High Street Kensington

Today, I was meeting a friend for lunch at High Street Kensington. Today, it was also raining. As is becoming something of a recurring theme in the world of TUT, the WOO train beat me to ROV and it was happily sat in the platform by the time I made it. Having learned from past experience, I didn't dawdle, but didn't hurry either, expecting it to pull off without me. I made it over the bridge and onto the platform with it still sitting there and touched in. That's when the doors started peeping. So I broke one of my own rules and made a bit of a dash, since the train was so close and it was such a long wait for the next one. I made it through the doors - result - and promptly skidded on the floor that was wet from the rain. I did manage to stay on my feet, but left my dignity on the platform and frightened a fellow passenger somewhat. My own fault. Take care out there, "platforms and stairs may become slippery when wet" and so, it seems, may trains. When they say stand clear of the closing doors, stand clear - you risk doing yourself an injury and damaging the doors, which'll eventually break them and the train'll need to be taken out of service. Not a good thing. Normally, I would practice what I preach, but today I took the opportunity to reinforce the lesson for myself :P Certainly, it's not a good idea to make a mad dash - scattering fellow commuters - in the middle of the city when the next train's 1 and a half minutes away. I like to think my faux pas was a little more excusable, but still. Lesson sort of learned.

After that, it was plain sailing all the way to Notting Hill Gate (which is definitely NHG (I checked :P)), which is a real favourite of mine and I was delighted to have a look round such a beautiful station again. Some of you may remember this picture from post 1:

Notting Hill Gate on the Circle and District lines. (Image courtesy "HTUK" (via Wikipedia))

Quite a treat for me :P I was early so I  let a Circle line train go and then boarded a District line train to Putney Bridge. Regular readers may also remember that these are rare during the week, so that was also nice. On Sundays and public holidays, though (which I imagine was the reason for mine today) they're a lot more plentiful.

High Street Kensington is, of course, just one stop away and is also a fascinating station, with bay platforms used for terminating trains (when the shuttle to Kensington (Olympia) is running (which it wasn't today, I believe), it usually terminates here and other trains can be short turned here if necessary). There're also the triangle sidings out of sight just outside the station. Anyway, it's a lovely place to be, too:

High Street Kensington. (Image courtesy "Oxyman" (via Wikipedia))

Consequently, I stayed there and let a couple of trains go by before heading off to the restaurant, arriving just slightly early. Perfect way to adjust the timings :P

Well, anyway, it was a lovely afternoon and then we were back on the trains just as things were starting to go wrong on that part of the line. I'm not sure why, and can't remember the full extent of the problems, but i believe there were big problems (possibly no service at all) on the Circle line anti-clock and minor delays clockwise (not so bad as we needed to go clockwise). The District was also out of action between Earl's Court and Aldgate East unless I'm very much mistaken. Actually, I could be wrong, but I think it might have been a signal failure at Embankment that was the culprit. Well, whatever the case, it meant a slight wait at High Street Kensington, during which a D stock train arrived and terminated on platform 4 (the second of the two bay platforms, which can't be easily seen in the picture above, but is to the right of those blue railings on the extreme right, here's a better view:

Platform 4 at High Street Kensington. Platform 3 is to the left of the railings and platform 2 (which is where we were standing) is on the other side. Like, say, platforms 2 and 3 at Moorgate, it's the same physical structure - platform 3 is the right hand half of the platform (from our perspective) and platform 2 is the left hand half

Platform 3 is generally used by trains operating the Kensington (Olympia) shuttle.) It was displaying Wimbledon as its destination when we left, which I assume is where it had come from. Anyway, despite the problems, we made it to Edgware Road (another marvellous station, a good day all round for me, I think :P) and changed for a Circle line train, which I took as far as LIS (Liverpool Street), everyone else leaving at King's X. From there, it was a pretty easy journey home - not wanting to risk a long wait in the cold at WOO, I took the HAI via NEP to HAI, where I only had a 7 minute wait for the WOO. (Better than 15 or 20! Although I think, in retrospect, if I'd changed at LES (Leytonstone) for the EPP (Epping) I would probably have gotten home much sooner. Ah well, it's always nice to go round the loop, even in the dark - HAI depot was full of trains, which is always a good sight.)