Scouting Stories
Posted: 19 Apr 2012, 23:44
Okay this can be an onerous task, but there's usually something that happens to me, so I thought it might be amusing to have a thread for people's experiences.
After the weekend's R15 I realised that while I knew a lot of the common door positions now, some of the less common ones, particularly involving the overground, were unknown to me. Armed with a list of those, a few central stations that I hadn't got yet such as Green Park, plus a few odds and ends, I set out at 9:30 this morning.
1) I'd been looking at the Snaresbrook to Wood Street section and wondered if there waas a better bus or a quicker way to do it. It suddenly occurred to me that going round the pond was not the shortest route - a straight line would be better. A quick look at Streetview showed that there was a gate in the fence at about the right place after running down from Snaresbrook, so I went exploring what lay beyond this. It started well, a bit of a road up to the court building, then some nice flat grass. All going well so far. I'd hoped after this that there be some earth tracks or something, surely people walked over this bit? Instead there were lots of prickly plants, uneven ground, and eventually I turned back. Maybe it was better down by the pond's edge? This was where I came unstuck - there was a large duck or immature swan (I'm not an ornithologist), and although I tried to skirt around it I obviously wound it up and it started waddling quickly towards me, squawking angrily. I beat a hasty retreat!
2) It had occurred to me that the frequent wait at Seven Sisters wasted time, but I knew some trains terminated there. Presumably they went out southwards again, so maybe it was a nice quick switch and we could move from our train that was waiting to swap drivers to one that left quicker? I found the relevant platform, but it was empty. The mysterious platform 4! Then I saw a sign that said that no trains departed from that platform. This seemed odd. I head back to the southbound platform, but as I crossed over the tunnel for platform 4, a train pulled in. Weirder and weirder! So apparently they arrive there but they don't depart? Or at least not with passengers on board maybe?
3)About 9pm, and I'd been at it most of the day, save an hour to eat a curry in a 'spoons. I even paid £1.50 extra for the "feast" option (definitely worth it), and felt sleepy all afternoon. I decided to do one more station, Green Park, and then head home. In my semi-comatose state, I got confused and thought I'd arrived on the southbound Vic, rather than the southbound Jub. I had a burst of excitement as I discovered that going up one staircase and down the one immediately opposite led me to the Jubilee platforms - a Vic to Jub switch that took about 15 seconds! This was fantastic, it was an event of nearly ******** brilliance! It wasn't for another ten minutes that I realised I was confused, and my hopes were dashed
After the weekend's R15 I realised that while I knew a lot of the common door positions now, some of the less common ones, particularly involving the overground, were unknown to me. Armed with a list of those, a few central stations that I hadn't got yet such as Green Park, plus a few odds and ends, I set out at 9:30 this morning.
1) I'd been looking at the Snaresbrook to Wood Street section and wondered if there waas a better bus or a quicker way to do it. It suddenly occurred to me that going round the pond was not the shortest route - a straight line would be better. A quick look at Streetview showed that there was a gate in the fence at about the right place after running down from Snaresbrook, so I went exploring what lay beyond this. It started well, a bit of a road up to the court building, then some nice flat grass. All going well so far. I'd hoped after this that there be some earth tracks or something, surely people walked over this bit? Instead there were lots of prickly plants, uneven ground, and eventually I turned back. Maybe it was better down by the pond's edge? This was where I came unstuck - there was a large duck or immature swan (I'm not an ornithologist), and although I tried to skirt around it I obviously wound it up and it started waddling quickly towards me, squawking angrily. I beat a hasty retreat!
2) It had occurred to me that the frequent wait at Seven Sisters wasted time, but I knew some trains terminated there. Presumably they went out southwards again, so maybe it was a nice quick switch and we could move from our train that was waiting to swap drivers to one that left quicker? I found the relevant platform, but it was empty. The mysterious platform 4! Then I saw a sign that said that no trains departed from that platform. This seemed odd. I head back to the southbound platform, but as I crossed over the tunnel for platform 4, a train pulled in. Weirder and weirder! So apparently they arrive there but they don't depart? Or at least not with passengers on board maybe?
3)About 9pm, and I'd been at it most of the day, save an hour to eat a curry in a 'spoons. I even paid £1.50 extra for the "feast" option (definitely worth it), and felt sleepy all afternoon. I decided to do one more station, Green Park, and then head home. In my semi-comatose state, I got confused and thought I'd arrived on the southbound Vic, rather than the southbound Jub. I had a burst of excitement as I discovered that going up one staircase and down the one immediately opposite led me to the Jubilee platforms - a Vic to Jub switch that took about 15 seconds! This was fantastic, it was an event of nearly ******** brilliance! It wasn't for another ten minutes that I realised I was confused, and my hopes were dashed
