1st attempt Wed 18th November

[adc82140]

Hi!!

I'm a newbie to the world of tube challenging, and made a first attempt last Wednesday. There wasn't a formal attempt to break the record (no independent stopwatch or anything), it was done as a bit of fun for charity.

There were two of us, starting at Chesham and attempting to finish at Heathrow. However the day was plagued with delays.

It didn't start well- the Met line was a bit sluggish, and connections were missed, sometimes by seconds. We also had a 15 minute delay of our own making- my friend's map reading skills were a bit iffy, and we ended up lost on the streets of Harrow.

After that the day went from bad to worse- a fatality at Earl's Court, another one near Harrow & Wealdstone, signal problems all day on the District, and to cap it all a tent on the line at Upminster Bridge, causing us to sit on a train for an hour while the traction current was turned off!!

There were little annoyances as well- I pulled a muscle running up the spiral staircase at Regents Park, my Oyster Card gave up the ghost on a bus and my friend got his rucksack caught in the door of a Northern Line train.

In the end, we admitted defeat at Morden at 9:30pm, and made it back to overnight accomodation in Westbourne Park at 10:30. In total 194 stations covered.

But we're now addicted- we think our route, with a few minor alterations (Chesham is not a good start point) is a potential record breaker. We also have now have the benefit of having done a lot of the route before, so can go immediately to the correct bus stop etc.

Another attempt is planned for the beginning of next year.

[palkanetoijala31]

Hi!!

I'm a newbie to the world of tube challenging, and made a first attempt last Wednesday. There wasn't a formal attempt to break the record (no independent stopwatch or anything), it was done as a bit of fun for charity.

There were two of us, starting at Chesham and attempting to finish at Heathrow. However the day was plagued with delays.

It didn't start well- the Met line was a bit sluggish, and connections were missed, sometimes by seconds. We also had a 15 minute delay of our own making- my friend's map reading skills were a bit iffy, and we ended up lost on the streets of Harrow.

After that the day went from bad to worse- a fatality at Earl's Court, another one near Harrow & Wealdstone, signal problems all day on the District, and to cap it all a tent on the line at Upminster Bridge, causing us to sit on a train for an hour while the traction current was turned off!!

There were little annoyances as well- I pulled a muscle running up the spiral staircase at Regents Park, my Oyster Card gave up the ghost on a bus and my friend got his rucksack caught in the door of a Northern Line train.

In the end, we admitted defeat at Morden at 9:30pm, and made it back to overnight accomodation in Westbourne Park at 10:30. In total 194 stations covered.

But we're now addicted- we think our route, with a few minor alterations (Chesham is not a good start point) is a potential record breaker. We also have now have the benefit of having done a lot of the route before, so can go immediately to the correct bus stop etc.

Another attempt is planned for the beginning of next year.

well good luck wiv that it seems we have now have an attempt being planned near enough every week

[Root]

Welcome to the forum, and commiserations on your attempt. You seem to have learned that Chesham isn't the right place to start, and perhaps you'll also stick to paper tickets next time (there's a thread discussing that issue somewhere). In fact there is plenty of advice to be found around here - too much, some feel, but I shan't go into that

How much did you manage to raise for charity? Will your next attempt be for the record?

[Going Underground]

I am glad you all think Chesham is a bad place to start

[adc82140]

Thanks for the welcome!!


I'll definitely be using a paper travelcard next time. However, I've called TfL to whinge about the 40-odd quid the whole day cost me, and they've agreed that I should have been maximum fared at £17, and they have refunded my Oyster balance.

So far about £300 has been raised. I'm leaving the justgiving.com website open for subsequent attempts.

I'm really addicted now- I' can think of a number of other challenges I might want to do- the First Great Western Challenge springs to mind......

[Going Underground]

.

I'm really addicted now- I' can think of a number of other challenges I might want to do- the First Great Western Challenge springs to mind......

Hello and welcome, well there are plenty of "Alternative challenges" and events taking place on a regular basis....

We have The Random 15 every 2 months, Zone 1 day in May and The Tube Olympics in Feb 2010 with a number of challenges.

[Soup Dragon]

Welcome to the forum and concratulations on raising a good amount for charity on your recent attempt. The full network can be an extremely addictive pastime. I was starting to lose interest earlier this year but planning for our Children in Need attempt has given me renewed passion for the challenge. When we first started we could only come up with one potential route and now we have hundreds. Even after four years of challenging we are still coming up with new ideas and don't think that we've done exactly the same route twice.

[tubeguru]

the First Great Western Challenge springs to mind......

The FGW Challenge?

[RichieG]

Hmmm... a FGW challenge could be interesting, but impossible in one day. I know, for instance, that on the Tarka Line (Barnstaple to Exeter) you will have to do that route at least twice to be able to get all the stations (that is, a train stopping / scheduled to stop - most on that route are request stops so you would have to either count the fact that the train could stop at a station or end up being a pain in the arse to the conductor by getting him to get the driver to stop the train at each station for no reason) as on one journey you will find that it doesn't stop at, say, Portsmouth Arms but stops at Chapelton, yet on another journey will stop at Chapelton but rush straight through Portsmouth Arms. On the Exmouth branch, you also have Lympstone Commando where trains will only stop for military personel who have business at the army base the station serves (and is quite possibly the most secure passenger station on the UK network given that the platform is secured with barbed wire fences and those curly barbed wire thingies you get on the top of them). Again, how would you count going through that station?

Anyway, this isn't about an attempt so I shall now return you to your normal scheduled lives

(no pun intended - when I intend to do puns they're either fantastically good, or exceptionally bad to the extent that they're good)