Late: EDs at Gillingham

This is about a week late but i had my reasons.

Tuesday 23rd October: 3 class 73′s paused at Gillingham whilst working an unknown special, the loco’s were Gatwick Express liveried 73202, Heritage BR blue 73136 and SWT 73109. The special only stopped at Gillingham for two minutes which ment a few railway enthusiast (including myself)  running from one end of the platform to the other. If i were to be honest i was more interested in 73109 because the SWT livery is not very common in Kent (excuse the sarcasm here).

Below: 73202 with 73136 arrive at Gillingham with a Birthday special. 73109 was at the rear of the consist.

Bromley trip.

Yesterday i had a whole day free so i decided to go to Bromley South station to see the Eurostars before they get re-routed via Ebbsfleet. I spent about an hour at the station and caught a few Eurostars bombing past platforms 3 and 4 and a Network Rail MPV passed by, unfortunatly i couldnt get a good shot of the MPV because a Southeastern unit blocked the view (as they always do when something good passes). Didn’t really bother with the local EMU’s so i didnt get many shots from the station but it was a good trip overall.

Below: Powercar 3217 at the rear of the Paris bound service, this time next month this picture would be impossible to re-create as the services will be diverted via Ebbsfleet.

Below: Not the shot i wanted of DR98978 as it sped past Bromley South but a Southeastern 375 blocked the view. But i managed to get a shot of it to say the least.

Finally given up

Neen thinking about this for a while now but i have finally given up photographing Southeastern EMU’s. The reason?, well they are all basically the same and theres almost no variety in the fleet of 330+ that Southeastern owns. I will still go out and photograph Kents railways but not very often and only when/if something special comes (railtours, freight, odd movements etc). There is some good news, on 23rd October 3 class 73′s (73136, 73109 and 73202) are working the Queen of Scots railtour to Gillingham so fingers crossed that i’ll be able to see it.

I have taken up an interest in buses because they are easier to photograph and theres more variety in much smaller areas.

Trip to a new location.

Visited a new location in the name of Cuxton railway station on the Medway valley line.

The station is very quiet (service wise) with only 1 train every 15 mins or 4 trains per hour. There maybe no variety at Cuxton (mostly 466′s) but it makes a change from visiting Rochester and Gillingham non stop.

Although Cuxton is a nice quiet station, getting to it was a nightmare. Started out at Gillingham and every service towards London was delayed, the train i was on (1244 Gillingham to London Charing X service) was delayed by 6 mins which i cant really complain about because i’ve had worse than this.

After arriving at Cuxton i noticed a few signs that still has the Network SouthEast logo. They are fairly common along the Medway Valley line but they wont be around forever as the stations are having a repaint. Still nice to see NSE live on even though the livery on the rolling stock is gone.

Below: One of two signs at Cuxton that still has the NSE red, blue and (the remains of) grey logo.

 Below: The mainstay of the Medway Valley line. 466027 arrives at Cuxton with a Maidstone West to Strood service.