railsquid's 2014 European tour

Started by railsquid, October 15, 2014, 09:16:47 PM

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railsquid

Right, I have made it to good old London, England for the second time this year, but this time unaccompanied and with a free afternoon/evening (which alas follows on from a 12-hour flight which arrived around 8pm body time).

Nevertheless I hot-footed it from Heathrow to the hotel then to Wheels of Steel (as suggested in this thread), which had... nothing of any interest to me. The small amount of N-gauge stuff in stock was mainly European; the proprietor said he has quite a high turnover so it varies from day to day.

So Plan B, the Ian Allan bookstore in Waterloo, which in a classic act of foresightful planning I'd neglected to write down the address for and having a vague idea it was next to Waterloo Station (and not having any mobile internet access) I eventually found it after resorting to the old-fashioned method of peer-to-peer interlocutory enquiry, aka asking someone. I was expecting to see only OO stock there, which I duly saw, and only after doing a round of the shop did I notice I'd overlooked a display case with a random assortment of Bachman/Graham Farish models at surprisingly reasonable prices, as an upshot of which I now own a BR blue Deltic and a weathered blue class 25. And a couple of coaches. And some magazines'n'stuff :bounce: They do have a test track available to test the locos, which is important to me as it would be annoying to find I've bought a dud and have to return it from oriental parts.

(Anyone heading along there to snap up a 25 should be aware that they still also have at least one of the old ones on display at the same price level).

railsquid

By the time my new possessions were safely esconced in a plastic bag it was pushing midnight body time, but I've no idea when I'll come this way again so decided to recoup some of the investment in an off-peak travel card and check out the East London Line northern extension. Well it's not the East London Line anymore but you know what I mean.

On the way back from the Ian Allan shop I passed through the Waterloo concourse and had an unexpected bout of nostalgia, as I remembered it was here 23 years ago I stopped to have a cup of tea and a sandwich on my way to Germany for a "gap year" (from which I never returned and which lead me to parts even further east). The concourse is much changed since then of course; I'm not particularly enamoured with the elongated advertising screens above the ticket gates, which distract from the grandeur of the station and the train shed beyond. I do see the old Eurostar platforms appear to be being put back into use.

Anyway, down the "Dr. Who" tunnels to the Jubilee line, changing at Canada Water for the underground overground line. I like this station - nice wide platform on the Jubilee line directly under the ELL platforms, very easy interchange. Unfortunately it was pretty dark by then so I couldn't see much of the extension itself, but if the former factories/warehouses now converted to playpens-cum-offices are anything to go by, this silicon roundabout digital economy thing is taking off pretty well. The terminus, Highgate and Islington, needs some serious rethinking - even though the trains are only 4 cars and weren't full, the stairs at the platform end were hopelessly overcrowded.


Newportnobby

Makes for interesting reading :thankyousign:

I trust you have a camera with you so maybe we can expect some pics of your travels please? :camera:

Claude Dreyfus

Pity about the weather really...been pretty wet and miserable all day; typical UK weather I suppose...

Oh yes, keep an eye out for the latest Continental Modeller...due out in all descerning retailers tomorrow. It has a Japanese layout in it... ;)

Hope you enjoy your visit to Europe.

railsquid

Quote from: newportnobby on October 15, 2014, 09:53:25 PM
Makes for interesting reading :thankyousign:

I trust you have a camera with you so maybe we can expect some pics of your travels please? :camera:

Yup. My brain was plastered over several timezones yesterday so didn't take much, but will endeavour to engage in visual as well as verbal documentation  :D

railsquid

Quote from: Claude Dreyfus on October 15, 2014, 10:24:57 PM
Oh yes, keep an eye out for the latest Continental Modeller...due out in all descerning retailers tomorrow. It has a Japanese layout in it... ;)

I did actually take a look in the current edition which appeared to be Orient-free. I will be sure to include a newsagent on my perambulations today.

railsquid

From Highgate and Islington I took the Victoria line, intending to head back to my hotel near Paddington via the Bakerloo, but the next stop was Kings Cross, and it occurred to me I like the section of Circle/Metropolitan line so got off there. I was surprised to find a giant wine bar/yuppie emporium called "St Pancras" which is located beneath a huge arching roof, and they've even got some 1:1 scale trains in there.

Anyway it's quite nicely done as these things go so I spent some time poking around before heading to the Metropolitan/Circle/H&C tunnels with their nice new trains. I'm not normally a fan something just because it's new, but I do like these trains - apart from being spacious and open they have excellent acceleration and I could almost imagine I was on a modern efficient metro network until the automated voice came on announcing that the train was stopped due to red signals ahead caused by congestion.

Which put me on the H&C platform at Paddington, which I'd evidently never been to before, and it turned out to be quite a slog from there to the main concourse, which meant I got to see a side of the station (literally) I never usually see. Long queue for taxis as it was raining heavily by then; interestingly there was one of those zigzaggy roped-off queuing sections by the taxi rank indicating the queues can get very long sometimes. Anyway by then it was 8pm, or 4am body time, stomach was demanding late dinner/early breakfast so I repaired to that fine dining establishment Pret A Manger, which is located on platform 1 and has some tables outside, so I was able to sit and watch the HSTs come and go while partaking of some breadilicious bounty, which was kind of nice.

Recap: in the space of 5 hours I travelled from Heathrow, checked out all the specialist railway model retailers in central London (both of them), kicked off my BR blue N-gauge collection, visited three major termini and "bashed" a new section of line.   :thumbsup:

railsquid


Bealman

Vision over visibility. Bono, U2.

railsquid

My hotel room:



Excuse the mess. Very small single room in a place called "Hotel Omega" about 5 minutes walk from Paddington station. Bathroom is tiny and there's no lift; luckily I'm used to Japanese "business hotels" which come in similar dimensions, and lived for many years on the 5th floor of an old apartment building in Berlin with no lift, so no big deal for me. Fine for an overnight stay, unless you have lots of heavy luggage and/or are not up to the stairs. The building is a conversion of one of these old narrow townhouses (like most of the ones in the same terrace); it's evidently been recently refurbished - I can still faintly smell the paint. Incredibly, for a London hotel, hot water comes out of the taps on demand. Pressure could be higher, but certainly acceptable.

Verdict: would stay here again.

railsquid

#10
Yesterday's haul - some magazines'n'stuff:



and some rolling stock:


Bealman

Cool Deltic!! (I'll ignore the colour  :D)
Vision over visibility. Bono, U2.

railsquid

I'm very definitely completing some unfinished childhood ambitions here, which focussed mainly on BR blue... Though I suspect the original Deltic (DP1?), if that's the one you mean, is the only Deltic I've actually ever seen with my own eyes, back when it was in the Science Museum (cool place, they have the pickled brain of an indirect relative in a jar there).

Bealman

Not to mention Stephen's Rocket.  :thumbsup:
Vision over visibility. Bono, U2.

Claude Dreyfus

Quote from: railsquid on October 16, 2014, 03:15:22 AM


Yup. My brain was plastered over several timezones yesterday so didn't take much, but will endeavour to engage in visual as well as verbal documentation  :D

Ha, you're not kidding, seeing the time you posted this morning!

When do you move on from the 'Smoke'?

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