This is all going to sound very amateurish compared to all the experts on here. All the pieces to enable me to do this didn’t fall into place until Thursday, so I couldn’t JP my route. I hadn’t even had chance to buy a stopwatch! Perhaps I should have postponed it or just had a day finding door positions &c, but chances to come to London are rare and I was desperate to try this and find out how it works in reality: Were my interchange times accurate? Could I make the on-foots quicker than planned? (This is very firmly a WALKING route. I was never exactly Linford Christie even in my youth and these days I’m built for comfort, not speed, but I hoped to do a brisk walk or even Scout’s Pace - 50 paces walking followed by 40 paces running). Above all, what happens when it all goes pear shaped?
Route was Edgware – Stanmore. Yes, I know it’s a bit unusual, but it’s the easiest access from the M1 and I wanted to do it in a day from Cheshire. Start was 06:26, an hour later than planned. Early stages went well, with top of the Met going far better than I had a right to expect and I got a ride on an A Stock (always liked these – the only grown-up trains on the tube). Liked the S Stock more than I expected to. Disliked Moor Park: narrow platforms, no DMIs, only a ladies’ loo that I could find, unless the gents is on the (closed) fast platforms. Things unravelled a bit at Edgware Rd. I dithered between 2 pelicans on the Marylebone Rd and was near neither when the lights changed! No trains at all shown at ER and announcer warned of ‘incident on track near Kings Cross,” so I got on first train that came in and reversed my route. Had a long wait for MHE. We were held for ages outside East Finchley, with Sonia repeatedly intoning: “This train is ready to depart. Mind the doors” Could I have caught the earlier shuttle if we hadn’t stopped for so long? Not sure, but think we might have. Momentarily puzzled by juxtaposition of road and rail at High Barnet, expecting to have to catch bus in opposite direction to reality, not helped by 307 showing wrong destination. Extraordinarily pleased with ease of reversal at Covent Garden, but Holborn passages are rather long. Started to lose heart mid afternoon, with ‘Tube Challenger’s Bottom’ beginning to set in, and I had issues with my feet. A very full bladder did not help (I had an empty bottle with me, but the trains were too full to use it)! Missed an Olympia shuttle because I took valuable seconds trying to decipher the archaic platform indicators at Earls Court. ALL the destinations seemed to be lit up What in the name of Frank Pick are LU playing at, still using such museum pieces in the second decade of the twenty-first century? They must pre-date the formation of London Transport!
Felt better at Leytonstone after a toilet stop and a 3 minute connection into a loop service. Weighed up my options as I travelled back down the Central: I certainly wasn’t going to get 270, so what should I do? Carry on as late as I could before heading for the Jubilee? Miss out some or all of the eastern District so I could head out west? In the end, the lure of sleeping in my own bed got the better of me (I had planned to kip overnight in the back of the car) and at Stratford I swapped to the Jubilee and headed for Stanmore. Final total: 173 stations (including Canons St pass-through) in 12 hrs 48.Highlight: friendly bus driver who prevented me from getting off a stop early in the rain at Amersham
Lowlight: Platform indicators not showing time of next train at terminals; and especially those light-box thingies at Earls Court!
By and large the day was unremarkable: no really sexy changes (actually most were as sexy as granny’s bloomers, with quite a few just-missed trains), but no major delays either. Immediately afterwards I was very despondent: who was I trying to kid, thinking I could do this? I’m not fit enough and probably lack the ‘killer instinct’ needed for slick changes. A few days later, however and I’m already starting to think about next time. It won’t be for a while (which will give me chance to work on my fitness), but at the very least I want to do the third of the network I missed. I’ll never be a GWR contender, but I want that completion!
First and so far only female solo record holder!! 