Track bash May 2022

Day 7 (Saturday)

East Grinstead to Cambridge

Last updated 2022-05-27

Last day, so the overriding requirement is to get back to Huntingdon early enough that my wife and daughter can pick me up before the latter's bedtime.

This is basically a ride around Kent, with three widely-separated lines to travel on. The first of these is the direct line to Hastings (the one with the narrow tunnels). The section from Tonbridge to Tunbridge Wells is being bustituted, but luckily I'd done that many years ago, when the line between Tunbridge Wells and Eridge was still open. The second is the line from Dover to Ramsgate, while the third is the Sheerness branch. Unfortunately, at present the branch is only served from one direction even though there are connections from both.

An early enough start means that there's just time, coming back from Sheeness, to go via Abbey Wood and ride the length of the Elizabeth Line (which opened on Tuesday) and then back to Farringdon to catch a train to Huntingdon. However, there's no time to stop and look around and, far more importantly, there's no margin for things to go wrong. So, to play safe, I need to cut out one of these four lines. Based on mileage, I plump for Sheerness.

There's a ticket inspection on the way in from East Grinstead. The woman doing it looks puzzled at my ticket, eventually saying she can't find the destination station on it (of course, there isn't one). At East Croydon the train planners had told me to change platforms for a London Bridge train. This is always a pain here - it's a long walk up a ramp to the barrier area then another long walk back down, pushing or pulling my suitcase all the way. But in fact the first London Bridge train is on the same platform as the East Grinstead train was; it's just arriving too quickly for the planners to accept it as a connection.

The new concourse at London Bridge is a long down. At a guess, it's at least two stories below the bay platforms and three below the through ones. It's not the first time I've been there, but it's the first time I've had time to stop and look around. On platform 6 there are two boxes on the wall, labelled with the signal numbers in each direction. They have four circular things on, labelled "OFF", "PoSA", "CD", and "RA". I'm not clear if they're push buttons (and wasn't going to test them). There is some circuitry behind each one, with two tiny LEDs that are hardly visible when lit. I know what the four terms mean, but I'm not at all clear what these boxes are for.

Tonbridge station is under an almost complete possession with work trains everywhere; only platform 4, a bay on the north side, is open. There are buses to Tunbridge Wells, Paddock Wood, and - I assume but didn't notice - to somewhere on the Redhill line. It's the usual chaos, not helped by the fact that the station opens on to a road bridge over the railway and the buses all need to do a 180 degree turn at a mini-roundabout.

The run down to Hastings and then along the coast went fine. But at Ashford everything fell apart. There is apparently a major signalling problem east of Ashford, plus someone walking on the track somewhere, and absolutely nothing is running eastwards. At this point I'm on platforms 5 and 6. In 6 there's a down "Javelin" service to Ramsgate that can't go anywhere. In 5 there's an up Victoria train which is stuck because it should be changing drivers and the new driver is stuck somewhere in the problem. Eventually they split the Javelin and send both parts into the sidings. It's clear that I won't have time to do the Dover to Ramsgate section (in either direction) and a quick check shows that the Sheerness branch will take well over 2 hours to get to (you have to go via Ebbsfleet in this mess), eating up all my reserves. So when an up train from Folkestone to St.Pancras comes into 6, I get on it and head for London, figuring out I can spend longer on the Elizabeth Line. (The train in platform 5 left 20 minutes late and had 10 of its 11 intermediate stops cancelled, though it seems it did make one of those 10 anyway.)

As we're approaching Stratford International, it suddenly strikes me that there might be time to get to Southminster and back. A quick check shows it's plausible, so I decide to go for it as a consolation prize. Off at International and a walk through the shopping centre to Regional means I'm in plenty of time for the next service to Southend Victoria, changing at Wickford for Southminster (there have been through services since the branch was electrified, but I suspect only in the peaks).

Coming back I go all the way to Liverpool Street. I'm not sure whether my ticket includes the Elizabeth Line, but decide to try it out. As usual, the barriers (both the NR and LU ones) don't accept my ticket, but the member of staff on the gateline lets me through without commenting. I follow the signs to the Elizabeth Line and descend to the platforms. I ride first to Abbey Wood, then the other way to Paddington, then back again as Tottenham Court Road. At Abbey Wood I notice that the trains have their headcode ("9U30" in the first case) shown on the displays on the side of the train, though one of them had "8Y00", which I'm sure is not a passenger train headcode (perhaps it's used while reversing in the sidings west of Paddington).

I ponder riding down the Northern Line to Battersea Power Station, as I haven't been there yet, but in the end conclude there isn't enough time, so take one more Elizabeth Line train one stop to Farringdon, where I use Thameslink to get to St.Pancras and thus King's Cross (this turns out to be the same train as the first one of day 1). I had intended to go back to Huntingdon, for no good reason, but the service is in a mess and there's a fast to Cambridge soon, so I catch that and get Linda and Mia to pick me up at Cambridge North.

And so it ends. See the cover page for some statistics.

Today's trains table

Today's route table

New lines today

• Tunbridge Wells to Hastings
• Wickford to Southminster
• Paddington to Abbey Wood

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