Imberbus 2021

21st August 2021

The buses were back at the "lost" village of Imber on Salisbury Plain last Saturday having been forced to skip 2020 because of you-know-what. And so was I.

 

Here they are in pictures

 

 

And here they are on video:

 

 

 

Enjoy :-)

Marble Arch Mound

19th August 2021

A green “hill” has appeared in the middle of the road junction at Marble Arch. The trials and tribulations of this £6m man-made edifice have been well publicised but as I was in London anyway and it’s currently free to visit I thought I’d give it a go. Besides, Ian reckoned it was worth it. 

 

With impeccable timing I arrived at exactly the same moment as the huge Ashura parade made its way down Oxford Street. Once they had passed I found my way round to the entrance clutching my pre-booked ticket printed out ready to present at my allotted time as instructed.

 

 

 

Only to find that they were just waving people in anyway. So in I went 15 minutes before my booked slot and climbed the metal staircase (you really don’t want to drop anything) to the viewing platform at the top.

 

 

 

There’s a clear view up the Edgeware Road.

 

 

 

One of the few trees they’ve managed to grow has been placed so as to obscure the view east, which seems an obvious mistake as the only point of the structure is the elevated views it gives over this part of London.

 

 

 

Looking south over Hyde Park reveals a lot of trees but little else. Further east you can spot Battersea Power Station, the London Eye and the Shard.

 

I spent maybe 20 minutes taking photos and trying to spot things that I recognised, see below, before making my way back down again and sloping off back to Soho for a pint.

 

 

 

Diamond Geezer also went, the next day I think, and has posted his thoughts here more eloquently and in slightly more detail. I agree with his findings, don’t make a special trip but if you’re in the area make the most of it while it’s free and best book your ticket just in case it becomes suddenly very popular.

Hidden London - The Kingsway Tram Subway

19th August 2021

At the junction of the A4200 Southampton Row and A40 Theobald’s Rd. there is a set of metal gates flanked by ornate lamps beyond which a cobbled slope runs down to the darkened portal of a tunnel. Set into the cobbles (yes, I know they’re properly called setts) there are metal rails for this is the north entrance to the Kingsway Tram Subway and is somewhere I’ve long wanted to get into. Thanks to London Transport Museum’s resumed Hidden London tours, I now have.

 

 

 

A bit of history:

The Kingsway Tram Subway was built by the London County Council and opened in 1906, as part of the regeneration programme for the Holborn and Aldwych areas, which had become slums. The building of the new roads gave the opportunity to link the tramways in the north with those in the south but the occupants of the fancy new buildings wouldn't want to have to look at all those working class people who mostly travelled by tram. So after the pattern of New York and Boston it was decided to put the tramway below ground in a subway. The southern end of the subway emerged on the Embankment next to (later under) Waterloo Bridge, permission for the lines to continue over the bridge having been refused.
It had relatively short active life, closing in 1952, but despite this, the Subway underwent several major upgrades during its time, in particular the enlargement to enable the passage of double deck trams in 1930-31.

 

 

 

More than half of the subway still exists to this day - complete with original features such as the longest section of surviving tram track in London (Croydon doesn't count in this context) and the remains of Holborn tram station with its steps to street level. Part of the southern section of the subway was repurposed in 1962-1964 as part of the Strand Underpass road and the very southernmost section between the underpass and Embankment under Waterloo Bridge was converted into a bar/restaurant, currently it is Proud Cabaret Club 

 

 

The northern section visited on the tour is mostly used for storage by Camden Council and others and has also been used as a film set several times. The tour isn't allowed to continue south into the part of the remaining tunnel which lies in Westminster council area. 

 

 

 

 

 

As usual with Hidden London tours it was all well organised and guided. If you get a chance go and have a look in the Kingsway Tram Subway yourself, it’s the only one of its kind in the country.

 

Flickr Album is here with 40 photos.

 

Spa Valley Railway

 Tuesday 3rd August 2021

As things are opening up again - permanently or temporarily, who knows? - I decided that a visit to a heritage railway would be nice, especially as this one at least was happy to sell me one ticket rather than insisting on me paying for two, four, or more as was the case with some others.

The Spa Valley Railway runs from Tunbridge Wells in Kent to Eridge in East Sussex. At Eridge it shares a station with the Southern Railway main line with trains from London Bridge, East Croydon, Oxted and Uckfield. However that would be about three hours and five changes from here or about 90 minutes in the car. There's a large and reasonably priced car park at Eridge station.

 

Eridge looks and feels like a heritage line station and apart from the dot matrix indicators on platform 1 it’s only the modern diesel trains arriving at and departing from this platform that give the game away. 

Today was a heritage diesel running day on the Spa Valley Railway with services being provided by a two car BR Class 207 “Thumper” DEMU running to the “Purple Timetable” which provided five journeys in each direction throughout the day.

An adult ticket cost £12 on the day (even if purchased online) or £10 if you’re not travelling on the spur of the moment and buy it online in advance. Buy it at the station and it’s £12. That’s not too bad for what’s actually an all day rover, cheaper than many other preserved lines and the timings allowed me to catch the 1115 at Eridge, have a bit of lunch in Tunbridge Wells and look around the town and the SVR depot before getting the 1325 at Tunbridge Wells to Groombridge which is good for filming, photography, and more importantly tea and biccies from the kiosk on the station. After a quick wander around the village which isn’t that exciting I returned to Eridge on the 1501. I should mention that not one of those trains actually departed at the scheduled time, usually it was about 5 minutes later :-)

 

Having grown up on BR’s Western Region I’m not familiar with the Class 207 trains of Southern Region, nicknamed Thumpers because of the engine noise I read, which are diesel electric multiple units built in 1962 and remaining in service until 2004 when slam doors were no longer acceptable on a modern railway. Unlike the trains I grew up with which had the engines slung under the floor these have an engine in a compartment behind the driving cab and guard’s compartment, which obviously takes up a lot of space which otherwise could contain passengers. They sound good though if you’re in the motorised unit that is and if you’re in the trailer you can barely hear the engine at all.

 

In true 1960s style and unlike modern commuter trains the interiors have seats with actual springs in because back then the government didn’t insist that everyone travel in as much discomfort as possible. Quite a bit of standing space though for rush hour loadings and I expect the luggage racks above the seats were handy for reading the morning papers. No overcrowding today though, in fact I thought I was going to have this section of the train to myself until shortly before departure a young man & his companion/carer boarded. There had obviously been some sort of incident at the station which had upset him and he proceeded to have a minor melt-down for the duration of the trip, fortunately at the far end of the carriage mostly out of microphone range of my camera. I hope he calmed down enough to enjoy the rest of his day.

 

Tunbridge Wells West station is where most of the SVR locomotives and rolling stock lives and you can wander around the engine shed and yard where there are a number of steam and diesel locomotives in either running condition or serious stages of rebuild. The SVR is based in the engine shed, the lines into the original station being truncated by the access road for Sainsbury’s and the station buildings now a hotel and restaurant named “Smith & Western” with a huge set of cow horns over the entrance. I expect they play both kinds of music but I didn’t venture inside to find out, instead walking up to the Pantiles shopping area and the Chalybeate Spring which gives the town its name but is still shut due to the Great Plague of 2020/21.

 

I took a picnic up onto Tunbridge Wells Common which is conveniently located a short walk from the town and the SVR station. After which I caught the train to Groombridge.

 

Groombridge is probably the best station on the line to see and photograph the trains. It also has the passing loop so on days when multiple trains run this is where they pass. It’s also the place today where the sun passed out of sight behind the clouds although at least the rain held off until I was back on a train. The station has a refreshments kiosk which serves a decent cup of tea. I took a walk into the village which lies on the Kent/East Sussex border, here delineated by the river Grom (one 'o') over which there is a very small bridge carrying the B2110, and from which the village takes its name although it has acquired a spare ‘o' from somewhere along the way.

Last ride of the day was back to Eridge. I had planned to visit the fourth station High Rocks which is in the grounds of the pub and national monument but when passing through there was a sign saying the attraction was currently closed and the gate from the platform very much locked shut. Some other time then, a return visit being on the cards maybe on a steam running day.

More photos Flickr Album

 

And glorious(?) HD video