tractakid's second go 06/06/12

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tractakid
The Twilight Zone
Posts: 3320
Joined: 15 Nov 2011, 20:04
Location: Milton Keynes

Re: tractakid's second go 06/06/12

Post by tractakid »

Despite huge frustration, some positives can be taken from yesterday.

254 stations were done. Completed were the Victoria, Piccadilly, Northern, Bakerloo, Jubilee, Circle, Hammersmith and City and Waterloo and City lines, the last 2 without ever riding on a train for that line.

Some general bits about the day: Doing it with Seb and my sister was good fun, it was really great to have the company. Seb's ticket stopped letting him through barriers almost immediately, meaning he needed assistance at each ticket barrier to get through. This was mostly quick and fine. There was no one to assist at Northwick Park, and with the ticket barriers closed, Seb had to crawl under one of the gates. :/ Rachel took a photo whenever she could at each station, of the roundel. This did occasionally slow us a little bit, but thats OK.

The on-foot sections were mostly done via a brisk walk, I am not fit enough to manage to run for very long.

We saw the best and worst of the London people on our journey. Unprovoked racist verbal attack from a speeding car walking to Hanger Lane, calling us ********* Polish ********** (all of us are British, lol). Otherwise, TFL staff were all helpful, and there was a young family travelling to Edgware, the young son enjoyed biting my finger off with a toy eel, and konking me with a Happy Meal balloon. Also spoke to a gentleman at Hainault, who was doing the Central Line to Epping for the sake of it, before returning to Central London. I hope he made it back OK!

An interesting moment doubling back at Cockfosters where two community support officers thought it was suspicious when we darted from a terminating train to a westbound train. They asked where we were going (lol), I said Kings Cross, and if I had a ticket. When he said why he challenged us, I explained briefly about the tube challenge, then he understood and wished us luck.

Missing startions: Leyton, Uxbridge, Hillingdon, North Harrow and beyond.

The route ended up being: T4, T123, T5, Baron's Court, West Kensington, Olympia (on foot), High Street Kensington, Edgware Road, Hammersmith, Turnham Green, Richmond, Gunnersbury, Chiswick Park (Bus/foot), Ealing Broadway, Oxford Circus, Regent's Park, Great Portland Street (on foot), Moorgate, Finchley Central, Mill Hill East, Finchley Central, High Barnet, Oakwood (bus), Cockfosters, King's Cross St. Pancras, Seven Sisters, Walthamstow Central, Walthamstow Queen's Road (on foot), Leytonstone (overground) High Road, Leytonstone (on foot), Newbury Park, Hainault, Woodford, Epping, Leytonstone, Leytonstone High Road (on foot), Barking (overground), Upminster, Barking (c2c), West Ham, Southwark, London Bridge, Elephant and Castle, Embankment, Sloane Square, Victoria, Brixton, Stockwell, Kennington, Morden, Wimbledon (bus), Earl's Court, Holborn, Bethnal Green, Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Aldgate East (on foot), West Ham, Stratford, West Ham, Fenchurch Street (c2c), Tower Hill, Embankment, Edgware, Canon's Park (bus), Stanmore, Baker Street, Queen's Park, Harrow and Wealdstone, Kenton, Northwick Park (on foot), Preston Road, Harrow-on-the-hill, Rayners Lane, North Ealing, Park Royal, Hanger Lane (on foot), West Ruislip, Ruislip (on foot), Harrow-on-the-hill.

All went well enough until the Hainault Loop. Olympia and Mill Hill East were done efficiently. Transfer from Gunnersbury to Chiswick Park went well, there was an H91 bus right there which we hopped on for a stop. Probably didn't help us though, as the wait for a train at chiswick park took a while. The train to MHE was a 5 minute wait, and it appeared to be a direct train rather than a shuttle, I would assume from the Charing Cross branch, having not seen it on next train indicators at Moorgate. High Barnet to Cockfosters went well, just missed a 307 but the next one wasn't unbearably far away. Before the Central Line, a couple of 5 minute or longer waits, which were slightly irritating. Arriving at Leytonstone, the first train was to Newbury Park, the second to Hainault via Newbury Park. We got on the first one, and then the second one. At Hainault, a lovely next train indicator displaying Woodford, 20 mins.

At Woodford, had to stop for a loo break, which meant missing the first train, though the second train was through very soon afterwards which we made after a short door hold! Turnaround at Epping was quick, and we were all looking forward to a hitch-free ride down to central London.

Haha.

We got to Leytonstone. We were held, and told there was a signal failure at Stratford. We waited for a while. Another southbound train cross platform made it to Leyton, meaning if I hade have realised, we could have hopped on it and made it to Leyton. After hearing the news that the line was suspended, I decided that getting to Barking on the Overground was the best option, hoping that the central line problems would be solved relatively quickly.

haha.

Anyway, Upminster and back went well, the C2C service was timed perfectly. At Barking, we switched to a district train to knock out between there and West Ham, before heading to Southwark. Morden to Wimbledon was good.

Got crushed to death on the central line. Managed to get on the third train arriving at the station to get from Holborn to Bethnal Green. We got on an already full train, as did a few people after us. People made jokes about my hair. I joined in, it was funny. I suggested that the nearly bald guy was jealous. We realised at this point a completion was never going to happen due to the Central Line's failure. Wasted time doing Stratford the long way round, yada yada.
Smoothly smoothly til Edgware. Missed a direct stanmore bus as it stopped at the wrong stop at Edgware station. Got one a short while later to Canon's Park. Ridiculous 15 minute wait to get to Stanmore. Watched a 'not in service' train sail by, in the meantime.

Trains that terminate at Queen's Park are annoying.

yada yada

Hanger Lane. Got onto the platform and the next train indicator showed NOTHING. A few minutes later, it showed 20 minutes, which disappeared again. I went to enquire, and very helpfully, they announced to the whole station that there were 2 known trains, one at Notting Hill Gate, which was definitely moving, and one at White City, which they had no clue about. Long wait later, they eventually revealed the next westbound train was at Shepherds Bush. As at this point it was getting very near the end of the day, the time wasted had serious implications about where we would be able to get to, and where we would be picked up. The total wait was about 25-30 minutes at this station. Getting the last train to Chesham was out of the question, we only just made it for the last train of the day at Ruislip, having gone on foot straight from West Ruislip. This took us past Eastcote, our last unique station, and we were left stranded at HotH. Due to the confusion about where Dad would pick us up from, he held off travelling so was very late, it didn't help that he had difficulty finding the station. Picked up about 2:15 and home and into bed, very sore, an hour later.

254 in just under 20 hours, the 3 of us. Lazy geofftech style stats. :D
*insert boasting about notable tube accomplishments here*
Cheshire Cat
Zone 2
Posts: 86
Joined: 26 Oct 2011, 20:00

Re: tractakid's second go 06/06/12

Post by Cheshire Cat »

Excellent report, Tracta. You did well to only miss 16, in the circs. At least next time you can think "It's GOT to be better than last time!"
Metrolink 91 stations 6:27:01
FNC: 18:48:00
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