Day 68 To West London to do the No 110 and from Heathrow Airport the No 111

The day started somewhat inauspiciously, as on my arrival at the local station I found the train I intended to catch to Clapham Junction, the 0950, was not expected until 1001, which became later 1006. Plan B could have been to go to Sutton and round to Wimbledon but the 0936 just said delayed and was later announced as being 26 minutes late. This was all due to a signal failure at Selhurst which would potentially 'muck up' plans whatever train I had hoped to get. However, as I debated what to do, at 0959:45 the 1000 train arrived to take me to Clapham and I hurriedly crossed the bridge to effect such travel.

Class 67 No 67004 running along Platform 6 at Clapham Junction
with a rake of Pullman carriages

From Clapham Junction I caught the 1038, destination Weybridge and alighted at Syon Lane at 1059. From here I needed to walk to the West Middlesex Hospital where I arrived just as a No 110 was leaving.

RATP-DEV 30041 leaving on the No 110  as I reached the hospital

RATP-DEV 30045, my conveyance to Hounslow

The next No 110 arrived exactly 15 minutes later so at 1128 I was aboard AD E20D AD Enviro 200 of RATP-DEV No 30045. This is identical to the type my wife and I travelled on when doing the No 70 route, although despite being 2017 buses these have now been replaced by 2018 electric buses on this route.

Typical shop fronts as the bus runs into Hounslow

The route is fairly unexciting running from the hospital to Twickenham, Whitton and turning back on itself to run into  Hounslow from the west. The destination was Hounslow bus station which was achieved at 1223.

Final stop afore the bus turns into the bus station

Final resting point of 30045 before it heads
 back to the West Middlesex Hospital

My plan was to meet ex colleagues at lunchtime and to do this I needed to catch the Piccadilly line to Hatton Cross and then the No 423 to the Compass Centre. After spending a pleasant hour or so catching up with my mates I then made my way to the Central bus station to catch the No 111 to Kingston.

Buses laying over before return at Heathrow Central bus station

I had occasionally used this bus route after night shifts if I had missed the X26, but for no good reason since I knew at the time it would be a slow slog. It just seemed that in the morning rush hour however I travelled it was over two hours to reach home.

SP40034 awaiting its time for departure

Bus stop were I have spent many hours waiting not only for the X26 but sometimes the 285 to Hatton Cross or Feltham

SP40034 arriving in distance

At 1455 I boarded SP40034, again from RATP-DEV but this is a Scania double decker, a N230D OmniCity to be precise which is ten years old. Progress was as expected: slow and steady. It took the best part of ten minutes before we were at Hanwell Corner and were leaving the Heathrow free-flow zone. After turning north from the A4 and crossing the A312 to approach Heston from the west we reached a width restriction.

Police van blocking our way; had to be a bit surreptitious taking this
as I didn't want the police storming on the bus and taking my camera

At this point a police van blocked the way and there were a good many policeman surrounding a youth on the grass to our left. At the previous stop the bus had filled up with kids from the local school and the bus driver announced he had no idea how long we would be stuck here. Many of the kids who were perhaps only going a few stops got off and started to walk. It was only a little over 10 minutes though before we were underway again at 1525.

Here we are at St Leonards Chuch bus stop at Heston with dot in the sky (the police helicopter) over the spot we had been held up.

We still had a long way to go at this stage however, through Hounslow heading SW and then back east once we had passed under the A316 to reach Hampton. As the bus was approaching Hampton Court it was by now in complete darkness, the driver announced we would be terminating opposite the Cardinal Wolsey as there was a bus right behind us.

Terminal point of SP40034

Queuing to board our 'rescuer' for the final 2-3 miles

 This we did at 1654 and at 1657 were boarding the two years younger but otherwise similar SP40169 to complete our journey to the Cromwell Road bus station at Kingston which we reached at 1710, two and a quarter hours after original departure.

Finally alongside at Cromwell Road bus station at 1710 

I then caught the 1718 to Wimbledon and returned home by tram at 1800.