European Railroad Discussion > Some UK Highlights

Following up on the Czech photos posted a few weeks ago - after the Czech Republic, we were in the UK for about 10 days.  During that time I got to spend some time along the North London line, which was my favorite line to railfan when I lived in London.  I also got to ride the new Elizabeth line, and visit South Wales with 86235.  Here are a few highlights from those 10 days.

1)  Spent an hour or so at Camden Road on the North London line, which was one of my old haunts.    Here's 4M93, a Freightliner Felixstowe-Crewe train behind a Class 66. 
2)  One of the ubiquitous Class 378 London Overground trainsets at Camden Road, but in a new livery since I lived in London. 
3)  Another westbound - this time 4M23, a GBRF Felixstowe-Hams Hall train, with another Class 66.
 

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4)  I moved to Highbury & Islington, and I wasn't paying enough attention to Realtimetrains.com and was surprised by this leafblower train, which was topped and tailed by a couple of Class 69s.
5)  4M29 (Felixstowe-Birch Coppice) showed up behind another Class 66.
6)  Didn't note the symbol for this westbound Freightliner behind 2 Class 90s. 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/23 20:51 by dwatry.

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7)  Now moving to South Wales - on the way to meet up with 86235 caught this Class 66 at Newport on an engineering train.  The crazy angles on the station structure make it really hard to decide how to orient the photo!
8)  A class 66 on a northbound train at Abergavenny, on the Newport - Hereford line. 
9)  A Class 153 DMU at Craven Arms on a Transport for Wales train bound for Newport. 
 

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10)  Class 37 at Craven Arms hauling a train of Class 508 Merseyrail EMUs to the scrapper. 
11)  The Class 508s saying goodbye.  (Sad for me - I rode these on Merseyrail and actually like these cars!!)

Oops - forgot some London area photos - back to London!

12)  This is 4M88, a Freightliner Felixstowe-Dutton train at Romford, behind a Class 66. 
 

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Very interesting series. I wasn't aware of this kind of freight action in London

13)  Elizabeth Line train at Romford heading to Heathrow T5.    This new line has really revolutionized east-west travel across London.
14)  Class 66 at Romford on the 4L36 Wentloog-Felixstowe Freightliner. 
15)  LNER "up" Azuma at Haringay on the East Coast Main Line.  The superelevation here really exaggerates the notion of speed.  But he was going pretty fast anyway!
 

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eastpenn23 - there is freight action in London if you know where to look!  The North London line is the busiest freight line, and you can move back and forth very easily between stations using the London Overgound trains to get to various vantage points.  If you use the website realtimetrains.com on your phone you can see the lineup of all the trains (freight and passenger), so you can plan out your movements to try to catch the max number of trains.  BTW there's no equivalent in the US for realtimetrains.com.  You can look at the train lineup in list format, and you can also see the track diagrams in real time, with switch positions and signal indications.  Mind boggling amount of info to a US railfan.   
Duncan

Nice!

texchief1

Re: your last photo of the LNER Azuma. Looks like you caught the LNER Pride trainset. The various UK operating companies have been very positive about special LGBT liveries and I managed to catch a few when we were in London a year ago. I learned the local railfans refer to these as "trainbows":-)

WP17

dwatry Wrote:
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> eastpenn23 - there is freight action in London if
> you know where to look!  The North London line is
> the busiest freight line, and you can move back
> and forth very easily between stations using the
> London Overgound trains to get to various vantage
> points.  If you use the website
> realtimetrains.com on your phone you can see the
> lineup of all the trains (freight and passenger),
> so you can plan out your movements to try to catch
> the max number of trains.  BTW there's no
> equivalent in the US for realtimetrains.com.  You
> can look at the train lineup in list format, and
> you can also see the track diagrams in real time,
> with switch positions and signal indications. 
> Mind boggling amount of info to a US
> railfan.   
> Duncan

Thanks! I'll be back out there in the Spring