Ken Jones and Roger Burdett have travelled on their first railway day out for 2023, having waited for better weather and a gap in strikes before planning their trip.
As always, Ken provides some ideas and Roger puts together a plan using advanced
tickets, split ticketing and other reductions.
The main idea this time was to travel on all the C2C network in Essex, but as this is quite a small franchise, they looked at a number of addons before and after they had covered the C2C.
More about C2C here including when it was Prism Rail operated by National Express.
The main idea this time was to travel on all the C2C network in Essex, but as this is quite a small franchise, they looked at a number of addons before and after they had covered the C2C.
More about C2C here including when it was Prism Rail operated by National Express.
They travelled to / from London St. Pancras from Luton Airport Parkway using advanced tickets and only needed a C2C Day Rover and an Underground / Overground zone 1-6 ticket to do the whole trip for £40 each.
From St. Pancras they went to Farringdon for the Elizabeth line Westbound, before catching an Eastbound train to Romford.
From St. Pancras they went to Farringdon for the Elizabeth line Westbound, before catching an Eastbound train to Romford.
This enabled them to travel on the line under Paddington station which was not open when they were there last year.
At Romford they caught the unique self-contained London Overground line to Upminster known as the Emerson Park Branch, and then from Upminster they covered all the C2C lines finishing at the dedicated London Terminus of Fenchurch Street.
Afterwards they traversed the following - Tower Hill to Whitechapel – tube – District Line
London Overground Whitechapel to Canada Water return - under River Thames each way on former tube line
Whitechapel to Moorgate – tube – H&C line
Moorgate to Finsbury Park – GNR class 717 unit – the last time Ken was at Finsbury Park Deltics were roaring past
Finsbury Park to St Pancras – Thameslink class 700 unit
They could have travelled more before catching their train back to the Midlands, but it was dark and wet and most of the country had had or were having snow.
At Romford they caught the unique self-contained London Overground line to Upminster known as the Emerson Park Branch, and then from Upminster they covered all the C2C lines finishing at the dedicated London Terminus of Fenchurch Street.
Afterwards they traversed the following - Tower Hill to Whitechapel – tube – District Line
London Overground Whitechapel to Canada Water return - under River Thames each way on former tube line
Whitechapel to Moorgate – tube – H&C line
Moorgate to Finsbury Park – GNR class 717 unit – the last time Ken was at Finsbury Park Deltics were roaring past
Finsbury Park to St Pancras – Thameslink class 700 unit
They could have travelled more before catching their train back to the Midlands, but it was dark and wet and most of the country had had or were having snow.
Worth getting out on the central London stations of the Elizabeth line o see the large areas, good signage etc – This is Liverpool Street
In Central London the Elizabeth Line trains are automatic driven and arrive accurately at external doors at each station
Stored class 379 units seen near Ilford
Greater Anglia class 720 unit seen heading for Liverpool Street passing Romford
Elizabeth Line class 345 approaching Romford heading for Paddington
London Overground unit arriving at Romford for the shuttle to Upminster
Side view of the class 710 unit at Romford
View of Shoeburyness depot including 2 x 720/6 units which will be running C2C services in the near future
C2C 357 unit at Shoeburyness station. Note many have union jack vinyls part way down the train
Many 357 units are named although the nameplates are rather bland and easily missed
Westcliff on Sea station has full LTS canopy on the London bound platform and a smaller one on the down platform
C2C terminus at London Fenchurch Street
GNR class 717 at the buffers at Moorgate. It would go to Gordon Hill but we only went as far as Finsbury Park
Our EMR 360 train back to the Midlands. Some of these units are now branded “Luton Airport Express” and first class compartments downgraded to standard class.
All Photos by Ken Jones
