District line wanderings

On and on the work on the kitchen goes. I couldn't stand the drilling any longer and decided to leave the house - but what to do with myself? Well I could've gone into the library, say, to do some work, but I decided, in the end, that I would have a little ride on the District line. Upminster to EAB was the run I had in mind.

So, on a whim (as these things are best done), I headed off to ROV station and arrived just as the HAI train was pulling in, with a minute to go till the WOO arrived. I actually saw it approaching as I headed over the bridge. Perfect timing. If only this would happen when I was in a hurry :P

We made it over WOO junction today and into WOO with no problems. Since my kitchen's a state, I decided to buy "lunch" (a Cherry Bakewell...) and a drink at WOO, before getting on a NOR train. Again I noticed a slightly unusual driving style west of LES (although it was normal between WOO and LES and the train was definitely in Auto when it arrived at WOO), just like last Wednesday. I - and I am but a mere punter - get the feeling that something's new but, who knows, maybe I'm just no longer used to it after weeks in my bedroom :P

Apart from that, there was nothing much to report on the journey to MIE, where I changed for a District line train to Upminster. Before that I decided to see, just for myself, whether - for one reason or another - trains were heading through in Coded - just to see. That was one of my suspicions, you see, but I knew the train arrived at WOO in Auto (mind you, we could've had a change of T/Op at LES, but I don't think so) and that trains don't usually go through the pipe in Coded, so I wanted to see if there had been some kind of dictate that trains should head through in Coded, but nope, the next one was in Auto. Well I shouldn't really speculate anyway, I can't see what's going on in the cab, I just notice what I feel and this was different, or at least I thought it was different. The fact it was different is why I was wondering about whether we were in Coded, by the way, not because it was worse. If anything I'd expect it to be the other way around :P I've said this many a time before, of course, I just wanted to stress it. For a full account of my ill-informed speculation, see the link above :P

Anyway, anyway, enough of that, idle speculation will usually only leave you with egg on your face. Why I do it, I don't know, I don't even like egg...So yes, onto the District line. We stopped - very laboriously after much rocking and general creeping along and adjusting - part way into the platform at Bromley-by-Bow. My car was still on the crossover. I don't know why this happened, we were just told that we'd be on the move shortly, after a suitable apology for the delay. However, now seems like a good time to pick up the speculation where I left it off...What I think may have happened is that someone needed to get down onto the track - a suspicion that was first aroused after I saw people with hi-vis - one on the platform and one leaving the train. Of course, occasionally people wearing hi-vis get off of trains and stand on platforms, but the waves and so forth did make me think that perhaps they had been involved in some routine procedure. One possibility is that something needed retrieving from the track (our train may have been used as protection, having been stopped with a hand lamp), or perhaps they were looking for some fault at track level - which might explain the creeping into the platform, if there was someone in the cab looking for it. They might then have hopped down and fixed it, which is possible, but I would have thought it'd generally take a bit longer. My initial suspicion was that we'd simply been held at a draw-up signal, but I don't know if there is one at Bromley-by-Bow and even if there is, the creeping forward at low speed and longish dwell halfway up the platform really make me think that something was going on at track level.

Enough speculation, I promise. The journey up to Upminster was very nice - it is so pretty between Dagenham East and Elm Park, so pretty. As well as this, there are all of the sights between MIE and Barking to look at. I've mentioned these a couple of times now, so I won't tire you with them again. But today, for the first time in ages, TUT ventured east of Barking and also got to enjoy: Barking sidings (very nice), the bay road and siding at Dagenham East, the crossover at Hornchurch and Upminster. At Upminster you can get a bit of a look at the roads leading to the depot, plus the obvious crossovers and point work allowing access to all three platforms. As well as this fun and games, though, if you go outside of the station you can stand on a bridge and look down at the District line towards Upminster Bridge. It's really nice, I stood there and watched a train leave - er - platform 3 and another arrive at platform 4, before returning to the station.

Now, I thought it'd be nice to go to EAB, so obviously I was hoping for an EAB train on which I could do the full route. Unfortunately, both of the trains in the station at the time were for Wimbledon, so I decided to wait on platform 3. At Upminster, platforms 4 and 5 (where I had been) form an island platform and then platform 3 is separate (and forms an island platform with platform 2 (a C2C platform)) so I headed off, over the bridge, knowing that neither of the trains I could get on from where I was would take me to EAB. At first this looked like a good move, as I got quite a nice view of a train approaching from the depot. I think the train on 4 went - only to be replaced by another Wimbledon - and a train arrived on 3 while I waited, but its eastbound destination wasn't put up immediately. So I waited and the train on platform 5 left and the train from the depot pulled in. As it pulled in, I saw it was up as an EAB, so I headed over to get on it, only to have it pull out almost immediately, before I could get onto it. So back I trudged to see where the one on 3 would be going. But no destination was up still. In the end, an EAB train did arrive on platform 5 and I was just about to give up on the train on 3 and go and get on it, when it was finally put up as an EAB, just before it left. I hopped on it and finally got out of Upminster, where the air, I noticed, isn't all that fresh!

Eventually on my way, I enjoyed a very nice journey. We had a predictable wait at Minories Junction, which is where the Circle line from Aldgate merges with the District from Aldgate East (and diverges in the other direction, of course). But we were eventually on our way and the trip was nice and all generally uneventful as far as Turnham Green. Not that things became eventful after Turnham Green really, but we were - as you would expect - a little slow out of Turnham Green and particularly heading into Acton Town - where there were Picc trains in both westbound platforms. It is so nice around there, though. The views around Chiswick Park in particular are spectacular, but it's also a fascinating area from the perspective of the railway. It's great fun looking out of the window and watching Picc trains heading past you and where we happened to stop afforded great views of the sidings at Acton Town for me, too.

The journey to Ealing Common is also lovely and I got to have a look at the new pointwork that's just been finished. Some of you may have noticed the block closure we had on the Picc and District over Easter - this is what that was for. And then we arrived at our final destination - EAB.

I chose to get the Central back from EAB and boarded an EPP train which took me uneventfully - but, again, very enjoyably - to LES. I'd noticed at LEY that there was a WOO via HAI train behind and I thought it'd be a good idea to get on that. It probably wasn't a very good idea, though - in sharp contradistinction to yesterday's speediness, we were not due to depart HAI for another 10 minutes! I'm sure this is not as per timetable and it's hardly a WOO via HAI train, really, if it essentially terminates at HAI before heading on to WOO on what may as well be a separate trip. But oh well, I shouldn't complain, it was a nice evening, I got to watch a train shunt into the depot and at least we weren't held at GRH this evening :)