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To the frozen north!

Another long journey today. Left home to catch 0904 from Euston to Liverpool Lime Street. Had a short walk into the city and thanks to the Government scheme to help the hospitality sector I walked into Cafe Nero and was charged around £2.50 for a coffee and buttered scone with jam. Walked back to station to catch 1254 ro Manchester Victoria but due to a train fault we did not leave until 1325. Upon arrival I was able to catch a train through to Piccadilly Gardens and then walked through to Manchester Piccadilly Station. I had reserved a seat on 1535 but managed to catch 1455. I boarded one of the coaches marked for unreserved seats. The train manager was in there and said it was for staff only. I explained my situation and showed my free pass and without saying a word I was told to sit in first class. So back to London in luxury.

All right for some…..

But not really….

Euston….

Liverpool Lime Street.  Nicely redeveloped frontage….

Like the old 319 Thameslink unit cascaded all the way to Liverpool.

And one at Manchester Victoria….

Manchester Victoria….

With trams….

Piccadilly Gardens…..

And Manchester Picadilly….

Still short of blogging ideas, and coming down from watching Arsenal win the FA Cup, again.  So thank you Ron, for a few more pictures…..

A day spent mainly on the buses.

Walked down to Tesco’s thing morning and caught the bus to Redhill. From there I took the first non-local service, which took me to Crawley. After a short break I took the Worthing bound bus to Horsham. From there it was a bus to Dorking. As the bus turned into Dorking High Street I saw a red TfL bus parked up so getting off at the next stop I discovered it was on a service to Kingston. It arrived 10 minutes later and I took it to Surbiton. Entering the station I found a fast to Clapham Junction was pulling in so jumped on and made the fast service from there home.

Phew!  Ron barely took breath!!  Should have waved to us as you passed Redhill.  Looks as if there is a rail replacement service by the bus in the background.  Now if I had a pound for every time I’ve waited for a bus here in Redhill….

Another spot full of romance – Crawley bus station.

At least Horsham has some rather nice flowers….

Dorking is the one place locally that has kept a lot of character in the main street…..

And so to Surbiton.  Despite the name being a source of amusement, the station is far more impressive than Swindon last time out.  Looks more at home in Los Angeles than south-west London.  It would make an interesting model, too.

In the words of Jimmy Young (that dates me) “Orft we jolly well go”….

Left home to catch 1048 from Paddington to Swindon.  Leaving station,  walked to the bus station to catch the 2 hourly X5 service to Salisbury.  A most enjoyable 2 hour journey via Marlborough, Pewsey and Amesbury through delightful Wiltshire countryside and villages.  Best of all I had the front seats on the upper deck. Word of warning.  Do not have an accident in Swindon as the hospital is at least 5 miles from the town centre.  Arriving in Salisbury I walked to the station for the 1447 train back to Clapham for train home.

Once again, Paddington Station.  Lots of trains, and no people!

Swindon station.  Not a trace of the old GWR to be seen….

Malborough….

Pewsey….

And Salisbury….

To the station and home.  Looking at Ron’s pictures, one thing does stand out – privatisation of transport has generated a nearly endless selection of liveries for trains and buses.

There seems to be some confusion here.  Ron think’s he’s roving.  Allan claims that he’s ranting.  I wondered whether he was raving!  Whatever – Ron’s on the road again….

A day when plans had to be altered as I went along. Went via Victoria to Paddington to catch 0904 to Newton Abbot where due to a technical problem we arrived just over 10 minutes late. I went outside the station to catch an advertised 12 minute interval service to Paignton but had to wait 20 minutes for a bus. At Paignton I walked down to the seafront and had an enjoyable takeaway sitting in a seafront shelter followed by an ice cream on my way back to town.  Then my luck changed when I found a direct train to Paddington about to pull away so I jumped on and will now be back in London an hour earlier than planned.

[Edit] Great comment from a friend of Ron’s on email….

“First time I ever heard of someone being stalked by an ice cream. I imagine it probably went into meltdown trying to keep up with you Ron.” 

Starting at a deserted Victoria.  I know train travel has dramatically reduced, but these pictures still surprised me.

On to Paddington, with a good number of trains at the platforms – one per passenger by the looks of it!

A grey Exe estuary.

A slightly brighter Dawlish.  Good to see the Great British Public socially distancing – or maybe there just weren’t many people about?

Newton Abbot.  The sun looks like it’s crept out at last.

A pleasant Torquay harbour, seen from the bus.

And so to Paignton Station, with a pleasantly rural, almost GWR feel to it.

Wasn’t expecting anything from Ron till next week, but fortunately here’s another contribution.  Good job too, as I was clean out of ideas for the blog this week.

Did not expect to go out today as an engineer was coming to service our boiler but he had gone by 12.30 so decided to take a fairly local trip. Took train to London Bridge then tube to Bank for DLR to Becton changing at Westferry. Unfortunately due to COVID it no longer possible to travel at the very front of the train. From Beckton took a bus to Barking and what appeared to be a tour of the area doubling back on more than one occasion to serve retail centres/supermarkets. From Barking it was train to West Ham for tube to London Bridge for train home.

Once again we start in deepest Purley.  A good shot of one of the NHS supporting carriages.  They’d make a good model.

More conventionally coloured Southern units at Norwood Junction.

London Bridge Station.  Despite the occasional critique as to the remote location of the toilets, I think this is a superb development.  Though I did rather like it in the 1960’s, with antique EMU’s running out of the Brighton side.

Docklands Light Railway trains at Westferry.

The DLR deport at Poplar.

DLR and buses at Beckton.  Ron, you do visit some exotic places.  My professional interest in Beckton was that it has a massive sewage treatment works, dealing with the northern half of central London.  I analysed the hydraulics of some parts of it.  It all comes out into the Thames through the prosaically named Northern Outfall Sewer.  I recall my father saying, “He’d fall into the Northern Outfall Sewer and come out covered in roses.”

And trains at Barking.  Never heard of ‘C2C’ before – I must live a sheltered life….

It’s about the time of year we would usually get lots of exotic holiday snaps and pictures of Swiss cakes from Allan and Ron.  But Covid-19 has rather put pay to that.  Ron writes:

Following the need to cancel our Swiss holiday at end of May due to COVID19, I am having to take my 2 weeks summer leave during the next 2 weeks.

I am therefore taking day trips using my rail staff perks and bus pass. Today I travelled to Guildford. From there I took the bus to Alton for a connecting bus to Winchester. Due to engineering  work there are no trains south of Winchester, so by the skin of my teeth just managed to catch the hourly train back to London. This was a short trip to get me in the mood for my planned longer trips during the next 2 weeks

So we have some exotic English countryside coming up over the next couple of weeks!  And with typical English summer weather, too….

Starting in deepest Purley….

Clapham Junction, gateway to almost anywhere with a replacement bus service….

Guildford.  They are trying to redevelop all this area.  Please to see the local natives are all wearing masks.  Probably just trying to hide from Ron?

I spent a fair amount of time over the years standing on here waiting for a train back to Redhill, having lectured at Surrey University….

Broadway, Winchester. King Arthur statue in background.  Pity it wasn’t a King Arthur locomotive…..

Winchester bus station….

And Winchester station.  It has kept some of its character from steam days….