Another day out exploring London. First was a train to Hither Green and another train to Dartford. There are some interesting plaques on the fence at Dartford Station:

From there, a third train took me to Woolwich Arsenal, then the DLR to Pontoon Dock:

Adjacent to the station is the Thames Barrier Park, so it’s off for an explore:

This leads down to a Pavilion of Rememberance by the Thames:

and as its name suggests, a good view of the Thames Barrier from the north side:

Then it’s back to the station and a train to Canning Town:

There is a footbridge that crosses the river to ‘City Island’:

City Island turns out to be a mixture of new housing and retail, all still looking very sterile:

After all that (non)excitement, its back on the train to Limehouse:

This is right by the northern portal of the Rotherhithe Tunnel under the Thames:

A short walk takes me to Limehouse Basin, the place where the London Canals join to the Thames:

As you can see, the DLR is nearby:

This is the lock to the Thames:

There is a wide variety of boats in the basin:

You can see Limehouse Station at the end of the alley in this photo:

Back on the train, this time to Bank, where I took the escalator link to Monument Station:

The Monument is right outside:

After a bit of lunch, I took the tube to South Kensington:

and from there, a tube to Victoria and a train to Sutton:

Shortly followed by another train to London Bridge, then a final one back to Orpington:

Another nice day, so it’s back on the trains for an explore…

First a fast to London Bridge. I was going to take the tube to Fenchurch Street, but it was such a nice day, I decided to walk:

It was a bit noisy walking over Tower Bridge though. I had intended to follow the path between the Tower and the Thames, but it was closed, so I found a new path along the back of the Tower:

This lead to Trinity Square gardens and Trinity House itself:

After all that grandeur, the Fenchurch Street entrance seems a bit grim:

I had a bit of a wait for my train, so took some photos:

It was a nice run out to Upminster, whizzing past the tube trains sharing the route. Upminster Station is a bit unexciting, unfortunately with quite a long wait for my next train:

Eventually my train appeared:

This is the newly named “Liberty Line” overground service, a shuttle between Upminster and Romford and turned out to be fairly busy.

We arrive at Romford a long way from the main platforms:

From there I got an Elizabeth Line service to Stratford, and walked around what seemed to be most of the station to find Platform 11, somewhere out in the “sticks”.

However, a Class 720 was waiting to take me on an untravelled line to Tottenham Hale past the Temple Mills depot full of Class 720 and Eurostar trains.

Tottenham Hale station is a very busy interchange between the Victoria Line and trains to Stansted:

But for me, it was time for lunch, so I escaped back to the real world:

Nearby is the River Lee Navigation, complete with a sunshine, a nice bench and a lock:

From there it was back to the station and a train to Liverpool Street station.

From there I walked to Moorgate and got a train to Finsbury Park. It’s mostly in tunnel, but this line now has new stock and is running under ETCS – which is slowly being rolled out on the East Coast main line.

I thought I’d have a long wait at Finsbury Park, but a Thameslink train was running late and after a bit of nifty footwork, managed to catch it back to London Bridge, with a fast back to Orpington 10 minutes later. So no photos of this bit!