Branch Line Britain - celebrating Britain's minor railways

Blog 2025

January 2025

The skew bridge at Rainhill ralway station

14/1/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return. London Blackfriars to Redhill. Redhill to Purley. Purley to London Bridge.

Had to go to Redhill with my work. Although I had been through Redhill on a number of ocassions this was the first time I had ever visited the town. Just seemed like any other small town in Britain with the usual brand name shops and a couple of shopping centres. Going I decided to give going via West Ham and on the Jubilee Line to London Bridge and go via Blackfriars for a change.

18/1/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Liverpool Street and return. London Kings Cross to Peterborugh and return.

Went up to Peterborough to take some photos of bridges for my upcoming book, "Britain's Inland Road Bridges".

27/1/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street. London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly. Manchester Piccadilly to Horwich Parkway.

Went up to Manchester for e memorial gathering to rembember an old school friend who had sadly passed away just before Christmas. Stayed overnight in Horwich.

28/1/2025 - Horwich Parkway to Bolton. Bolton to Wigan Wallgate. Wigan North Western to Rainhill. Rainhill to Manchester Piccadilly. Manchester Piccadilly to Stockport. Stockport to Manchester Oxford Road. Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston/ London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea.

Started the day with a visit to Rainhill Station, taking a rare train from Wigan North Western to Liverpool Lime Street which goes via Rainhill rather than St Helens, so a new piece of track for me coming off the West Coat mainline onto the Manchester to Liverpool mainline. At Rainill I took some photos of the bridge going over the railway line west of the station which is the world's first skew bridge going over a railway line. Then went onto Stockport to photograph another bridge for my book on bridges. Then onto Manchester for my old schoolfriend's memorial event. Finally came home about 4 o'clock with no problems.

February 2025

The shuttle train on the Abbey Line leaves St Albans Abbey station for Watford Junction on 8/2/25

8/2/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return. London Euston to Watford Junction via Harlesden and Watford High Street. Watford Junction to Berkhamstead and return. Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey. St Albans City to Farringdon.

Went to London to go on some smaller lines in north London and to visit Berkhamstead to take photos of a colourful bridge there over the Grand Union Canal for inclusion in my next book on bridges - Britain's Inland Road Bridges. All the journeys went well with no hold ups and we made our connections ok.

10/2/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return. London Blackfriars to Catford Bridge. Catford to London Blackfriars.

18/2/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return.

26/2/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return

March 2025

Norwich train arrives at Chelmsford station 26/3/2025

13/3/2025 - Rayleigh to Shenfield. Shenfield to Chelmsford.

Went by train to see Claire Hamill at the Hot Box Box music venue in Chelmsford.

15/3/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Liverpool Street and return.

Went to London for the day to meet up witfh an old school friend who I hadn't seem for over 50 years!

26/3/2025 - Rayleigh to Shenfield and return. Shenfield to Chelmsford. Chelmsford to Colchester. Colchester Town to Colchester. Colchester to Shenfield.

Went to Colchester for the day to meet up with another old school friend who I hadn't seen for over 40 years.

April 2025

The front of the Luton DART train at Luton Airport Parkway DART station.

1/4/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return. London Blackfriars to Luton Airport Parkway. Luton Airport Parkway to Luton Airport and return. Luton Airport Parkway to Luton. Luton to Farringdon.

Had to go to Luton with my work. On my way toook the opportunity to go on the "newish" rapid transit vehicle from Luton Airport Parkway to Luton Airport.

10/4/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return.

Went up to London with my wife for the afternoon.

14/4/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to West Ham. Stratford International to Canterbury West.

Went away to Canterbury with my wife for a few days break. Straight forward quick journey in just 40 minutes from Stratford International. The only difference from when I travelled this route a year ago was that the 12 car train splits as Ashford with half the train terminating here and half going onto Ramsgate, meaning it was pretty full once we left Ashford. See next entry for the disadvantage of this......

16/4/2025 - Canterbury West to Stratford International. West Ham to Leigh-on-Sea.

Came back home after being away in Canterbury. The jouney from Canterbury to Stratford International on South Eastern Trains was one of the worst I have ever been on for overcroding. At Canterbury West station there were about 100 people waiting to board our train the 10.21 to St Pancras, no doubt increasedby the numbers of tourists and students here over the Easter period. Just before the train arrived we were informed that it would only be 6 cars as opposed to the normal 12, but that it would couple up with 6 more at Ashford. As soon as we got on it was standing room only. Luckily two ladies who couldn't see where they were due to everyone standing asked me if this was Canterbury, so they quickly got off the train and my wife and I were able to get their seats. However the guard kept aanouncing that you would be able to get off at Ashford and walk to the front of this train where there would be an empty train waiting top ease pressure. Unofrtunately someone hadn't told him that there wouldnt be another tarjn waiting at Ashford and when we arrived there were loads of people who got on whilst loads got off, only to force themselves back onto the train! So it was even more packed. When it came to getting off at Startford we had to really push our way off as no one was prepared to get off the train to make way for departing passengers. I even wonder if some did not make it off inn time and had to travel all the way to St Pancras! What a pity someone at South Eastern couldn't have arranged for a 12 car to start from Ramsgate in the first place as they used to do? Plus let the poor train guard know there wouldn't be a waitign train at Ashford as well?

17/4/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to West Ham. London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea.

Went to London for a book launch by one of my friends.

May 2025

Western at Kidderminster Secern Valley Railway station

1/5/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to West Ham and return. London Bridge to Maidstone East. Maidstone West to Strood. Strood to Dartford. Dartford to London Bridge via New Eltham.

Had to go to both Maidstone and Dartford with my work today. Decided to go into Maidstone East going, but leave from Maidstone West coming back.

9/5/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return. London Blackfriars to Luton. Luton to Farringdon.

Had to go to Luton again with my work today.

13/5/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to Upminster and return.

Went to Upminster to meet a couple of my friends for lunch today.

23/5/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return.

Went up to London for the evening to see the explorer Levison Wood talk about his travels and his new book.

27/5/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenhcurch Street. London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street. Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton.

Went away to the West Midlands area with my wife for a few days, staying in Wolverhampton due to its convenience for where we wanted to go. The only problem was that when we arrived at Wolverhampton the hotel we were staying at, although it was just the other side of the tracks from the station, it involved a long detour round the back of the station and under the railway lines to get to it, as since Covid they had closed the rear entrance to Wolverhampton station and never reopened this entrance again!

28/5/2025 - Wolverhampton to Telford Central and return.

Went to Telford Central and then by taxi to Ironbridge to visit the bridge itself and nearby museum. I must say the taxis were a lot cheaper than where I live!

29/5/2025 - Wolverhampton to Smethwick Galton Bridge and return. Smethwick Galton Bridge to Kidderminster and return. KIdderminster to and return.

Went by train to Kidderminster and then for a ride on the Severn Valley Railway in the morning. Although the SVR station is just a short walk from the Network railway station the train was absolutley packed with young children all going to visit the museum at Highley where we were going due to a landslide stopping trains running all the way to Bridgnorth which we would have preferred. Coming back it was a lot quieter of course! One complaint was the price of the ticket. Like several heritage railways yuo have to buy a rover ticket at £27 which you can use on as many journeys as you like. Yet for me and my wife we just wanted to have one return journey to Highley and back which you couldn't buy a ticket for. They do have return tickets for some journeys but only for the stations nearer to Kidderminster which kind of defeats the object really.

30/5/2025 - Wolverhampton to London Euston. London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea.

Coming back we had reserved seats from Wolverhampton to Euston, but when we got on the train the system was not working for whatever reason, so it was sit where you like. This caused so much confusion for passengers all the way down the line each time we stopped. In one case I saw someone make someone else move out of their "reserved" seat even though they had no right to. Why on earth can't they announce at each station before the train comes in that there are no seat reservations on the train so that all the confusion and annoyance can be avoided?!!!

June 2025

Class 165 Chiltern Railways train at Wembley Stadium waits to depart northwards from Wembley Stadium station.

1/6/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street. London Marylebone to Wembley Stadium and return. London Liverpool Street to Leigh-on-Sea.

Went with my grandson to the National League Play Off final at Wembley Stadium between Southend United and Oldham Athetic. I thought that the trains would all be packed out, but that wasn't the case. The train we got from Leigh-on-Sea was pretty empty with more day trippers as opposed to football fans using it. It should have gone into Liverpool Street, but some problem meant it went into Fenchurch Street instead and so we had top walk round to Liverpool Street. When we got onto the tube at Liverpool Street there were quite a lot of Southend United fans on it. Everyone got off at Baker Street, but most changed onto the Bakerloo Line seeing as there were no Metropolitan Line trains to Wembley Park. We walked to Marylebone and got a train direct to Wembley Stadium instead. This was packed out, though the queue at Marylebone wasn't as long as I thought. Coming back we did the same journeys in reverse with a busy train from Wembley to Marylebone and a pretty empty train from Liverpool Street to Leigh-on-Sea. At least C2c did put on plenty of coaches. Perhaps the later trains were more busy.

28/6/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to Stratford and return.

Went to the London Stadium with my son to see Iron Maiden. Both trains weren't too busy and we caught DLR to Pudding Mill Lane to miss out on the long walk from Stratford to the Stadium.

July 2025

Class 155 train at Paignton railway station.

7/7/2025 Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return.

Went into London for a meeting.

25/7/2025 Leigh-on-Sea to West Ham. London Waterloo to Exeter St David's. Exeter St David's to Paignton.

Went down to Devon for the weekend to visit my uncle. As this trip had to be rescheduled I was able to change my tickets for a different day after paying an admin fee of £5. For some reason I didn't check my route and later found out that I was booked to go from Waterloo to Exeter Central as opposed from Paddington to Exeter St Davids. I didn't mind though as I hadn't been on this route after Salisbury fro several years. So my joiurney took 3 and half hours as opposed to just over 2 hours! At Exeter I broke my jourey to meet up with a friend who I hadn't seen for several years. I then got a local stopping train from Exeter St Davids to Paignton which was absolutely packed. Still I managed to get a seat and my uncle met me at Paignton OK.

27/7/2025 Totnes to London Paddington. London Paddington to London Liverpool Street. London Liverpool to Leigh-on-Sea.

Coming back I came back the more direct route and didn't have any problems apart from my train arriving 10 minutes late.

August 2025

Trans Pennine service departs Carlisle for Edinburgh

4/8/20254/8/2025 Leigh-on-Sea to Fenchurch Street. London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly. Manchester Piccadilly to Preston.

Thgis was the day we should have gone up to Carlilse by train for our summer hoildiay. I had bought two tickets for the journey - a single from Leigh-on-Sea to Stafford, and a single from Stafford to Carlisle, as it was a lot cheaper than one straight through. However Storn Flkoris put paid to that. On the sunday afternoon they were saying not to travel north of Preston the following day as there probably wouldnt be any trains running through to Carlisle and Glasgow Central. Then in

5/8/2025 Preston to Windermere. Windermere to Oxenholme Lake District. Oxenhope Lake District to Carlisle.

6/8/2025 Carlisle to Glasgow Central and return. Glasgow Central to Largs and return.

7/8/2025 Carlisle to Penrith and return.

8/8/2025 Carlisle to Stafford. Stafford to London Euston. London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea.

14/8/2025 Rayleigh to Shenfield and return. Shenfield to Colchester and return. Colchester to Colchester Town and return.

20/8/2025 - Rayleigh to Shenfield and return. Shenfield to Chelmsford and return. Chelmsford to Norwich and returm.

25/8/2025 - Rayleigh to Shenfield and return. Shenfield to Marks Tey and return. Marks Tey to sudbury and return.

26/8/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Fenchurch Street and return.

30/8/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to London Liverpool Street. London Marylebone to Oxford and return. London Fenchurch Street to Grays. Grays to Leigh-on-Sea.

September 2025

Uominster station looking west with two c2c trains in the near platforms and two London Underground District Line trains in the far platforms

1/9/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to West Ham and return. Stratford International to Gillingham. Gillingham to Strood. Strood to Maidstone West and return. Strood to Stratford International.

15/9/2025 - Rayleigh to Billericay and return.

26/9/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to Upminster and return.

29/9/2025 - Leigh-on-Sea to Barking and return. Barking to Blackhorse Road and return.

October 2025

1/10/2025 - Rayleigh to Shenfield and return. Shenfield to Colchester and return. Colchester to Ipswich and return.

Went to Ipswich for the day to meet up with a friend.