Friday's Zone One

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londongirl
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Friday's Zone One

Post by londongirl »

I thought I’d write a mini write up of what happened on the Friday Zone 1 challenge as I inadvertently missed the meet up at the end thinking I was so far behind everyone else, everyone had packed up and left!

I met up with everyone slightly later than planned as my companion for the trip was late meeting up with me, sorry about that, and after introductions set off in the opposite direction to everyone else to make it to Aldgate. Really, I’ll state now because otherwise some of the moves we made will seem odd, on retrospective me and my companion both agreed that double backs weren’t the best way to go about things but made sense at the start. From Aldgate we double backed to Liverpool St and got on the Central Line to Nottinghill Gate without too much of a hitch though did miss a train by seconds. It’s at this point we end up with a bit of bad luck.

From Nottinghill Gate we got on a circle line train after a 4 minute or so wait to the first Paddington and dashed to make a smooth connection back on a District to Earl’s Court. From there we ended up spending about 6 minutes waiting for a District train to take us to Aldgate East and upon arriving at Aldgate East we pull in as our Hammersmith and City line connection pulls out on the opposite platform. No amount of dashing would have meant we could have made it so we settled in to wait longer than we expected, probably around 4 minutes plus [I wasn’t paying as much attention to the stopwatch here so I’m estimating] until we get the correction train that moved a lot slower than I realised it would. We got caught in a tunnel twice and waited as a driver switched over at Edgware. Finally making it to Paddington on what was the longest stretch ever, my friend realises that his oyster pre-pay wasn’t topped up so we lost a few minutes as he put more money on it as we flew away very behind schedule though the run of bad luck did come to an end around here.

We interchanged at Paddington and caught the Bakerloo Line to Elephant and Castle when I realised how behind we were so started to make alterations to our plans that actually worked a lot better than the original. From Elephant and Castle onwards we got almost perfect connections. We went northbound on the Northern Line to London Bridge and made a very frantic dash to the Jubilee Line to Southwark, got off the train at Southwark to run across to the train going make to London Bridge and dashing back to the Northern Line to pick up a train immediately. Took the Northern Line to Kings Cross and changed to get the Piccadilly Line down to Leicester Square before changed onto the Northern Line again to Euston [on the via Charing Cross Branch to include Goodge St.] From Euston we headed down to Vauxhall on the Victoria Line and then back up to include Vauxhall and Pimlico. We changed at Green Park and got onto the home stretch to Knightsbridge finishing at 3 hours and 28 minutes.

As I said before, this was really a major learning curve for us/me. Double backs, not always a good idea, and now I really know why the Circle Line and Hammersmith and City Line aren’t the best to work with. That took up about half our time and most of that was wasted on waiting for the trains themselves. Estimated with good connections it should have taken us around 3 hours dead on [with the original plan] but it didn’t really go in our favour until we got quit of the Circle line part of the journey. From there onwards it was relatively smooth sailing.

Apologies for not meeting the group at Earl’s Court afterwards, we turned up around quarter to eleven and thought we were so far behind we had missed you all! But a lot of thanks to everyone for letting us take part, especially to Going Underground. I had a lot of fun doing it and I think my friend did too, though he states he definitely won’t be doing a 275 with me at any point but perhaps might take part in another mini challenge. It was an experience and I’m already looking forward to taking on board what went wrong and hopefully coming up with a better route.
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Going Underground
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Post by Going Underground »

Wow Cathryn, I can honestly say that this is the most different and fascinating Z1 route I have ever come across..... :shock:

You may not have been aware that you are allowed to leave the underground network and visit/leave stations via foot, bus or national rail...!!

I am sure that our fellow forum members will be intrigued and your time for this route chosen is really quite remarkable... :)

Barbican was a very tricky start and your time was only 1 - 2 mins slower than mine, a valiant first effort and hopefully you can join us again in the near future......

We had a lot of bad connections and I won't bore everyone with the details but this was the route I did with Dr Who...

H + C to Paddington - run to other Paddington
Bakerloo to Charing Cross
Northern to Euston - run to other Euston
Northern to Moorgate
Circle to Aldgate - run to Aldgate East
District to Sloane Sq
Double back to Victoria
Victoria Line to Vauxhall
S.W.T. service to Waterloo
Bakerloo to E & C
Northern to Lon Bridge
Jubilee to Bond St
Central to Queensway - run to Bayswater
District to Earls Court
Piccadillly to Russell Sq
Double back to Holborn
Central to Bank........

When I say "run" it was more like a "jogging limp" as my hip was aching following the earlier excertions of dashing around the tube for most of the day.... :?
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londongirl
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Post by londongirl »

I was very aware I could get off at any point! And it was an option on my original plan. But I also worked out walking/running in London. Alot of the time it just seemed easier to dash around inside the tube and not get out, especially on a Friday night. [In fact I had my A-Z just in case.]

I think, retrospectively, getting out might have been worth it but we were young, naive and thought we could get away without getting lost in East London :) Again, double backs were definitely our downfall and the Victoria Line double back was definitely part of our attempt to regain time otherwise we might have made the Waterloo - Vauxhall change. Just looking at your route does suggest things we could have done with thinking about [such as the Aldgate to Aldgate East run] but I was left on my own to plan this with only a map and late night common sense.

Also, with our odd route we figured tube connections are easier. Actually I'm running out of defence for our route, but we did it nonetheless. You should see the original, it had a rather odd loop on the Northern Line
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Starkey7
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Post by Starkey7 »

It was nice to have met you and your pilot friend anyway Cathryn, albeit briefly! Glad you could join us.

You might like to know that the following overground runs/walks are often used by us crazy people, and prove very useful. From shortest to farthest, they are as follows. I've estimated some walking times as well; halve these times if you're running.

Edgware Road (Bakerloo) to Edgware Road (other lines) - 2 minutes
Queenswater to Baysway - 2 minutes
Warren Street to Euston Square - 2 minutes
Bank to Monument - 3 minutes
Great Portland Street to Regents Park - 3 minutes
Aldgate East to Aldgate (Sensible people like me use the subway; others just run across the busy road. Your choice.) - 3 minutes
Paddington (H/C) to Paddington (other lines) - 3 minutes
Euston Square to Euston - 3 minutes
Great Portland Street to Warren Street - 4 minutes
Farringdon to Chancery Lane - 6 minutes
Barbican to St Pauls - 7 minutes
Southwark to Lambeth North - 8 minutes
Goodge Street to Russell Square - 11 minutes
Earls Court to High Street Kensington - 11 minutes
Warren Street to Russell Square - 14 minutes

Also you might want to go from Waterloo to Vauxhall on the British Rail. This takes about four minutes, and trains leave about every two minutes. I'm not keen on this idea, though a lot of people very much enjoy this!
londongirl
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Post by londongirl »

Aha! Thank you :) This will be useful for the re-try [which there will be.] Our route really can only speak for itself. My sentiments remain that had we not got caught up with waits/double backs, maybe we would have knocked off 28 minutes. Next time will involve a little more thought.
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Starkey7
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Post by Starkey7 »

Well I also had good fun yesterday. I'll probably do my usual log all neat and tidy sooner or later, but I'll write a bit about it here now.

Snake challenge: Harrow And Wealdstone to Epping - 6:13'09"
Zone 1 challenge: Barbican to Moorgate - 2:56'35"
Zone 1 challenge: Vauxhall to Southwark - 2:52'19"

I was drawn as the first to leave Harrow And Wealdstone, which I wasn’t too happy with. All went okay at first; although I also had to change at Willesden Green, I had a very nice connection at Wembley Park. It really went wrong at Acton Town, when the next District into town was cancelled, so I had to wait a further ten minutes. Peter (greatkingrat) caught me up here.

We then headed into the mælstrom of short hops and crazy changes around the middle of London. There weren’t any close shaves that I can remember until we were heading down to Stockwell. I was in the wrong carriage for our change to the Victoria line, and Peter headed for the wrong platform! As I called him back, and eventually found where we were supposed to go, we saw the train that we wanted just leaving. Whether we’d have caught it I’m not sure - but probably not.

Finally I got ahead at London Bridge, just making it on to the Jubilee before the doors shut, leaving Peter behind. Sadly though my Circle out of Westminster was three minutes late (according to Peter, who trusts the timetables!) and he re-joined me there. Things went normally until Mile End, where we had (in effect) a fourteen-minute wait for our Woodford train. We decided to break this wait down by changing first at Leytonstone, and then at Hainault.

At last we were off around the bit of the Central line that nobody uses, and whom should we see on the train but the other two teams! I knew now that unless I sprinted at Woodford and there was an Epping train ready to leave, I’d be last.

I was last. All that running like crazy! But I’m sure that it did me good, and the reward was a nice trip to Loughton Sainso’s for some lunch (yes, at 5:30pm). Oh, and we had a team photo at Epping, just to prove that we’d been there.

We then went back down to London. We changed at Stratford, because a tipsy passenger had spilt something on the floor near us. We were divided as to what the substance actually was: I maintain that it was vomit, whereas Dr Who thought that it was cheap perfume and Going Underground suggested eau de Cologne! I ask you. So we took the British Rail from Stratford to Liverpool Street after a mere one minute’s wait, which got us some fresh oxygen.

We arrived at Barbican about seven minutes early, so while I went off to some salsa bar to use their facilities, the others set about looking for Londongirl. On my return, we were off! Peter, Kevin, Jamie and I went off to Paddington, Damian turned back at Farringdon, and Londongirl and friend disappeared down to Aldgate. I had wheeled out the circular route that I used on Tuesday; the difference obviously was the starting point. We had a nice fun dash at Paddington down the slope, through the main line station and down to the Bakerloo line, but there was a two-minute wait anyway.

I can’t remember where Peter got off; perhaps it was Oxford Circus. Kevin and Jamie changed at Charing Cross and apparently had a good connection there, while I carried on down to Elephant and Castle. Things never go well for me there, so I was surprised to have only a minute’s wait this time! Also I did the Waterloo to Vauxhall thing for the first time, but it felt horribly slow.

The rest of the route was average. I met Damian at Bayswater, from where we had a very fast journey to Earls Court. He soon disappeared, and I ended up finishing at Moorgate, in 2:56’35â€
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Post by Going Underground »

Well Cathryn you don't have to defend your route, there was only 2 mins difference between 3 out of the 5 teams and that is just one good or lucky change...and I picked the starting station :shock:

I am still trying to break the 3 hour barrier after 5 attempts now, so my planning is nothing to write home about :oops:


Hey John, your little list of tips for Cathryn is now known by the rest of the world...well by at least by any forum members that have logged on since 1112pm on Sat 2nd Sep.... what will Mr Tubeguru have to say about that?

I did chuckle at the Queenswater / Baysway link though, I can't think where you got that one from :wink:

Also are you sure about some of those times for walking?
3 mins to do Bank - Monument would really be pushing it, as would a 90 second run....Are they estimates or have you actually timed any of them?
Twice former full network GWR holder and former Zone 1 Olympic and World Record holder with The Raven and Soupie
Tube personality of the year 2009
Twice Winter Olympic Biathlon Gold Medalist with The Beer Baron
2008 All Lines Olympic Gold
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Starkey7
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Post by Starkey7 »

Yes, they were only quick estimates. Perhaps you'd need nearer five minutes to walk from Bank to Monument; I've not done it recently! It looks quite convenient on paper, but for a Zone 1 it doesn't turn out to be as useful really. That's unless somebody decides to slip in the Waterloo and City into their attempt! That would be Something To Write Home About.

Anyway, those tips are available to anybody who has a twenty-second look at a London A to Z! They're not anything like my cheeky little short-cuts at certain stations, which I only reveal to a trusted few...

My route was as follows:

Barbican - Paddington (H/C), run to Paddington (other lines) - Elephant And Castle - London Bridge - Waterloo, BR to Vauxhall - Victoria - Sloane Square - Aldgate East, run to Aldgate - Liverpool Street - Queenswater, run to Baysway - Earls Court - Russell Square, run to Goodge Street - Euston - Moorgate.

Not a bad attempt, except for an inexplicable four-minute wait at Covent Garden, and missing the last train at Euston by about three or four seconds. But I think that I've got an improvement to that route coming...
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greatkingrat
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Post by greatkingrat »

My route was pretty similar to Starkey's. I started with Barbican - Paddington (H&C) - Paddington (Bak) - Lambeth North. At this point I though that going to Southwark on foot might be quicker than doubling back to Waterloo. Unfortunately I didn't have an A-Z on me and ended up walking round half of South London trying to find Southwark! I lost at least 15 minutes here. The rest of the route was Southwark - London Bridge - Stockwell - Victoria - Sloane Square - Aldgate East - Aldgate (v long wait) - Liverpool Street - Queensway - Bayswater - Earl's Court - Russell Square - Goodge Street - Euston - Moorgate for a final finishing time of 3:27:09.
londongirl
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Post by londongirl »

Starkey7 wrote: Barbican - Paddington (H/C), run to Paddington (other lines) - Elephant And Castle - London Bridge - Waterloo, BR to Vauxhall - Victoria - Sloane Square - Aldgate East, run to Aldgate - Liverpool Street - Queenswater, run to Baysway - Earls Court - Russell Square, run to Goodge Street - Euston - Moorgate.
on hindsight, Barbican - Paddington seemed like a more smarter idea to take. From experience on reading the forum, when one person goes in another direction to the rest of the group it always seems a recipe for disaster so I was expecting to lag behind :)
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hwolge
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Post by hwolge »

Queenswater? :D
:) Three times Zone 1 Challenge winner :)
:) Official record holder in the 2008 Guinness Book of Records, pg 199 :)
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Going Underground
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Post by Going Underground »

hwolge wrote:Queenswater? :D
Private joke :lol: Starkey can explain......
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Twice Winter Olympic Biathlon Gold Medalist with The Beer Baron
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Starkey7
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Post by Starkey7 »

I've lost count of the number of times that Kevin has been utterly unable to say "Queensway to Bayswater". He always seems to prefer the suffices to be swapped. It's now become as much a tradition as has meeting in Earls Court McDonald's!
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Post by Soup Dragon »

On the last challenge we did, we arrived at Aldagate at with 26:06 on the clock, ran to Aldgate East and departed with 28:03 on the clock. (Thanks to Starkey for holding the doors open). So just 1 minute 57 seconds for the change. I don't think I could have done it so quickly without having Ric to chase, he was like a rabbit and I was the greyhound chasing behind. I reckon this must be a record time for the Aldgate change?
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Starkey7
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Post by Starkey7 »

What amused me most about that little dash of ours was firstly that there were about seven of us doing it, which must have looked rather odd. The other thing was what happened at the entrance of Aldgate East. Ric was easily first, followed by you (Mr Dragon), and then Jamie and I were about level. Paul, Kevin and Phil were a little way behind. But then you ran down one set of stairs into the station and I ran down the other. And passing through the gates, I'd somehow pulled ahead of you by several seconds ... how did that happen?!
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