Lots of fun today

Lots of fun. But first, something I forgot to mention yesterday - a curious announcement:

"Passengers are reminded that the door controls do not function on these trains."

Now, as we know, that's not strictly true. Still, I wonder what prompted that?

Anyway, today. I decided to again meet some friends to do some revision for Thursday's phonetics exam and arrived at ROV at nearly 10:55. I think the WOO was actually slightly late because when I arrived the HAI was pulling in, but the WOO was still six minutes away. Also the next WOO was only 14 minutes away and I've just checked journey planner and the train is definitely due at 10:55 (although I was aiming for 10:54 as xx:54 is what I'm used to, but it doesn't matter).

Still, it was no big deal and we headed off to WOO. There the train terminated and I got off and bought a drink. Not everyone did, though. I sighed as I noticed two women in their own little world get ushered off the train and then I headed off down the platform observing the usual procedure of closing up the train using the porter buttons. The T/Op headed back to his cab. Nothing. More nothing. I saw the member of staff walking down the platform towards the cab. 'What's going on?' I wondered. The member of staff called out that on one of the cars, one set of doors hadn't closed when he'd operated the buttons as normal. He requested the T/Op to try from his end. The T/Op tried, I assume using the controls on the panel which is next to the J door (door into the carriage from the cab). I saw the set of doors close, I assume he got a doors closed visual and he pulled away into the siding. The NOR train then arrived very quickly, as it had obviously been waiting, and I headed off to SOW.

At SOW I noticed something a little bit unusual on the eastbound platform - a train shown four minutes away which was for WOO. Now I have never been on a train to WOO via SNA. The opportunity to have a ride was irresistible, but at SOW you can't cross the bridge to the other platform without touching out and touching back in again. Very silly if you ask me, but then we know Oyster has its limitations. I'm not saying we should all go back to paper tickets, I just don't think Oyster is anywhere near good enough to obsolete them and yet...

So, anyway, I stayed on to SNA and hurried across to the eastbound platform. God SNA's beautiful, I mean it really is. I've never waited for a train there, only ever passed through it. Go. It's lovely.

Soon enough my train arrived and I headed back the way I had come, turned right where never have I turned right before, went up 21 road and terminated in the bay platform. Makes a nice change; good view of the sidings on the way in too, if you like that sort of thing. I saw on the display that it was going back to NOR in 4 minutes. I had wondered whether it'd stable in the sidings, but nope, it was due back out. Our T/Op got off at LES, so I can only guess that she was running late, or the train was. So, I stayed on the train and took it back.

We were routed into platform 1 at LES, just to add a small something extra to the day's fun and games :P and then headed off to LIS. At STR the doors closed, then nothing. Bit of nothing, a bit more nothing and then movement. Not the first time, of course, these things happen. We had a bit of trouble getting movement on the eastbound on the trip home as well. I always wonder what's going on when this happens, but it's rarely any real problem.

At LIS I changed for a Circle line train to Hammersmith. We passed an S7 which was out of service in Moorgate platform 4 but that's about all the fun I had on the trip in. I arrived at Euston Sq and at university only about 5 minutes later than I had intended.

The trip back began on a fairly busy Hammersmith & City line train, which took me to LIS without much ado. I changed at LIS and boarded a NEP train, which I took to LES. Beyond the slow start at STR nothing much happened and I merely sat back and enjoyed a pleasant (although very mildly warm) trip. The next train through LES on the east was an EPP, which arrived in Coded. That took me to WOO, I believe in Coded. The stop at SNA was very nice. Happily the HAI was due out of 21 road in just 2 minutes when I arrived at WOO. That's what it said on the boards when I arrived and then they stopped working, telling us only that the platform was for eastbound Central line trains. Still, no matter, the HAI did arrive nice and quickly and that took me home. Lovely :)