The Boat Race

Urgh. This morning I was meeting a friend at FAI station. All was going well, but I think - to be honest with you - I'd been a bit complacent with timings this morning and, well, I left the house maybe slightly later than I should've done. As I left, I thought to myself that I should probably have checked everything was off thoroughly, but I felt confident that it was and was in a rush. As I headed towards ROV, I saw the WOO train go by and then the HAI moments later, before I'd even reached the end of my road. In the end, then, I had time to go back, check the house thoroughly, and still had a little time to kill at ROV. ROV, by the way, was truly beautiful in the spring this morning, the blossom on the platform from one of the trees behind it was very quaint.

Eventually the HAI arrived, bound - ultimately - for LIS. The Central line was part closed this weekend between MAA and LIS, you see. At MAA, trains would have used the reversing siding there which I've mentioned before on this blog. The siding itself, though, is located to the west of that station (or, at least, westbound, at the LAG end, whether it is actually west or not I don't know). Let's have another diagram, to make things easier:

A diagram showing the track layout at Marble Arch. The location of the signals may not be accurate

This is actually a bit of a nuisance, because trains were running from the west and reversing east to west. Therefore, trains would have been arriving on the eastbound, would then have had to reverse into the siding, reverse out of the siding into the westbound platform and then reverse and head back out westbound. Ordinarily this would mean the T/Op arriving at MAA on the east, changing ends, taking the train into the siding, changing ends, taking the train into the westbound platform and changing ends again. I think (although I can't be sure) that today, though, "stepping back" would have been employed. In this arrangement, the T/Op takes the train into MAA on the east and then another T/Op gets in the back and drives it into the siding. The T/Op who took the train to MAA then takes the train out of the siding (no need to change ends) and gets out. Now, the T/Op who got in the back at MAA and took the train into the siding can take the train on its journey west. Meanwhile, the T/Op who originally brought the train in on the east and has just left the train can head over ready to get on the next train to arrive and the whole process repeats.

Now, I've also talked a lot about the two reversing sidings and crossover at LIS, but I've never actually given you a diagram. So, a diagram:

A diagram showing the track layout around Liverpool Street station

As you can see, with a crossover at one end and two reversing sidings at the other, LIS is a handy reversing point. Back in the old days, during the weekends I think, before demand outside of central London reached such heights, there used to be a MAA-LIS shuttle - the exact opposite of today in some ways. Every train crew's least favourite duty, that one, I believe :P Nowadays LIS doesn't see a lot of use as a reversing point, but it was, of course, in use this weekend. I imagine the process was the same as at MAA (obviously with the 'east's and 'west's reversed), although with two sidings to play with, they may not even have bothered with stepping back. I doubt they didn't, though, although 2 sidings does give you some breathing space. The crossover may have been used, which would certainly have required less fuss - and could have been really slick with stepping back - but I don't know how far the possession extended.

So anyway, I never got as far as LIS, that's just to let you know what was going on. Back to the story. It was a really nice day on the Central line. There was a return to rain at times after some warm and sunny days more recently, but the clouds in the sky made for a truly beautiful backdrop to one of my favourite bits of the Central line. We made good progress (in coded I think - an aside) and my friend texted me to say she was at FAI when I was at HAI, due to be the next westbound (or "outer rail"). So - all in all - I wasn't too late and it worked out quite well. She was waiting quite far up the platform at FAI though and the train was about to leave before we could meet in the middle, so we both had to hop onto different, adjacent carriages. In the end, then, we met up at BAR :P

Having finally been united, we headed on our way to STR, where we changed for the Jubilee line. I was under the impression, from my last journey, that TBTC on the Jubilee had improved and, to be honest, I think it has, but it's still awful! Awful! Not that nice at all really, but I enjoyed the chance to look at Stratford Market depot and, to be honest, it was nice just to ride on a stretch of line I don't usually visit and in anger - with a destination to get to, not simply on an adventure :P

We alighted at Waterloo and made our way to the national rail station, originally intending to go to Barnes station. To do this, we took the South West trains Shepperton service from London Waterloo. Now, I am TUT, my love and interest is almost entirely devoted to the tube, but the National Rail network is an interesting thing it is. To me, there isn't the magic, it's just not the same, but the journey made a wonderful novelty and I greatly enjoyed looking out for the signals and the track layout, and Waterloo is a  fascinating area, so I did have a lot of fun. It was also nice to have a ride on a mainline train, I think we were on a Class 450 Desiro (stupid name if you ask me :P) and it was certainly a nice change :)

In the end, we decided to get off at Putney station, which is actually quite a nice station; or at least, I imagine it was 125 years ago. These days, it could do with some TLC. Anyway, this decision allowed us to visit a Nando's (very tasty) and a Waterstone's, where we had a good time browsing for books and I ended up buying four of them :P Now, the main reason for the outing was that my friend wanted to watch the boat race and have a bit of a wander and so I was quite happy to let her take charge of where we would go and how we would get there, because I'm not that interested in the boat race and just wanted to meet up. I say this simply to explain why we didn't simply end up on the District line, which would obviously have been my route of choice! :P Also the decision to go to Putney was a late call and really South West trains are a much better option for Barnes. This, of course, meant that after shopping we had a long (2 miles) walk, which I found quite exhausting. Still, although slightly damp, it was actually quite a nice walk - that part of London is beautiful and it was, to be honest, good to be out in the fresh air. We had to use a level crossing too and a train was approaching as we arrived and watching it whoosh by was rather fun.

So anyway, the boat race. Now, as I say, I don't care for it, I don't go to Oxbridge and wasn't interested in trying, I don't like rowing and I don't like "tradition" really. But, it was surprisingly good fun, it really was. We were standing in a pub garden and you don't have a clue what's going on or who's doing what until suddenly they round the corner and then everyone gets all very noisy and it's terribly exciting, because excitement is quite contagious and although I don't much care about rowing, the "atmosphere" was really enjoyable. Then you see them slowly approach, you have a good view for probably about thirty seconds and then they disappear off into the distance again, followed by a fleet of boats - pleasure boats and speed boats and and RNLI boats - that could rival the Spanish armada. But no, it didn't last long, but it was surprisingly good fun and you do sort of feel part of something - it's an experience, because you think - oh, I've seen this on TV, I've heard about this and here I am actually looking at it take place before my eyes. It's also an experience I would never have had otherwise.

But we paid for our fun on the way back. Now, I like to think of myself as a battle-hardened commuter. I have been up and down the tube in all weathers and at all times of day (except very early in the morning and right at the close of traffic) and I've been on it when the service has been absolutely decimated. This, though, was something quite impressive. Now, the nearest station to us was Barnes Bridge and we used it, although that may not really have been the best move. We found our way to the correct platform (no bridge connecting the platforms - I am plainly too used to the luxuries of tube travel) and it really began to fill up, but it wasn't yet LIS at rush hour, so we were cool. We were asked to stand behind the yellow line, which on national rail platforms is very conservative. There's about three quarters of the platform in front of the yellow line, which you're not allowed to use, but there we are, we all shuffled back behind the yellow line. And eventually the train arrived, but the train was a little short, meaning that it actually came to a stop in front of a moderately sizable chunk of the people on the platform. Now it was slightly ahead of us too and I immediately lost all control of where I was shunted as people surged forward - I was squeezed and squished and genuinely quite scared. At one point someone shouted, turning in my direction actually, although I hope she wasn't addressing me in particular, that there was someone on crutches and we really needed to wait. Now, my advice in this situation would be to use a different route and/or station if you're injured, but never mind all of that. I was still trying to be a considerate commuter and I wasn't shoving, I knew I would get on the train and I wasn't gonna barge people out of the way, but I actually couldn't have done if I'd wanted to, it was quite manic. Now sometimes you can get a bit of this going on on the tube (usually, actually, on the lifts at Russell Sq.) but y'know, commuters know the limit, even in service disruption.

Anyway, I eventually ended up on the train and these trains just don't hoover up people in the way that a nice, spacious, well-designed tube train really can and I ended up jammed up against a pane of glass by someone's rucksack which they hadn't thought to take off (also a feature of the tube, admittedly). But somehow, I think the commuters know how it works, they know what they can and can't get on and they know how to make room for each other. I'm not sure I've experienced anything as bad as this on the tube - maybe once during some royal nonsense bank holiday or other when the Central line was up the wall, but apart from that, never as bad as this. And the thing was, it wasn't even that busy. I genuinely think people just didn't have their heads screwed on. But anyway, I only really had to endure that as far as Barnes (one stop) and felicitously my friend was able to move just slightly so that I could breathe freely and didn't need to use my arm to withstand the pressure of the person jamming their rucksack against me so even the journey to Barnes wasn't too bad after that. But yes, after Barnes it really started to empty quickly and we soon both had seats.

After that it was essentially the journey in reverse. Back to Waterloo, Jubilee line to Stratford, Central to HAI via NEP. My friend left at FAI and I had a 10 minute wait for the WOO. There was nothing much of interest until the WOO train pulled into platform 2 and pulled up in a heap probably 3 car lengths from the stopping mark, maybe more. After that it moved slowly the rest of the way in. No idea what happened there, it wasn't even wet. Unless there was a stop code for the final block before the starter and it pulled up at the block marker board, but I cannot for the life of me imagine why that would've happened. (Edit: I've just checked and I don't actually think there is a block marker board within the limits of platform 2 at HAI, so it couldn't have been that.)

I was relieved to get off the South West trains service in one piece, quite frankly, but after that - even with TBTC - I quite enjoyed being back on the tube. Easy trip round to ROV to wind off a very good, very tiring day.