My First FNC

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Miles
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Joined: 23 Mar 2023, 17:37

My First FNC

Post by Miles »

Attempted 20/2/23, starting location Heathrow T4, ending location Amersham

Woke up around 2am to catch a few busses to get to Heathrow to start. (Because booking hotels is effort and expensive)

Started off not too badly catching the 5:02 train from T4 to T2&3 and the train to T5 being a few mins delayed.
A little late pulling out of T5 and got a little delayed around Acton Town so missing my first connection to the district line at Hammersmith.
Arrived west ken at 6:05 with hopes I could make 6:10 service from Olympia but my fitness wasn't quite as good as I remembered so ending up having to wait for the 6:18 service instead. Also my only pen broke during the run so had to record times on my phone for the whole journey instead :P.
Arrived at Cockfosters at around 7:16 and decided to go back down to oakwood to catch the 307 (my original plan was to get the 384 from cockfosters as it lined up well if I had made my first olympia train). However, there were huge amounts of traffic and ended up waiting around about 15mins for the bus arriving in High Barnet at 7:57.

Then had to wait about 7 mins at Finchley Central for the MHE train and on the way down from MHE there was an incident at mornington crescent causing all trains to go via bank branch causing lots of delays on the northern line. I stopped at each station from archway down to camden town for about 5 mins due to this congestion. Eventually got down and got a nice change at Moorgate to take me to Baker Street where I picked up a jubilee line to Wembley Park (terminated here). As I pulled in a Met train arrived so I decided to double back at Preston Road so I didnt have to do it later. There was about a 6 min wait for the next Stanmore train when I arrived so another toilet stop was used.

From there took the train to Stanmore and back down to Canons Park taking the bus over to Edgware where I went all the way down to Battersea Power Station (changing at kennington as my train terminated there). Then a quick bus ride over to Vauxhall and ride down to Brixton and back to Victoria before doubling back at Sloane Square and waiting 8 mins for a circle line train to aldgate. Quick run to aldgate east and went up to West Ham change to C2C to Barking (didnt go to upminster) and district line to Upminster then back to C2C to barking to take district to west ham (this hopefully made up a little bit of time).

From there down to Waterloo to Elephant & Castle. Double back at Borough down to Morden. Quick run to Morden road to pick up the tram to Wimbledon and up to Edgware Road where my Hammersmith train left when I arrived. From Hammersmith took the train to richmond (toilet stop at Stamford Brook as an Ealing train was first). District line back to turnham green, up to ealing broadway. From there I decided to change at North Acton as if I had gone to Hainault I would have just missed a hainault loop train. Unfortunately, google maps decided to lie to me and the train at North Acton was a Northolt terminator. Got off at hanger lane to go run to Park royal as there was quite a wait for the next West Ruislip train however my ticket got eaten so spent 5 mins having to get a member of staff to fetch my ticket from the machine :D. This meant I just hopped onto the next West Ruislip train and picked up a bus immediately towards Ickenham making that connection in about 6 mins. Then to Uxbridge, West Harrow, Rayners Lane, North Ealing. Quick run to West Acton, central line to Epping back to Woodford, 15 min wait for Hainault train after all :(.
Hainault to Leyton, bus to Walthamstow Central, down to Oxford Circus, up to Harrow & Wealdstone (another 10 min wait at Willesden junction = another toilet stop). Bakerloo from Harrow & Wealdstone was cancelled so had to wait another 4 mins for an Overground service. Quick run for kenton to northwick park, then ticking off watford, chesham and amersham. Arriving at Amersham at 23:56 with a final time of 18hr52m58s.

Was a really fun experience and am hoping to do another attempt in the near future and hopefully get a better time. Very glad I managed to complete my first attempt even after a few struggles. And managed to get home safely after getting stuck for a bit in Harrow with my night bus refusing to turn up. Hoping everyone else's attempts go well. Good luck all!
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al
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Re: My First FNC

Post by al »

Congratulations on your completion, Miles!
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Doesn't any more.
RJSRdg
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Re: My First FNC

Post by RJSRdg »

Well done on the completion.

My route also has a 13 minute wait at Woodford, but I discovered on my practice run last September that there is a good cafe/sandwich shop just outside the station :-)
272 stations in 18:30:32
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Golf
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Re: My First FNC

Post by Golf »

RJSRdg wrote: 27 Mar 2023, 17:42 Well done on the completion.

My route also has a 13 minute wait at Woodford, but I discovered on my practice run last September that there is a good cafe/sandwich shop just outside the station :-)
there is one on the platform still i hope used to be manned by a woman with huge charisma!
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EastActionWoman
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Re: My First FNC

Post by EastActionWoman »

Great write up Miles and well done on the completion!
Not a plus one :wink:
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Miles
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Re: My First FNC

Post by Miles »

RJSRdg wrote: 27 Mar 2023, 17:42 Well done on the completion.

My route also has a 13 minute wait at Woodford, but I discovered on my practice run last September that there is a good cafe/sandwich shop just outside the station :-)
Didn't end up looking around as it was so late in the challenge and it was so dark. Next time I may consider doing the central line a bit earlier and maybe consider going there if I have another long wait
RJSRdg
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Re: My First FNC

Post by RJSRdg »

Golf wrote: 27 Mar 2023, 18:06
RJSRdg wrote: 27 Mar 2023, 17:42 Well done on the completion.

My route also has a 13 minute wait at Woodford, but I discovered on my practice run last September that there is a good cafe/sandwich shop just outside the station :-)
there is one on the platform still i hope used to be manned by a woman with huge charisma!
That one was shut the day I did the practice run. As I was there at 5pm, it may well have closed for the day (the cafe outside was also beginning to wind down). Or possibly, as it was the day after the Queen died, it may have been closed as a mark of respect.
272 stations in 18:30:32
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