First FNC attempt & completion (23/9/25) 18:13:28

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sftfan1909
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First FNC attempt & completion (23/9/25) 18:13:28

Post by sftfan1909 »

Heathrow T4 start 05:04:46
Chesham finish 23:18:14
Time taken 18:13:28
272/272

I've always fancied having a go at the challenge since probably over a decade ago. Despite spending most of the past few years playing with big trains in various different countries, it wasn't until recently that I committed to giving it a go. I figured I'd do a Heathrow start to maximise chances of completion and came up with a theoretical perfect time of 16:18, with some big assumptions about my relatively unproven running abilities, but I would rather shoot for the stars and miss..

Having stayed in Hounslow Travelodge the night before, I was up bright and early for the first train to T4 which was running a few minutes late. The first issue I encountered was some slow running around Northfields which meant I missed the 0610 Olympia train and had to catch the second. Then I discovered there was a signal failure at Acton Town which suspended the District to Ealing Broadway which was the direction I was heading next. Deciding to save that for later, I skipped ahead a few hours on the plan and went to tackle the eastern Central line. I had time for a quick shop visit at Hainault after some issues getting out of the barriers.

I opted to run Snaresbrook to Wood Street and then Overground to Walthamstow which thankfully went exactly to plan, and found myself up at Edgware. I'd decided to run to Canons Park instead of doing the bus as I'd found it to be fairly slow, but just missed a train by not being as quick as expected. Having taken advantage of the toilets I then found myself missing a second train by one second, with a 6 min wait for the next. Once back at Baker Street I also encountered a very busy and delayed sub-surface due to an issue at Farringdon, followed by a few minutes wait at Moorgate. Another shop visit at Mill Hill East and I was very pleased to just make the connection back at Finchley Central.

The connection I was most worried about was High Barnet to Cockfosters. There was no bus so I ran pretty steadily downhill before slowing down for the ascent. I managed platform to platform in 26 minutes which I was pleased with. After covering the bits I'd missed in the morning (since the District had only just been reopened) it was down to Wimbledon where there were some reported issues, but thankfully our train made it through. I opted for tram to Morden Road and run which meant I was leaving Morden 13 minutes after arriving at Wimbledon, at which point I found the branch had now been suspended, which was some excellent timing.

Didn't make the best of connections covering Battersea but no real issues. Got lucky again at West Ham as I decided to switch to C2C out to Upminster for District back, thereby avoiding eastbound delays around Barking that I wasn't aware of until my friend got caught up in them while sourcing me some evening McDonalds. At Harrow & Wealdstone, there was an 8 minute wait for a train back to Kenton, and I made the connection at Northwick Park in 3 minutes. Unfortunately this is where things slowed down and due to the timetable none of the remaining connections were great. The Watford double back missed, costing me another 20 minutes, and I felt waiting at Amersham for 25 minutes was quite inefficient. Some mild panic at Chalfont when no Chesham train was shown however after 14 minutes it arrived taking me to the finish. Following that, it was down to Baker Street and a night spent back and forthing on GWR between Paddington and Reading before first train home in the morning!

So overall despite a couple let downs I was really pleased with how it went and happy to tick another challenge off my list. I clocked that I was around 2 hours down sometime in the early afternoon and was pleased to not slip further behind. I coped very well with keeping up energy throughout the day, although this is far from the longest day I've spent running around random stations catching trains it was definitely the most intensive. I've previously boarded and alighted trains at every tube station, but spending two visits to London scouting out appropriate door positions and walking the connections was definitely worthwhile. I did miss a couple things on my scouting but it didn't cause any problems. I worked out if I'd made up about 10 mins in the afternoon I could've potentially been on the earlier Chesham train and beaten the 17:46 time I was aiming for, although I see now that it has been beaten already !

Hopefully with some improved fitness I will be having another go once we are out of leaf fall season..
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Re: First FNC attempt & completion (23/9/25) 18:13:28

Post by tubeguru »

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sftfan1909
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Re: First FNC attempt & completion (23/9/25) 18:13:28

Post by sftfan1909 »

Yes please, name is Shaun Fareman
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