Back to class

Term has resumed and that means I was due back in class bright and early at 10:00 this morning. Unfortunately, though I turned up on time, the weather got held up and instead of being bright and early, 10:00 was miserable, damp and early. To achieve this feat of punctuality, I had to get up at 08:00, when I'm used to getting up at about 12:00. Not good. I didn't get much sleep last night - not used to going to bed so early. I tried to ease myself into it - watched some darts (good matches) before going to bed - but it was no use, I was terribly groggy and tired this morning. But no matter, despite last minute essay printing, I made the early train into WOO. I don't know when it arrived, the departure boards were showing that it wasn't due to leave for another 2 minutes when I turned up, but it was already sat in the platform. I was quite taken aback, actually, it's not normally that early. I'd noticed the HAI train leaving as I neared the station and was hoping it was simply early, or unusually punctual (the HAI train is timetabled to leave a couple of minutes before the WOO train, but it very often doesn't and sometimes leaves after it, which is why I was hoping it was early - or, at least, on time - otherwise it could have meant that I'd missed (or was about to miss) my train; either way it meant I was cutting it fine). I hurried into the station and was disappointed to see the WOO train sitting there, until I noticed it wasn't due to leave for another two minutes. So I made my way quickly (but, this time, calmly and safely) onto the platform and you can be sure I took extra care getting on and off Central line trains this morning, since the rain was back with avengeance and had left me soaking. Not an ideal start to the term that. Anyway, happily, this one really was an early train and there was no need to rush, it didn't leave for another minute or so.

 

After that it was perfectly plain sailing all the way into LIS (Liverpool Street). There, I changed onto a Circle line service to Hammersmith. The Circle line had been part suspended (no service in one direction, I think it was anti-clockwise) when I left home this morning, due to a signal failure at Tower Hill. That had largely all cleared-up on the Circle by the time I got to Euston Square, though, but the Hammersmith & City and District lines had minor delays. Anyway, it was a very nice journey, the T/Op was stopping beautifully smoothly - far, far better than I can ever manage on OpenBVE :P I happened to notice, across the platform, a train bound for Moorgate sat at the eastbound platform as we pulled into King's X WB. I assume this was 'cause of the signal failure. All was well on our train, though, and although it was absolutely chucking it down at Barbican, come Euston Square you could even see blue sky. I managed to avoid another deluge and it was actually quite a nice walk to class. Good to be out of the house again, anyway :P

On the way back home we had minor delays on all three of the Met, H&C and Circle lines due to an earlier signal failure at King's X. We were, therefore, a little slow, although it was rush hour and it does usually get a bit congested around there anyway. We were held at red signals at King's X and Barbican, but nothing major. I did happen to notice a person in a hi-vi standing on the disused platforms at King's X, which is a little unusual. I also saw a Circle line train in platform 3 at Moorgate (which can only've been due to the delays) and, even more conspicuously, not a single C stock. I don't think I saw one at all, not in either direction, so I suppose the phasing out is progressing at a fine pace. Changing at LIS, I just missed an EPP (Epping) train due to the traffic, but the next train through was for WOO via HAI, so I just stayed on that. It is a nice journey, took the chance to stretch my legs and get some fresh air at HAI and then we had a bit of a dwell at GRH (Grange Hill) before we were finally on our way. I also noticed a District line train bound for Dagenham East at Mile End. This could well have been one of the one's that is timetabled (maybe the 17:53? I didn't check my watch) so it's far from unheard of, a fair few do reverse there, but it's very much a peak time feature and I don't usually see them, so it made a bit of a nice change :P