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After a four year delay on Tuesday 9th January 2024 701037 was the first class 701 to enter service on South Western Railway. Obviously I wanted to get on one early but work prevented me getting close to one on the first day so had to wait until today.
Bold = Haulage, RED = Winner, All others are sightings.
I thought I'd start my day a bit early before meeting up with my mate Peter. I wanted to tick off a couple of new lines as well as getting a ride on the new class 701. The first thing to do was leave my home station.
2B13 Selhurst to Claham Junction 377145, 377469 non winners [6m 60ch].
Once at Clapham it was over to platforms 5 & 6 and the train via the Hounslow Loop.
2V13 Clapham Junction to Waterloo via the Hounslow Loop 450067, 450126 Non winners [27m 52ch]
Hounslow Jn to Whitton Jn ✅
Once at Waterloo I met with Peter. We headed over to platform 19 to await our new train.
2U91 Waterloo to Richmond 701043 winner [9m 57ch].
I have to bo honest here I quote like the cl.701. Seats aren't too bad, the ride is good, and teh acceleration is pretty good.
At Richmond it nearly unravelled. Our original plan was the 10:02 over to Gospel Oak but it was cancelled. Instead we had to catch the next one.
2N25 Richmod to Gospel Oak 378208 non Winner [10m 22ch].
We would approximately 4 minutes at Gospel Oak for our connecting train. Of course on route we picked up a 2 minute delay which caused a little concern. We made with about a minute to spare. Straight on to the class 710 waiting on the platform.
2J47 Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside 710269 [13m 50ch].
Barking Riverside is, at the moment, rather a non entity of a station. It's quiet and there isn't a lot of housing there at the moment but from looking from the station it appear there will be quite a lot housing there in the future.
Barking to Barking Riverside ✅.
We'd just missed the one minute connection there so caught the same unit back out.
2J48 Barking Riverside to Barking 710269 non winner [2m 64ch].
At Barking we had a couple of minutes and caught a train back to London.
2R97 Barking to Fenchurch Street 357326 non winner [7m 42ch]
Once there is was round to Tower Hill station and the tube.
It was on the tube we went our separate ways. Peter went off to see some 730s at Euston nd I met up with the wife.
Then it was back home.
9S35 St Pancras International to East Croydon 700140 non winner [13m 40ch] and then
2M55 East Croydon to Selhurst 377706 non winner [0m 77ch].