Impromptu travels

This morning was cold and foggy and, after my bollocking last Wednesday, I had to be up quite early to boot. As a consequence of this early start I was half asleep most of the way to LIS, but here things became more interesting. The first thing I noticed was the Metropolitan line train I had just missed (in consequence of my early start and resulting lethargy) was a semi-fast train to Uxbridge. Some of you may remember that in one of my first posts I pointed out that semi-fast Uxbridge trains are quite uncommon. There was no problem that I was aware of this morning, so perhaps they are not as uncommon as I had thought - I'm not usually on the Met in time to catch the end of the morning peak services, so I'm not a very good judge. In fact, looking at the "Amersham/Chesham tube guide" it seems that, in the peaks, they're perfectly standard. All the same, a definite rarity for mine eyes, at least.

Anyway I got on a Hammersmith & City line train to Hammersmith and, again, there was nothing much to report - apart from a passenger who was unusually determined to squeeze her way up the carriage - through many people - to a spot presumably better suited to a fast exit. However, pulling into Euston Square I noticed an H&C train on the EB showing Barking as its destination which had its red lights on at the front of the train. (Usually, of course, as in a car, the red lights are at the back and white lights are at the front.) This was on the EB track heading EB but had its red lights on at the EB end of the train, as if it were heading WB. The driver was in the cab at the right end of the train, but he had red lights at the front. I have no idea what was happening, presumably a small problem, the train looked like it had been there a while, since passenger door operation was on. (On the new S stock, after a sufficiently long time, the doors will close automatically. This is to keep the heat in or - if the air conditioning's on - the cold in. Lights will then come on around the doors' buttons and lights by the doors in the carriage will stay on. Then, passengers can push the buttons and the doors will open. When it's time to leave, the driver closes up as normal. They'll check the monitors, check everything is clear and hit the buttons to close the doors. Any doors that are open will then close and no passenger will then be able to open the doors. This doesn't mean, though, that you can open the doors when the train stops before the driver - it's still the driver who opens the doors initially so pressing the buttons when the train stops still won't help you). Anyway, before heading off to class I waited to see what would happen. It's also worth pointing out that there are no reversing facilities at Euston Sq. I mean, there's a crossover much further up the line just outside King's X but I really doubt this train came from there, I'm guessing it was a fault. Anyway, the train was there for a little while and then the doors were closed and the train tried to pull away. Didn't get half a foot before it was stopped again, but on a second attempt it pulled away fine just as a Wembley Park train was pulling into the WB platform. Unlike semi-fast Uxbridge services I don't doubt that these aren't uncommon at rush hour. Still, as I'm not usually on the Met at rush hour, it was with a smile that I headed out of Euston Sq.

During a long and dull day, I received a text inviting me for coffee in Putney Bridge. The coffee and the conversation was very enjoyable, but so was the journey, and that's what this blog is about. The most obvious route was to take the Picc(adilly line) from Russell Square to Earl's Court and get the District from there. Getting the Picc from Russell Sq. is generally a lot quicker than going to Euston Sq, but I've been avoiding Russell Sq. recently because there are lift replacement works going on at the moment. There're three lifts at Russell Square and they're being replaced one by one. The first one has been replaced already and I quite like the new lift - it's much more modern, much more pleasant to ride in and the information displays are better. Apparently it's not very reliable though. Anyway, the upshot of this is that the station gets really crowded. I once arrived from Holborn (HOL) to find that one of the lifts was faulty (while another was being repaired), leaving us with one left. Never have I seen so many people in such a small space with nowhere to go.

Anyway, I braved Russell Square and it wasn't too bad. The Picc through central London is very nice. Rush hour means lots of people on the trains, of course, so one can't see as much as one might like to, but I'm a big fan of Covent Garden:

Covent Garden, with the very pleasant old tiles. (Image courtesy of "Sunil060902" (via Wikipedia))

Piccadilly Circus:

Piccadilly Circus on the Piccadilly line. (Image courtesy of "Sunil060902" (via Wikipedia))

And South Kensington:

The, I think, debonair tiles at South Kensington on the Piccadilly line. (Image courtesy of Mike Knell (via Wikipedia))

 There's also a crossover between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner which is worth a look.

I reached Earl's Court slightly later than I might have liked. On a tangential note, it was nice to have an opportunity to travel along a section of line I don't know very well (especially in anger and not for idle exploration); but I might have enjoyed it more off peak and if I wasn't looking at my watch quite so much. Anyway, never mind that, Earl's Court on the District line is very nice. It's very nice - it could do with slightly more improved methods of conveying service information to passengers, but the marvellous roof and those lovely blue signs indicating all possible destinations from the platforms are very nice indeed:

Earl's Court District line platforms 3 & 4. (Image courtesy of "mattbuck" (via Wikipedia))

I had a fairly brief wait for a train bound for Wimbledon. The train was D78 stock, which is used across the whole of the District line and is due for replacement by S7 stock soon. As the D78 stock is the most modern stock on the sub-surface lines and as it was only recently refurbished, it will be replaced last, however. Still, one S7 train is (or has been) in use on the District between Kensington (Olympia) and West Ham since 02/09. Anyway, that it was D stock indicates that it came via central London. This is because C stock is also used on the District line, but only between Edgware Road and Wimbledon (the "Wimbleware" branch) and, occasionally, C stock will also serve Kensington (Olympia). C stock are used in favour of D stock because the D stock trains were too long for the platforms between High Street Kensington and Edgware Road. S7 trains are, actually, longer still, but they have selective door opening which means that some doors will not open at these stations. On the D stock, though, there is no such capability and C77 stock were ordered to serve the Wimbleware. So, in short, had it been a C stock train, it would have originated from Edgware Road. It wasn't, so it came via central London.

Not that that really mattered. It's a nice little branch line and, in fact, just outside Putney Bridge station (although the bridge used is not actually Putney Bridge itself) is one of only two places where London Underground trains cross the River Thames by bridge (the other is also on the District line between Gunnersbury and Kew Gardens). It's a very nice trip over the Thames, too, but today I was getting off at Putney Bridge. It's quite an interesting station is Putney Bridge, with a central reversing platform (currently only big enough for C stock trains so that's gonna need some work doing on it when the S stock come in):

Putney Bridge with all three platforms (including the central reversing platform) clearly shown. (Image courtesy of "Sunil060902" (via Wikipedia))

Unfortunately it was dark and I was in a hurry so I didn't get to enjoy it all that much. Something to add, too, is that Putney Bridge is not terribly nice once you leave the platform and it was busy today because of the football.

Not that it matters much, the coffee was good, we soon headed back to Soho, had a pleasant dinner, a bit more coffee, and then I made my uneventful way back from Piccadilly Circus (although with a far from ideally short wait at WOO for the HAI train, but ho hum, I'm used to that by now).