The Docklands light railway

I was in London, at the end of July, when I got the impulse to go for a ride on the DLR. I'd met a friend for lunch in central London, so headed back to London Bridge via a very circuitous route -  the central Line to Bank (where there's one of the biggest gaps I've ever had to mind), then the DLR down to Greenwich, where I got onto a Southeastern service, calling at Deptford en route, back to London Bridge to get a train home. And I was on the train home when I had an idea. I recalled Geoff Marshall's video from the start of this year, where he attempted to break the record for visiting all of the DLR stations, and where he mentioned the explorerticket.co.uk website, where all of these unofficial challenges can be found. 

When I got home, I logged on to the website and, having read the rules, decided to attempt the challenge. Whilst I was in no way aiming for the record (indeed, I didn't run AT all, and I did this during the COVID-19 reduced timetables), I decided to time my journey for the fun of it. Unfortunately constraints on when I was able to be in London also meant that I was travelling off-peak (between approximately 12 noon and 2pm) so had to change at Canary Wharf rather than being able to get a direct train from Stratford to Lewisham. 

My route involved starting at Shadwell, where I boarded a train to Bank. Having made my way through the one-way system to Monument, I used the tube to Tower Hill, from where I walked to Tower Gateway DLR station. And this is where I had my first delay. I missed the train by less than 20 seconds. I would say the driver could see me when they left, but I know the DLR is automatic! If I'd have ran the distance, I'd have crossed the road earlier (the pedestrian green man disappeared just before I got there) so would have easily made the train.

But as I was doing this for fun rather than to break the record, I kept going, boarding a train at Tower Hill 10 minutes later and heading for Beckton. From here, I caught the bus to near King George V station, although I had a 13 minute wait at the bus stop. It was an extremely hot day when I did this trip so I debated running into ASDA in Beckton to get a cold drink, but wasn't convinced I'd get back in time for my bus. Instead, I found a local shop on the short walk between the bus stop and King George V station, so nipped into there to grab a drink, which was possibly the highlight of this very warm day. 

From here, I made the return journey to Woolwich (with a not inconsiderable wait at Woolwich for a train heading north), before heading up to Stratford International, where after another wait I headed back to Stratford to head down towards Canary Wharf. Again, I seemed to have a long wait here before the train left (I think it may have even been a bit late), however had a good change at Canary Wharf for a Lewisham train, finishing in around 2 hours and 45 minutes.

From there, I headed back into London Victoria, from where I headed home, feeling very warm indeed!  

Stations visited: Greenwich, Deptford, Lewisham, Nunhead, Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye.

The trains I've been on (part 3)

 Hello again, and welcome back. Apologies for not posting in a couple of weeks, whilst I've been dealing with a few family issues. I was planning on posting this a couple of weeks ago but, given the tragic events in Scotland, I felt it was appropriate to wait until today to post again. 

Today's post is the 3rd part of the "Trains I've been on" series.

We start today with the Class 313, currently in operation along the East and West Coastway routes operated by Southern. I've been on one of these trains on two occasions, both of which were back in the summer of 2016 when I was looking at universities. I used one from Brighton to Falmer (to go and look at Sussex University) and one from Chichester to Portsmouth and Southsea to go and look at Portsmouth University, and I must admit I was quite fond of them, particularly as they didn't seem to feature any of the 3+2 style seating which is common on Southern services.

The Class 315 is today's second train to be mentioned, which I rode on the TFL rail network, between London Liverpool Street and Romford in January this year. I had planned to go to Shenfield, however my main aim for the day was to do the Romford-Upminster branch line, which was operated by the same class of train I believe. I needed to get back into central London as I was meeting a friend to check into a hotel and have dinner before we went to see a show in the West End.

And now on to a train that I haven't traveled on for many years. The Class 317 trains are confined to areas of the Greater Anglia network and are in the process of being replaced, but my experience on one of these trains dates back several years, to when they operated on the Great Northern network, when I traveled on one between King's Cross and Cambridge.

Another type of train formerly operated by First Capital Connect, I've ridden on a fair few Class 319 units, and I must admit I wasn't hugely fond of either these or the 317s. I particularly dislike the 3+2 configuration which is often found on these units, as the aisle is then really not very wide. I am looking forward to seeing what they look like after conversion into the class 769 units, which will be going onto a few different routes in Wales and England.

The Class 357 is today's final train to get a mention, and I've only been on one of these, and it was for the short journey from Upminster to Fenchurch Street back in January, when I'd been on the Romford to Upminster line. I quite like these trains, but I don't feel I can comment too much on them seeing as I've been onboard for only a short journey. My memories of that day are also slightly clouded by the fact that I managed to get lost trying to get from Fenchurch Street to my hotel for the night!

I'm going to leave this here for today, but Saturday's post is going to be the story of how I did all the DLR stops, so that's going to be a long one.