27 May (Part 2) - One for the train spotters
There are no council meetings scheduled until 11th June so news will be hard
to come by for a couple of weeks. Today I resort to the old standby - Crossrail,
which comes to Bexley’s threshold but doesn’t quite come in. And even with that
I have cheated, there is nothing new to be seen at Abbey Wood station but the
line to Plumstead is coming on fast, so seven of these photographs were taken on
the wrong side of the border. The risks I take to avoid a blogless day!
While some people may have got away to enjoy the Sunday sunshine those who
might have used Abbey Wood station over the weekend had to contend with the half hourly bus
service. The holiday sacrificed to the good of the community and Crossrail.
The track bed to the south side of the existing Abbey Wood to Plumstead track is
taking shape and appears to be a steel reinforced concrete job. When I commuted
on the Southampton to Waterloo line in the middle 1960s and witnessed the
electrification beyond Brookwood, Alight Here For The Necropolis, the old track bed
was torn out to a great depth and filled with drainage pipes and several feet of ballast
material. Obviously they don’t do things that way any more.
It will be fascinating to see the old tracks moved to the south and the
platforms at Abbey Wood realigned without seeing the train service interrupted for weeks on end. Maybe it will be.
