A little bit of the West Country in Slough

Time for my first trip report since my return featuring a trip to First's last outpost in Berkshire - a trip to Slough.

My trip began from Southampton Airport (Parkway) on the 0823 Cross Country service up to Manchester Piccadilly. 5-car Voyager 221107 arrived bang on time - one of a number transferred down from Avanti West Coast and still in the base livery of their colours. Unfortunately, I had not checked the football schedule, and the 1M30, the 0745 off of Bournemouth, also appeared to be the primary train for fans of Southampton football club. Full and standing is not unfamiliar for Cross Country - and this was no exception - with every seat taken as fans headed up to Coventry (the Saints fans would return later as happy punters with a 2-1 win over the league leaders!)

Reading was reached bang on-time with the number passengers exiting the train far fewer than the spaces required for the journey north. At least those standing in the aisles and vestibules would have got a seat first. A leisurely trip over to platform 14 saw 345004 waiting for me for the 9U91 0929 Elizabeth Line journey in to London Paddington and on to Abbey Wood, which I alighted at Reading. 

Since the alleged arson at Slough bus station, most services arrive and terminate along the busy A4, Wellington St. Dashing out to the wide central reservation is not for the feint-hearted, yet it yields the best shots for the morning. The prize on offer were a variety of former Kernow ADL Enviro400MMCs, which were transferred up following the closure of the operation in mid-February. 

First up was fleet no. 33306 - WK18 CFY - like all Enviros now in Berkshire, still carrying its 'as-received' livery. The buses have been transferred up to operate the brand new M40 Uxbridge to High Wycombe, alongside the extended X74 High Wycombe to Uxbridge via Slough. The type have also dropped in on to route 7 with the former Glasgow examples in Beeline colours.

Next up was 33303, carrying the First Ultraviolet colours that it received with Kernow, pictured on the X74 for Uxbridge The last time I captured this was down in Truro last July. 

One of the reasons for the new services (dare I say, the only reason for the new services?) are the expansive moves from Go Ahead - in the form of Carousel Buses - which see the introduction of their new route 458 between Slough and Uxbridge. Fleet no. 80884 - VO17EOA - was transferred over from Pulhams, another Go Ahead operation. 

Next up was former Tinner-branded and former Copper-branded fleet no. 33451, here seen arriving in Slough on route 7. By now, by now I had been joined by two other photographers, one from Weston-super-Mare, each enjoying the early spring sunshine. The gentleman in question had tried to head for the Class 230 on the Greenford branch, but it had reportedly developed a fault and was not in operation on arriving... he was happy, though, as it had been shunted in to platform 4, and reportedly offered a much better photo! 

I was pleased to capture this one - the only route branded Enviro up in Slough is currently fleet no. 33450 (WK66 CCA), which is seen in the rather pleasing colours of the Copper Falmouth to Redruth route. Unlike the buses in Weston-super-Mare, full branding has been left on all buses - I quite wondered what residents of Slough and Uxbridge may make of the delights of Cornwall - perhaps they didn't even notice...

Slough presently has six ultraviolet Enviros, the one Copper example and seven Kernow green examples - one of the seven is fleet no. 33307 (WK18 CFZ), pictured here along Wellington St en-route for Uxbridge. It was noticeable that the loadings were spread fairly evenly between First's 3, Carousel's 458 and the X74 - but the X74s certainly had potential passengers waiting for them on each departure for Uxbridge, presumably lured by the decreased journey time.

Slough is the town featuring the most westernly Tfl route - the 81 to Hounslow, currently operated by Metroline. A variety of different types of buses were observed on the route - back in London United days it was pretty much exclusively London United. Here is Volvo B5LH VWH2701 (BL64 MHM) seen departing the town. Since the fire in the bus station, if the sun is out, you either need to go to the high street to take decent photos or wait for the afternoon - here is neither, but I felt I had to grab a couple of shots. Interestingly, the 81 is the only route that passes down Slough high street now. 

At about half 1, I had had enough, with the encroaching clouds signalling photography would become increasingly frustrating. I hopped on the next arrival from Paddington - the 2N40 1323 GWR service heading off to Didcot Parkway, formered of eight coaches worth of Class 387. Indeed, upon boarding at Slough, I had a whole coach to myself! Unfortunately, we were five minutes late throughout, causing a mad dash over to the waiting Cross Country back down to Southampton - I hopped on one minute before depature on another former Avanti Voyager, this time 221109.

Full photos will be on Smugmug once I've finished editing them - you'll find them here once they are ready. 

All comments welcome - thank you for reading.

James