Tuesday 24th January 2012

Things are like buses around here at the moment, I thought I may as well make it a hat-trick of night phots and this one is something a bit special! The new Underground S-Stock had started to be delivered a year ago or so and has been slowly trickling in but the hired Class 20s for these workings is rumoured to be coming to an end so I thought it was time I should make the effort and go and see one. The stock is formed of two pairs of 20s sandwiching the S-Stock with two barrier vehicles making a rather unusual sight! The stock runs from Derby via the Midlands down to Banbury where it takes the Chiltern line to Princes Risbrough before reversing to Aylesbury and then reversing again to take the train down to Amersham and onto LUL metals.

I thought the best location to see this working would be Aylesbury so I packed up my gear and set off to await its midnight arrival! Thanks to the usual sat nav generosity in timings I arrived some 45 minutes early and on hindsight would have been better to wait in the car instead of braving a frosty 0 degrees on the platform! Eventually 20901/905 top and tailed 20227/142 arrived with the 7X09 Derby – Neasden into Aylesbury shortly after midnight where a new crew were waiting to take the train South enabling me time to grab a few photos, a brief change of ends and the 20s spluttered away making a lovely sound in the still of the night.

Monday 23rd January 2012

The night phot of the VSOE at Didcot on Saturday has given me the bug to take more time exposures so I got browsing to see what was about and I stumbled across the loco hauled workings on the Chiltern line and in particular the 1H08 Banbury – London Marybelone. The empty stock is booked to arrive in Platform 2 from Wembley before crossing over to the North of the station and then running back into Platform 3 ready depart South giving me ample time to get some shots.

As the train is booked to depart at 06:53 it meant an early 05:15 wake up call to ensure I was there in time and it will probably catch up with me later in the day! I arrived shortly before the stocks booked arrival time of 06:30 and walked onto the platform to see the DVT gliding in on a rather lengthy 7 car set although a bit of a mish mash of liveries with Blue & Grey and ex Virgin stock. The ECS waited for a southbound Chiltern unit to pass before crossing over and running back into the station. I was quite pleased with the celebrity livery on the train as 67018 ‘Keith Heller’ in DBS red was the power for todays working and my first photo of this loco.

Saturday 21st January 2012

After some lovely winter light to start off this year it was decidedly grey today but that would not be a problem for what I had planned. It has been a while since my last night phot and today’s target looked like it would fit the bill. I had noted there was a VSOE trip to Bath Spa today running via the Thames Valley but looking at the timings I noticed it was booked a few minutes at Didcot in both the morning and evening, this immediately suggested to me that it was for a crew change so come early evening I packed up my camera gear and tripod and set off expectantly.

I arrived early just in case but unfortunately the prior HST was running 20 mins late for some reason so I had a chilly wait in the windy conditions but just a couple of minutes behind the HST 67017 turned up on the 1Z93 Bath Spa – London Victoria VSOE stock and stopped for the crew change as I had expected. The stock had gone down top and tailed with 67025 but the return was just 67017 up front so not sure if a problem with 67025 or a planned move to leave it at Bristol?