How did you find tubechallenge.com?

[editorsfoot]

I did something quite surreal last night.....

K9 and myself went from Hatton Cross to Fulham Broadway via Earls Court to see Chelsea and back home via the same route!

As a West Ham fan it would be quite surreal for you to see a team play well and win

(waiting for deluge of comments when Gillingham lose to a non league side on Saturday)

[Going Underground]

I did something quite surreal last night.....

K9 and myself went from Hatton Cross to Fulham Broadway via Earls Court to see Chelsea and back home via the same route!

As a West Ham fan it would be quite surreal for you to see a team play well and win

(waiting for deluge of comments when Gillingham lose to a non league side on Saturday)

I will wait until after the weekend before responding then

[TheFatBuoy]

Looking at post that went slightly off topic earlier today I thought it would be interesting to find out how people had found their way onto this forum and the surreal world of tubechallenge.....

One day I was poking about some little known dirty corner of t'internet known as the GU2 Radio website (GU2's the student radio station at Surrey Uni) and on looking through the "former station members" bit, started googling various names, one of which was Geoff's, as he briefly did a show after me on a weekend morning (Satuday or Sunday IIRC, can't remember which, might have been both, but probably not).

Then I found his mad and wacky website, featuring all sorts of stuff from sending bananas in the post, to tube challenging, and mentioning that he was the world tube challenge record holder.

Anyway, I thought "that's nice", had a bit of a look, and carried on doing this that and the other.

Then one day I was searching t'internet for stuff to do with Danny Wallace's TV programme "How to start your own country" as I'd missed one or two of them, and one of the google results was something on Geoff's blog, asking if anyone had taped one of the episodes, and if he could borrow it, so I dropped him a line to see if he'd had any luck, and if I could have a copy, and it was a slippery slope from there to me doing Tube Relief.

And in planning that, which took up a stupidly daft amount of time (to the point that I was thinking about not bothering as I hadn't come up with a decent route), I started to think "surely I could manage to beat that record!".

I haven't yet.

[hannah b]

I found it through Chat on the Tube.
I was googling the Tube for research, and had the happy happenchance of bumping in to you lot.
Almost that very same week I found myself bumbling around the tube at top(ish) speed with pete, jon and chris.
Jon and chris have become special friends. Pete holds a dear place in my heart. Annie has been a gem - a core player in the Chat on the Tube project, and Kev of unlimited helpfulness. And I''ve got a soft spot for antony too.
Sorry, was that an invitation to be nostalgic?
xx

[TheFatBuoy]

I found it through Chat on the Tube.
I was googling the Tube for research, and had the happy happenchance of bumping in to you lot.
Almost that very same week I found myself bumbling around the tube at top(ish) speed with pete, jon and chris.
Jon and chris have become special friends. Pete holds a dear place in my heart. Annie has been a gem - a core player in the Chat on the Tube project, and Kev of unlimited helpfulness. And I''ve got a soft spot for antony too.
Sorry, was that an invitation to be nostalgic?
xx

I've just realised that I never bothered to reply to the email Jon sent with those photos of us bumbling around the tube at high speed, and feel really rude. In fact, I've not replied to (that's different to ignored, btw) quite a few emails / phone calls from friends recently, and I should really change that and be a bit less reclusive. Maybe I'm due a Danny Wallace style "Yes Man" moment.

But here's a nostalgic idea:

How about a semi-en-masse tube challenge type thing, consisting of just the "semi-retired" tube challengers - the ones that have, at some point, been quite into the whole thing, but due to just not having time, not being arsed to, etc etc, haven't done anything in ages. I'm sure you all know who you are.

Date: At some very vague point in the future, possibly not even ever.

[Going Underground]

How about a semi-en-masse tube challenge type thing, consisting of just the "semi-retired" tube challengers - the ones that have, at some point, been quite into the whole thing, but due to just not having time, not being arsed to, etc etc, haven't done anything in ages. I'm sure you all know who you are.

Date: At some very vague point in the future, possibly not even ever.

I have a very nice idea for a challenge pre-xmas and a date of Weds 20th Dec. in mind. I realise however that I don't come under the semi-retired heading and will back away quietly if you just wanted to arrange something yourselves

[TheFatBuoy]

How about a semi-en-masse tube challenge type thing, consisting of just the "semi-retired" tube challengers - the ones that have, at some point, been quite into the whole thing, but due to just not having time, not being arsed to, etc etc, haven't done anything in ages. I'm sure you all know who you are.

Date: At some very vague point in the future, possibly not even ever.

I have a very nice idea for a challenge pre-xmas and a date of Weds 20th Dec. in mind. I realise however that I don't come under the semi-retired heading and will back away quietly if you just wanted to arrange something yourselves

Heh, well I thought of it as an "old boys" (and girls) type thing, but thought it might not be the greatest of ideas, not only for excluding people like yourself, and also that I like to sort of consider myself one of the "old boys" but realistically probably couldn't anyway.

Another idea I liked was the "real man's alphabet challenge", doing the whole lot in alphabetical order, obviously splitting them into manageable chunks that could be done in a day - one day could be "A day", another "B day" etc etc, obviously varying in how many stations correspond to each letter.

Well, there's no way I'd finish this post without at least quickly (ish) typing them all into Excel and working out some quick stats, so here's a quick quiz. No cheating (very easy to find out if need be) - just do it off the top of your head.

1. How many letters of the alphabet are not the starting letter of any tube station, and what are they?
2. What are the 5 most popular and 5 least popular letters used to start tube station names?

(answers below)

s
c
o
l
l

d
o
w
n

f
o
r

t
h
e

a
n
s
w
e
r
s
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

1. 4 - J, X, Y and Z.
2. 5 least used = I (1), Q(2), V(3), D(4), O/U (joint 5th)
5 most used = S(30), W(28), H(25), B(24), C(23)

So my general idea was to keep all similarly-lettered stations together,(so the "S" stations, for example, will inevitably be a bastard of a day), and the others would be grouped together, keeping the alphabetical order, as best possible.

Then there'd be a series of dates throughout the year where people would turn up and do the stations beginning with that day's letter(s), so if someone was to turn up to all dates, they'd have done the whole lot in order.

So, my idea would be:

1: The "A"s - 9 stations - easy one to start with
2: The "B"s - 24 stations
3: The "C"s - 23 stations
4: The "D"s and "E"s - 21 stations
5: The "F"s and "G"s - 16 stations
6: The "H"s - 25 stations
7: The "I"s and "K"s - 12 stations
8: The "L"s and "M"s - 22 stations
9: The "N"s and "O"s - 20 stations
10: The "P"s, "Q"s and "R"s - 27 stations
11: The "S"s - 30 stations
12: The "T"s, "U"s and "V"s - 18 stations
13: The "W"s - 28 stations

So basically just over one a month.

Now this might sound a bit like a slightly insane over-organised challenge fot the sake of a challenge, but I'd see it as more of a social thing - a sort of long-term "project" if you like. Who knows. It could be something where over a year people organise 13 dates to do it, and people turn up for as many or as few as they like. Anyone?

[tubeguru]

I always wanted to do them in strict alphabetical order ...

[Going Underground]

An interesting scenario, but it would only work as a "challenge" if something along the following lines was applied

1) Surely everyone would just be following each other around the same route as this is done in strict alphabetical order. Unless we do it the same as 129 snake challenge earlier in the year where people drew starting positions and after person "1" departed then person "2" had to leave on the next train....etc.....
So basically it would be like a car rally with 13 different stages and the times for each "stage" could be kept and totalled at the end

2) With this taking place over 13 days that is an awful lot of holiday and I doubt very much that many of us could afford that amount of leave for tube challenging.... Apart from possibly Students and School kids...

3) It would probably only be possible on weekends, you could say allocate every 2nd Saturday in the month or something like that
I realise that again this might not be ideal as due to weekend maintenance several stations and whole stretches of line are closed...
Not so much of a problem for individual stations as a "pass through" could always count.......

Well those are my initial thoughts, just bouncing a few ideas around here but in principle it could work

EDIT, by the way what's the 3rd "V" station after Vauxhall, Victoria ?

[TheFatBuoy]

EDIT, by the way what's the 3rd "V" station after Vauxhall, Victoria ?

There isn't. I'm just a daft sausage and got the Q and V the wrong way around.

Re: your other comments - yes, 13 days is quite a bit in terms of time off etc etc., but who said this would be easy? Also, a lot of them could be done at weekends (especially the easier days).

Or, it could be done over 22 days - one day per letter - with, obviously, some days being *far* easier than others. The "I" day would be particularly easy, especially as there's a pub fairly close to Ickenham station, though on balance "V" would probably be easier.

[Going Underground]

Re: your other comments - yes, 13 days is quite a bit in terms of time off etc etc., but who said this would be easy? Also, a lot of them could be done at weekends (especially the easier days).

Or, it could be done over 22 days - one day per letter - with, obviously, some days being *far* easier than others. The "I" day would be particularly easy, especially as there's a pub fairly close to Ickenham station, though on balance "V" would probably be easier.

I reckon doing it in a few days as possible is prefreable, 22 days would probably take us nearly 2 years to complete Also what did you think about the suggestion of starting it like a rally.....? e.g. on day one we all meet up at Acton Town and draw lots, FatBuoy draws 1 and starts at 1100 hrs, Dr Who draws 2 and leaves on the next train out after that and going underground draws 3 and leave on the next train and so on...
We than meet up at a pub somewhere near the last station of the day being Arsenal. Hand in the times and then on day two all meet up at the first "B" station being Baker Street and draw lots and off we go again

EDIT: On reflection you won't have to draw lots again on day two or any other day, as the person with slowest time leaves first and so on through to the person with the quickest time leaving last each time....

I agree that weekends would probably be the best time to do this...

Well I reckon you should start a seperate topic post for this and see what the interest is.......

I think myself and Dr Who would be up for it, assuming we are allowed as we are not quite yet considered as "old boys"

[londongirl]

How about a semi-en-masse tube challenge type thing, consisting of just the "semi-retired" tube challengers - the ones that have, at some point, been quite into the whole thing, but due to just not having time, not being arsed to, etc etc, haven't done anything in ages. I'm sure you all know who you are.

Date: At some very vague point in the future, possibly not even ever.

I have a very nice idea for a challenge pre-xmas and a date of Weds 20th Dec. in mind. I realise however that I don't come under the semi-retired heading and will back away quietly if you just wanted to arrange something yourselves

Ooooh could that be what I think it is Kevin? I may have convinced The Pilot and a few friends for this pre-christmas outing if it is. They seem keen on the idea.

[Going Underground]

Ooooh could that be what I think it is Kevin? I may have convinced The Pilot and a few friends for this pre-christmas outing if it is. They seem keen on the idea.

Well the evening might well be what you think it is

But try and keep the day free as there will be a nice testing challenge that hasn't been tried before.....

[TheFatBuoy]

I think myself and Dr Who would be up for it, assuming we are allowed as we are not quite yet considered as "old boys"

Heh, that was a bit of a bollocks thing to say really. It was just an idea to get some of the more experienced challengers (to whom the novelty of being out there doing it whenever they get a spare day or two had worn off) together for an all stations attempt - something some others might not be all that bothered about since they're doing it enough anyway, but everyone would be welcome. One and all, and all for one. Or something.

[tubeguru]

Oh, you mean someone of my vintage?