First completion!!

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mrredrunner100
Zone 3
Posts: 116
Joined: 07 May 2013, 17:37
Location: Colchester

First completion!!

Post by mrredrunner100 »

On the 19/02/15, me and Cam attempted an FNC; this is how it went.

We stayed in the easy hotel near Heathrow and woke up about 3:30 ish and walked down to the bus stop and got two busses for Hatton cross and caught the starting train in to terminal 4. I was conscious that the driver would do the usual toilet trip but I looked out and saw a green signal and the doors closed and we departed at 5:03 and I was glad that we left on time, we then had an easy cross platform change at T123 for the T5 connection and then off up in to central London. After popping down to Richmond everything was on time arriving at west Kensington, we then ran to Kensington Olympia which took us about 4-5 minutes ish and we got to Ken O with 3 minutes to spare before the last morning train. Heading to Wimbledon we ended up missing the planned connection to Wimbledon at EC even though there was one a few minutes behind it, this still threw off our connections down at Wimbledon – Morden however it did time right for a connection on to the Thames link down to south Merton and we ran from there. We ended up being about 2 trains behind but this did grow. By the time we had got on to the Bakerloo about 30 minutes later we were running 40 minutes behind which just meant the timetable we had went out the window pretty much.

On the way up the Bakerloo we kept getting trains that terminated at Queens Park and then the next one decided to terminate at Stonebridge Park before we got an H&W train which became a bit of a pain but at Stonebridge Park we had a chat with station staff about the Caledonian sleeper which was above us and then back on the train to harrow and Wealdstone.

Later on in the day we did the Aldgate east to Aldgate run, when arriving at Aldgate I saw that there was a high street Kensington train ready to leave and we just made it on to the train before it left, we then rode it all the way round to high street Kensington and then back down to Earl’s court and up to Cockfosters, when we got to Cockfosters we found out it was quicker to get a train back down to Oakwood and pick up a bus from there to high Barnet. We weren’t waiting too long for the bus but got there in good time and we ran on to high Barnet station and we were confused with which one was next to leave because all the boards were showing the same thing and not which one the first train was on so we did end up missing one because we guessed the wrong train. We had good connections to MHE and back and then it was on down in to Tottenham court road on the northern line.

From TCR we ran to Holborn which wasn’t that busy, I did have to ask someone how to get there because I couldn’t get my bearings (even though I had looked on google maps beforehand). Later on in the day we headed up to do the Hainault loop and luckily we got a Woodford via Hainault!! Which made everything so much easier to get round that section, after hitting Epping we went to Leytonstone to get up to Walthamstow central, whilst at Walthamstow queens road we finally found the new connection footbridge which I haven’t found before!! And that helped the whole change a lot and made it so much easier rather than running around housing estates, even saw a GA train whilst running. We then went down the Victoria line to kings cross and round to Moorgate via angel and this is where a delay came from. Before we were only behind by about 40 minutes and we did start to catch it up, but this pushed it up to an hour which I wasn’t too worried about as it still gave us time to get a completion. We arrived on to the sub-surface platforms and timed it perfectly for a Watford (semi-fast) but we wanted to go to Hammersmith and we couldn’t see any on the board so we thought we would head to baker street on the met and try from there (this was in full rush hour now) we got to baker street and one came in but we didn’t stand a chance in getting on it. It left and we were still on the platform. The boards on the circle, met and Hammersmith and city lines are awful sometimes, they just stand there showing Eastbound/westbound met line trains and not when the next one is!! We waited 5 minutes and nothing happened so we took a gamble and ran to edgware road in the hope that we may have better chance from there but no, same thing on the boards and no trains. Eventually one did turn up and we had a busy run through to Hammersmith. Then we did the Piccadilly line up to Uxbridge and on to Ruislip. Where we caught the U1 bus to west Ruislip and we got on to the platform just as the driver closed the doors but I think he saw us and he re-opened them for us to get on, (thanks driver! ).

Next we were heading out of London up the Metropolitan line to the NW corner. With a run from west harrow to north harrow we timed it well for an all stations Watford train and then a double back down to moor park with a 30 second change on to an Amersham train and I was looking at the timings on the way up and realised that we could have a 30 second change at Amersham on to a mainline to Chalfont and then connect up to Chesham but that didn’t happen (every time I seem to need Chiltern they always seem to leave early!) but we had to catch the next one and we ended up finishing with a time of 18:11:03! Which is now our first completion and we have had 5 attempts. There are a few things we could tighten up on with timings and stuff but all in all I’m pleased we got a completion!
Best FNC time
18:10:37 :)
Tube.b
Zone 1
Posts: 17
Joined: 18 Oct 2014, 08:12
Location: Twiknaam

Re: First completion!!

Post by Tube.b »

Well done on first completion, 20 odd minutes quicker than my first attempt
that's the first Heathrow start I've heard of that worked since I've been on the forum i think. ☺☺
Andrew B
2 fnc attempts and completions.
Too optimistic with times
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Peter
Zone 1
Posts: 13
Joined: 08 Dec 2014, 10:33
Location: Watford

Re: First completion!!

Post by Peter »

Well done!
The Heathrow start also worked for me for my first completion late last year, but doing Richmond as well before the last morning Olympia train is impressive! A high risk strategy I would say, but it paid off.
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tractakid
The Twilight Zone
Posts: 3320
Joined: 15 Nov 2011, 20:04
Location: Milton Keynes

Re: First completion!!

Post by tractakid »

A lot less risky now the last morning train is significantly later!
*insert boasting about notable tube accomplishments here*
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