Suprise First 268 Attempt?

Let us know about your latest FULL NETWORK CHALLENGE efforts
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dudey
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Suprise First 268 Attempt?

Post by dudey »

I have it on very good authority that 3 sneaky folks have been out there today, for what is probably the first attempt to set a time for the new 268 Guiness World Record....

It may not be long until we have ourselves some new record holders!
palkanetoijala31

Post by palkanetoijala31 »

Well i was out doing some research and the whole system was working fine apart from some problems with Circle line. I thought i saw some guys who looked like they were doing a challenge seeing as i wasnt i didnt interefere does this mean we can do the challenge on a saturday now?.

And i hope they let us know because im going to beat them on Jan 7th anyway.
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dudey
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Post by dudey »

there's nothing saying you have to do the challenge during the week, indeed i think the aforementioned mystery men/women have been very cunning in going out on what must be one of the quietest days of the year on the tube. not only that but it's very rare to not have some kind of engineering works making all 268 impossible on a saturday, when of course there is as full a service these days as there is during the week...

i think this new shorter configuration is going to make this record a lot more competitive! you must like the idea of an actual proper target to go for next week, eh Andi?
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jonny
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Post by jonny »

dudey wrote:there's nothing saying you have to do the challenge during the week
You sure? There certainly used to be, it may have been due to stations closing at weekends though, I can't say I remember.
palkanetoijala31

Post by palkanetoijala31 »

Well it will add a bit of challenge to it today i ran from Chiswick park to Gunnersbury in 4 mins 15 secs.Then West acton to North Ealing in 4 mins 10 secs then Ickenham to West ruislip in 6 mins 30 secs.I think i could even shave some seconds off those times my route has me finishing in 17h 22 mins.

So i hope they havent beaten that because thats the best with delays of half an hour either way and bonuses? i can possibly do.
Last edited by palkanetoijala31 on 30 Dec 2007, 11:37, edited 2 times in total.
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dudey
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Post by dudey »

Well I once again have it on good authority that the first 268 challenge has been successfully completed for the first time. I certainly look forward to a report and, most importantly, seeing if there is a time to beat!

As for this Saturday business, I think the reason it's been seen in the rules in the past is because it has been impossible due to line and station closures. Infact, it has been impossible completely at the weekend on the previous 275 configuration because Shoreditch was closed on saturdays (with no replacement bus either!), and Cannon Street closed on sundays. However today was the first weekend day in many years (as the tfl site will confirm) that all 268 stations have been open.
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Soup Dragon
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Post by Soup Dragon »

Well I can reveal that the first 268 has been completed by Jamie, Phillip & myself. I will do a full write-up a little later because right now I need my bed. However I can confirm that we started at Amersham & finished at Heathrow T123 in a time of 17h30m51s. :)

Many thanks to Kevin, Starkey & Ryan (K9) for their support throughout the day. One final note before I sign of just regarding the Guinness rules on doing the challenge on a weekend, they are as follows:
1. All of the stations served by London Underground trains must be visited.

To `visit' a station, the challenger must arrive and/or depart by an underground train in normal public service, but where a service is shared by underground and British Rail trains travelling over the same tracks it is permissible to use the British Rail trains. It is necessary for a through train to stop at the station for the visit to count, although the challenger does not need to get out.

Certain stations are normally only open at certain times of the day, and this must be taken into account in planning. Attempts can only be made during the week as certain stations are shut at weekends. Only if a station is temporarily closed (e.g. for rebuilding, or in an emergency), or if it closes earlier or opens later than normal as a result of rebuilding work, will a non-stop pass through a station be acceptable.
All 268 stations were open today, the only major problem was doing Cannon Street before 19:30, but we managed to find a way around this. :)
One day I shall return!
palkanetoijala31

Post by palkanetoijala31 »

17H 30M 51SEC Well i must say im impressed i guess u used the same route as last time or near enough just knocking off ell i bet it makes the connection for heathrow easier.What time were you around the top of the map ickenham west ruislip area? at least it gives me a time to go for the next monday.

I still think it is beatable though i think ur old record could be beat by an hour in order to hold for some time but congratulations anyway andi
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Going Underground
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Post by Going Underground »

The usual Brown/Starkey team was reduced from 5 :arrow: 3 due to illness and tiredness :shock: :(

A couple of points of confirmation.......

All of the stations were open and indeed visisted without problem, as mentioned Cannon Street was the biggest "pain" but a solution was found for this......

GWR had given wrritten confirmation for the attempt to go ahead on Saturday 29th Dec.....

The service was fine all day, the only real problems encountered were a couple of changes late in the day where 20 mins were lost..... :(

No this was a brand new revised route from any previous GWR attempts, with some very different ways of doing things......


So we could have run into Andi during the day, that would have been a shock to his system....... :D :shock:
K9 and I were in the Ickenham/West Ruislip area for almost an hour 10:40 :arrow: 11:40hrs....

I think this time will prove a decent "benchmark" and will take some beating given the usual weekday service........

Well the team now must send their evidence away and await confirmation, so we should know something by mid June :wink:
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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Soup Dragon
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Post by Soup Dragon »

palkanetoijala31 wrote:17H 30M 51SEC Well i must say im impressed i guess u used the same route as last time or near enough
No the route was quite different in places, this was due to several factors.
1. the earlier closure of Cannon Street (19:30 instead of 21:00)
2. closure of Victoria on the Victoria line.
3. closure of Baker Street to West bound H&C and Circle line
4. Uxbridge to Acton Town, Piccadilly Line only running every 20 minutes.

So this meant that we had to compromise on our optimum route.
Out of our last three connections, two resulted in waits of 12 minutes and 8 minutes, so had we had a little bit better luck at the end we could have managed 17h10m which was the projected time.
One day I shall return!
palkanetoijala31

Post by palkanetoijala31 »

Maybe i should have gone round myself to do the full challenge that day it was exceptionally good service.It wasnt you lot i saw maybe some else that was going the beans out of a station u were probably 2 hours ahead of me at the top of the route.

i think now my aim for next monday is to complete close to that time because i probably have to slow up on the runs for my girlfriend even though there is only possibly 1 run (and no it isnt the Harrow run) that i have included that be tough for her to complete in the time given.Maybe the next time i do it be good for her then she knows to go ahead on the tube at various points while i run between them.

On a personal note i got back late last night and she had saved someone,s life in a car accident a twocker who had the crashed the car he stole so she is a hero.
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Soup Dragon
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Post by Soup Dragon »

We awoke at 4am on Saturday morning and to our surprise the weather was clear and still. In the night it had been wet and windy and we fully expected the morning to be the same. We left Lightwater at 4:20am for the drive to Amersham and I made my first error of the day when I missed the Amersham turn on the M40 and had to go to the High Wycombe junction. We arrived at Amersham at around 5am parked up the car and headed to the station. I purchased the tickets, 2 adults & 1 child, £18.20??? I thought that I must have asked for the wrong travelcard, so I cancelled the order and tried again.... then it dawned on me, it was Saturday so the off-peak fares apply! What a bargain.

The weather was almost sub-tropical at +6 degrees (compared to -6 when we made our last attempt in November). Amesham was virtually deserted with only one other passenger on our train, we set off at 05:28:12 so technically already 12 seconds up on schedule! The first problem that we encountered was at Moor Park, we arrived over 2 minutes behind schedule but the Watford train arrived 6 minutes late so we made the connection OK, however we then lost 10 minutes at Watford because our scheduled train departed just as we approached the station.
The day continued with the usual mixture of highs and lows and without giving too much away these were as follows:

The Low Points
Missing the connection at Watford and being 10 minutes down early in the day.

Waiting for a U1 at West Ruislip, the bus never showed up and according to our support team the previous 3 buses had arrived 1 minute ahead of schedule.

Missing our Piccadilly connection at Uxbridge by a couple of minutes which put us another 10 minutes down on schedule.

Cocking-up the Hainault loop, when by mistake we got on an Epping train first rather than Woodford and we ended up waiting 14 minutes at Woodford for the next loop train.

Having to make a couple of extra runs to knock-off Cannon Street earlier in the day before it closed.

A 12 minute wait for the Circle line and an 8 minute wait for the H&C.

Arrival High Barnet to departure Cockfosters took almost 30 minutes.

The High Points
A very sexy 7 second change, cross-platform at Stockwell (NOR SB to VIC SB). In fact all the cross platforms on the Vickie went very well throughout the day.

Good turnarounds at Harrow & Wealdstone (2:02), Richmond (1:57), Upminster (53s) & Ealing Broadway (2:59), Stanmore (28s), Brixton (11s)

The best ever connection to Mill Hill East with a wait of just 32 seconds at Finchley Central.

A fantastic Wimbledon to Morden connection, which included a very quick departure by Tram from Wimbledon followed by a brisk run to Morden, from Arrival to Departure only took 11m48s! Amazingly the tram stopped at Merton Park for nearly two minutes whilst the driver walked the length of the tram to collect a bag from the cab at the back and hand to a female passenger!

A great connection at Edgware, the 79 bus came within a few minutes and from arrival Edgware to departure Canons Park took only 8m30s.

Heading up to Finchley Central on a Northern Line service to Edgware, we were just getting ready for a change at Camden town (Edgware branch to High Barnet branch). The driver then announced that due to a one-under on the Edgware branch his train was being diverted to terminate at Archway. This saved us a lot of messing around at Camden Town and probably saved us a couple of minutes (good for us but not so good for the one-under)

Heading down from Ken Oly we made a 40 second connection at Earls Court.

Overall I think we had more good luck than bad luck, it was a really enjoyable day and at times if seemed like we had the network to ourselves. The only busy trains were those heading through Central London around 18:00.

One of the highlights of the day was meeting a really nice Asian family who were going for a day out at the Natural History Museum. They showed huge interest in what we were doing and when we mentioned that we had the current GWR they wanted to have their pictures taken with us. What it is to be famous! :D
One day I shall return!
palkanetoijala31

Post by palkanetoijala31 »

A very good report indeed i only hope mine matches that next week but im not too secretive about my route as other members are.The network was very quiet as you say its a good job you were not around the ealing common area 1pm roughly because a twit of a driver on a pic train held up my district train when we could have gone first for 10 mins.

i have heard nothing from guinness yet so i have to phone them tomorrow to get clearance.
sven945
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Post by sven945 »

Congratulations to you lot! You had a few problems, but it seems like you had many fewer than the CiN day!

Next midweek attempt make it a Monday or a Wednesday and I'll definitely be joining you for much of the day.
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ping pon
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Post by ping pon »

I think the worst day to do an attempt on is on a friday as after about 7pm the sytem goes into meltdown
One has lost the game !!!!!
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