And good morning, it is morning, checks his watch.
Yes, it's quarter to six in the morning, 5:45.
Oh, nice sunrise happening just over there.
I'm in South London in Battersea.
Behind me, that is Battersea Park Station.
This is London Overground's secret Overground station,
the station that isn't on the map, but it sort of is,
and it only gets three trains a day.
one in the morning and two in the evening.
Let's catch all three trains.
Yes, I'm at Battersea Park Station,
which normally is only served by Southern trains,
with a lot of them go through fast as well,
but they're the only ones that stop here,
apart that is, as this poster will attest,
just three trains a day.
There's one in the morning which I'm about to catch.
And then there's two tonight, one arrives and one leaves,
three Overground trains a day come here to Platform 2
at Battersea Park Station, why is that?
It's because there used to be a service
known as the South London Line with trains
that ran between Victoria and London Bridge.
They used Platforms 1 and 2 here at Battersea Park,
but when the London Overground extension
went from Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction in 2012,
those trains all serve the intermediate stations instead,
except for this small curving branch up to Battersea Park.
And that meant that London Overground were required
to run a parliamentary-style train service
to meet the legal needs to keep the line open.
And so in the morning, there's one departure at 6:33
and then late at night, there's an arrival
into Battersea Park at 10:48,
and then it departs again in service at 11:03.
As fast Southern trains whiz past, I tried
to work out the last time a train stopped at Platform 1.
It must've been 10 years ago.
Now I'm on Platform 3-2, and can you see here,
pulling in right now is this London Overground train
which has come empty, I believe it's come
out of New Cross Station this morning,
is run empty up to Surrey Quays,
reversed and is pulling in now, this is my train.
(door beeps)
Okay, I am the only person on this train.
There's no one else on this behind me.
And I've got here three examples of maps,
three different types of map on this train right now
which don't show this station.
So straight away you've got the line diagram here
and it comes in Clapham High Street, Wandsworth Road,
and Clapton Junction, and no extension down
to Battersea Park.
Up here, you've got a regular-style Tube map
that just goes Wandsworth Road, Clapham Junction,
and doesn't go to Battersea Park.
And over here you have what I call
the mess of the spaghetti diagram
which shows just all the Underground services.
And sure enough again you've got Clapton High Street,
Wandsworth Road, and Clapton Junction,
no mention of Battersea Park.
But, however, there have been occasions
when London Overground do admit to Battersea Park
being one of their stations.
And one of them is on this here.
Yes, this here is an old paper timetable, remember those?
I've got this one saved back from 2016.
Prior to this edition, it showed just a standard Tube map
inside but this was the first time that TFL decided
to print a map of the complete Overground network.
And for some reason, someone decided
that it was time to show Battersea Park
as a dotted line, limited service stop.
It is, though, shown on the TFL website.
If you go to the timetable page for the Overground,
and download the PDF, it is shown there too.
But everywhere else, nope, it's like it just doesn't exist.
They don't acknowledge it.
It is the Overground secret station.
(chime rings) Here we go.
Please stand clear of the door.
This train is ready to leave.
Yes, it is, 6:32, it's now 6:33,
now we'll leave any second.
I'm gonna get a shot of the old Platform 1.
Remember, up until 2012, trains from London Bridge
to Victoria used to call on that platform,
but now it looks extremely dilapidated and unused.
If you're making this trip,
make sure you look outside the left-hand side of the window
for the view down onto the Southwestern tracks.
I scored double bingo points here
for getting a Southeastern train in the background as well.
Coming the curve, rejoining the main line.
Wandsworth Road approaches.
Here it comes now.
It would be dead handy if Southeastern trains stopped
at Wandsworth Road too, providing a handy connection
with the Overground, but alas, they pass through fast.
Right, so I've bailed at Wandsworth Road
'cause there's an excellent breakfast cafe just down there
where I'm gonna go to at 6:40 in the morning.
That's only half the story though.
When I say half, I mean a third,
because that's the one train out.
This evening there's a train into Battersea Park,
but then sits there for 10 minutes and then leaves again,
so there's two more trains to get.
So you know what's coming is the fade to black,
and in a few seconds time, it'll magically be this evening.
And the fade up from black reveals
that we have come to Clapham High Street.
Yes, with the 10:41 which is already on the board
amongst the Dalston Junctions and the Clapham Junctions
is the one solitary train to Battersea Park.
It's left Dalston earlier.
I just thought I'd pick it up here.
It'll go to Battersea Park.
It will sit there for a few moments and then
it will turn back and reverse and come back that way.
That's not my train, the train coming in,
that is going to Clapham Junction.
I think I'm the next one. (ticket machine beeps)
It should say Battersea Park.
(footsteps thudding)
It is, however, displayed on the dot matrix here
as the next train, it's going to Battersea Park, yay.
(train clatters)
Train approaches. (brakes squeal)
(door beeps)
So time for a quick story.
Once, ages ago on a Saturday, I was on this service,
not this exact service but on this line
heading to Clapham Junction.
There was obviously a problem at Clapham Junction.
I think the train got stuck in Platform 2.
And so they decided at last minute to reverse,
send this train into Battersea Park,
which is what is sometimes used for.
It confused everybody, because people were,
like, "Battersea Park, but that's not on the map."
It still isn't, so what I'm wondering now,
is that are there people, sort of in a late,
sort of train-zombie-like state that have gotten
on this train, thinking it's going to Clapham,
and at Wandsworth Road, they might do a big announcement
saying this is not going to Clapham,
it's going to Battersea.
Will anybody inadvertently go to Battersea Park,
thinking that they were going to Clapham Junction?
(brakes squeal)
The next station is Battersea Park.
There's no special announcement.
There's nothing that said we're not going to Clapham.
So we're now gonna curve off.
I mean, I'd point the camera at the window
but it's just, it's dark, what do you wanna see, it's dark.
Actually, I was wrong.
You can see some things that are lit up at night,
specifically Stewarts Lane Train Depot stepover here,
which looks great, and then even better,
Battersea Bus Garage comes to the rescue too,
all splendidly lit up at night.
Thank you, buses, well done.
And then you're back at Battersea Park again.
Made it to Battersea Park.
There's about 10 other people on the train.
How many of them thought
they were going to Clapham Junction?
(door beeps) Step down.
I think, yeah, I think there may have been
some people who were trying to get to Clapham.
They've just walked over to the adjacent platform,
Platform 3, they're waiting for the 23:04 Epsom Downs train
which will take them one stop to Clapham Junction.
Me, I'm gonna hop on, get the 23:03.
One other person has gone, and I'll have done all three,
departs this morning, arrival this evening,
departure this evening, tick, tick, tick.
I settled in for my last train of the day
and it left on time.
And that is it, we are off.
That is the 23:03 London Overground departure
from Battersea Park, next up Wandsworth Road,
go back to Clapton High Street,
will work its way around to Dalston.
So that's it, I've done the morning one,
the evening one, and then this one as well.
That is all three trains ridden in one day.
Remember, the times are slightly different on a Sunday.
It's actually better in the morning
'cause it's at seven rather than six.
But that is how you do
the London Overground's secret station.
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There's a whole load more. Thanks again for watching, bye.