Wednesday 19th March 2025

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Wednesday 19th March 2025

07:48 GMT

Yesterday was lovely and sunny. The temperature rose to 9° C, and when out of the wind, but in the sunshine, it felt very nice, but the wind seemed to be very chilling when caught in the open.

It was cold enough for a frost this morning, and at 7am my thermometers said it was still only 2° C. Apart from 4pm, which may feature only sunny spells, there should be strong sunshine today. The forecast says the temperature should rise to 16° C this afternoon. The wind should be light, and coming from a warm direction. It should be good enough to go out with bare arms today. It may not cool off too much tonight, and tomorrow is forecast to start at 8° C. A mix of sunny spells and sunshine may raise the temperature to 18° C this afternoon. Once again the temperature may not fall too far tomorrow might, and Friday may have reasonable weather before a lousy looking Saturday.

Yesterday was a very tiring day, but it was a good day, and I think I achieved all but one thing I hoped to do. That was to ride on a class 701 train, but at least I did see one in service. Even what I tought was some rash eating decisions turned out not too bad.

I managed to start writing very early yesterday, and after finishing I think I had a shorter rest than usual. After that rest I had a shower, and then prepared to go out. Preparations involved digging out a special t-shirt for a train spotting session (it has a picture of a steam loco on it), checking out my Canon EOS 600D camera with Tamron 18 to 200mm zoom lens on it, and finally putting on my new leather jacket before heading to Catford station.

My plan was a bit of a loose one, and I ended up doing the core of it, and didn't get tempted to go "off piste". At Catford station I caught the 11:35 Thameslink train to Denmark Hill station. That is a fair bit earlier than I have managed to catch a train for ages. Oh, and the other bit of preparation was to have a couple more pees and poos before leaving home ! The first thing I saw at Catford station was a fox on the line.

It looked like the fox may have had an old injury on his hind quarters, but apart from a sort of groove in it's fur it seemed no worse the wear for it. It obviously new the train times because It was only on the track when non trains were about. I still had about a 10 minute wait for the train that would take me to Denmark Hill station.

At Denmark Hill I changed trains to what I always used to think of, and still do, a London Overground service, or possibly to get "the Orange line" as some say. Now it is referred to as The Windrush Line after TFL thought they out to give the London Overground lines some names. I have read mention of all their names, but none has really stuck in my memory, but I guess now I have seen the name at the station, and heard it on onboard announcements, I guess this name will now stick.

The light was not good to take a picture of this call 378 train, 378146, the first ever train that I have ridden on under the Windrush branding, although..... Apart from announcements, and the information screen, there was no Windrush branding inside or outside the train. I also did not see any station signs that mentioned the Windrush line. This picture was taken at Wandsworth Road station, and I think only London Overground services call there now, yet the station signs had not been changed since it first became part of the London Overground Network.

I took quite a few pictures at Wandsworth Road, but most were for my giant spreadsheet recording all the trains and their number that I have photographed. At the end of this outing I managed to add 21 new pictures to that spreadsheet. I caught the next train to Clapham Junction where I did more photography before catching a train to Earlsfield station - a small but busy station with trains sometimes as often as every 4 or less minutes, some stopping, and some going through fast. It is a great place to take train photos, and so far no jobsworth killjoys saying "you can't take pictures here !".

It was not lone before a very special train called at Earlsfield. It was a class 455 train - a class of train that Southern scapped because they were too old. I was hoping that SouthWest Railway might still have some running, and I ended up seeing many, including this special, 455868.

What makes it special is that it has had a new paint job, and it's livery, although a lighter blue, seems to match the SouthWest Railway colours. At first sight I thought it had been painted in the old British Rail blue and grey (with the grey being on the lower half of the sides), prior to the Network South East much brighter red and stripes livery. Now this rather begs the question of why it was painted when the whole class may still be heading for scrap, and was it the only one painted like this ?

After spending maybe 20 minutes at Earlsfield I caught a train back to Clapham Junction. I kept moving around in the hope that one of the jobworths, who would try and stop my taking photos, would not pounce on me. I was particularly looking to try and get a ride on one of SouthWest Railway's new class 701, "Arterio" trains. I have been trying to do this since, or before 2022. I believe they were doing service runs in 2022, possibly in public service, but they were very few and far between as the sorted out technical and political/staff/union problems.

Class 701
"Arterio" train in
public service

I finally saw just the one in public service, but unfortunately I was on the wrong platform, and there was no way I could dash over the bridge to get ton the right platform, but at least I managed this snap of 701031 leaving Clapham Junction, and heading for Shepperton. The next time I go to Clapham Junction, or maybe Waterloo, I hope more will be in service, and I will finally get a ride in one. I strongly think that their interiors are mostly identical to Thameslink's class 700 trains, Great Northern's class 717, and even Southeastern's class 707 trains, but it would be nice to experience one in person.

After Clapham Junction I retraced my steps using the Windrush Line to Denmark Hill, and than a Thameslink service back to Catford. I didn't go directly home from there. I stayed to take one picture at Catford Bridge station, and then I walked to the little supermarket on Catford Bridge (the road) to buy a few odds and ends - including some potatoes, some fruit, a box of sugar free choc chip cookies, and the inevitable top up of some of the instant noodles that Tesco don't stock.

My feet were aching, my legs were aching a bit, and I felt really tired when I got home. I also needed a pee....which reminds me. At Clapham Junction I was not exactly desperate, but I knew I could be if I held off having a pee too long. Claham Junction used to have sometimes fair toilet, but I found they had moved to the other side of the corridor, and were no longer cramped, dingy and a bit smelly. In fact they seems rather nice. Maybe they are just very new, or maybe better maintained.

Back at home I dropped everything and went up to the toilet to have a pee. I then changed my clothes to more comfortable indoor slouching clothes. While down to my underpants I got on the scales, and was pleased to see an extra low reading, and I wondered if it might be possible to keep it that low. The answer is no, but not an emphatic no.

One reason why I couldn't keep my weight that low was because I had what was quite a big lunch. I had two ciabatta rolls. One was filled with the last of the ham from a packet opened a day or two ago, and the other had beef in it. Both had babyleaf salad leaves in it, and the beef had horseradish sauce, and the ham had mustard. I thought they would be fairly light, but they seemed slightly heavy going. It made me wonder why I also ate a small tub of stuffed vine leaves as well.

Apart from stopping for that food, and then again for dinner just before 6pm I almost spent the rest of the afternoon, and half the evening slaving over a hot photo editor. I have to admit I did stop to watch a bit of TV as well, but sometime I just listened to the TV while I made my way through all 155 photos I had taken. Many of those photos were of the same subject taken under slightly different conditions to see which was best.

As I mentioned further up the page, I found I had taken pictures of 21 trains I had never photographed before, and they and their numbers ended up in my big spreadsheet. That was quite a "bag" for only an adventure lasting just 3 and a half hours, or so I estimated. I am not sure when I finished the last picture, but it seemed I only had a bit of time to rest before it was bedtime.

I didn't stop at just train pictures, I also took a picture of the box my dinner came in. I was unsure about this ready meal, It could have been good or it could have been bad. One definite thing is that having it with rice would have probably have been a good idea. It did seem rather rich, and rather greasy, but it was very tasty. As I ate it I decided that maybe it was too rich, and that I would be plagued with heartburn when I went to bed, but I wasn't. I think I will buy another some day to try with rice. Maybe following it with a nice big orange, a pear and half and apple rounded it off well.

I think I was asleep soon after 9pm, but I woke up a couple of hours later because In thought I needed a pee. I did have one but it did not seem big enough to need getting up then. I think I was just uncomfortable in several other ways. I don't think my legs and feet hurt, but it did seem hard to get them comfortable when I got back to bed. I'm not sure what else to say was uncomfortable, but for once it was not heartburn.

I ended up by getting up again, and reading some stuff on my PC while a couple of paracetamol tablets helped reduce or cleared some discomforts. It was a little after midnight, and another, and slightly bigger pee, before I got back into bed. Initially it seemed I would still not get back to sleep, but suddenly I was waking up to go for another pee a few hours later. I never really measure time and quantities, but it seemed like I was going for a pee as often as most nights, but the quantities seemed smaller than usual. I know I had dreams, and there was one I could almost describe if only I could remember a few more details from it.

It seemed early, but I got up at about 6:25 am. It was another of those times when it seems my subconscious knew more about what was wanted than my conscious mind thought. As usual I went to the toilet for a pee, but this morning I didn't poo, although I did let out a very smelly fart. I then got on the scales and I was very pleased to see that despite what I thought was very dodgy eating, I had lost 500gm. I am now at that critical weight where I can either improve upon it, or ruin it all - usually after some booze has given my a raging appetite.

Could it be that the small amount of peeing in the night was a sign my blood glucose would be very low this morning? Sadly no, but my readings were all acceptable. The Contour meter read 8.6mmol/l. That is OK, although I would prefer it to be a bit lower. The GlucoRX meter read 7.6mmol/l, and if that was right it would be very good. The Sinocare meter read 8.5mmol/l - possibly the first time it has read lower than the Contour meter ! One thing this morning was that my finger prick did not supply a good bead of blood without a lot of squeezing and massaging. I suspect that my account for how each reading is very different.

The main thing on the agenda for today is to wash my hair, have a shower, and make my way to The Jolly Farmers for my usual couple of pints of Guinness on a Wednesday lunchtime. I fully expect I will be there there on my own. As usual I will take a small pocket camera, but I doubt I will see any new trains today, but I might see a squirrel or something. It should be easily warm enough to leave my arms bare. If I wasn't carrying a camera, two pens, and two copies of The Metro, I would leave my coat off, but I will wear my sleeveless denim jacket to carry some of the stuff.....although I could take one of my courier bags for all my bits and pieces. This afternoon I can imagine I will be extra lazy - probably for the evening too !

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