ECS

It was a really lovely afternoon today, really lovely. After an unusually long sleep :P I was able to get up at about 14:00 and enjoy a calm, relaxed start to the day which still saw me on the platform at ROV with plenty of time to spare (and no Oyster card problems :P)

Once the train from the EPP branch cleared WOO junction, we got on our way to WOO. I have a vague suspicion things were held up a bit by a tardy HAI train, which would have kept the westbound in platform 2 at WOO while it waited for the HAI to leave 21 road, which would have held up the next train due on the westbound from BUH, which would have held us up. It's quite common for trains to be slow leaving 21 road, though, and might very well be down to the signalling. I always did prefer the old timetable we had last year.

Well, anyway, I changed at WOO and soon enough the NOR train arrived and that took us in to LIS without any incident that leaps to mind. The doors on the right at STR were opened substantially after the doors on the left, again, though, but I haven't really seen that happening very often. Again passengers scurried hither and thither - disregarding completely the T/Op's announcement, but then what else do you expect? :P

At LIS I changed for the sub-surface lines. Had a bit of a wait on the platform, but soon enough a Met line train for all stations to Uxbridge arrived. The train was soon joined by a somewhat strange gentleman, who loudly and openly joined in with the announcements, before attempting to pre-empt them and getting it wrong every time. (I might add that my internal corrections were all spot on! :P) I actually often can't resist doing the same in my head, or sometimes under my breath, but this was unusual and mildly irritating behaviour :P

On the way back from Euston Sq. I didn't have long to wait for a remarkably empty Aldgate train which took me back to LIS. LIS was really rather busy, though, and when I arrived on the Central line platform there was an EPP train sat there with many people who had clearly not been able to make it on still standing on the platform. Naturally I couldn't get on it, either, which was a shame because I think it might have been the perfect train (apart from the GRH via WOO, obviously, which I'd missed.)

I was just about able to get on the next train through - HAI via NEP - but it was a very cramped, very warm journey at least as far as STR. I knew that behind that there was an EPP (which, experience tells me, would have given me a long wait at WOO) and behind that there was a WOO via HAI. As a result, I decided to stay on my train as far as HAI, where we pulled into platform 3. I walked across to the other half of the platform (platform 2) and didn't have too long (probably 2 minutes, max.) before the WOO via HAI arrived. It then left reasonably soon after (perhaps another two minutes) and took me past the Hainault depot to GRH. At GRH I again saw a train shunting in the depot, it was just pulling away from the roads behind GRH station as our train pulled in. I was sure this was the GRH via WOO and it certainly looked like that was the destination it was displaying (although it can be hard to tell as the text is not very large). Then, to my surprise, another train arrived on the opposite platform at GRH. I was sure it couldn't be the HAI from WOO as that had arrived at HAI while I was waiting to leave. The unexpected arrival at GRH was displaying GRH via WOO, but it very much looked like it was ECS (Empty Coaching Stock) - the lights appeared to be off and it was being driven on the handle. I don't know why it was displaying a destination and not 'not in service,' though, but the dot-matrix indicator on the platform was showing 'special.'

Nothing else to report after that, though, really and I made it home after what was quite a long and tiring journey for this time of the year. I'm looking forward to my long weekend :P