Our lovely old bus took us up to North Weald to meet the train.  Until the mid 90's the Central Line went out as far as Ongar on a branch line from Epping but was closed due to falling numbers making it uncommercial. However thanks to a local railway group the line has been re-opened as a heritage railway operating only on Sundays and Bank Holidays to trundle people back and forth for no particular reason other than you can, and the view out the window is pretty.  Today staff were dressed in Halloween silliness with the usual crop of witches, monsters, reapers and knives through the head.  Little paper and glitter bats flutterd in the carriages and  carved pumpkins  spelt out the station names.  Real ale was available on board, and I'd brought pastries and satsumas for a picnic atmosphere as we headed through the autumnal forest, beautiful even in the drizzle.


We rattled back to Epping, stopping 800m from where we'd got off the tube.  There are plans to build a picnic area here and possibly to connect up to the station at Epping.  Currently the train just stops for a bit, then starts on the way back to North Weald, and on to Ongar in the other direction.  We get out at Ongar, the furthest one could get.  Our train is only going to be in the station for a few minutes so it's either five minutes in Ongar or an hour.  We decide to have a look around, even in the rain, and maybe find a pub.  After all, when are we next going to be out beyond the city limits?  We stride off to find a rather lovely church, actual Tudor buildings now the home of a balloon shop, and a closed suburban town enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon indoors in the warm. 

The chap manning the railway shop was expressive in his disgust at just how much the bloody pumpkins had cost this year.  Sainsbury's should sponser them perhaps?  But the pumpkins do add that final touch of Halloween jollity.


My shots of Ongar itself were dark so, for a different perspective on the day failing_angel has a set up at flick here:

After a short sojourn in the pub we took the train back to North Weald and the bus back to Epping.  On board, we asked the easiest way to get into the forest itself and the driver offered to drop us off on route back to North Weald for the next train out.  However, time was marching on for me, and I had a different connection to make at Paddington, so would need to leave my companions to kick through the leaves, play on pretend speeder bikes and build witches houses without me.  However, we only really processed this information only once the bus was underway, meaning I was heading the wrong way for a long wait at North Weald.   So taking advantage of the Routemasters unique advantage over modern buses, one last time, I waited till the bus was stopped at traffic lights and blithely hoped off, waving goodbye as I trundle back down the hill to Epping station. God I miss those buses!

I did briefly toy with the idea of taking an Epping train all the way to West Ruislip which is the furthest one can travel on the London Underground in a single jouney - 34 miles taking 81 minutes, but it would be cutting it close to get back from West Ruislip to Paddington. I had time, but perhaps notthat much time, so instead contented myself with collecting one more station, Loughton, before the homeward journey



All told, I shouldn't have got so cold and wet out in the rain, but a lovely day of talking nonsense with friends on a silly Sunday adventure into the windy wilds of Essex.  Two proper stations collected, and two closed stations, last seen on the official map here in 1986.