Giving my wife a good day out down at the Epping and Ongar Railway Diesel Gala Weekend! - Sunday 27th April

Beverley likes to be taken out, wined and dined, and visit interesting and rewarding places, unfortunately I don't think the Epping and Ongar Railway Diesel Gala Weekend was what she had in mind!

I had promised, in response to her question "What shall we do about eating as I've got nothing in for dinner", that's ok we will eat out and I duly provided a Ginster Pasty, a bar of chocolate and a cup of tea and a cup of coffee, a meal fit for a Princess!

I had always wanted to travel on the Central line between Epping and Ongar, it appeared so remote, especially when I was living in South West London at the end of the District Line. Even as a youngster, me and my friends regularly took advantage of the Red Rovers for 50p, which gave you travel on the entire bus network and the combined Bus and Underground Rover, which cost slightly more expensive but we never got as far as Epping or indeed Ongar, we always used to gravitate to St Albans. So unfortunately I never got around to before the Line closed in 1994. Beverley and myself did get as far as Epping on a Bus from North Woolwich in the late seventies but it never dawned on me to get the tube to Ongar then. I do remember being very ill on the way home to SW20!

Beverley and Me at Epping Bus Station late '70s - another one of my 'interesting trips'

Anyway enough of the old days, back to today. I've never been to one of these Gala Weekends and certainly in the past I would have given a Diesel Gala a wide berth had I even thought of going. Diesels not being very high on priority list. However, since I become re-interested in trains again, although I don't think I ever not been interested its just that I take a lot more interest now days, I find I'm nostalgic   for them.

I think what has happened is that back in the early eighties when I was interested in trains Diesels were one a penny and ran everywhere and I was still harking back to the steam days, but now some 35 years later the Diesels are just as old as the steam trains were when I was in my twenties back in the early '80s.

So with renewed interest we set off for Epping, I would have liked to have gone by tube that that would have been pushing it just a little bit to far so we drove to Epping and caught the vintage bus to North Weald where the action was happening.

Vintage Bus at Epping Station

I must say I thought that the E&O put on an absolutely first class show, they had five classes of diesels:

1. Class 37 (D6729)
2. Class 205 (205205) slam door, brought back some old memories!
3. Class 31 (31438)
4. Class 47 (47635)
5. Class 20 (20048)



Class 47

Class 205

Class 37

Class 20

Class 31

They ran an interesting and varied timetable that involved a lot of engine movements in and out of sidings, running around trains, standing in sidings, double headers, top and tailing thus providing plenty of photo opportunities, just ask Beverley about the great photos she took for me!

I think there were about 10 different train formations on the Sunday, with a total of 20 train movements backs and forwards between Coopersale and Ongar, starting at 09:30 from North Weald and finishing at 18:05 at North Weald. All for the princely sum of £14 if purchased on the day and £12 if purchased in advance.

I was quite surprised that the line ran through extensive countryside and it seems rather bizarre that red and silver tube trains could have been seen trundling up and down the route up until 1994, in fact the views were some of the best from a heritage railway I've been on with views across the Essex countryside. Another surprising thing was that the line had quite a steep gradient reaching 120 feet above sea level.

The station buildings are very attractive and decked out in a style of the LNER in the 40's. There's a couple of signal boxes and assorted wagons and coaches in various stages of repair along the route of the railway. Needless to say there are ambitions to link up with Epping in due course.

There's a nice little gift shop at Ongar where I purchased the Middleton Press' Branch Line to Ongar which will be enjoyable reading together with a secondhand book, a mouse mat and Beverley purchased a Dads Army tea towel for her Dad 'He likes washing up, he likes the war and he likes Dad Army - just the thing" she said.

Beverley can now look forward to the Step Back in Time event on 14/15 June when the railway reverts to Steam and the lead up to D-Day 1944 - now that should be fun, we can bring Beverley's Mum and Dad!  Ian will enjoy it I'm sure!

Crossing the Thames - No 4 Canada Water to Canary Wharf using the Jubilee Line - Friday 25th April 2014

So number four crossing today, however it really means crossing the Thames three times to get me from EC2 to SE9. First of all there's Tower Bridge to cross to get to the south side and the onward walk to Canada Water (somewhere I've never been to before - last time I went to Decathlon, Canada Water did not exist and I used Surrey Quays on the old East London Line) and back cross to the south side via the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. I will cover off the Greenwich Foot Tunnel on a future Blog, as for Tower Bridge I did that one first on 4th April, my have to re-visit!

I approached Canada Water from Surrey Quays Road passing the impressive Surrey Commercial Dock's Superindents' Building, site of a huge fire following the first German raid of the blitz on 7th September 1940.

Surrey Commercial Dock's Superindents' Building

I was quite taken aback by the size of Canada Water transport hub which includes the Jubilee Line, Overground and Buses. I had seen this previously, well the roof, whilst walking from Rotherhithe Station the other week, and whilst I thought it was most probably a Bus Station I had no idea it was in fact Canada Water. I was really surprised how close Canada Water is to Rotherhithe station.

The second surprise was that the hub had toilets, which lead me onto not surprised to find the them locked, and I that point I need them as I had had a couple of drinks before leaving work, oh well I had to hold on a little longer.

The third and biggest surprise was the size of the Station itself, its massive a huge circular hole in the ground with a glass and metal 'lid'. All of the stations on the Jubilee Line extension are of huge proportions, all concrete and glass and very impressive with it.

I descended the first set of escalators to the first concourse which houses the Overground Railway platforms, these were very busy with passengers waiting to get on the trains, why I'm not to sure. There's a lot of residential properties granted, but commercial office buildings there's none as far as I could see, maybe people just want to get away from Rotherhithe or maybe they had all been shopping in the Surrey Quays Shopping Centre.

The escalator to the Jubilee Line was under going maintenance so I had to use the stairs to get to the Jubilee platforms. In common with all the stations on the Jubilee Line extension the platform edges are protected by a glass wall with automatic doors lining up with the train doors. As a result of this I was unable to film the trains entering the tunnel so the next best thing was to film the actual journey, which I duly did. It looks as if the the chap sitting on the left hand seat has clocked me!

A short video of the journey on the tube

The journey took about two minutes to arrive at Canary Wharf, which is another huge station even bigger than Canada Water but then it is in the centre of the docklands development. There's two exits from Canary Wharf station and I had to make sure I took the right one to ensure I was at the South Dock end and not Canada Square end.

Up escalator Canary Wharf

The huge Canary Wharf Station

From Canary Wharf I made for Island Gardens and the Greenwich Foot Tunnel arriving home at 20:30 but not after pointing out to a couple of tourists in Greenwich Park where the meridian was.

Plymouth Awaydays - Sunday & Monday 20/21 April 2014

Easter Sunday

It's Easter and AFC are away at Plymouth, sounds like an extended Awayday to Devon!

So at about 09:15 on Sunday 20 April we set off, the weathermans forecast was for rain to commence at 10:00, and right on key it came and it duly rained all the way to Devon and beyond.


Rain on the M3

Beverley had made a packed lunch so on route we stopped off at Barrington Court, a National Trust property in Somerset, apparently one of the first they acquired in 1907. Apparently I t was a bit of a wreck, but they leased it to the Lyle family (of Tate and Lyle fame) who did it up and spent lots of money on it as their family home, laying out the gardens and installing bathrooms etc. The National Trust now present the property as if it was ready for sale, so no furniture, it's just like walking through a vacant property and deciding if you want to put in a bid.

Barrington Court



Strode Hall

Next to Barrington Court and joined by a corridor is Strode House, former occupants, and
formerly a stable block but now houses the Restaurant and living accommodation on the first floor.
The gardens were delightful even in the rain!

Next stop was Chagford, a pleasant former stannery town on the edge of Dartmoor. Apart from the cafés, bistros and restaurants everywhere else was closed. The primary objective for going to Chagford was to visit the Pepperpot Art Gallery where we regularly (well twice) purchase watercolours of the local area which have been painted by not so well known artists from the late 19th and early 20th Century, and over the last year we've become quite friendly with Richard the proprietor, however as previously mentioned it was closed, oh well that's saved me a few quid.



Chagford town centre

However, the Birdcage was open, this is a very charming bistro / cafe which we have visited before. Nicely decorated and with a good menu. Today we treated ourselves to a Cream Tea, Yummy very tasty, and the first cup of tea was a delight, the water is so much better than in London, straight off the moor!

We were actually staying near Okehampton at Sourton, last year we stayed at the Mill End Hotel near Moretonhampstead, this year we slummed it in the Travelodge!

Sourton Travelodge

You can't fault a Travelodge, you know what your going to get, and in this case a large room, a very comfey bed, bathroom, TV, tea making facilities and half an hours free wi-fi!  Given its close proximity to the A38 it was remarkably quite. The building it's self is rather unsympathetic with the surroundings, almost modern brutalist, sharing a plot with the obligatory Little Chef, however the Prewley Moor Arms was just across the road offering real ale and home cooked food.

That's the Pub across the A38, you can just make out the route people take under the broken fence

Unfortunately the road was a duel carriageway, the A38, and even if we choose to walk the 'long way round' there were no paths or pavements. The Pub is situated at the end of a road where the new A38 was driven through cutting the road off so it now leads to nowhere, must have done a lot for business. There's a small Caravan / Camping site next to the pub and the granite way runs behind, which is the route of the old LSWR mainline to the West via Exeter, Okehampton, Tavistock to Plymouth. Lots of talk of re-opening this line following the storms early in the year and the cutting off of the railway at Dawlish.

Anyway back to Prewley Moor Arms and the need for us to drive to the pub! We enjoyed a couple of pints of local brew, Dartmoor Ale and Legand from the Dartmoor Brewery based in Princetown. The food is all locally sourced produce, apparently we had to wait awhile for our food but to be honest I did not really notice. I had gammon, chips, salad and egg, the thickest piece of gammon I've ever had, a good 1 1/4 cm thick, whilst Beverley had beef lasagne. Very enjoyable. I think the meal, coffee and five drinks cost £40 (this really should be posted on Tip Advisor shouldn't it!).

Suitably fed and watered we returned to the Tavelodge, and it was still raining.

Good night dear see you tomorrow.

Easter Monday

After a marvellous nights sleep, we were up early and down to Meldon reservoir (I was quite surprised to night that the reservoir was not as full as I expected it to be) for a brisk walk down to quarry across the impressive viaduct that used to carry the railway and back to the car and a drive into Chagford for breakfast at the Birdcage, Full English, toast and black coffee.

Meldon Viaduct

Meldon Dam

Then next door to visit Richard at the Pepperpot, Beverley examined the paintings while I chatted to Richard, it turns out we both used to work for NatWest although Richard started with the National Provincial.

So much for saving a few quid we left Richard promising to return later in the summer, our wallets empty but clutching a couple of paintings by Frederick Parr

A few weeks ago Beverley had been where she shouldn't have been in eldest daughter's bedroom and unfortunately knocked over a butterfly tee-light which shattered into a number of small pieces and even my skill with the glue failed to repair it. So with the promise of a replacement we visited the Marble Factory at Bovey Tracey as this is where Eldest had originally purchased it, unfortunately we were unsuccessful, but we were reward with a Mini Cooper Rally!

Mini Cooper Rally at Bovey Tracey

I Don't generally drive to football preferring to travel by train, indeed I had originally booked a Travelodge in Plymouth City centre with this in mind, however with the prohibitive cost of the trains, even three months in advance and then the cutting off of railway I changed my plans. Whilst this has given us more flexibility I'm currently writing this on the A303 in a traffic jam approaching Stonehenge and still a good two hours drive to go, it doesn't seem quite a good idea now!

Anyway back to the Football, as I said I don't drive to many games and when I do I try to avoid the club car park on two scores, one they charge and two you can't get out after the game. So I parked up a little street twenty minutes walk from the ground next to a park, which I guess is also known as Home Park the home of Plymouth Argyle.

Home Park is modern and ancient, three sides are Cantilever continuous seating and very impressive too, whilst the remaining side is the original stand, with a huge empty unused expanse of terracing in front.

The Ancient

The Modern

AFC, despite what a number of our supporters would be believe are on quite a good little run, I think it's now only two defeats in eleven games and we are in the top seven or eight of the from league. Today was a well deserved 2-1 victory after once again going 1-0 down to a wonder strike from 25 yards by Conor Hourihane after seven minutes, but cancelled out by the ever popular Jack Midson after great work by Kwesi Appiah. We got the winner midway though the second half following a good move and for once one of our players winning a one on one with the Keeper, the scorer being Kwesi Appiah.

It was a great all round performance, so much better than the first half on Good Friday, we never really looked in trouble even when Argyle threw on two six foot plus strikers and when they did break through Ross Worner, our keeper, made some top notch saves.

We are now mathematically safe from regulation, but the division is so tight a couple of more victories would have put in with a shout of the play offs! So we can now enjoy the last couple of games of the season.

A very pleasant break, non stop for the two days, a lot achieved a lot of money spent, a couple of new paintings and three more points, shame about this damn traffic!

Rotherhithe Tunnel - Walking Home on a Friday - Thursday 17 April 2014

Every Friday since 3rd January I have walked home from work in EC2 to SE9, it's generally just over 9 miles and takes anything between 2.5 and 3 hours, normally the latter, and I vary my route each time.

A couple of weeks ago I decided that I would walk home using every crossing between and including Tower Bridge and the QEII Bridge at Dartford (how I'm going to walk to the Dartford Bridge is still a bit of a mystery to me, as the bus that crosses the QEII bridge finishes at 20:00), I've worked out that there are 22 ways to cross the Thames between these two points.

1. Tower Bridge - completed 4th April
2. Wapping to Rotherhithe (Overground Railway) - completed 11th April
3. Rotherhithe Road Tunnel - completed 17th April
4. Canada Water to Canary Wharf (Jubilee Line)
5. Hilton Docks to Canary Wharf Ferry
6. Greenland Pier Ferry to Masthouse Pier (Thames Clipper)
7. Masthouse Pier Ferry to Greenwich Pier Ferry (Thames Clipper)
8. Island Gardens to Cutty Sark (DLR)
9. Greenwich Foot Tunnel
10. Canary Wharf to North Greenwich (Jubilee Line)
11. Greenwich Pier to North Greenwich Pier (Thames Clipper)
12. Blackwell to Greenwich (Road Tunnel)
13. Greenwich to Blackwell (Road Tunnel)
14. Canning Town to North Greenwich (Jubilee Line)
15. Excel to O2 Cable Car
16. North Greenwich Pier t the Royal Arsenal Woolwich Pier (Thames Clipper)
17. Woolwich Ferry
18. Woolwich Tunnel
19. King George V to Woolwich Arsenal (DLR)
20. Dartford to Purfleet (Dartford Tunnel - Bore 1)
21. Dartford to Purfleet (Dartford Tunnel - Bore 2)
22. Purfleet to Dartford (QEII Bridge)

Tower Bridge from Rotherhithe

Wapping Tunnel - its a single bore tunnel

So on Thursday 17th April it was the turn of the Rotherhithe Tunnel, ok it was a Thursday, but given the 18th was Good Friday I think this is acceptable!

I left work at 16:50 and made for the north side of the Tunnel. I had previously worked out that although its slightly longer walk this way as I walk back on myself it would be easier and I can then walk directly home via New Cross, Deptford Creek DLR, Blackheath Hill and Shooters Hill.

Most probably choosing the day before the Easter Break was not the best day to walk through the tunnel as I expect it was busier than normal as people pack their bags and make a get away from the Big City for the Easter Break.

There are no restrictions to walking or cycling through the tunnel, although I had read that it's best to walk in the direction of the traffic and keep close to the wall as cyclists tend to use the pavement, this proved to be correct and at one point a cyclist went past me so close he brushed against me and almost immediately nearly collided with a car.

There's a long approach road down into the Tunnel a throw back to when horses used the tunnel, it then levels out and heads for the other side with a number of bends, apparently this was to prevent the horses bolting if they saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

There are a number of access points as you walk through the tunnel with steps to the surface so the tunnel must be underground as opposed to under river for longer than I expected.

So what's it like walking through the tunnel, frankly awful I would not recommend it to anyone, how cyclists and motorbikers do it regularly I don't know, its disgusting, fumes, fumes and more fumes. I took the precaution of wearing a mask around my mouth, but it was not a very good idea for someone who suffers from Asthma! But it had to be done!

Apparently its 3,689 feet long (1,125 metres) and was opened in 1908 by the Prince of Wales. I'm not the only fool to walk through the tunnel as Caroline's Miscellany and El Director! will prove!

A Tornado to Southend - Saturday 12 April 2014

An early start today, up at 05:00 to catch the train to whisk me off to London Bridge on route to Kings Cross to catch up with the A1 Pacific Tornado which is on a charter trip 'The White Rose' to York. scheduled to leave at 07:48. My early start rewards me with a marvellous sunrise.

Sunrise over Falconwood Fields

My plan is to get close up to the engine at Kings Cross and then catch the 07:26 to Alexandra Palace where I can film the engine steaming through the station.

I visit one of the adjacent platforms so that I can get a good shot of the engine and coaches resplendent in Crimson and Cream, whilst the Tornado is lined out in a very catching Blue Colour, I expect it has a proper name! Behind me are a couple of East Coast Mainline Class 91's - 'The Power and the Glory' to use the title of a Eddie & the Hot Rods song.

I had time to visit the platform were the train was 'parked up', with the Class 67 at the back of the train where it had brought in the coaches meant that the Tornado was off platform so not ideal for photos but I managed a couple.

A1 Pacific Tornado at Kings Cross Station

I was quite surprised at how few people were there, maybe the early hour, mind you not many people had boarded the train at this time either. I've promised my wife a trip on one of these charter trip, First Class of course, one day dear, one day. Interesting to note that one of the Royal Train liveried Class 67's was on Thunderbird Duty

Ok off to platform 11 for the train to Alley Pally (Alexandra Palace) I arrive in plenty of time to find a good spot, there's a handful of 'enthusiasts' present, there 's a bit of sun haze but given the time 07:45 it's pleasantly warm. Whilst wandering up the platforms I spy a Class 08 in the East Coast depot adjacent to Platform 1, so I dash off to get some footage but end up going the wrong way and
by the time I get there it's disappeared, damn a missed opportunity, but I get my reward later in the day.

Tornado is scheduled at 08:01 but steams through ahead of schedule at about 07:59. The excitement is over in 38 seconds. See my video here.

12 minutes until my return trip to Kings Cross, film a couple of East Coast and Capital Connect trains and chat to an 'enthusiasts' who travelled down from Wellingborough at 05:15 this morning. He tells me Tornado was 8 minutes early passing Barnet, oh and he got some photos of the 08!

I arrived back home at about 09:30 ready to leave again at 11:15 for part two of my day - Southend
here I come!

AFC Wimbledon are away at Roots Hall home of Southend United, currently my least favourite ground. But first I need to meet Ron, we meet on the 11:37 at Falconwood make our way to London Bridge where I go into auto mode and end up going to the tube when in fact we want a bus!

First a couple of pints in the Merchant of Bishopsgate on Liverpool Street Station, quite a pricy pub but with my bite card I get 20% off which makes it cheaper than Kingsmeadow, sorry Cherry Red Stadium!

The Merchant of Bishopsgate, Liverpool Street Station

Then it's the 13:29 from Platform 14 to Prittlewell, ETA 14:30, after all I don't want to spend too much time in Southend. We meet up with Erik at Stratford. On route we pass the re-vamped Queen
Elizabeth Park aka the Olympic Park, apparently it's very impressive, so much so that Diamond 
Geezer has done almost a whole weeks worth of blogs!

The future home of West Ham United

As for the football, AFC gain a great 1-0 victory thanks to a Jack Midson penalty midway through the second half and we hold out for a very welcome victory in our fight to avoid relegation, although almost three quarters of the league are in the same position. The defeat puts a dent in Southend's play-off hopes. Even if they make the play-offs, which I expect they will, I don't think they will get promoted as they are not that good based on today's performance. So a return to Southend looks on the cards again, although Southend are hopeful of moving grounds. Already a number of buildings around the ground are bricked up in anticipation of re-development.

Jack Midson hits the back of the net - 1-0!

So it was a return to London on 17:32 a and I parted ways with Ron and Erik at Startford as I progressed to Liverpool Station Station