Saturday 11 May 2019
This article was opened on 26 May 2019,
and last modified on 1 June 2019
Above: Our East Anglian Explorer railtour
is seen passing Brundall Gardens, between Norwich and Lowestoft. We
traversed the Norfolk Broads in style! Photo by Nick and Billy
Palmer.
Hastings Diesels Limited’s 77th public
railtour was to the seaside, at Britain’s most easterly point: Lowestoft,
in Suffolk.
This railtour was sold out weeks in advance. It began at Hastings,
served the usual stations to Bromley South and Kensington (Olympia), and
ran along parts of the West London and North London Lines to reach
Stratford, our final pick-up point. From there we traversed nearly the
entire 114-mile length of the East Anglia Main Line via Colchester in
Essex, and Ipswich in Suffolk. A reversal at Norwich (Norfolk) brought
us onto the final 23-mile leg to Lowestoft.
On the latter section towards Lowestoft, the Signaller stopped our
train and instructed our driver to proceed at caution, because of a
report of swans on the track. Indeed we encountered a family of swans
and cygnets struggling to cross the track which delayed us to the point
that we were 36 minutes late arriving at our final destination of
Lowestoft.
As a result, our Empty Coaching Stock runs to and from Norwich, which
were planned purely to allow our water-tanks to be refilled, had to be
cancelled as any further delay would have jeopardised our return
working.
On the return leg we were due for a 5-minute reversal at Norwich, at
which we arrived 4 minutes late! Nevertheless, we were able to partially
fill some of our toilet-flushing tanks with the short hoses available;
our departure was delayed such that we followed a Greater Anglia
express which was scheduled to follow us to Ipswich, but we regained our
booked timings by then being run straight through Ipswich rather than
stopping there to await other train movements. The trip then ran to time
and without incident.
Our train ran faultlessly and made good time wherever signals
permitted. Unusually we were routed as planned via the Chatham Main Line
(via Penge East) rather than the Catford Loop, in both directions; also
unusually, on the return we ran as booked via St Mary Cray and Otford, a
slower route between Bromley South and Sevenoaks which no doubt kept us
out of the way of faster traffic.
Historical data
The train was formed thus: 60118-60501-69337-70262-60529-60116, with motor
coach 60116 Mountfield leading upon departure from Hastings; the
train returned to Hastings in the same orientation.
The publicity leaflet and timings remain available, as does the
geographic sketch map of our route which was
produced for this outing. The actual running times have
also been saved.
To illustrate the route we expected to take, annotated extracts from
Network Rail’s Sectional Appendix were produced for the outward and return legs of this outing (updated 24 April 2019).
We are aware that our precise actual route (i.e. which track we traversed
on certain complex areas of layout) may be at variance with the
pre-guessed route shown here in a few places; these will be corrected in
due course as the cab video footage is prepared.
Cab video footage
We mounted unattended unmonitored forward-facing cameras in both cabs
of the train, and recorded the forward view from Kensington (Olympia) to
Lowestoft and back.
For much of the journey there was more than one member of staff in the
cab (a route-conductor) making the leading-cab soundtrack unusable for
our purposes, so we have also recorded audio from the rear cab which will
be precisely synchronised and combined with the video footage where
necessary.
We haven’t prepared the footage yet (see our YouTube channel for other such
footage); we will get to it in due course, once the backlog of previous
material has been worked through. It will then be linked from this page
as well as freely searchable via our YouTube channel.
Videos
Various photographers have taken video-footage depicting this railtour
and have uploaded it to YouTube; the following are links to some
starting-points but do not represent a definitive collection:
Photos
Photos on this page were taken by Richard Griffin unless otherwise
stated.
Above: The railtour approaches Kensington
(Olympia) on the outward leg of the journey.
Above: We waited for some 16 minutes at
Stratford station for our scheduled path down the Great Eastern Main
Line; we are seen here “under the wires” in platform 10A, with a Central
line train visible in the background.
Above: Ian McDonald waited for us on an
overbridge at Reedham, between Norwich and Lowestoft. Behind the leading
pair of vehicles can just be made out the remains of a third side of a
triangular junction at this point, with the line via Berney Arms to Great
Yarmouth (temporarily closed for signalling work at the time of our
visit) which diverged to our left a few chains further back.
Above: We cross the River Yare at Reedham
Swing Bridge, and would cross the River Waveney about 4 miles down the
line on a similar bridge at Somerleyton. Below: our train
proceeding towards Haddiscoe and Somerleyton across the Norton Marshes.
Photos by Ian McDonald.
Above: After Haddiscoe we were delayed by
this family of swans & cygnets that was attempting to cross the line
(from left to right as we see it). When we first arrived, our cab-camera
footage shows how the smallest of the cygnets was barely able to scramble
over the running-rail—had we proceeded at this point we would have killed
the whole family except for the father.
Above: 11 minutes later, as we carefully
eased past the family, Young Cygnet has clambered out of the Down
Four-Foot and is now struggling to scramble across the Field Rail into
the Up Four-Foot; Daddy Swan waits impatiently in the Cess while Mummy
watches anxiously with the rest of her bevy.
Above: Shortly after arrival at
Lowestoft, with Club Class motor coach 60118
Tunbridge Wells nearest the camera.
Above: Lowestoft station has an
olde-worlde charm about it, particularly on this day as the new doors
leading directly from this aspect onto the concourse had been opened for
the first time in 30 years—thanks to the ongoing works of a Community
Station Regeneration project.
Above: As well as the seaside itself,
Lowestoft boasts Britain’s most easterly point… as well as the most
easterly point ever reached by a Hastings DEMU, attained both in
preservation and in BR days!
Above & below: While some of us were
away seeing the sights, others including Ian McDonald were capturing
scenes of great interest to English Electric enthusiasts—one of the local
services from Norwich was being formed of two coaches topped and tailed
by a pair of Class 37 locos provided by Direct Rail Services
(DRS); 37716 is at the Norwich end of its short rake.
Above & below: 37423 was at the
arrival end alongside our train, as Ian McDonald’s photos show.
Above: Marcus Betts captured this angle,
not available to members of the public, from the apron alongside the
sidings at Lowestoft station; it shows our motor coach 60116 Mountfield to
advantage.
Above: Much has changed over the years at
Lowestoft, including the removal of the platform awnings and an overall
roof which used to cover the concourse area beyond the buffers as seen
here.
Above & below: Ian McDonald was again
on hand to witness our passage, this time at Oulton Broad North near the
start of our return journey. Oulton Broad North is still controlled by
semaphore signals from this signal-box by the level crossing; it is also
the junction with the start of the East Suffolk Line which runs to
Ipswich via Beccles.
Above: Crossing Reedham Swing Bridge on
the return leg of the trip. Photo by Nick and Billy Palmer.
Above: Upon arrival at Norwich, Marcus
Betts photographed our train in platform 1. Our late arrival and the
need to take on water for our toilet-tanks (which had not been possible
earlier because of the swans’ delay) meant that we departed after the
Greater Anglia express visible opposite on platform 2.
Above: As we rushed homeward on the Great
Eastern Main Line, and as our Club Class customers were served their
evening meal, we passed Hatfield Peverel between between Witham and
Chelmsford… and the camera of John Hooson.