23/03/2012 - Glen's 3rd/Iain's 5th Attempt

[Iain]

It fell over yesterday too - another signal failure

[Sam]

There's a shock!! It's useless, just as well it won't be used much for the Olympics...

Oh, wait...

[The Raven]

Memorable parts of the day:

- U1 bus turned up just as we left West Ruislip and got a faster train out of Uxbridge
- The little kid on a scooter and the giant giraffe I nearly ran into at Hammersmith
- The cat lounging in the sun at North Ealing that we scared the hell out off!
- The train at Gunnersbury that wasn't scheduled and seemed to turn out from nowhere
- The guard at Seven Sisters the who yelled at us for moving down the platform in the rush hour

[Steeevooo]

It fell over yesterday too - another signal failure

I blame David Cameron.

Unlucky on your run yesterday guys, sounds as though it started off so well, but the snowball effect of missing one train took over with the few minutes here and there gradually building up to a lot more.

[hopeful traveller]

I just think it's coincidence that Tube Challengers always make it fall down!

[Iain]

Thanks Stevo, I think that's pretty much it. We both had all sorts of plans if we missed a connection in the first few hours as there were a few tight ones in there, and even if we were let back from the loop, but they weren't times beyond MHE. We had a neat "recovery" route with very little inefficiency but I'm wishing we'd timed it. Turns out the Jubilee lines would have scuppered us even if we had been on GWR pace still so I'm even gladder we adjourned to the pub.

Still had a lot of fun and learnt stuff - we'll quite likely plot a few alternative options and have another go in a few weeks. Or maybe do the NW corner mid-route to avoid the nasty one minuters of starting there and the ickiness of finishing there whereas a small delay quickly expands.

Full report to follow - lots of funny stuff during the day and pleny of 1's and 2's (in Andi speak)

Before I forget - the Jubilee train going north through Canons Park slowed right down and moved forward in tiny bursts making an unholy grinding noise. While we were waiting for the bus to Edgware after doubling back we heard another train doing this - any idea what's going on there anyone?

[Iain]

The recent day supporting Andi and Steve had got my interest in Tube Challenging up again, was it time to brave the network again? I stared at the multi-coloured map, cursing Harry Beck that something so simple on paper should prove so problematic in practice. The twin prongs of the northern line glared at me like two fingers raised at me, saying “come and have a go if you thing you’re hard enough”. Time for another tube challenge! I contacted Glen and Tube Challenge 3/5 (0.6?) was born!

Glen arrived around 5pm and after a welcome cuppa and chat through alternative options if we missed connections, it was off to the local ‘spoons for the now traditional pre-challenge curry. We were tempted by alternative options, such as chicken with special tangy sauce. We weren’t quite sure how they persuaded the forum’s own bus guru to provide said sauce, but we decided to stick with curry.
3:45am and we headed down to Hatton Cross. A good trip, and as we walked over from the car park we saw a van with “SkyChefs” on the side. Presumably given the proximity of the airport this was some sort of airline catering company, but to us it seemed liked a curious sort of superhero group, akin to X men. SkyChefs – fighting injustice and collapsed soufflés everywhere. It was one of those days, and part of the reason I like doing Tube Challenges with Glen, Andi, Stevo and Myles. We all talk complete bollocks.

Onto the network! The Picc was behaving, and we zoomed around the loop, nailing all three HRTs quickly and bombing up towards Barons Court. We arrived early, made a tidy connection to a District and arrived at West Ken bang on 6:00. We decided not to bother running for the 6:06 as we thought it was highly improbable – so we sauntered along, but when we emerged from the side streets we could see the 6:06 still at the platform. We started to sprint and ended up only missing it by thirty seconds. It would have been an easy catch if we’d done more than jog and walk earlier. Not that we’d planned for this, but any gain is good, and bearing in mind I’ve got to West Ken at 6:00 once before, an option worth looking into.

A fair wait for the 6:15, while we checked how our connecting train from Earl’s Court was doing. It was good news. The Ken O train waited outside Earl’s Court (as usual) so we missed the first possible train, but got the reserve. From there, onto the Central to have a go at the loop. The next big test was a tight Woodford connection – would we make the change? We did – but only thanks to a nice driver opening the doors after s/he had shut them just as we got to the bottom of the stairs. We doubled back to Snaresbrook. This was the next big test, a thirteen minute run to Wood Street – which I can just make but not with a backpack. We missed the train by a few minutes, which put us fifteen minutes down on our schedule, but we’d decided to try this schedule because it left us an hour to spare and we could still get 17:11. We’d got two of the trifecta under our belts, so just MHE to go. I’d done a sheet with times of various trains out of King’s Cross, so we picked the option to get us set for a good MHE without wasting time. We got so busy doing this that we forgot to start moving down the length of the Vic train to the front, and ended up with too much to do. We did try, but got told off over the Tannoy for running on the platform at Seven Sisters. Anyway, we’d made it to carriage two by KX, but as we got there just before 9:00 it was chocka, and our transfer was very weavy. Still – a good connection, and with a few minutes wait en route we made it to MHE. Big three done!

The rest of the day (in no particular order):

• The bits around Ealing Broadway were very messy – although we’d chosen a nice efficient route with very few double visits, we hadn’t looked at the timetable so had some big waits – costing us twenty minutes or so down here
• We had very few waits outside termini (only one), compared with our last trip when we had them nearly every time
• It was rather nice operating without a rigid schedule – less frustration when trains ran one minute out! However we did have quite a few three or four minute waits – if we’d timed it we might well have rejigged the order of the sections to minimise these
• High Barnet to Cockfosters went well – a 307 turned up fairly quickly and made good progress. We ran up from the crossroads, although it’s well over 2-3 minutes. Still better than the Oakwood double back IMO
• The doors on a lot of trains behaved weirdly. Our driver on one train opened his door, and we had visions of him falling out and wondered if that would be unique on a tube challenge and if anyone would believe us. We had one train where the doors shut and then reopened four stations in a row, another where the doors stayed shut for thirty seconds before opening at each station, and another where one door in our carriage stayed open when the others shut, so it took two attempts to get the doors shut properly. Had the warm weather made the doors “sticky”?
• Transferring between the two Hammersmith stations, there were lots of people about, and a couple carrying various artworks including a wooden six foot carved giraffe. This narrowly beat the man carrying a full bicycle all boxed up later in the day for most unusual object we nearly collided with
• We just missed a bus out of Canons Park – we saw it coming down the stairs and wellied it but missed by seconds and the driver wouldn’t re-open the doors. The next bus was only a few minutes behind, but had to extend and retract his ramp which added time. From previous experience the bus has slowed towards Edgware so we ran the last bit, but the time of day was less busy so the bus beat us
• Once again the West Ruislip to Ickenham connection looked slow – and a U1 turned up so we took it. We even saw a U2 bus en route – cue us singing Pride (In the name of love) and various other U2 associated jokes. Then into Uxbridge, onto a Picc train to North Ealing, just as the train we’d have been on if we’d run to Ickenham came in. Win!
• At Richmond, we had a ten minute wait for the train to Hammersmith but an overground just leaving. We took the overground to Gunnersbury, and Glen sprinted out to look for a bus. I was following but noticed an underground four minutes behind, and we had a comical few minutes while I tried to inform Glen by shouting across the road that there was an underground due!

Around four o’clock we had various segments left that we managed to match up with an earlier schedule we had on us. We worked out that not only were we down on the train to allow a missed one minuter at Watford and still finish in 17:11, but the next one as well, and the one after (one minute change for a 17:46) was very tight and needed us to get time back. At this point we decided not to continue – there wasn’t much slack where we could gain time back, the gorgeous view crossing the bridge at Kew had made us think of a pint in the pub, and the thought of fighting our way onto crowded rush hour trains through Stockwell, London Bridge and Upminster. We could have gone for an 18:11 – inside our best time but still not that good a time

So – pub it was, fish and chips followed by apple crumble and custard. Nice! It was there that we heard the Jubilee had gone down from London Bridge westward, so Southwark couldn’t be done. It was still out when we got home three hours later, so we wouldn’t have completed anyway.

Plenty learnt though:

• Options are always good but know the timings
• Is it worth sometimes altering the route if you get the right train? We went to Baker Street from KX on an H&C train – since these only run every eight minutes, would it have been better to carry on to Hammersmith and reverse a chunk of our route?
• Departure boards lie – or say different things at different station on the same line

[geofftech]

"Departure Boards Lie", hee hee! you bet they do! they give totally false times as well.

i am quite loving your attempts and write-ups and am looking forward to more of them. it's only a matter of time before you nail it, have a good day and get a great time .. but how great?!

if your route has gone wrong, and your down then i always try something different in line with thinking "well it's gone wrong, so how much wrong can it go?", so YES in answer to your H&C 8 minute train thought. always try something different if you've been forced to make changes.

great stuff ...

[Iain]

Thanks Geoff

Yeah I really thought this might have been the day too - no real issues with the network except the Jubilee suspension (there was a Met suspension earlier but we didn't need it until the end of the day).

We're looking at different options off the same route, and I'm going to look more at the NW corner start

I'm quite surprised more people haven't had a crack- apart from Myles' walking route and your run in the snow that blew up early on, we're the only ones I know of.

[geofftech]

people could be doing sneaky quiet attempts without telling anyone. Olympia is causing headaches, for sure - that's stopped some people. we honestly haven't been all year, but team GREEN-MARSHALL is meeting up later this month (April), and i suspect May/June/July shall see challenges... oh yes!

[Iain]

Oh yeah - and the Andi and Stevo one that I supported - forgot about that!

I imagine we'll be out again before too long as well.

[palkanetoijala31]

I should mention here that most of my attempts now go un publicised and Geoff u don't exactly publish ur attempts beforehand so thats a bit like calling the kettle black.After Marc gawley time that surprised you all i feel that all my attempts are to beat my own time first but then wait for a possible attempt that i didn't know about to potential my time wasn't good enough who knows my aim is to win the random 15 championship as i be the only one to have the trifecta.

[tubeguru]

Er, what he said? Whatever that was.

[Nigel]

I wonder if anyone's been having a quiet attempt today? Being Maundy Thursday, this is the day that Marc Gawley set his record last year (and I achieved my first full network completion). It has the advantage of there being far fewer people on peak time trains, but with a normal weekday service running. And, so far, the service has held up all day, so better than last year when the Northern & Jubilee fell over late afternoon. (But no exhibition service scheduled for Ken(O) this year though). Although I was tempted to try again, I can confirm that I haven't done so today.

[The Raven]

I'm also not out on the trains. But I can't vouch on Andi's whereabouts.......