Islington to the M25 By Public Transport
I had to go back to Suffolk to pick some bits and pieces up and thought that the easiest way to do this was to get to Cockfosters Station, which is just a few minutes from Junction 24 on the M25.
So I took the 141 bus to Manor House taking a few pictures and a video on the way, where I got the Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters.
The journey from the Balls Pond Road took just 35 minutes and that included a delay of two minutes at Arnos Grove station, where they changed drivers. I could even have got a bus to the M25 from Cockfosters.
As I was running early, I did make a detour at Southgate Station to take a few pictures.
The station has been sympathetically restored and still contains many of the Art Deco features. It is still very much as it was, when I used to use it to go to Minchenden Grammar School in the early 1950s and late 1960s.
I also seem to remember reading somewhere, that the ticket barriers can be removed, so that the station can be used for period film and TV productions. Parts of the film, The End of the Affair were shot in the station.
I just think that Southgate Station sums up everything that was so good about the designs of London Transport before the Second World War. It was designed as a bus/tube interchange and still fulfils that function, with style and panache.
Southgate Station was one of the buildings created by the archtect, Charles Holden. If he had been of any other nationality, than British, he would be one of the most famous architects in the world. But he was a modest man, who twice declined a knighthood. On the other hand, his buildings speak eloquently of the quality and beauty of his work.
The North and East London Lines at Mildmay Park
This picture was taken from the top of a 141 bus and shows the North and East London Lines running parallel to each other.
North and East London Lines at Mildmay Park
The North London Line is on the right or north side and has overhead electrification, as it also takes frieght traffic between the East of London and the West Coast Main Line. The East London Line to the left has to use third rail to be compatible with the electric lines south of the river and because there is not enough clearance in the Thames Tunnel for the lines to be overhead.
There used to be a Mildmay Park station, at about the point, where the road bridge can be seen in the picture. But it was removed because it was too close to the other station at Canonbury. At some point, there will probably be some reorganisation here, as you have buses coming up Essex and Southgate Roads, that don’t interface with the Overground.
How to turn a Nokia 6310i Into A Smarter Phone
People laugh at me because I don’t have a smart phone like an iPhone. But then apparently Elton John doesn’t even have any mobile phone.
But then my Nokia 6310i can send and receive text messages, tweet and even send and receive normal phone calls to anybody with a number. That last bit is really cool. Or is it Koool? Who cares anyway? The only thing it doesn’t have is an automatic reject of calls that are trying to cheat me out of money in various ways. But no-one has a phone that does that! Yet! But hopefully, it will come in the next 100 years or so.
I’ve had my 6310i eleven or twelve years now and even now, I find new features that I am starting to use. I’ve known about it for some time, but now I’m using the to-do-list feature to make notes as I ride around London, often at the front on the top deck of a bus. Try doing that in a car!
As the phone stores quite a few text messages, when I have information I might need on the move, I just text it to my phone using LiquidDrop. I’ve just picked up my tickets for Barnsley and I’ve texted the itinerary to the phone for Saturday. No hated piece of paper to take, but I suspect W H Smug, will try and load me up. Perhaps, I’ll buy my Saturday paper in M&S or on the way to St. Pancras.
So the 6310i is getting to be a smarter phone. This is what everyone wants! I once said, “Computers make good slaves, but very bad masters!” That applies to phones as well. And especially mobile ones.
The Ian Walmsley Train Comfort Factor
Ian Walmsley is a respected rail industry professional and a regular contributor to Modern Railways. In the last edition, he did a scientific analysis of passenger comfort in various classes of British train. Some typical Standard Class ratings he got were Eurostar – 77.6%, HSDT – 76.2% And a lot were much worse!
So I decided to apply his rules to the hybrid buses that take me to Wood Green and the City.
A 141 Bus to Wood Green
These are my rather crude results.
Noise Standstill – Estimated – 8 – 0.32
Noise Service Speed – Estimated – 8 – 8
Ride – Estimated – 6 – 6
Seat Comfort – 9 – 9
Seat Legroom – 8 – 0.64
Seat Window Alignment – 10 – 6
Seat Visibility Airline – 9 – 4.5
Seat Airline to Bay Ratio – 10 – 5
Seat Armrests – 0 – 0
Air Management – 9 – 7.2
Luggage Capacity – 7 – 3.5
Toilets – 0 – 0
Catering – 0 – 0
Vibration and Rattles – 8 – 4
Litter Bins – 0 – 0
Ambience – 9 – 6.3
So this gives a weighted score of 60.46. Not bad considering it scored zero for armrests, toilets, catering and litter bins. You could make a case for scoring somewhere about 7 for each of the last three, as they are generally available close to most bus stops.
It would also be interesting to borrow a noise meter and get correct values for that.
A 92% Day!
One doesn’t want to score it higher than that, as I might shilt myself.
But I’ve gone to football a lot in the last three years since C died and I’ve not had such a good day for some time.
I had decided that I would travel First Class as a treat and I’d already bought the tickets for £36.60 on Wednesday, so after I’d made my sandwiches, I took the 141 bus to Moorgate and walked through Finsbury Circus to Liverpool Street to catch the 12:58 to Ipswich. It meant, if I’d driven, which I can’t, it would probably have spent more and taken longer. I also wouldn’t have had a large table on which to lay my paper and eat my lunch.
The train was a couple of minutes late into Ipswich, but this didn’t matter, as I’d have preferred to sit in the soft seat in the train, rather than the hard seat in the Britannia Stand. But despite the delay, I was well in time for the start of the match.
The match itself was spoilt by the strong wind and is best summed up by the comments of the Ipswich manager; Paul Jewell.
Delighted with win. Wind was awful, so would have taken ugly 1-0 win. But played some good football second half. Connor great goal. Pleased for Luca.
I would add that Town could easily have scored five instead of three, especially as Tamas Priskin hit the post and Grant Leadbitter missed a penalty and also hit a spectacular effort, that was deflected wide.
We also had a double sending off when Sheffield United decided to try the self-destruction route.
So all-in-all it was first class entertainment.
I’ve just watched the match on The Football League Show on the BBC’s iPlayer. It’s about thirty minutes in. It’s worth searching for, just to see Connor Wickham’s goal, where he takes the ball in his own half , beats everybody and then draws the goalkeeper and puts the ball in the empty net. It will be a clip that will be shown and shown.
After the match I took the 17:09 train back to London and another 141 bus got me home by seven. I even had time to pick-up a chicken korma for supper in Marks at Liverpool Street Station.
It would be nice if watching football was always so stress free. But then most sides aren’t as co-operative as Sheffield United!
One slight blot on the day was that the rice with the chicken korma was rather crunchy.
Reflections on the Train Trip to York
It was a good trip and East Coast played their part.
- The trip up was uneventful, except that I probably annoyed my companions in the set of four seats, by talking on the phone too much, because of Brian‘s death. We left on time and arrived at York dead on the scheduled arrival time. The coffee was excellent.
- If I want to nit-pick, I needed to know the time that the train arrived at York, so my friend’s son could meet me. But I’d left the details in my bag, which was in the luggage rack and I didn’t want to disturb everyone by getting it down. I seem to remember being on a train, which told me the time it would arrive at the various destinations. This may have been the TGV I took to Nice.
- Before returning, I did get into a bit of a panic, as I thought I’d lost one of the seven orange tickets that I needed for my trip. Surely one ticket printed with an itinerary could be designed, but then you’d probably need a smart mobile phone, which I won’t carry, as they break too easily. In the end, I found I’d mixed the outward and return leg tickets and found the one I needed in my jacket pocket.
- The return train was an hour late at York, due to a problem with another company’s train and I was kept informed by East Coast’s staff. So they didn’t fail in the way that some companies did in the snow.
- I was able to get a gluten-free snack at the AMT coffee stop in the station, so although it was late, I wasn’t unduly troubled, especially, as I live only fifteen minutes from King’s Cross on a bus.
- Staff on the train were handing out claims form and we were informed, when we were over an hour late, which effectively meant that the trip was free. My claim went in the post this morning.
- At least we weren’t too late for the buses to get me home and five minutes after the train arrived, I was on a 476 for home.
To sum up the return journey – We were late, but I didn’t suffer any serious problems. It was all rather less stressful and problematic, than some journeys done in the snow lately. I also think that quite a few people were surprised at the handing out of claim forms.
A Lovely Memorial
I saw this seat on York Station.
A Lovely Memorial
The bottom line says “Still Travelling” I think, Brian would have found a seat like that funny! But, in a dry, ironic and very respectful manner!
Death of a Friend
The trip to York yesterday was to visit my old boss from ICI and his wife. He has not been too well lately after a stroke and some complications, but his mind is still all there and just as when I went to Liverpool, we discussed engineering and put the world to rights. He also filled in some of the gaps in some of my stories, like the invention of plastic string.
However, the trip was overshadowed by learning about the death of one of my colleagues in Metier in a phone call on the trip north. Brian was the Finance Director and we couldn’t have wanted for a better one. Or a funnier and witty one for that matter! He had also been a good friend and confidant since the death of my wife and until a few months before his death, he could be relied upon to call regularly.
He will be missed by all who knew him.
Resisting the Obvious Headline
In the latest edition of Modern Railways, there is an article entitled East London line goes ’round the corner’, which describes the insertion of the missing link between the North and East London lines.
Should it have used the headline East London line goes ’round the bend’?
Possibly in a tabloid, but the whole exercise seems to have been conducted in a sane and measured manner.
Transport for London actually took the risk for the scheme, by acting as the project manager. The main outcome was that they shaved £2.5 million off a £16 million budget. They also managed to rebuild the bridge that carried Kingsland Road over the railway with a lot less disruption, than traditional methods would have caused.
So all things considered, the team is to be congratulated, when it opens next month, a few weeks ahead of schedule.
The article also says that they will be taking a similar project management approach to the expansion of the East London line to Clapham Junction.
So is this all to the good of passengers?
I use the new East London line occasionally and it got me back from IKEA in double-quick time last week, but then passenger numbers on the line are at levels that had been predicted to not be reached until a year later.
So is there a lesson here? Upgrade railways will new trains and frequent services and they’ll be used and repay the investment.
The Anonymous Widower 