Despite it being half term the Central Line was reasonably peaceful until yesterday. Wood Lane got a report of “youths” throwing stuff onto the track from a road bridge around EPP and we were told to make the journey up from THB in Coded “at a speed that allows you to stop short of any obstacle”.

Fortunately it was mid-afternoon with good visibility so we weren’t crawling along, THB to EPP is 2.54km (1.57 miles to us old people) and takes about three minutes doing 85kph. As the only road bridge on that particular stretch is the one that carries the M25 it wasn't much of a surprise when I didn’t find anything blocking the track.

Later we had a report of a “trespasser” up at SOR which not only shut the Central from NOR to WER but also halted the Chiltern Line out of Marylebone. This was a real incident and one of my colleagues suffered a “near miss”. The “trespasser” was eventually safely removed from track and I was one of the first trains through judging form the amount of people who crammed on board.

Many thanks to Ian Sergeant for alerting the world that the phantom balloon animal maker has struck on the Northern Line. And no, Ian, the identity of the perpetrator remains a mystery.

http://twitter.com/#!/crooked_cottage/status/168808521238982659/photo/1