How do you plan your GWR FNC

[Adam9317]

Hi there,

I am new to this forum and to planning a hopefully competitive FNC time.

After seeing the WTT in a previous thread I have 1 question,

How do you plan your route? Do you use journey planner, timetables, or computer programs and mathematical equations

Any assistance would be gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks
Adam

[The Raven]

I use tfl.gov.uk, station master app, wtt and previous knowledge!

[Iain]

Much the same as The Raven, although I believe the Swedish group who held the record a while back used a computer programme that included statistical analysis. The record probably had more slack in it then so I'm not sure that would work now.

An A-Z is also handy to work out runs - proximity or otherwise on the map does not always correspond to geographical nearness, plus you may spot non-LU/LO connections

[palkanetoijala31]

the best thing is to have a map and use the draw feature on it that way firstly draw what you hope to follow and then u know whether u have covered all 270 try to cover all 270 stations without too many bits of line repeated.

then follow your route either using the wtt or tfl journey planner and probably best to leave around 2 mins for in station connections. then if it comes out in the time you want then save it and draw another one save that eventually you get used to certain ways of doing things that save time.

mostly the connections at ends of the line are the simple ones to figure out

high barnet - cockfosters or vice versa
edgware - stanmore or canons park or vice versa
wimbledon - morden or south wimbledon or vice versa
walthamstow to snaresbrook or leytonstone or vice versa
west ruislip to ickenham or vice versa

door positions handy to have i dont use geoffs app as i have them all anyway doing it the hard way which is more gratifying.

[Adam9317]

Thankyou for all your help.

This is what I was planning on doing.

[hopeful traveller]

The way I do it is pick a starting train on the WTTs and work it out from there, rather than working yourself around a certain train you NEED to catch later in the day.

[Iain]

I tend to try to get the "big three" done early on as I figure there's less chance of things having gone wrong by then

BTW the WTTs are useful because sometimes they reveal that what looks like a 0 minute change is actually 90 seconds, or even (as in one notorious case off a Heathrow start) what JP shows as a miss by 2 mins actually gives you two minutes to spare for a simple cross platform change of 10 or so metres

[Adam9317]

I tend to try to get the "big three" done early on as I figure there's less chance of things having gone wrong by then

BTW the WTTs are useful because sometimes they reveal that what looks like a 0 minute change is actually 90 seconds, or even (as in one notorious case off a Heathrow start) what JP shows as a miss by 2 mins actually gives you two minutes to spare for a simple cross platform change of 10 or so metres

Thanks

What would you class as the big 3?

1. Olympia

[tangy]

I tend to try to get the "big three" done early on as I figure there's less chance of things having gone wrong by then

BTW the WTTs are useful because sometimes they reveal that what looks like a 0 minute change is actually 90 seconds, or even (as in one notorious case off a Heathrow start) what JP shows as a miss by 2 mins actually gives you two minutes to spare for a simple cross platform change of 10 or so metres

Thanks

What would you class as the big 3?

1. Olympia

The three less frequent bits of line, these being the Mill Hill East branch, Woodford- Hainault and Ken. Olympia

[Adam9317]

I tend to try to get the "big three" done early on as I figure there's less chance of things having gone wrong by then

BTW the WTTs are useful because sometimes they reveal that what looks like a 0 minute change is actually 90 seconds, or even (as in one notorious case off a Heathrow start) what JP shows as a miss by 2 mins actually gives you two minutes to spare for a simple cross platform change of 10 or so metres

Thanks

What would you class as the big 3?

1. Olympia

The three less frequent bits of line, these being the Mill Hill East branch, Woodford- Hainault and Ken. Olympia

Brilliant thanks. These sections of track really must get annoying for everyone.

On Olympia event days how often are the trains?

Thanks

[hopeful traveller]

I tend to try to get the "big three" done early on as I figure there's less chance of things having gone wrong by then

BTW the WTTs are useful because sometimes they reveal that what looks like a 0 minute change is actually 90 seconds, or even (as in one notorious case off a Heathrow start) what JP shows as a miss by 2 mins actually gives you two minutes to spare for a simple cross platform change of 10 or so metres

Thanks

What would you class as the big 3?

1. Olympia

The three less frequent bits of line, these being the Mill Hill East branch, Woodford- Hainault and Ken. Olympia

Brilliant thanks. These sections of track really must get annoying for everyone.

On Olympia event days how often are the trains?

Thanks

They're listed on the TFL website as being at 14 and 44 past the hour, except that when I did it during the British Beer Festival, they ran at 00, 20, and 40 minutes past the hour. You're better off tweeting @districtline.

[Adam9317]

I tend to try to get the "big three" done early on as I figure there's less chance of things having gone wrong by then

BTW the WTTs are useful because sometimes they reveal that what looks like a 0 minute change is actually 90 seconds, or even (as in one notorious case off a Heathrow start) what JP shows as a miss by 2 mins actually gives you two minutes to spare for a simple cross platform change of 10 or so metres

Thanks

What would you class as the big 3?

1. Olympia

The three less frequent bits of line, these being the Mill Hill East branch, Woodford- Hainault and Ken. Olympia

Brilliant thanks. These sections of track really must get annoying for everyone.

On Olympia event days how often are the trains?

Thanks

They're listed on the TFL website as being at 14 and 44 past the hour, except that when I did it during the British Beer Festival, they ran at 00, 20, and 40 minutes past the hour. You're better off tweeting @districtline.

Thanks, I will do that

[Nigel]

They're listed on the TFL website as being at 14 and 44 past the hour, except that when I did it during the British Beer Festival, they ran at 00, 20, and 40 minutes past the hour.

When I did it during the British Beer Festival (presumably on the same day as HT), albeit from Olympia to Earl's Court, it left at the timetabled time consistent with 14 & 44 departures from Earl's Court. How do you know they were running a 20 minute service (which would require two trains, instead of the one normally scheduled for non-weekend exhibition services), rather than the one you caught just being late?

[hopeful traveller]

They're listed on the TFL website as being at 14 and 44 past the hour, except that when I did it during the British Beer Festival, they ran at 00, 20, and 40 minutes past the hour.

When I did it during the British Beer Festival (presumably on the same day as HT), albeit from Olympia to Earl's Court, it left at the timetabled time consistent with 14 & 44 departures from Earl's Court. How do you know they were running a 20 minute service (which would require two trains, instead of the one normally scheduled for non-weekend exhibition services), rather than the one you caught just being late?

Because I asked TFL later. I'm talking about FART here.

[Nigel]

Because I asked TFL later. I'm talking about FART here.

This is the same TfL who my replied to my query about what services were running that day, but not until the day after we had done it, saying that there were no special Olympia services that week. So a very reliable source then?