Finally after almost eighteen months I resume my quest on the 4th anniversary of starting it on the 6th September 2017. The No 195.

 I had been holding off doing the next route so long owing to it being a single decker and the fact it was an hour's journey to reach the start of the route. The route being a single decker had until recently meant numbers on board were restricted and I didn't want to be stuck at a bus stop waiting for a long time or more significantly precluding genuine travellers using the bus when I am riding for 'fun.' It had been the intention that my wife would be joining me but she woke up with a headache so unfortunately I had to make the journey alone.

Since my last trip I have received my over 60 TFL travel pass, which now has to be paid for annually. As my wife received hers in July 2019, she doesn't because the dividing line was the first of August 2019. Even more annoying is that I have not used it at all in the first year, May 2020-2021. The only use it got was going through the barriers from one side of Wallington station to the other!

Waddon railway station

Thus at 1042 I found myself at Waddon station waiting for a train to take me to Clapham Junction. There seemed not to be a 1050 train so I guess post Covid only half hourly trains are provided to Victoria, at least for the present. However, the 1100 arrived on time and deposited me at Clapham Junction at 1130 where I could change for a Southwest Train from platform 5 to Brentford.

Clapham Junction sidings With class 701 prominent

I had yet to see any of the new stock for Southwest Trains the class 701 so it was nice to see one in the sidings at Clapham Junction, as I crossed the footbridge. This unit is 701011 and is one made up of ten coaches. There should have been an 1132 train to Brentford but luckily this was running late and I caught it at 1138 after it had been re-routed to platform 6 and arrived at Brentford railway station at 1159. The station is fairly close to the county court where the No 195 begins its tortuous trip to a housing estate to the east of  Uxbridge.

I felt a photo in a face mask had to be done! Taken on train to Brentford.

As I was about to turn off the road to walk to the bus stabling point a bus pulled away so I waited a good ten to twelve minutes for the next one.

There was already a bus waiting as I arrived and I took a photo of Abellio 8876 expecting that to be my mount but in fact before long two more had arrived. It was the second one, 8879 that took me at 1218 back the way I had just walked from the railway station.

Note how Abellio in West London have branded their buses with the route

The route taken is initially quite a straight one passing Boston Manor Underground station where you can see the tracks and trains in Northfields Piccadilly line depot. This was reached by 1224 having passed the A4/M4 soon after Brentford station and we moved on Northwest to the Uxbridge Road at Hanwell which was reached at 1229. The bus turned left onto the Uxbridge Road at this point and could quickly reach its destination if it continued on the Uxbridge Road. However, soon after Southall Park it took a sharp left turn down Southall High Street to Southall railway station. 

Southall original fire station which more
 recently was Southall Community Arts Centre

The traffic this way was very slow and once we had got past Southall we saw why: there were roadworks in Western Road. It was therefore 1258 before we had breasted the Grand Union canal bridge and were able to head towards Hayes. We crossed the roundabout of the A312 at 1303  and then for a short spell were the only route that takes this road towards Hayes.  Once we had turned right at the end though, there was a plethora of bus routes which traverse the Great Western Mainline at Hayes and Harlington railway station. After this railway station the bus bears to the left and takes Church Road to reach the Uxbridge Road once again at 1320. Fairly soon the bus has to do a 'U' turn in order to access Landsbury Drive as the road at this point is dual carriageway and after a few wriggles through many residential roads we reached Charville Lane and came to a halt at Romney Road in the midst of the Charville Estate at 1332.

To return I initially walked up Charville Lane towards Pole Hill Road with the intention of walking to the Uxbridge Road to get a bus back. However, as I reached the junction a No U7 arrived heading for Hayes Sainsbury's, so I crossed the road and was making my way home by 1341. This bus took me back the way the No 195 had brought me initially but then ran around some other roads to return to the Uxbridge Road. Once at this point I decided to change to get a No 607 Express Bus towards Ealing. Since I had 4 minutes to wait I dived into a shop and procured a bottle of juice and a croissant. I travelled briskly on the No 607 past Hayes and through Southall but just before Hanwell the bus driver announced he was changing buses. I thus thought it was expedient to leave the bus and catch a No 195 that I knew would be following to take me back to Brentford station. At 1428 Abellio 8890 arrived and took me to Hanwell and at this point it became evident that the bus route goes a different way around the triangle depending on direction of travel so I then covered a part of the route I wouldn't otherwise have utilised. This namely being a bit of the Broadway and then Boston Road to its junction with Lower Boston Road. I returned to Brentford railway station at 1446 and caught the 1454 to Clapham Junction and then the 1539 to Waddon having to wait over twenty minutes owing to the reduced frequency of trains. Below is a helicopter landing at Battersea Heliport from Platform 15 at Clapham Junction.