Pylon hunt 20: Sundon Substation, 23rd September 2023

Another day of sunshine and clouds. I’d known for a while about a double crossing at Chalton, where a 132 kV line passes under not one but two 400 kV lines, all three emanating from Sundon Substation. Depending on time and energy, I had a choice of returning straight from Chalton, or walking from Chalton to Harlington, or from Chalton to Harlington via Sundon Substation. I ended up following the full route past the substation.

Chalton is half-way between Leagrave and Harlington stations on the Midland Main Line. Thus, I headed for Leagrave.

From Leagrave station, the route is north out of Luton:

One advantage to walking (instead of cycling) is that you are afforded the reaction time to spot things you would otherwise miss, especially little creatures on the ground and in hedgerows.

Back to walking …

Here the route changes from roads to public footpaths. I don’t look at satellite imagery beforehand (as it spoils the surprise); I envisaged this part of the walk to just be across the middle of a field but it turned out to be a lot more scenic.

Here we turn right and head north, continuing to pass around the outside of Chalton.

At this point, the sun scurried away and hid. It knew exactly where I was heading and when to disappear!

Finally heading to Chalton …

Sadly, there wasn’t time to look around the village of Chalton itself. I headed straight for the substation.

A quick diversion across the M1 …

Having crossed back over the M1, we follow the public footpath to the substation. I was expecting some kind of industrial wasteland, but instead I got a scenic woodland trail.

The footpath continues past the crossing but there is technically nothing to stop you from leaving it and walking over to the substation, which is fenced off. Quite a few of the pylons are actually outside of the substation perimeter,

Walking alongside the substation, I got chance to document several tower types.

I heard a Merlin-engined aircraft approaching but didn’t succeed in getting a good shot of it :(

Final shot from the substation:

I did have to double back on myself all the way to where I left the footpath, as part of the River Flit runs between the footpath and the substation and I couldn’t find anywhere else to cross it!

Here it got a bit stressful. The public footpaths in the Sundon area are not well signposted, and I completely lost sight of where I was meant to be going. I ended up going too far and reaching a dead end. For some reason there were construction workers up to something, and their huge muddy track through the fields was, for a distance, the route of the public footpath I wanted.

Fortunately, despite getting lost, I found my way back to Harlington and a suitable train pulled in just as I arrived at the station.

Heading home …