The slow train to... Rainham Marshes (via Tilbury)

[eastwestdivide]

I found myself staying in on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent for a few days (not "The Hoo" as those idiots on Countryfile kept calling it a while back), where my route down on the Javelin takes me past the RSPB site at Rainham Marshes in Essex. So a trip on the Gravesend-Tilbury ferry beckoned, evoking Sunday days out when I was growing up around there.

 

So I took the first reasonable bus (second of the day on a Saturday) at 0825 from Hoo, dropping me near Strood station to see, from wrong side of the tracks, the 0845 Thameslink depart, leaving me half an hour to the next Thameslink (no Javelin in between at 0900 ish but those are half hourly later in the day). Time for a quick coffee in Gravesend before the next ferry at 1005, the 'Jacob Marley' which runs all the services:

 

 

 

Up the gangplank at Tilbury Riverside station, a shadow of its former self:

 

but with a cruise ship preparing for a Christmas Markets cruise to Amsterdam & Bruges.

 

There was a bus for Tilbury Town waiting (through rail tickets via the ferry valid on the bus but you pay separately for the ferry), which took a circuitous route to Tilbury Town. As we were approaching the station, I could see between the houses was the next train, running parallel - no chance as we were the wrong side of the tracks again.

 

Half an hour and one passing container train later,

 

it was carry on one stop to change for Purfleet at Grays, where another container train, this one with only a few bromine containers, trundled through:

 

 

Then another 20 minutes wait for the Purfleet train.

Total elapsed time Hoo to Purfleet: 3 hours 2 mins. As the crow flies: 14.5 miles, so under 5mph, not helped by slow connections.

It's a 15-min walk beside the Thames to RSPB Rainham Marshes (nice cafe in visitor centre), where I didn't see a kingfisher:

 

but there's a panoramic view of HS1 as well as the Tilbury line going underneath:

 

The return journey worked out quicker, including walking from Tilbury Town to Riverside, 2h20 end to end, with time to take some pics of the Empire Windrush artwork on the jetty:

 

 

And on the return crossing of the Thames, we had to give way to the freighter 'First Sky' dropping off the pilot onto pilot boat 'Leader' en route Tilbury to Tyne (according to vesselfinder.com).

 

 

That's it, hope it was of interest. Earlier shots of the Tilbury ferry in DaveF's thread at https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/85326-dave-fs-photos-ongoing-more-added-each-day/?do=findComment&comment=5371229

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by eastwestdivide
tidy-up

[DaveF]

I've enjoyed looking at the photos.  It's changed a bit since I lived in Essex, up to 1980.  For some reason I never took any photos around Grays and Purfleet, I tended to prefer country locations.

 

As for kingfishers I sometimes see one when I walk up the Dene from Seaton Sluice, just a few miles from home here in Northumberland.  It's usually just a flash of orange and blue as it goes by but from time to time it poses on a branch but never in camera range.

 

David