London arrivals and departures

I've added a new gallery to my Fotopic site today, mainly of photos I took yesterday whilst in London. There has been so much change on the railways over the last few months that I wanted to capture some of it with my camera.

I started off heading to Victoria to see Battle of Britian class 34067 Tangmere, which was working 1Z82 Victoria to Norwich 'The Cathedrals Express.' I did debate whether to 'chase' the train to Stratford but that would have meant missing out on seeing the Grand Central HST set at Kings Cross. As it happens, I ended up at Stratford later in the day on a rather circuitous route back to Waterloo.

A brief stop off at Kings Cross Thameslink followed after seeing 34067 depart Victoria. During my time working in London I used this station twice, when strikes were afflicting Silverlink. The station entrance looks forlorn, all references to its Thameslink status removed and signs directing intending passengers to the new station at St Pancras International. The entrance is being retained however as it will provide access to the Underground.

Yesterday was an opportunity to take some photographs of the new Grand Central operation - Power Cars 43067 and 43080 were present at Kings Cross, arriving from Sunderland just ahead of their 1045 scheduled time. In the adjacent platform was a National Express East Coast liveried set - 43300 and 43328. It was interesting to see the liveries of these two operators side by side and the contrast between the front ends of the power cars (see above).


After Kings Cross I 'popped next door' to have a look around St Pancras International. Breathtaking is the one word to describe my initial impressions. The station looks magnificent, a greater contrast with the dark and rather gloomy environs of Kings Cross is difficult to imagine. The disappointment is that the domestic services of East Midlands Trains are situated in the train shed extension, apparently shunned from entering the magnificently restored Barlow train shed. The extension itself I think looks ugly and not at all in keeping with the rest of the station - it feels like a cheap add on.

Finally I took the aforementioned circuitous route from here back to Waterloo via the Victoria line, North London Line, Docklands Light Railway and a brief sprint on the East London Line before taking the Jubilee Line to Waterloo. The East London Line has now closed and is not due to reopen until Summer 2010 when it will become part of the London Overground network and will be extended to Croydon.