London Circumnavigation

Posted on 30 Nov 2024 by Phil

Another nice day today, though quite cold to start with. It’s been a while since I circumnavigated London on the trains, and I was keen to see the effect of the new names given to the various Overground lines.

First train was to Lewisham (delayed!) then the DLR to Poplar and Pudding Mill Lane. We’ve used this station in the past to get to the Olympic Park; it’s nice to see the area finished instead of being a building site:

It’s really close to the Olympic park and the area is a maze of railway lines, paths and canals/rivers:

Unfortunately, one of the paths I wanted to use was “closed for construction”, so I had a fairly boring walk to get to the River Lea:

It was a short walk from the river to Hackney Wick station and a train (on the newly named “Mildmay” line to Gospel Oak:

See tfl.gov.uk/modes/london-overground/overground-line-naming for more information on the new names. All of the audio announcements on the trains have been updated with the line names, though some of the gaps where they’ve been patched in are a bit obvious…

From Gospel Oak, it’s a short walk to Hampstead Heath past Parliament Hill Lido:

The view from the top of Parliament Hill (surprisingly crowded) is nice:

I then headed down past the ponds to Hampstead Heath station:

Next train was to Willesden Junction, again a hub of activity with railway lines everywhere, though not much activity outside the station itself:

Then another train to Imperial Wharf:

There is a fairly new development here (“Chelsea Harbour”) full of unaffordable hi-rise apartments on the banks of the Thames. This is Battersea Railway bridge, over which I shall travel later:

It’s nice to see so much freight slowly threading its way through London!

The local “Sensory Gardens” was a pleasent spot to stop for lunch:

Then on to Chelsea Harbour itself, complete with a strange sculpture and a lock gate:

Then back to the Thames Path to what used to be Lots Road Power station (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lots_Road_Power_Station), which supplied a lot of electricity for the tube network back in the day and is now yet more apartments:

From there it was back to Imperial Wharf station and a train to Clapham Junction, another to Denmark Hill (“Windrush Line”), a train to Shortlands and a final train to Orpington.

So around London without going anywhere near the main terminii!

Building a 3D Printer from a Kit

Posted on 17 Nov 2024 by Phil

The 3D printer I’ve been using to print kits for MERG was getting a bit unreliable (it has done over 4600 hours of printing) so I got agreement to buy a new one. A kit is £220 less than an assembled one, and it sounded like a fun project (think Lego with a few more bits).

The parts were nicely packaged in various cardboard boxes:

You’ll note the Gummy Bears – these are used as a “reward” for completing each section of the assembly!

First job was finding all the little packets of screws, nuts and fixings, then assembling the extruded aluminium supports to the steel frame:

The electronics box was next – note the cable ties that will be used later to secure all the wires:

Next was the motor that will drive the Y axis bed:

Many of the components are 3D printed, and have slots into which square nuts are placed to provide a strong fixing:

The X axis was next; note the linear bearings on the rods:

Next was finishing the basics of the X axis and mounting it on the Z axis:

The cables from the extruder and X axis motor are wrapped around a nylon core and routed to the electronics box:

Next was the extruder gearbox, which was a bit fiddly to assemble and mount on the X axis:

The power cables were added and the wiring in the electronics box tidied up:

Then the heatbed and Y axis needs assembling:

The Y axis, like the X axis, is driven via a toothed rubber belt. I was impressed with the fixing of this belt in a 3D printed part. You can just see a screw at the bottom that “locks” the belt into the fixing:

This is the completed Y axis drive:

The WiFi module is mounted in a plastic case outside the metal electronics box. You can just see the WiFi symbol on the left. There is also an Ethernet connector:

The heatbed was then installed on the Y axis:

The NFC module and a cover was added to the electronics box:

And that’s it. The software in the unit automatically tests each part and does internal calibration:

And pleasingly, it all worked!

Once connected to the network, various software can transfer files to the printer via the network, and control the printer from a web page:

This is one set of the MERG parts printed on the new (top) and old printer:

And this is a video of the printer printing a “Temperature Tower”. This is used to see how the filament prints at different temperatures:

London Explore

Posted on 9 Nov 2024 by Phil

The weather is too cold and dull at the moment to go out walking for the day, so it seemed an ideal opportunity to explore some of the bits of the underground network I’d not visited.

First off was part of the Bakerloo line in North West London. This is Kenton station, right by the West Coast Main Line:

This route is shared between deep level tube trains and Overground trains; the tube doors are well below the platform level and you have to step down into the train:

Then on to Euston Square and a walk to Euston Station:

From there I took the Victoria Line all the way to Brixton:

I walked from there to Stockwell station to pick up the Northern Line to the terminus at Morden (the only bit south of the river that’s not underground):

From there it was a short walk to Morden Hall Park:

and the journey home…

West London Explore

Posted on 19 Sep 2024 by Phil

I had a free day today, so it was off to West London to explore some of the railway routes and places I’d not visited before. I got the train to Waterloo where one of the old Class 455 units has been painted in a new livery:

A bit more elegant than the bright red that these trains normally have. Next stop was Wimbledon Station, looking suitably posh:

Then caught a train to Southfields, looking quite unmodernised:

From there, another train to Earls Court, with its classic indicator boards:

Next stop was Ealing Broadway, with a surprisingly nice park by the station:

Then Greenford, and time to find somewhere nice to have lunch:

I’d spotted a green space on the map nearby, but disappointed that the route seemed to be blocked by metal gates:

As I was now walking on the Capital Ring route (last visited in 2018, see Capital Ring Section 9), I investigated further and found that they could actually be opened. On the other side was an information board that explained why:

This certainly wasn’t here when I last visited. Didn’t see any beavers, but did see a small dam:

After going through another gate, the path crossed the Grand Union Canal:

On the other side was a peaceful sports field, ideal for a lunch break:

Walking back to the station, I spotted the Capital Ring signpost by the shopping centre:

There was a new battery powered Class 230 train at Greenford that will eventually replace the diesel trains on this route:

The other end of this branch is West Ealing; this is one of the charging rails for the new trains:

West Ealing has been smartened up for the Elizabeth Line Trains:

Next stop was Paddington – I do like the “clouds” painted on the ceiling of the Elizabeth Line entrance:

Nearby was a clock that a friend had recommended I look out for:

The “man” inside continually wipes out and redraws the hands!

Next stop was Hammersmith, where I changed lines:

From there, I headed home via Edgware Road, Farringdon and London Bridge. A nice day out in the sunshine.

Hastings

Posted on 13 Aug 2024 by Phil

A nice hot day today, so we’re off on the train to Hastings for some sea breeze:

And after a smooth journey, we got off at St Leonards Warrior Square Station and walked down to the seafront:

“Bottle Alley” (you can just see the entrance on the left of the photo above) provides a cool route to walk to the pier:

We didn’t stop at the pier this time as there wasn’t a lot of shade:

Instead we found the (largely) pedestrianised Old Town and stopped for a coffee:

The West Hill Lift often hasn’t been running when we’ve been there, but was today, so we took that up the hill (saved a hard walk uphill in the heat!):

Rocco finally had a chance to stretch his legs:

These steps lead past the pub, so we grabbed a couple of beers then wandered down to seafront for fish and chips:

As it was such a nice day, we decided to walk back to St Leonards Warrior Square Station instead of going through the busy town to Hastings Station:

While we were waiting for our train, a nice railway chap came over and asked where we were heading. He told us that there had been an incident at Stonegate (on the line to Orpington) and it was unlikely there would be any trains that way for a while. But a train going to Victoria was due soon, so we caught that instead.

This lead us on a rail tour stopping at Bexhill, Eastbourne, Lewes, Gatwick and East Croydon – an interesting route that we’ve not done before. A slow journey back, but our carraige had excellent air conditioning so we didn’t mind:

Unfortunately, when we got out at Victoria, it was really HOT. And then the joy of 40 minutes on an non-aircon train back to Orpington…

A nice day nevertheless.

Postscript:

It turned out that the incident was “animals on the railway at Stonegate” – it was 2030 before any direct trains ran between Hastings and Orpington!

Stourbridge

Posted on 8 Jun 2024 by Phil

We’re off to Stourbridge today, with a diversion to Halesowen for some shopping.

We parked in the car park at Stourbridge Junction, and got the little train into town:

We soon found some Morris Dancers and stopped for a coffee.

Then onto another area with more dancers:

After all that excitement, it was time for a beer and the walk back to the station:

Then onto the glass museum nearby, where we watched a demonstration of glass blowing and looked at various glassware over the years:

A nice day out!

Birmingham

Posted on 7 Jun 2024 by Phil

Off on the train to Birmingham today. Train travel is so much simpler without a dog…

A quick change at London Bridge and before long we were enjoying a coffee at St Pancras:

As it was a nice day, we walked the quiet backstreet route to Euston.

And we arrived at New Street a just a few minutes late.

We had an interesting lunch in a Korean BBQ restaurant, then caught a busy train to Kings Norton.

Riverhill Himalayan Gardens

Posted on 24 May 2024 by Phil

We’ve been meaning to go to Riverhill Himalayan Gardens for a while now, and finally managed it today.

First task was to find a woodland path where Rocco could let off steam for a while:

It was quite a climb, but this eventually led to a viewpoint high on the hill:

After admiring The Weald for a while, we headed down to the maze:

It would have been too complicated to do this with Rocco, so we headed to the Azalia/Rhododendrum part of the garden:

Then into the walled garden, complete with water feature:

And the recently planted Wild Flower ‘Meadow’:

After a coffee break, I was amused by this sign outside the loo:

We then explored another woodland path on the way to the Fern Garden:

Where it was ferns everywhere – 200 species apparently, though most looked the same to me:

And an ancient Wisteria:

On the way back, we saw an unusual Monkey Puzzle Tree:

A nice morning out, followed by a giant lunch at the Five Bells, Chelsfield:

New River Path – Finsbury Park to Palmers Green

Posted on 11 May 2024 by Phil

Finally, after what seems like a long cold wet spring, the weather improved enough to do a serious walk. Walking the New River has been in my “queue” of things to do for a while.

The New River isn’t new and it isn’t a river. The New River is actually a water supply aqueduct built in 1613 to bring fresh drinking water from Hertfordshire to North London.

The day started with a fast train to London Bridge. We had 20 minutes before the next train, so had a chance to explore the station and surrounds:

I also found the Pipe Organ tucked away in the west side of the station, but didn’t try to play it:

We then got a busy Thameslink train to Finsbury Park. Rocco seemed to attract a lot of attention from everyone!

After crossing a road, we got to Finsbury Park itself, and Rocco was glad to be off the lead and have a run around.

We then had a bit of street walking to get to the New River itself. I was impressed with the cycle stores on many of the roads:

Finally we reached the river, which was as blue/green as it looks in the photo. Behind is West Reservoir, a popular boating lake:

The path continues through Woodbury Down:

This was starting to look very familiar, then I saw a signpost indicating the Capital Ring also follows this path. See Capital Ring Highgate to Hackney Wick for my 2018 walk.

After a few more detours, we reached the river again:

And past the Horsey Water Treatment works. You can see Alexandra Palace on the hill in the background:

After passing under the railway we reached Wood Green Common:

There was a dog friendly pub by Alexandra Palace station, so we popped in for a pint and large bowl of water for Rocco:

Suitably refreshed, we continued through Nightingale Gardens and Finsbury Gardens:

We then had the joy of crossing the North Circular road, then along a rather weedy stretch of the river:

We left the New River at Palmers Green and headed to the station for our first train home:

And after changing at Finsbury Park and London Bridge, we soon home.

An interesting walk, but an exhausting day with the heat!

Jubilee Greenway 7

Posted on 2 Dec 2023 by Phil

A very cold day today, but we were brave and decided to walk the last section of the Jubilee Greenway route. For various reasons, we ended up doing the last few sections out of order, but we did cover the entire route.

We caught a train to Lewisham, then the DLR to Cutty Sark. After some issues finding the lift (we had Rocco with us), we eventually escaped the station and headed for the river:

Nice to pass the Cutty Sark without hordes of tourists crowding the place! Rocco was soon off the lead as we headed along the Thames Path with the Greenwich Foot Tunnel entrance behind us:

There was an interesting information board about the long gone Greenwich Steam Ferry (forgottenhighway.co.uk/greenwich2.html) – you can see what remains of the ramp for the moving platform behind the railings:

A bit further on was a statue of Peter the Great:

There were several diversions “inland” from here, but eventually we reached some green at Sayes Court Park and Pepys Park before rejoining the Thames at Deptford Wharf:

There were light flurries of snow at this point! There were a series of docks to cross, thankfully all with bridges:

By this time, we needed a pub; the first one we passed wasn’t open, but the next one was not only open, but gave the dog the best welcome he has had for a while. Nice beer too:

Suitably refreshed, we headed on to Rotherhithe:

and stopped for lunch (and more beer!) at The Mayflower. It was quite busy, so we had to sit in a semi-outdoor terrace OVER the Thames (which you could see through the gaps in the floorboards). One of the few times we were grateful for patio heaters!