London (District Line) Trip 18/9/15

I'd like to put in a shout for Earl's Court, since it's a major junction between the various branches (including the Edgware Road branch, admittedly), so you'll be able to see trains from and to pretty much anywhere. It's also easy to see westbound and eastbound trains and, since it's an important junction and crew depot, there are often timetabled dwells, so it's nice and easy to get the numbers. Plus it's a lovely station. When you get there, be sure to look up.

(PS: having just noticed your post in the Central line board, you can kill two birds with one stone at Mile End, where there's cross-platform interchange between the two lines. The only example on the network of cross platform interchange between a tube and sub-surface line, which is physically underground, apparently )

Hammersmith is below ground level, albeit in a cutting open to daylight, rather than a cut-n-cover tunnel. You might also add Highbury & Islington, if you count class 313 as surface stock!

Hammersmith will net you some D stock, H&I none at all! Anything that's out on the District (main) Line will pass through the section from Earls Court to Tower Hill, unless the Olympia shuttle, or any short workings to HSK, are running - in which case Earls Court is the only place to be sure of catching everything.

Of the sample of two I saw at Victoria today, 50% were D stock.

...but does that mean I have a reasonable chance of S Stock at Hornchurch and Upminster?

Especially at Upminster I'll be inside the fares paid area and travelling with Oyster PAYG, so would be watching the ticking clock and journey time limits.

At Hornchurch I will also be filming from the road bridge outside the station.

Simon

(If 2-6 paper ODTC's had still existed I'd almost certainly have been buying one of these for sheer convenience...)

That's about half isn't it? (District Train duty numbers are generally numbered 001 to 067, which as they are octal numbers makes 55. This does not include the Edgware Road sets (numbered 07x) or the additional peak hour trains numbered above 100

(Edited because I got thye Edgware Road numbers wrong)

As tut says, there are 76 trains. Take out 8 for the Edgware Road - Wimbledon service, which leaves 68 for the District main line. Out of those, around 25 are currently scheduled as S stock, which leaves 43 D stock to choose from. It should also be said that most of the S stock trains are all day runners, with most of the peak starters being D (at the moment). So during the midday off peak, it's not far off 50:50 now.