Day Thirteen the 27 and 28

I took a week off in Yorkshire. The only bus we travelled on was J2007 the accessible bus used at the North of England Open Air Museum in Beamish County Durham. Now back and after a spot of invigilating GCSE English language resits, I was off on my travels again on the 1153 to Balham. I changed there onto the 1228 to Milton Keynes to alight at West Brompton. From there I took my 'time honoured' trip to Earls Court and then back west towards Heathrow but unlike when I was working I took the District line to Chiswick Park rather than the Piccadilly line to Hatton Cross which I did for the last five years. I had often looked down from my Piccadilly line train to Heathrow as it approached Acton Town to see buses lurking here amongst the foliage.

The 27 waiting at Chiswick Business Park

The No 27 begins in the Chiswick Business Park which was a walk around the Gunnersbury triangle nature reserve from Chiswick Park station where I had arrived at 1310. The bus, ADH45040 an AD E40H  Enduro 400H hybrid of London United or RATP, departed at 1325 along the Chiswick High Road towards Hammersmith. Here it went in and out at the bus station at 1350 having stopped for three minutes earlier outside Stamford Brook depot to change drivers. Progress was rather slower than billed, although this tardiness did not occur anywhere in particular. Arrival at Chalk Farm Morrisons was at 1456 so it was a journey of 91 minutes - the bus timetable at Chiswick had said 54 minutes! The sun angle meant the camera refused to capture my actual egress here. It was a useful toilet stop nevertheless, and I could see it was used by bus staff for this purpose, too.

Kentish Town West railway station

The get to the No 28 it was necessary to get to Kensal Rise station. To do this I walked to Kentish Town West railway station which was burnt down in the 1970s. From here I caught the 1516 to Richmond and alighted at Kensal Rise just as one of the new Adzuma high speed trains in Virgin livery passed by, presumably on a test run at 1532.

Tower Transit Volvo B9TL Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini2 37954

I had to wait ten minutes for the No 28 to arrive at the stop opposite the bus stand. This bus was Tower Transit Volvo B9TL Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini2 No 37954 and it proved to be an extremely protracted journey slowing progressively the further south we got. It was a real crawl along Wandsworth Bridge Road at 1710, but to cap it all the bus terminated at Wandsworth bridge south side at 1717. Given I have to do the whole route I then waited for the next No 28 which arrived at 1730 and finally reached the Mapleton Road terminal stop in Wandsworth town on Tower Transit No 37960 another Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini 2 at 1740. A total  journey of two hours all but one minute.

Tower Transit 37960 having deposited me at Mapleton Road Wandsworth

To minimise further cost which would have been incurred if I had used the railways I caught the No 270 at 1745 to Mitcham, arriving at 1826. There the No 127 which came a minute later was used to reach Carshalton High Street arriving at 1854. As no No 407 was coming I caught an X26 one stop in the hope of catching a No 410, one of which pulled away just as we stopped.  I finally got home at 1915 utilising the same No 407 I would have caught if had not bothered to use the X26!