Blog 2024

End of the line at Southminster railway station 23/1/2024

23/1/2024 - Wickford to Southminster and return

January is always a quiet month for train travel for me and after recovering from a head cold and last week's sub zero temperatures, I decided that rather going stir crazy, I would go out on a short local (for me) train trip. This involved a short twenty minute drive to Wickford, where I was able to make a quick journey to the Essex village of Southminster and back on the branch that started this website back in 2007. My fare back then was £6.10. Today sixteen years later was just £7.75, showing train fares haven't gone up that much. Mind you I did get senior railcard discount, so would have been about £10. Wickford station building has sadly been demolished and it is in the middle of being rebuilt, so a bit of a mess. My train is a five-car class 745 unit, much too big for a small branchline like this, but who am I to argue. Plus there is a guard checking tickets both ways. About twenty people get off the train when it arrives in the bay number 1 platform. It is timed to arrive to connect with both London and Southend trains and a couple get off the train from London and straight onto mine. The train leaves dead on time at 10.56 and stops at all the stations on the line - Battlesbridge, South Woodham Ferrers, North Fambridge, Althorne, Burnham-on-Crouch and Southminster. I would say that there are no more than twenty passengers on the train for both journeys, with South Woodham ferrers being the busiest station, followed by Burnham. At Southminster about five passengers get off, including me and I have just enough time to take a few photos of the train and station which has a large sign saying "To let" outside it. The massive crane and sidings used by nuclear flask trains are still in place, though I'm not sure if it is still used. The rails didn't look rusty, so maybe some trains still use it. Its a nine minute turnaround on this single track line with a passing loop at North Fambridge. The three biggest stations all have coffee shops which are open, so they must be getting enough trade to survive. An interesting journey for me after so many years not travelling on it, but its nice to see it is still going and providing a useful public transport link in a quite sparsely populated part of Essex.

Liverpool Street train at Ipswich railway station

6/2/2024 - Rayleigh to Shenfield and return. Shenfield to Colchester. Colchester to Ipswich. Ipswich to Shenfield.

Went up to Ipswich for the day, meeting up with a friend. As with previous recent trips on Greater Anglia services, I am pleased to report that all the various trains I caught ran on time, with plenty of room. I noticed that on every service I caught I had my ticket checked by ticket collectors, who in some cases were supported by "Revenue enforcement officers".


13/2/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return.

Went up to London for the evening to attend a speaker event.

20/2/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to West Ham. London Bridge to Brighton.

Went away to Brighton for a few days with my wife. The journey pased OK with no problems.


21/2/2024 - Brighton to Lewes and return.

Went to lewes for the day by train. It absolutley poured down all the time we were there!


23/2/2024 - Brighton to London Bridge. West Ham to Leigh-on-Sea. 

Came back home from Brighton with no problems as on the trains we caught.

After a rare month of not travelling by train at all in March, it was back to business in April.

17/4/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return.

Went up to a hospital in Stanmore near the tube station. 

30/4/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return.

Went back to the hospital in Stanmore.

Marlow Railway Station 18/5/24

11/5/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to West Ham. London Bridge to Caterham. Caterham to Purley. Purley to South Croydon. South Croydon to London Bridge. London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea.

Went to Croydon for a gig. Decided to go down the branch to Caterham before the gig, a journey I hadn't made since 2007. All went well with abrief stop off in Caterham before the return journey went awray. At Purley some of the doors of the train got stuck and after a ten minute delay a guard opened one and we were told to get off. Luckily a Thameslink train was just coming into the other platform, so we all rushed down the stairs to the next platform and managed to get it. 

No 5552 of the Bodmin & Wenford Railway at Bodmin Parkway on 2nd June 2024

1/6/2024 - Totnes to Exeter St Davids and return. Exeter St Davids to Barnstaple and return.

Went to Barnstaple for the day with my uncle, starting our journey at Totnes. The only problem was a tight change over at Exeter St Davids both ways with about six minutes for change platfomrs which involved going up and own stairs to do this. We managed it OK but is wasrather a rush! 
 

2/6/2024 - Totnes to Plymouth. Plymouth to Bodmin Parkway. Bodimn Parkway to Bodmin General and return. Bodmin General to Boscarne Junction and return. Bodmin Parkway to Totnes.

3/6/2024 - Totnes to London Paddington. London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea.

A straightforward return journey, apart from being pretty full from Taunton onwards.

11/6/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return.

Back to London for a hospital appointment


17/6/2024 - Rayleigh to Shenfield and return. Shenfield to Marks Tey and return. Marks Tey to Sudbury and return.

Went up to Sudbury for the day to meet up for lunch with a friend. As usual, all my trains were punctual on Greater Anglia Trains.


22/6/2024 - Rayleigh to Shenfield and return.  Shenfield to Colchester and return.  Colchester to Norwich. Norwich to Great Yarmouth via Berney Arms. Great Yarmouth to Norwich via Ackle. Norwich to Lowestoft. Lowestoft to Beccles. Beccles to Ipswich. Ipswich to Colchester.

Had a pleasant day out with a friend making use of an Anglian Day Ranger ticket, travelling on the Wherry |Lines and the east Suffolk Line, taking in visits to both Lowestoft, where we went to Ness Point, the furthest east you can go to in Britain, and to Beccles for afternoon tea. All our trains were on time as I now expect with Greater Anglia.  

The train we caught at Stavanger station.

1/7/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to Grays. Garys to London Fenchurch Street. London Liverpool Street to Harlow Town and return. London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea.

Had to go to both Grays and Harlow with my work today.


26/7/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street. London Waterloo to Southampton Central.

Went down to Southampton in readiness for going on a cruise to the Norweigan fjords on the saturday. As we had heavy cases we took a taxi from Fenchurch Street to Waterloo, rather than going on the underground. A wise decision, though we got stuck at loads of traffic lights. The journey to Southampton from Waterloo went smoothly, though the train was quite crowded.

29/7/2024 - Stavanger to Sandnes Centrum.

Whilst in Norway I decided to have a ride on a Norweigan train. The only opportunity to do this was at Stavanger where we caught a local train to Sandnes, a small town about half an hour away. The cost of a return ticket was 100 Norweigan Krona each, about £14. The train going was pretty empty, but on our return was quite busy. One unusual quirk was they have sick bags in each carriage! Having said that the journey was quite smooth with lovely scenery across a fiord for most of the way. Still a lot of graffitti around though. In Sandness went in a local cafe and looked round the shops before coming back to Stavanger.

Class 222 train at London St Pancras on 27/8/24

3/8/2024 - Southampton Central to London Waterloo. London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea via Grays.

13/8/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return

20/8/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return 

27/8/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to London fenchurch Street and return. London St Pancras International to Sheffeld and return.  

23/9/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street. London Euston to Chester

24/9/2024 - Chester to London Euston. London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea. 

30/9/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to Barking. Barking to Harringay Green Lanes. London Bridge to Dartford and return. West Ham to Leigh-on-Sea.

1/10/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to Southend Central. Southend Central to Grays. Grays to Leigh-on-Sea.


12/10/2024 - Leigh-on-Sea to West Ham. London Waterloo to Walton-on-Thames. Walton-on-Thames to Weybridge. Weybridge to Staines. Staines to Windsor & Eton Riverside. Windsor Central to Slough. Slough to London Liverpool Street. London Liverpool Street to Leigh-on-Sea.


15/10/24 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return.

25/10/24 - Leigh-on-Sea to Grays and return.


28/10/24 - Rayleigh to Shenfield and return. Shenfield to Chelmsford and return. Chelmsford to Ipswich and return.

29/10/24 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street. London Euston to Runcorn. Frodsham to Liverpool Lime Street. Liverpool Lime Street to Liverpool Central. Liverpool Central to Southport.

Went up to stay in Southport overnight where I went to see King King in concert. On the way I got off at Runcorn to visit the nearby Sutton Weaver Swing bridge which I photographed for my next book on bridges. Then went direct from Frodsham to Liverpool Lime Street on a Transport for Wales service, which are now hourly around the Halton Curve. Then onto Southport from Liverpool Central on the newish Class 777 units. The 4 car train from Central was packed, but only a quarter full by the time it reached Southport. 

30/10/24 - Southport to Wigan Wallgate. Wigan North Western to London Euston. London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea.

Came back from Southport with a break of an hour or so in Wigan. Had my breakfast in a Weatherspons in Wigan and walked around the town centre. My train from Wigan North Western was 10 minutes late on its journey from Glasgow Central, but full marks to the driver for getting us bang on time into Euston. A journey of 1 hour 50 minutes from Wigan to London. Not bad going!