still evidence of tracks in the concrete, which we followed alongside the river before turning left whilst the tram headed straight ahead, where a lake now stands.

We quickly arrived at the bridge across the Rother (where the Tramway Terminus was), having had lovely views of rotting hulks in the muddy banks of the river, whilst the oncoming view of Rye high on the hill never fails to impress.

I said to Beverley "You know what, we always end up at these nice towns but never have time to explore them" today was no different we had a train to catch and it was 18:15, but first a couple of pints in the Cinque Ports Public House before catching the 19:38 back to Ashford to pick up our car and drive home.

The Thames Estuary Path - Done that!

Over the summer I've walked the new Thames Estuary Path which is a 29 mile route from Tilbury Town to Leigh-on-Sea. The path, which forms an important part of the MaxiGreen project, was funded by the Veolia North Thames Trust, EUInterreg IVA 2 Seas Programme and Essex County Council. The entire route benefits from a very comprehensive on line resource and mobile app at thamesestuarypath.co.uk, where you can find route maps and commentary on points of interest and history. I also picked up a "Explore the Thames Estuary Path" pamphlet from the Wat Tyler Country Park visitor centre which I ended up at by mistake having missed the turning outside Pitsea Train railway station.

The route can be done either way, the on-line guide splits in the route into five sections, each starting and finishing at a railway station on the very good C2C routes. Going west to east these sections are:

Tilbury Town to East Tilbury 7 miles

East Tilbury to Stanford-le-Hope 3.5 miles

Stanford-le-Hope to Pitsea 10 miles

Pitsea to Benfleet 3.5 miles

Benfleet to Leigh-on-Sea 4 miles.

I understand there is an extension planned to Chalkwell but this is not quite ready.

I split my walk in to four sections combining the Leigh-on-Sea to Pitsea sections and undertook each one on a Friday evening after work, and was fortunate enough to benefit from four very pleasant evenings giving me almost sufficient time to complete each walk in daylight apart from the 10 mile stretch between Pitsea and Standford-le-Hope.

When I first looked at the map I did not hold out much hope of this being much of a walk given that a fair amount of it is away from the Thames Estuary, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I started from the east so I was closer to home after the walk, so on 17 July 2015 I caught a train from London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea, this took about 40 minutes as did all the journeys on the route regardless of where I got on or got off!

Picking up the route from the station was fairly straight forward although I did not see any of the promised signs. The route to Benfleet, which is 4 miles goes along the Benfleet Creek separating the mainland of Essex from Canvey Island and then along East Haven Creek for a very short distance before turning off and heading for Pitsea.

It was a marvellous summers evening, I was walking into the sun and benefited from some great views with the sun light reflecting in the creek waters with an abundance of impressive cloud formations.

The tide was out, revealing mudbanks, leaving the odd boat stranded at acute angles until the tide returned to straighten them. This was typical estuary scenery, flat, marshy and extensive sky lines. There was the occasional remains of previous industry which used to exist in days gone by.

In the main I had the entire path to myself,  an occasional dog walker or jogger. As I approached Benfleet I walked next to Hadleigh Country Park which boasts the remains of Hadleigh Castle, standing proud on the hill above the estuary. Built in the reign of Henry II by Hubert de Burgh and now in ruins, but an impressive landmark all the same.

Soon South Benfleet marina came into sight together with a few businesses which service the boats and yachts. The marina was very well maintained, with nicely cut lawns, and benches to take in the view, very reminiscent of a previous walk undertaken some 25 years ago along the River Medway. One particular old boat had been converted into a bar/restaurant, I was tempted but was on a mission to catch a train.

Once through Benfleet I continued to follow the creek and for a while I had A130 as company, this is the main road onto Canvey, eventually I passed under this road and headed inland, with the railway as company almost all the way to Pitsea, this area a conversation area Bowers Marsh. Along the way a couple of Pill Boxes were passed together with the isolated church St Margaret's Church Bowers Marsh. This sits in amongst the fields a distance from the village, a charming spot indeed.

The final couple of miles is alongside the railway in meadow land where I came face to face with some piebald horses, but they where not interested in me today.

Following a final stretch down a dark alley beside a high fence and enclosed by trees ( I could and should have walked through the housing estate) I came out at Pitsea where I was able to catch a train back to Limehouse for my journey home

The next section I planned to undertake a two weeks (24 July 2015) later was to combine the Pitsea to Stanford-Le-Hope section and the East Tilbury section but at 13.5 miles was a little over optimistic for a friday evening, especially as I walked 15 minutes in the wrong direction after coming out of Pitsea Station which meant I was already half an hour (or 1.5 miles) behind schedule!

Needless to say I find the route in the immediate area outside Pitsea a little confusing and not very well signed posted, mainly due to the sign being hidden behind a tree, which was quite clear on my return! I then ran into trouble in meadows along side the railway which came up against a warehouse site and I ended up double backing on myself, which actually was the route.

The route followed Vange Creek before cutting off across Fobbing Marshes, a very atmospheric area, and with the sun low in the sky I got some good photos, although it was a little disappointing that the tide was out in the creek revealing loads of mud.

Along this section next to the creek I put the willies up a herd of cows who stamped away from me, this makes a pleasant change as they normal stamped towards me.

As I had lost 30 minutes I was pretty sure I would end up walking in the dark so I undertook to catch up time by running for 10 minutes and walking for 20 minutes on the basis that I expected to cover one mile in ten minutes running. I did this for three lots of ten minutes and was quite pleased that I managed to run for the entire period!

Having crossed Fobbing Marsh I touched the edge of Fobbing Village and along the back paths I came to Corringham. I've been here before as East Thurrock United have their football ground here. I was able to buy some water and a bar of chocolate in the local garage before heading off towards Stanford Warren Nature Reserve which gave me great views of the huge cranes at the London Gateway Port.

The sun was setting now and it was a good sunset and it was good to get a photo of the combine harvester against the sun.

It was at this point I decided to make for Stanford-le-hope railway station as it was getting dark, I passed through Mucking village, which when I was last here was in the middle of the Mucking Landfill site. I must have missed the turning to the station as when I returned I arrived at this point by a different route. The route I went on was via a housing estate but I was soon at the station in time to catch a train back to Limehouse at about 21:15 and it was dark by now.

So I now have two sections to complete, it's late August and the distance is a combined 10 miles and I won't be able to start until about 18:00, therefore I will be walking in the dark along the Thames at Tilbury so I decided to split it into two section. First I did East Tilbury to Tilbury Town the first/last section of the overall walk depending on your starting point which I chose to do on 7th August as its 7 odd miles and if I left it to the next opportunity, which would be 22nd August (owing to the beer festival) it would again be dark by the time I finished.

So I left work early at 16:30 having worked late the night before so had a good early start, having arrived at East Tilbury I was promptly held up by my wife, Beverley phoning me to see how I was getting on! Mind you whilst on the phone I spied some really nice blackberries so I used the time I had saved to collect a sandwich boxful, so that dessert sorted for Sunday.

The first part of this section is not very inspiring, as it walks alongside a housing estate and then the edge of the Mucking Marshes landfill site and of course the obligatory chain link fence, well at least it was not closed in and I could look across the marshes towards the river.

However, once you do arrive at the river you have splendid views up, down and cross the river. Down the river can been seen Mucking Landfill cranes and the London Gateway Dock, very impressive, across the river the Hoo Peninsula rising from the estuary, whilst up the river there's East Tilbury marshes on my side and Higham and Shorne Marshes on the other. But the best thing was all the ships sailing mainly down the river from Tilbury Dock. I could have spent ages just watching them. Unfortunately my camera battery was dead so I had to use my phone camera and my pictures were pretty poor.

When I got home I looked up one of the ships and discovered it was on its way to Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa with a number of stops on the way and was due to arrive some time in September fascinating!

I must say I really enjoyed the walk along the Thames here, once again it was a sunny evening with the makings of a good sunset and I was walking into it. I have done this walk before when training for the Kentish Kanter with my friend Phil Lush but I've not seen him for years.

The riverside walk eventually brings you to Coalhouse Fort  an artillery fort built in the 1860s to guard the lower Thames from seaborne attack. Opposite across the river is Cliffe Fort. Coalhouse Fort sits near the site of an earlier battery set up by Henry VIII.

The Estuary path takes you round the back of the fort (which opens at various times throughout the year) and enables you to get a good idea of its purpose and size, it's also a good idea to walk around the front by the moat to see the gun emplacements.

On the path back down to the river you pass the rapid fire battery, the last surviving examples in this country although it's pretty overgrown and then on the river front is an experimental radar station, which sits on the site of the Tudor battery.

And still the ships kept coming, soon I was walking past the decommissioned Tilbury Power Station, with its coal pier in the estuary, there were some lads fishing listening to loud music but they wished me a good evening, luckily the tide was low otherwise this part could have been a bit tricky as the evidence is that the path get flooded.

Once past the Power Station I next encountered the outer defences of Tilbury Fort, now this is very impressive, I've been here a couple of times using the little ferry from Gravesend. Tilbury fort was built to defend London rom attack from the sea, particularly during the Spanish Armada and the Anglo-Dutch Wars. The defences were fully rebuilt as a bastion fort in the late seventeenth century and it is the finest surviving example of the military archiitecture of that era in England. The first time I went here English Heritage put on a Napoleanic re-enactment, great fun. There's lot to explore and do at the fort, and that's back in the 1990's so I expect its even better now.

Along the path is the Worlds End pub, which I must say was not very inviting, there were loads of articulated lorries parked up all around the Pub.

Soon Tilbury Riverside was reached, there used to be a railway station here but the line has now been truncated, there still a Crusie Terminal which they have tried to make inviting with flower tubs and hanging baskets, but come on this is Tilbury a Container Port!

The walk back to Tilbury station was uninspiring, huge lorries thundering past but I did take out to time to watch a container unloading in operation.

I just had a few minute to visit the local off licence for a bar of chocolate and a soft drink before catching my train back to Limehouse.

On to 21st August and the last section which is either the 3rd or 2nd section depending on which direction you are going in. I started from Stanford-le-Hope, only 3.5 miles so I would clearly finish in the light, although it was proving difficult to take photos as I arrived at East Tilbury and it wasn't even 20:00.

I half expected this short walk to cover the same ground as the Pitsea to Stanford-le-Hope stage but I was pleasantly surproised although there was some overlap.

From the station I was directed through the the village/town and then onto Mucking (been here before) where I took the opportunity to pick some more blackberries, once past Mucking it was across the Mucking Marshes but along side the railway this time, where I was fortunately to see a double headed Class 66, which I filmed but my film got corrupted!

I saw a few people out walking there dogs today or jogging. Having passed what I call Mucking lakes, I expect it an old gravel pit but it has no name on my map, I was soon joining up with the path into East Tilbury and the station where I had a 20 minute for my train to Limehouse.

So that's the Thames Estuary Walk completed, very enjoyable, completed over a four week period and undertaken after work on a Friday evening, highly recommended, and oh and was I blessed with good weather, as I write this up on August Bank Holiday Monday!

Summer Holiday 2014 to Switzerland, Germany and France - Photo Book

A bit late but here's a photo book of my summer holiday to Switzerland and Germany!

www.albelli.co.uk/view-online-photo-book/968e74be-6b67-4a3d-bc19-958dfad556eb

Boat Train to Heysham Port

Mention of a Boat Train conjures up images of Pullman Coaches, Steam Trains, Silver Service, Champagne, The Golden Arrow, The Irish Mail, so when I discovered there is still a boat train in operation I just had to travel on it!

The boat train in question is Northern Rail's daily service from Leeds to Heysham Port on an exclusive Class 144 Pacer, total travel time 2 hours 35 minutes.

So having a game up at Morecambe on Saturday 31 January 2015 (Morecambe v AFC Wimbledon) I decided I would have a trip on the aforementioned Boat Train.

This meant an early departure catching the 05:37 from Falconwood in South East London, and the 07:03 East Coast Mainline Service to Leeds arriving at 09:24 ( a journey time of 2 hours 21 minutes).

Welcome to Leeds

As the Boat Train was not due to depart Leeds until 10:19 I had some time to explore the Station and local environs, unfortunately I seemed to slip into a time warp and for some reason believed the Heysham Port train left at 10:48 and as I was ambling back to Platform 2 to pick up a coffee and film the arrival of the "Boat Train" I glanced at the departure board and with horror noted the train was due to leave in 40 seconds! I sprinted as fast as I could (for a 57 year old) and just made it as the door hissed behind me.

I took a few minutes to catch my breadth and considered the consequences of my actions 1. No film of the train arriving, 2. No film of the train in the station, 3 no pictures of the departure board, all part of my filming master plan. Oh well at least I had caught it. The worse consequence is that the next train would have meant that I would have missed kick off!

It was a long journey through some stunning countryside and some interesting industrial architecture. It had been snowing and there was a layer of the white stuff on the higher ground making the views even nicer, the sun came out to provide me with blue skies. It was however very cold, but the Pacer was nice a warm. I located my self in the seats where you can store bikes and so had good views.

Snow capped moors

We called at 15 stations between Leeds and Heysham Port; Shipley, Bingley, Keighley, Skipton, Gargrave, Hellifield, Long Preston, Giggleswick, Clapham (North Yorkshire), Bentham, Wennington, Carnforth, Lancaster, Bare Lane and Morecambe. I was up and down at each stop to film the station, it was quite busy as passengers got on and got off at each stop. The busiest was Bentham, the quetiest was Long Preston with nil passengers either on or off.

Skipton Railway Station

11:00 Skipton to Heysham Port

We had a 8/9 minute stop at Skipton that enable me to do the filming I had missed at Leeds, I captured the departure board proudly announcing Heysham Port, by the time I got to Carnforth the departure board there was stating Heysham Harbour, the former name of the station. We held over at Carnforth  for 3/4 minutes.

Carnforth is of course famous for being the location for that marvellous film staring Treavor Howard and Cecil Johnson of unconsummated love 'A Brief Encounter'. The orginal clock still stands, still telling the correct time, the Refreshment Room is still in full swing, reproducing  mid 1940's style, although these scenes were filmed in the studio. Platform 4 at Carnforth is a rather splendid Art Deco design curving to the right with a lovely arched canopy in concrete.

The clock at Carnforth 12:00

It was a further 10 minutes to  Lancaster where we held up for almost 15 minutes, plenty of time for me to spend a penny, speaking of which it costs 40p to spend a penny in Leeds and only 30p at Kings Cross and by the way it's free to pee once your past the barriers at Leeds Station.

Morecambe

Morecambe was the penultimate stop where again we held over for a few minutes to allow the driver to

swap ends and the masses of AFC Wimbledon support to depart. Shortly after leaving Morecambe we stopped in the middle of nowhere, the guard opens the front passenger door and the driver descends to switch the points for the Heysham Branch, basically a siding off the Morecambe branch, although it must be said that this siding also serves the Nuclear Power stations at Heysham and there's a run round loop and headshunt at Morecambe.

Pacer at Heysham Port

Having arrived at Heysham Port all the passengers disembarked, that was me, the guy in the fluorescent jacket and the guy with untidy long hair. There are no passengers waiting to board the train which was not a surprise given there was no Isle of Man Ferry in port. 

On checking the ferry times to the train times there does not appear to be very much co-ordination at weekends, although the last time I was here a ferry was in port. Maybe they coordinate better for the summer time table. Anyway for the record here's the timings:

Heysham Port Railway Station

Isle of Man Steam Packet          

Saturday and Sunday

Heysham  to Douglas

02:15.           05:45

Douglas  to  Heysham

20:00.           23:30

Weekdays

Heysham to Douglas

02:15.          05:45

14:15.           19:45

Douglas to  Heysham

08:45.           12:15

Heysham Nuclear Power Stations

19:45.            23:15

Train Times

Monday to Friday

Leeds  to   Heysham Port

Arrive  13:01

Heysham Port to Leeds

Depart 13:17

Saturdays

Leeds to Heysham Port

Arrive 12:54

Heysham Port to Leeds

Depart 13:15

So coordinates with the 12:15 arrival from Douglas and the 14:15 depart for Douglas Monday to Friday not to bad really, after all no passenger trains run in the early hours.

Whilst I waited for the train to depart Fluorescent Jacketman and Untidy Hairman re boarded the train having taken a few photos,  failing to engage me in conversation! We all used the Ferry Terminal toilets which was open but not very busy, the terminal not the toilets!

So that's that I've got the boat train on film so there'
s no need to revist Heysham again, unless I decide to go to the Isle of Man.

See my videos of my trip here:

Part One 

Part Two

Part Three

Last Train to Westcombe Park

On Friday 9th January at 23:27 the last ever train pulled out of Westcombe Park for Waterloo East and Charing Cross and at 23:56 the last train from Charing Cross via Waterloo East departed for Westcombe Park and I don't think many people knew that!

23:27 for Charing Cross arriving at Westcombe Park

As part of the a Thameslink Programme a major re-build of London Bridge Station is taking place and as a result of this for the next 18 months trains for Charing Cross will not call at London Bridge, which I believe is commonly understood by your everyday commuter. What I don't think many people realise who travel from Westcombe Park, Maize Hill, Greenwich and Deptford line is that once the work is completed their trains will be permanently routed to Cannon Street.

Why is this? It's because the Greenwich line comes into London Bridge on the far left handside, when looking down the line towards Grenwich, so to get to Platforms 5 and 6 (the platforms for Charing Cross) it has to cross all the other lines, which is not very efficient operationally.

The notices at Westcombe Park advertised that from 11th January all trains would be re-routed to Cannon Street, however over the weekend of 9th/10th there were no services into Waterloo East or Charing Cross owing to engineering works, which made Friday's services the last.

Whilst I knew the trains were being re-directed I did not appreciate the engineering works until 853 pointed this out in his Blog of the 9th January.

Left hand side last train to Westcombe Park, right hand side last train from Westcombe Park

As for the two trips I made on the last trains the up journey was on time, with no awareness from other passengers as to the consequence of the trip. For the

last train from Charing Cross there appeared to be a little more awareness, well I saw three people taking photos or filming the event. One chap was at the front of the train filming the journey and when he got off at Deptford continued filming, you can see him on my video.

Last train to Westcombe Park

The train arrived at Westcombe Park on time and departed on time and on the Monday a new era commenced for Westcombe Park, Maize Hill, Greenwich and Deptford.

Here's my video of my journey on the last train from Westcombe Park to Charing Cross.

Here's my video of my journey on the last train from Charing Cross to Westcombe Park