SLOUGH, England — A quick update for those who might be interested: I finally tested negative for COVID on Sunday and again today (Monday, Sept. 29), meeting the requirement that would allow me to rejoin the Trains/Special Interest Tours UK Steam tour.
The only problem is that it happened so late there’s no point in doing so.
Rejoining the tour today after getting the second positive test would have required about a seven-hour train ride to a remote spot in Wales … with the payoff of one day with the group in Wales, one going from Wales to Manchester, and then an early-morning train trip from Manchester back to London to fly home. We’re in agreement that didn’t really make a lot of sense (and, while I’m feeling close to normal and no longer a carrier, I do still have a lingering cough, and that might have made some of the tour members uncomfortable.
So I spent today doing some rail photography here (I felt like I needed more for one of my upcoming features, anyway) as well as a bit of wandering around Soho, and then an evening doing some editing for the magazine. One stop today was Clapham Junction, the busiest train station in the UK, which yielded — among other things — the shot above of two Southern Railway trains at platforms 16 and 17. I’ve seen S curves before, and I’ve seen platforms, but I’m not sure how many S-curve platforms I have previously encountered. It took a while to get this shot, but I think it was worth it.
Tomorrow? Not sure yet. I’ll figure out when I get up.
Not sure if I’ll have another entry while I’m here or not; I will try to wrap up the whole trip, such as it was, once I get home.
