RMweb Premium Claude_Dreyfus Posted June 26, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 26, 2015 I had a free evening yesterday, so decided to check out the East London line between New Cross Gate and Highbury & Islington New Cross Gate I normally just go through New Cross Gate, so 30 minutes or so were spent seeing stuff pass through - the infrastructure here is quite interesting, especially the flyover. What we have below is pretty much everything you would expect to see at the station. 377440 heads a south-bound train. The 18:17 London Bridge - Uckfield train approaches; the flyover and cross-overs can be clearly seen. 171804 passes New Cross Gate Dual-voltage 377701 heads a slow train into platform 2 Thameslink 387128 heads a Brighton - London Bridge service A class 442 (I believe 2408) heads the 18:23 London Bridge - Eastbourne train 455827 heads a north-bound ECS towards London Bridge 378153 heads a Crystal Palace service into New Cross Gate. Hoxton Trains along this route are so regular, you can jump off your train and only need to wait 5 minutes or so until another follows. Hoxton station is on the viaduct section. Highbury and Islington The third-rail section finishes at Highbury and Islington - an interesting and busy station. The through platforms are overhead electric 378205 on a Stratford service Highbury & Islington also has regular freight traffic, being the main route to Felixstowe The 431O 12:30 Crewe Basford Hall - Felixstowe service behind a rather smart 90042 66705 heads the 14:18 4L18 Trafford Park to Felixstowe 90047 on the 16:13 461O Felixstowe - Glasgow Coatbridge service 66715 heads 17:34 4M02 Felixstowe North - Hams Hall service A somewhat galling picture! Smart looking 66418 heads the 482O 18:13 Felixstowe - Lawley Street at about 21:20. The lightly was fading and despite hanging around outside the station at a red signal, the 66 was able to accelerate its 1,200+ tonne load quick enough to blur the image. Back to the 387 units. The has been an ongoing upgrade of the existing 4-car units to 5...even if a number of the new stations on the ELL are only 4-coach length. One of the dwindling number of 4-car units, 387232, heads a Richmond service. 378214 makes it pretty obvious that it has received its extra intermediate carriage! 378211's new intermediate carriage is quite easily identifiable, much cleaner than the others. 378150's intermediate carriage leaves you in even less doubt it is part of an augmented set... Finally for this set of pictures, a throw-back to a past era - on the Moorgate platform Network Southeast still lives! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
backofanenvelope Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 Brings back happy memories waiting around at H&I for connecting trains, thanks for pics Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 Very entertaining! Many thanks........ Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flapland Posted June 27, 2015 Share Posted June 27, 2015 Passed through H&I last night myself and didn't even notice if my trains were 4 or 5 cars. Mind you its been a tough week so I was mostly thinking of the cold beer in the fridge. Journey was from Whitechapel to Hampstead Heath and as usual the Overground was amazingly efficient. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted June 27, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 27, 2015 Interesting set thanks. My memories of Highbury and Islington are mixed. I've been through and also changed from one Overground line to the other there in very recent times. It works well enough though don't rely on a quick connection as they won't wait even a few seconds; it's run more like the tube these days. I made a trip in the first week of operation of the reopened Stratford - Dalston link when the service was North Woolwich - Camden Road. It wasn't at all successful. Having arrived at H&I from Broad Street (which turned out to be the last trip I made from that terminus) I found no posters, timetables or promotional material of any sort for the new service. I knew the timetable from "Great Britain" but didn't feel a need to carry such a huge book around with me. After half an hour there was no sign of any sort of Stratford-bound train which would have been a class 105 DMU at the time. Nothing came through from the east either which don't bode well so I hung on on case anything was up at Camden waiting to come back. It was a futile wait. There was no announcement and no station staff either in those days. So after more than an hour getting cold and frustrated I went downstairs to the tube only to find the Victoria Line had been suspended due to "one under" somewhere ......... The only option was back home via Moorgate which at the time was a little too close to uncomfortable memories of the disaster there. I was in the street above the station when the impact occurred. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenman Posted June 27, 2015 Share Posted June 27, 2015 ... Trains along this route are so regular, you can jump off your train and only need to wait 5 minutes or so until another follows. ... Great post - thanks for sharing. I remain mystified why TfL has put so much effort into a 5 minute frequency on the ELL, while the overcrowded WLL (which, according to TfL's own charts, includes the most overcrowded parts of the network) is stuck with 4tph (and is almost last in line for 5-car operation - which had to go first to ELL). TfL seemed to be pinning its hopes on Southern providing more services to provide relief, especially for Clapham Jct-Shepherd's Bush (for Westfield). Which seems a strange approach for an integrated transport provider. Anyway I'm sceptical: I used to live in these parts and commuted on former Silverlink and then Overground services. Silverlink was less frequent and run-down, but I always got a seat. Overground has shiny new trains and repainted stations, and I almost always had to stand for the entire journey. It's great for shifting the maximum number of passenger units, perhaps not so good from the perspective of the actual humans who use the service. Nice to see the memory of NSE still clinging on at Moorgate. Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Claude_Dreyfus Posted June 27, 2015 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted June 27, 2015 Thanks for the comments. The service on the ELL is extremely regular (with trains from West Croydon, Crystal Palace and Clapham Jc all running along this stretch). I'm guessing this is helped by a dedicated track, whilst the WLL shares its tracks with Southern and various frieght services. That said, I was aware of some big gaps in frequency on the north London line - there was nearly a 20 minute wait between some of the west-bound trains. Southern have increased capacity on the WLL, with the 5-car class 377/7s now in service (replacing the 4-car 377/2s). However these nw units are not exclusive to the Croydon - Milton Keynes service as can be seen in picture 4 of the OP - the 377/7s can be seen as far afield as Horsham. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted June 27, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 27, 2015 One of Southern's South Croydon - Milton Keynes rosters is also now diagrammed for a pair of 377/2s making it up to 8 cars though that causes issues at a number of platforms which are shorter. The units have SDO but dwell times can still be a source of delay. The flat junction at Willesden is another limiting factor in the level of service which can be operated as is the availability of paths for more trains through any platform at Clapham Junction and at peak times on the WCMN slow lines and NLL tracks as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted June 27, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 27, 2015 And there are some very good watering holes that are easily accessed off these a Overground routes such as Camden Brewing under Kentish Town West, Brewdog at Shoreditch etc. Great photos. Must try taking some myself one evening if I can keep out of the pubs!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold unravelled Posted June 27, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 27, 2015 It's interesting to see someone else's take on your nearest but one station (New Cross Gate). The upgrade is getting on well, though I don't think the lifts are in service yet. Some thought has been given to the reconstruction, with details like the canopy sides a fair match for the surviving originals. I'm surprised how long it's taking to upgrade the software on some of the main line trains. Quite a few of the services I've been on recently still warn of short platforms although they were upgraded some time ago. I find the service pattern on the ELL in the evening a bit uneven for getting back to NXG. You usually get two trains through NXG, followed by one to New Cross and one to Clapham Junction. It presumably dovetails in with paths on the main line, but a missed connection can mean a 15 minute wait. Thanks Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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