Meanwhile, someone at TfL headquarters looks at journey patterns: "look, this person took all 3 Battersea Park Overground services in a day" and got told "Oh, that's Geoff Marshall, whenever someone does such random stuff, it's always him".

@lucatrifan2797

2 жыл бұрын

Except that now at least one other person will do it after seeing Geoff's video

@BellePullman

2 жыл бұрын

I wonder if they've just blocked data collection on his oyster card at this point!

@hartstukken

2 жыл бұрын

@@geofftech2 Maybe we need your Oyster down in the Transport Museum at Covent Garden

@neilwilson5785

2 жыл бұрын

@@hartstukken It should be in a glass cabinet one day.

@trueriver1950

2 жыл бұрын

@@BellePullman on the contrary: there is a special "Geoff Marshall" alert that comes up on the BTP control room computers so they can brief any uninformed uniformed colleagues...

“I’m Geoff Marshall” “I catch these trains so that you don’t have to”!

@uingaeoc3905

2 жыл бұрын

Not that we would ever want to!

@clangerbasher

2 жыл бұрын

Would these trains exist if Geoff didn't look for them? That's what I want to know.

@jillise2942

2 жыл бұрын

@@clangerbasher is this akin to the tree that falls in a forest with no-one around to hear it crash?

@bobblue_west

2 жыл бұрын

If the train co. said they run them, but DIDN'T actually, would anyone know? (Besides Geoff)

@clangerbasher

2 жыл бұрын

@@jillise2942 Yes........ :)

Geoff should create a playlist for Videos like this called... "Geoff gets up at ridiculous times to go ride sections of railway that almost no-one uses, but that the train operators can't shutdown since it is a pain in the A**e, to put it through Parliament and get the permission to get close it"

@8draco8

2 жыл бұрын

Catchy name for a playlist, I like it

@stephenholt4670

2 жыл бұрын

@@fetchstixRHD there is a junction on those tracks west of Peckham Rye, where the train could turn left and head down through Dulwich to Tulse Hill. There are also crossovers to the Southeastern line in a couple of places, which would open up lots of destinations.

@fetchstixRHD

2 жыл бұрын

@@stephenholt4670: You're technically right to be fair, though by "alternative destinations" I meant more like how South of New Cross Gate there's Crystal Palace and West Croydon/Norwood Junction as alternative places you can terminate. Out of the alternatives though, I'd guess turning a set (or 4 per hour) would be a massive disruptive pain for other services? At least with Battersea there's nobody to get in the way of...

I can add an anecdotal tidbit to this- shortly after the Overground service started, and on unplanned excursions during the day to Battersea Park (when the line to Clapham Junction was shut due to points failures etc.), the onboard tannoy did not appear to have Battersea Park on the list of destinations so the annoucement would go "This is the london overground service to. The next station is."

@actua99

2 жыл бұрын

Welcome to stage 1 of grief: Denial?

@mildlydispleased3221

8 ай бұрын

Titbit. Don't use the sad, censored American version.

@PGATProductions

6 ай бұрын

it was on the announcements somewhere in this video

@crazyboutferrets

5 ай бұрын

Timestamp? ​@@PGATProductions

@wta1518

25 күн бұрын

@@mildlydispleased3221 The American spelling has been around longer than the British spelling, as usual.

I sense another mini series coming on Geoff - Top 10 breakfast cafe’s outside/near overground/underground stations 😁

@zork999

2 жыл бұрын

Eight of them would be Prets ;)

@hannahsquire2442

2 жыл бұрын

1. Pret 2. Pret 3. Pret 4. Pret 5. Pret 6. Pret 7. Pret 8. Pret 9. Pret 10. You guessed it - Pret

@sedontane

2 жыл бұрын

This is the mini-series I crave.

@gdclemo

2 жыл бұрын

@@hannahsquire2442 All the Prets, all of them...

@chiefstain

2 жыл бұрын

Worth a try, content is wearing thin

Well done Geoff. For getting up really early recently for random train services. Loving the videos

I've ended up at Battersea Park on overground a few times... usually if there is an issue only affecting Clapham they divert the service to Battersea Park often to keep the services to Surrey Quays running to schedule.

@BombsGaspan

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah I posted the same before I saw your message. Has happened a couple of times to me! The passengers wearing headphones who miss the voice announcement get really confused!

@Thats_Mr_Random_Person_to_you

2 жыл бұрын

@@BombsGaspan hahaha tbh its caught me out a couple of times! But luckily southern services use a different route into Clapham than the overground so its usually just a case of waiting 5mins and getting one of them to finish the journey.

Parliamentary Trains -- they are so silly, they are brilliant. As for people in zombie state who had no clue where the train was going --- I see this on TfL buses when the driver makes a "Bus on Diversion" announcement. One turns and there's pandemonium. "What's happening? OMG, where are we going?..."

Magic of youtube algorithm. Here I am, never been to London, or UK at all, but watching a guy explore lesser known corners of it's transport system.

Geoff is a true obsessive and I am grateful that he does those secret, little journeys for me to enjoy from the comfort of my computer desk.

I'm just a kiwi learning more of your wonderful train services. Hello from New Zealand.

Due to the british law that you have to let run at least a few trains a week to a stations otherwise it will be closed down, there are quite a lot of mini unknown services which are often a bit random. I wish Berlin would have secret services like this too I probably would ride them all. Love your videos Geoff especially when they are over London or other metropolitan areas. So keep up doing so with your awesome entertainment. Thanks.

@appalachianenthusiast9499

Жыл бұрын

Battersea Park would never get shut down due to their extremely frequent service on Southern. However, the Overground is required to maintain service to the station as well, so this random little deviation exists for that purpose.

This must be the nerdiest channel on KZread, but I love it! :)

I travel via battersea park almost everyday and I never had any idea that the overground went there, great vid by the way

TfL said that it is likely that it will be shown on the upcoming 🚇Tube Map🗺 as it is within 🚶walking distance of the upcoming Battersea Power Station Northern Line Extension Station terminus & the nearby 🛥Riverboat Pier, and is also due to get ♿️Step-Free access soon!!

@ttrjw

2 жыл бұрын

Really? With three services a day that's asking for trouble...

@AchyutChaudhary

2 жыл бұрын

@@ttrjw The thing being that TfL said that (especially as the NLE soon opens) TfL will look to increasing passenger services to the Station in the future.

@Improj69

2 жыл бұрын

So many emojis jeez

@kensukefan47

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much. I would've not understand the comment without the emojis.

Absolutely baffles me how you know and remember all these fascinating facts , really enjoyable to watch

These are fascinating oddities of the railway. Great video Geoff. Keep up the good work.

Thanks, Geoff. Another excellent video. Your adventures look so fun 😁

Let's hope that when the Northern line extension opens, Battersea Park might get more Overground services with the OOS interchange!

@danielferris7960

2 жыл бұрын

It's quite surprising that with all the redevelopment in the area the station has been left as such a relic. A new entrance at the north end could open directly into the new developments and make a connection to the Northern Line much easier.

@davidgibson1978

2 жыл бұрын

That's a good point, hopefully it might become an OSI with the Northern Line.

@lynnerobinson7038

2 жыл бұрын

@@danielferris7960 Its a listed building

@danielferris7960

2 жыл бұрын

@@lynnerobinson7038 Don't get me wrong, I love the old station with its odd staircases and passageways and its ingeniously sited main building. Adding new a entrance linking to the far ends of the platforms could in fact make the station fully accessible without damaging the existing fabric. It also occurs to me that if more Overground services are routed to Battersea Park we might see the closed Platform 1 reinstated.

In British Rail days when all the trains were either Blue or Blue and Grey, you did not have a clue what line they were running on or where they went. There is so much more variety of operators nowadays you would think you would know where you are and where you are going, but no - it is as confusing as ever! Thanks for uploading.

1:55 This train every morning is the one that comes ECS from the depot, crosses over on to the southbound platform at Canada Water then runs ECS to Battersea Park (leaves Canada Water at 0541). There are also quite a few ECS journeys on a Sunday morning that run Dalston to Battersea Park for driver route knowledge retention.

Fascinating that these lines are still there and interesting to follow you around

I once stayed in an appartment near that station in 2018 and had to take the train from there to Victoria to get to central london. I thought I knew the Tube and Overground network fairly well, so I was utterly confused when I saw a sign saying therer was a limited Overground service. Thank you for clearing up that mistery and making me want to visit London again :)

Wow. Battersea Park was one of the two places I commuted home from (The office was pretty much equidistant between that and Queenstown Road), in 2005, and it was always a lottery which platform the first train would be on. I hadn’t realised the platform 1 line had closed.

Wandsworth Road is just one of many places where it would be great if the Overground was better connected to other lines in London. It's already an ok network but could be so much more useful if more interchanges were provided

@DavidShepheard

2 жыл бұрын

I believe that Battersea Park to Wandsworth Road counts as an Out of Station Interchange. The main problem is that OSIs are not advertised, they don't have posters for them in the OSI stations, they don't have leaflets with the routes and they don't have markings on the pavement to help people find one station, from the other station. So, OSIs have turned into a "you have to be a nerd to know this" secret. That's not good, if we want to encourage people to abandon car dependency and use trains instead. We need a "yellow brick road" route to join them all up.

@iankemp1131

2 жыл бұрын

Very true. Points where the Underground, Overground and National Rail intersect are obvious hubs. Some progress has been made over the years - West Hampstead was one obvious opportunity which was neglected until the 1990s. Sometimes the problem is infrastructure with main line platforms having been removed - West Hampstead, Willesden Junction and Brixton being obvious examples, and it looks as if the same is true here. Clapham High Street would be a more useful interchange than Wandsworth Road as Southeastern passengers could transfer straight on to the Northern Line at Clapham North, as is already possible for the Overground.

@Pano1

Жыл бұрын

@@iankemp1131 What if there was a southeastern connection to Clapham Junction?

Thank you for your videos. Really interesting and informative as usual.

Once upon a time, Geoff, you caught this particular morning train (with a smug smile) in an attempt to travel to all the Overground stations in the fastest time possible. That was the most disillusioned I've ever seen you. Glad this was a much, much better experience.

Oddly, it was at Battersea Park that I first heard of the proposed ‘Overground’ from a member of station staff. That must have been a good 15/16 years ago.

Having only ridden on the Overground once in my life this is still somehow interesting! Great video 👍

I remember going to the Wandsworth Road to Kensington Olympia parliamentary train more than ten years ago when it departed around 16:00, I've never got round to doing this one but I've had the track when Southern used to operate it as The South London Line using Class 455s and 456s!

Thanks for the video. Brought memories flooding back. I used the South London Line in the early 70s between East Brixton ( long gone ) and Battersea Park. To be honest the service wasn't much better !! 2 coach clapped out non-corridor trains with single compartments that were dangerous late at night. East Brixton closed at 5:30pm and if your train was late.tough!! You went straight through to Denmark Hill!

Ah yes! Another amazing video which I really enjoyed because it is so Informative and has amazing content. Can’t wait for the next video.

Another exelent video Geoff so interesting & exiting to watch.

This is brilliant. I love this mad TfL stuff.

I discovered this route by chance. Was very confused about it when the destination was displayed. I ended up going there out of curiosity, then when I realised where I was I walked around to Queenstown Road and went home from there.

Such a well choreographed video!

Yes I remember southern trains using those platforms, was the southern class 456 which was formed of 2 cars as I remember on the line. Both platforms then stood disused for a while even implementing signs saying platform not in use! Must of been about 10 years ago like you said. Not traveled to Battersea for a while as I use to work there. Great video :-) all the best

I guess it might well still be faster for people to get that Overground service to Battersea Park and change to go to Clapham than it would be for them to wait for the direct service, depending on the late night service pattern.

@paulketchupwitheverything767

2 жыл бұрын

It could be, but many trains from Victoria to Clapham Junction do not stop at Battersea Park.

@iankemp1131

2 жыл бұрын

They might also be wanting to go further than Clapham, on the train that they pick up at Battersea Park.

@1624272

2 жыл бұрын

it used to be but the most recent timetable change means its about a 19 minute wait at battersea (used to be 6 mins before may)

Enjoy your videos so much

Geoff they had to discontinue the service to Victoria as they built across the junction to lengthen the platforms, I when I was working drove test trains into that platform as it still is a testing requirement, class 73’s but I believe the program which I also did class 37’s!

I have done this Overground service! I did it in around December 2019, and i took the early service from Battersea to Dalston!

@Lord_Acidicus

2 жыл бұрын

Its these stuff you never know 😀

@ashleyjiscool

2 жыл бұрын

And epic to see

Brilliant video, wouldn’t mind doing that journey on London Overground

That hoody is a Londonist throwback. Something magical about 2014-2016 era YT.

Love this as I used to live (in the 50s and 60s) in the road next to Wandsworth Road Station, the gardens of the houses opposite backed on to the station, but I could see from our first floor lounge the Golden Arrow thundering over the bridge every day, and often took the train to Victoria or to London Bridge ...

I was waiting for this special video and it finally came

That old South London Line train was quite useful at times when I lived near Battersea Park and Queenstown Road. It was always at platform 1.

1:43 good timing Geoff, one take.

I love these series of videos, from Kensington Olympia all the way to today

I used to use this station in the 2000s. I was working in wandsworth borough and often in lewisham borough too. That victoria to london bridge train was dead handy. And when the northern line was out I'd even end up swapping from battersea park to battersea bridge to struggle across south london. The days before all those route planner apps were such fun.

Awesome video Geoff! Really enjoyed it 😀

Back in the late ‘70’s, l got the Victoria to Battersea Park every morning to go to Westminster College. I can’t even imagine what a pain it is to get there now.

7:24 can we just congratulate Geoff on that amazing transition?! 😜

As a kid I grew up round the corner from Clapham Hight St station, in fact we overlooked the goods yard that used to be there, (and saw the Golden Arrow go past at 11.03am every day - it's funny what you remember...). We often used to get the train to Battersea park for the funfair, or through into Victoria. It's a shame to see it so unused now

Anyone remember before Overground, the old Victoria to London Bridge services? I did this c.1973, incredibly grubby 2-EPB's with, uniquely for the Southern, bars on the windows so you couldn't stick your head out and get decapitated on gawd knows what. It was the next level of run down and that's saying something for that era.

@tonys1636

2 жыл бұрын

Used that many times to go from our depot, behind the carriage works and next to the ready mix concrete plant and gas works (old coking plant) to do a driver relief on one of our London sightseeing bus tours from Victoria. It was common for London suburban trains to have bars on the windows as clearances could be tight on some lines.

@ianhelps3749

2 жыл бұрын

I got a train from Victoria to London Bridge in the early 70s. I think it was an old 4-SUB unit. In those days, London wasn't the beautiful gentrified city that it is today.

@ianmcclavin

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, at one time in the 80's the service was reduced to peak hours only! They decided to "revamp" it with a half-hourly all day service again in around 1989/90,which lasted right up until the Overground conversion, still with 2-car trains a lot of the time, 456's (which later went to SWT/SWR) were often used,(a nod to the old EPB's) although 319's from Thameslink often substituted.

@NexusFounder

2 жыл бұрын

yes, i did it once on a 456, probably in the late 90s. hopefully the South London Line stations are better used now than they were then now they get a decent service. :)

@ianmcclavin

2 жыл бұрын

@@NexusFounder Yes, I think the footfall has gone through the roof since the Overground took over!!

I love your "angled" shots.

You do good work!

I think this might be current fave GM video. I’m so going to do these “secret “ services very soon and might check out that cafe too .

Thanks Geoff. Very interesting 👍👍👍👍

Oh boy, before you uttered a word I recognised that is the station I used as a kid in the late 60's onwards.

I remember Battersea Park Station. Regularly travelled from Victoria to Battersea Park (1971-1973) when attending South Bank Polytechnic in Battersea Park Road. Some trains stopped at Platform 1 and continued along the loop to London Bridge. Others stopped at Platform 2 and went joined the line to Clapham Junction and went to various destinations in south-west London

You're almost psychic. I was planning a journey to and from work a few weeks ago. Because of the floods I had to determine a route from west London to east London and vice-versa using google maps.When I hovered the cursor over Battersea Park it signified it as a National Rail station and also a London Overground station!!! Yet I was sure it was not indicated on any maps. (I do the Evening Standard's Tube Quiz on their puzzle page therefore I am a little familiar). Digging into search engines I discovered it was a limited service station and wondered when I would see a video from yourself explaining it all. Lo and behold.......... Thank you.

was running late for school a couple of weeks ago and I miraculously saw an overground train leaving battersea park at around 8am. My mind instantly flashedd back to this video and I managed to snap a quick photo before heading off to school

Other people getting off the train: "That guy with the camera must have thought the train was going elsewhere, he's got back on the train he just came off"

Used that station a fair amount 5 years ago when visiting London, short term rentals were very reasonable in the area, and such a convenient hop to Victoria. With all the redevelopment going on then you'd think it'd have the passenger numbers.

A big thankyou, Geoff, for the WHY? explanation.

Superbly cranky. :) I'd kind of lost sight of that version of the Victoria - London Bridge service having gone missing, and with it the regular use of that section of track, although I knew something wasn't quite right around the Battersea spaghetti these days... didn't realise they'd ripped out a platform line.

I remember that from the video in londonist 'secrets of the overground part 2'

I use to take this line between 2004-2010. There were loads more trains there back then but I use to think it was an odd little station, even back then

Loving how Geoff gets meta with the scene transitions 😂

This is incredible, I am huge Geoff fan and I was only in Battersea Park on Saturday trying to catch an overground train to Whitechapel! The story is we were just completing the Thames Path National Trail having started on 9th August and we diverted off and through exhaustion we just wanted lunch in the Masons Arms (Camra pub over the road) and for the first time on the walk to use public transport to get a train across to where staying in East London. It was only after purchasing the ticket did we realise too late that we had no way of ever getting to our destination and the only trains coming through were Southern ones. In our defence were incredibly fatigued and neither of us had ever used the London overground network.

I go there everyday for work, and I've been hoping for a video about this ever since 😅

I lived in Battersea in 2002 and worked in Victoria so of course I walked to work (over the bridge- great journey. ) I can recall that the ticket machines refused to let you buy a victoria- battersea Park ticket. I guess dodgy people travelling as far as Brighton would buy one of these tickets just to get through the gate and do a runner at the other end. Really difficult for me when I wanted to travel home with heavy bags

there is a a once a day Nottingham to Bournemouth service early in the morning ran by a XC voyager which don't run to Nottingham only on that one service everyday I think I always used to catch that train it was helpful if your not wanting to change service you should try this

A huge wait in that cafe! Reminds me of the Panama Canal Railway which runs from Panama City to Colon.Only 2 a day in one to Colon and then one back to Panama City.It gets you to Colon at about 0700 and doesn't go back until 1730 and apparently Colon is very dangerous with a high, very high, chance of being mugged if you leave the station so I hope that they have a good cafe in Colon Station!

Geoff, love you videos, please do more!

@technews599

2 жыл бұрын

*your

Of course, Battersea Park station has become the main terminus for all LO services over a few weekends over the past few years due to engineering work being carried out on the Clapham Junction line from Wandsworth Road. A few years ago, I was out and about in London with a one-day travelcard just to see where I ended up, and from Shadwell Overground station, I did notice a train to Battersea Park so I had to ride it as I think the last time I did that section of line was probably about 35-40 years ago when I was staying with my grandparents who lived in Clapham at the time.

4:25 "I've bailed at Wandsworth Road because there's an excellent breakfast cafe just down there...". Please do tell! In fact, that would make a GREAT video - travelling around the network showing us the best places for breakfast. With all your 5am and 6am starts (THANKS btw!) you must know loads of great places.

Lived by Wandsworth Road station and used the South London line into Victoria often. Does not go through now as extension of platform 3 meant removal of the junction at the Victoria end of the station.

Oooh, another early start and staying up late! Your fun and dedication is showing, Geoff! Thanks for it 😊 The shot at around 5.45 is *excellent* btw! And also, thanks busses! 😄

@anniesoernym

2 жыл бұрын

Ooh and *great maps* again! I especially like the first one with the colour change!

Overground trains are sent to Battersea park during some engineering works and also during some times of disruption. I've been to Battersea park at least twice on an Overground train. Easy enough to get a Sothern service to Clapham Junction.

I was caught out by a Parliamentary train at Sringfield, near Cupar. I was cycling and it was a crap windy day. Fife has lots of narrow busy roads so I was relieved when I stumbled across it as my original plan was to take an unsurfaced track through some woods to Ladybank. It looked half built. I had no idea it existed. There were cleanish coping stones on the platform edge but the rest was pink granite chips. I thought it was an old station in the process of getting reopened. There was a time table on a poster and I discovered there were only two trains a day and I was hours between them.

Petition to add this to the Tube Map with appropriate limited-service markings.

That breakfast cafe you mention, is the cafe from the Take on Me video. It's my local cafe, I went there regularly pre-covid.

Always wondered the story behind platform 1, never knew it was used for the south London line! Hopefully the overground will call at Battersea park more when the northern line extension is complete to provide more links if the extension is popular

Really interesting, Geoff.

@Robslondon

2 жыл бұрын

@@geofftech2 :-)

My suggestion for the next episode is the Willisden Juction Low Level device to/from the Highbury & Islington section of the Overground, also early morning and late nights

We need a Top 5 of "Geoff got up stupidly early for a really early and very late train that's a bit random and looks the most tired"! 😉 Gotta love a paper time table! 😃👍

In the Netherlands, where I live, used to be a secret station as well which was there but not on the map. The only one in the Netherlands! It was called Leeuwarden Achter de Hoven and there were three trains a day. One in the morning and two in the afternoon, serving the workers of the nearby factories. But due to lack of passengers and the use of longer trains which did not fit te platform size service was stopped in 2018.

thank you I learned something and I enjoyed that.

I’ve some annual leave coming up and I’m so going to ride those 3 trains. Thanks again for bringing these little known trains to our attention.,

Lots of people used to use that station to get to Battersea Fun Fair. I used to get on at West Croydon.

At Queenstown Road, there is a bridge to the north of the station with southeastern, a bridge to the south with southern and the middle bridge for LO, as well as the SWML

I used to travel into and out of Battersea Park along the south London line on my way to and from school from 1961 to 1968.

Great stuff. Episode 73 of "Geoff gets up ridiculously early to catch the services you'd like to take, but can't be bothered to" 😁

With Battersea Park itself, several river piers and Victoria Station being so close, as well as the new developments at Nine Elms and Battersea power station, I have always thought this service would garner strong passenger numbers if it were frequent, but of course that would mean less services at Clapham Junction and tfl won't be having that any time soon

@Pano1

2 жыл бұрын

Clapham Junction wouldn’t lose any passengers whatsoever, infact it would increase due to the increased interest in the new developments.

nice opening focus shot!

Great stuff!

I have finally done the Parlimentary Saturday only Northern service from Sheffield to Cleethorpes via Brigg. I got on the 1st of 3 services of the day and got off at Habrough as I wanted to ride on the Barton-on-Humber EMR Regional service.

Geoff, i reckon you should do some trainspotting :-) great video

I did this station last monday. I noted that it had an overground service yet it wasn't on the overground map before my journey, but I wouldn't be able to make it into london for the time of the first one unless I cycled, which is a long way to go at that time from near heathrow, and the evening one is mostly too late to catch the train back out that way, so I just did it on Southern after walking from Queenstown Road.