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There are catchable 0 or -1 minute connections in some places that you can get (I think that HT4 05:02 HT123 05:12 onto HT123 05:11 HT5 05:16 1/2 is one as it is a short distance change).

I did Olympia early after a Heathrow T4 start,im not what you could call an athlete but it was reasonably easy after that(although the advice and route strategy from Andi was very valuable),it was just a case of remaining hydrated for the rest of the day plus a bit of luck,good luck with your attempt.

Thanks for all the replies so far, very helpful. Would appreciate some "route strategy" myself - I'm probably planning all the wrong moves! Also I've been building in what might be a lot of "redundancy" in terms of times at interconnections. Of course, without having made those interchanges, it's very difficult to know how much time to allow for to change trains. So do people programme in the actual time for changes based on experience of the actual station (I'm sure you need to do this for WR purposes), or is there a kind of "interchange average" that I can apply to such things? I'm sure I could shave quite a lot off if I could change trains quicker than I've currently allowed for. I do see the benefit of working out where all the platform exits are, so knowing which carriage to aim for etc, so I can do that I think, but would appreciate any general advice in this respect too.

I said earlier in the thread:

A Challenge wrote:There are catchable 0 or -1 minute connections in some places that you can get (I think that HT4 05:02 HT123 05:12 onto HT123 05:11 HT5 05:16 1/2 is one as it is a short distance change).

thoough I can't give accurate examples!

Well I've taken the plunge and decided to go for it in the next couple of weeks. Will do final planning next weekend. Haven't got a great route, no idea how long it's going to take, no idea if it's possible and doing it without support. Wouldn't have it any other way!

The switch at HRT123 isn't really a -1 as if you look at the WTTs, the incoming train arrives several minutes earlier

One thing which I would say is extremely useful is knowing which stations have island platforms and which have the platforms connected by a bridge/subway, where double-backs or changes between parallel lines are involved.

Preston Road and Southwark for example can both produce very quick double-back times as you only need to get from one side of the platform to the other - however you still need to be careful which doors you get out of as there may be all sorts of station ephemera in the way!

If you don't have time to go out and research each station - buy a copy of the app by www.stationmasterapp.com with a full suite of 3D maps!

Shameless plug - yup!

Very shameless plug

Pity it's only available for Apple though...

Actually I was going to get the app, but didn't realise it wouldn't go android. Is there anything similar for android or even PC? I bought a fold out map showing exits which is helpful though perhaps a bit out of date. Thanks again for the tips. The island tips are helpful - so I was reassured when I was at Heathrow last weekend that the change there between platforms is not hard - I had visions of going up to a booking hall and back down again, but there doesn't seem to be too much difficulty.

Android: Tube Assistant gives you exit car data. You can also find (admittedly very old) exit car data here. As for 3D maps and station understanding, there's a number of sources.

Aeracode stations: Bank/Monument, King's Cross St Pancras, Old Street, Oxford Circus, Seven Sisters, Walthamstow Central

Station Master stations: Baker Street, Camden Town, Canary Wharf, Earl's Court, Euston, Finsbury Park, Green Park, Greenford, Harrow-on-the-Hill, Highgate, Holborn, Kensington Olympia, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Mansion House, Marble Arch, Moorgate (partial), Notting Hill Gate, Oxford Circus, Paddington District (partial), Tottenham Court Road, Vauxhall, Victoria, Waterloo, Watford, Westminster, Whitechapel (original), Whitechapel (temporary)

Ian Visits copies of the TfL Axonometric Diagrams: 124 tube stations that can be found underground. They're really, really confusing though.

Nationwide Disabled Access Register's detailed tube station instructions are here. It's text only though.

The Carto Metro track map should give you some idea as to whether you're dealing with island platforms or side platforms at the station in question.

Otherwise, you just have to go out there and check things yourself!!

The most difficult stations without cheating maps would be Embankment, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus as:

- Stratford and West Ham have the National Rail maps
- Bond Street, Elephant and Castle, South Kensington, Stockwell and Warren Street are simply cases of follow the signs.

Thank you so much.

Any other advice would be appreciated!

I completed the Challenge last Friday. I wrote a bit about it on the other forum about the attempts themselves. Thanks for the help.