The next story?

Can you identify a station from just a paving slab? Sadly, some people can
GuyBarry
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Re: The next story?

Post by GuyBarry »

The Orange One wrote:I was going by this Wikipedia page for my list and deleting the LO-only stations.
I've cross-checked the two lists and discovered that I'd omitted three more stations (New Malden, Twickenham, Wandsworth Common). I propose that this list of 283 stations should be regarded as the definitive one. It omits Dartford and Swanley (although you've included them both anyway), and it doesn't include any TfL Rail stations that aren't also served by AGA. Of the seven that are served by AGA, we've already included four (I think), so as long as we get can Brentwood, Liverpool Street and Shenfield in there we don't need to merge in the TfL Rail story as I previously suggested.
I'm hoping we can link the Tony/Dudley storyline together with the main tale, perhaps by way of our policeman. We'll have to bring back Don, obviously, perhaps under the temporary alias of Gordon Hill, Ed Enpark, Lewis Ham or Sid Cup.
Do you mind if I earmark Gordon Hill for something else? I've got a couple of new storylines up my sleeve...
He does like his false names (and I'm not the only one to concoct a false name for him that he quickly throws away, Ray Nerslane).
Interestingly enough, we've never established Don's actual surname. (Tony and Alex have yet to be named as well.)
Mind you, we've had Wes Tharrow (now legally Tacton-Chalfont of course)
He told DI Street that Tharrow was his real name though. I've never been quite sure.
and Hamilton (Sal Green, who was male in one of the very first posts but managed to switch gender by the end, which I'm sorry about) as well, so as these things go...
Ah yes - that was the radio item about the Canon camera, right? I suppose we could change "he" to "she" in that bit if you like - it doesn't make any difference. We need more female characters - I've been thinking about a couple of possibilities recently. (We could also do with fewer characters named Ken, but I don't think there's any way round that :) )
Perhaps we should introduce the concept of a throw terminal?
Well, I suppose it could be the point from which something is thrown - maybe in some sort of athletics competition?

The one that's giving me nightmares at the moment is West Hampstead Thameslink...
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Re: The next story?

Post by GuyBarry »

Assuming everyone's happy with the full list of 283 stations, here's my list of the stations that haven't been used so far:

List of unused stations

I'll try to keep it up to date at least daily. When we get nearer the end I'll post the list to the forum and edit it there. (It looks as though Penge East has been used twice, but we can sort that out in the edit.)

One that I'm uncertain about is "Harringay". In the original rules for the "Story from the Tube", RobbieM stipulated:
A single word, such as ‘BANK’ should not be used on its own, but should be split across two words (e.g. “Let’s BAN Kerry from this place”). Or perhaps contained within a longer word (e.g. “He decided to file for BANKruptcy").
I think we've always stuck to this principle so far. I'm not too bothered about it myself, but should we be aiming for consistency?
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Re: The next story?

Post by The Orange One »

GuyBarry wrote:
The Orange One wrote:[I'll cut back to the original storyline. Oh, and I'm future-proofing this section for some possible new additions to the London Tube and Rail Services map, according to some reports from Kent County Council. It's your job to find all seven of them.]
I think I've got them all: Otford, Bat and Ball, Eynsford, Shoreham, Swanley, Sevenoaks, and Dunton Green. (I also found "Ascot", but that's not in Kent... it took me a little while to work out the relevance of Nova Scotia!)

What did you mean by "greenscreen man", by the way?
Whoops! Sorry, I was very tired when I wrote this and I was having trouble looking for a job that started with Green. I'll change it to a Greenpeace employee, which now you mention it has some interesting connotations. Nova Scotia was just the first place I thought of with the initials NS.

Also, I didn't mean to include Dartford, I just looked down for something on the Wikipedia list that could be split into two vehicles and it jumped out at me. How about a fire engine (Fire Dept)?
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GuyBarry
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Re: The next story?

Post by GuyBarry »

The Orange One wrote:
GuyBarry wrote: What did you mean by "greenscreen man", by the way?
Whoops! Sorry, I was very tired when I wrote this and I was having trouble looking for a job that started with Green.
Did you know they have green doctors in Canada?
I'll change it to a Greenpeace employee, which now you mention it has some interesting connotations. Nova Scotia was just the first place I thought of with the initials NS.
Nova Scotia's brilliant - it just threw me off the scent a bit!
Also, I didn't mean to include Dartford, I just looked down for something on the Wikipedia list that could be split into two vehicles and it jumped out at me. How about a fire engine (Fire Dept)?
Keep it as Dartford. I'm sure it'll be incorporated into the London fare structure one day.
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Re: The next story?

Post by The Orange One »

Looking back over A Story from the Tube, Don's a family man! We should probably find another way to insert Harringay though.

The Enhams amuse me. Think we should leave Alex's surname for a while; it's a bit of flexibility we can use later, much like the surnames of Ava and Dudley. Also, I'm starting to wonder whether we were a little shortsighted to marry Ava off so fast.

There are 2550 railway stations in the UK. Maybe we convert to TV and this can be the next Game of Thrones... with main character Llanfairpwllgwyngyll Gogerychwyrndrobwll Llantysiliogogogoch? This is another pseudonym for Don of course.
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GuyBarry
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Re: The next story?

Post by GuyBarry »

The Orange One wrote:Think we should leave Alex's surname for a while; it's a bit of flexibility we can use later, much like the surnames of Ava and Dudley.
Oh, indeed - it's a very handy way of getting out of a hole! Maybe Don's surname should remain a mystery for ever though.
Also, I'm starting to wonder whether we were a little shortsighted to marry Ava off so fast.
Oh, I don't think so at all. I've already started to imagine scenes from Ava's younger life. Don't want to give away too much yet but perhaps she was in student comedy before she decided to give it all up to become a housekeeper...
There are 2550 railway stations in the UK.
It could go on for a very long time! I wouldn't mind getting more people involved in this. Maybe some of the rail enthusiast sites might be interested?
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Re: The next story?

Post by GuyBarry »

GuyBarry wrote: Oh, I don't think so at all. I've already started to imagine scenes from Ava's younger life. Don't want to give away too much yet but perhaps she was in student comedy before she decided to give it all up to become a housekeeper...
I've written a scene now, set in America, where Ava reminisces about her life as a student. Not sure how we'll fit it in but here are the stations: Waltham Cross, South Greenford, Greenwich, Sudbury Hill Harrow, Gordon Hill, Sudbury and Harrow Road, St Margarets, Harrow-on-the-Hill, London Bridge, Hackbridge, and Harrow and Wealdstone.
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Re: The next story?

Post by RobbieM »

RobbieM touching in for the first time in around a month! Great to see how things have been developing over the last few weeks.

My travels have taken me on a UK wide tour - involving England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. (You mentioned Llanfairpwllgwngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch above - I passed through there just last week.)

A story from all national rail stations? I like the idea of that. And yes, I think we may need to get other rail enthusiasts to join us on this - it's quite a task. I'm gradually travelling through them all in the course of my life, but as for inlcuding them in a story, that's a little more involved.
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Re: The next story?

Post by GuyBarry »

RobbieM wrote:RobbieM touching in for the first time in around a month! Great to see how things have been developing over the last few weeks.
Great to see you back! Things have gone a bit quiet over the last week so I was hoping you'd be able to make a few contributions. I think the current story could be our best yet - it's been tremendous fun to write so far.

The plot is getting a little convoluted now, so I'll attempt to summarize. Richard (the Boy Scout leader from "Hidden Underground") has now got a new housemaid, Alex, who turns out to be an old friend of John Collier's from Chorley. He manages to spill a large consignment of honey all over the road, causing traffic chaos. Tony and Dudley get their van stuck in the honey while they're on their way to an urgent meeting with their boss, Ken Ewing. They make their way over by train and are given a severe reprimand for delivering Mr West's vacuum cleaner to the Enhams, while apparently under the influence of alcohol. (It turns out that Mr West has threatened to sue the company for the shock to his system after seeing Syd Enham doing something unspeakable with it.) To try to make amends, Dudley offers to take Ken to a football match, and is offered some work in a cafe.

Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Worth Roaden (also featured in "Over the Top") is called in to investigate the honey spillage. He takes some details and helps Richard to clear things up. Richard invites him to dinner, but DS Roaden has to go and speak to the Enhams first to investigate the possible theft of Mr West's vacuum cleaner. The Enhams turn out to be a mad dysfunctional family with a domineering mother, Beck, and a wayward uncontrollable daughter, Hillary, as well as the rather meek father Tom and his rat-eating son Syd. DS Roaden tries to get some details but it's all too much for him. As a result, Tom realizes that the vacuum cleaner was not in fact intended for them, and arranges for the delivery company to come and pick it up. They're rather incompetent and can't do so for a month.

Over to you!
My travels have taken me on a UK wide tour - involving England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. (You mentioned Llanfairpwllgwngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch above - I passed through there just last week.)
I think it'll be a little while before we get round to working that one in :)
A story from all national rail stations? I like the idea of that. And yes, I think we may need to get other rail enthusiasts to join us on this - it's quite a task. I'm gradually travelling through them all in the course of my life, but as for inlcuding them in a story, that's a little more involved.
If we made this into a serious project, I think the medium of a forum might be a bit limiting. It might be better to set up a wiki where we had one page for the story itself, one for the stations remaining, one for the plot summary, one for profiles of all the characters, one for synopses of previous stories, one for discussion about how to develop the plot and so on. That would only be worth it if we had a substantial number of people contributing though (which we don't at the moment).

Anyway, keep up the good work! I bet you never thought it would get this far when you started the original "Story from the Tube" back in 2012...
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Re: The next story?

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As The Orange One has now returned, here's a recapitulation of the plot, for him and everyone else who's contributing.

There's a brief interlude set in America where Ava tells Walt about her student days as a comedy performer. Then DS Worth Roaden arrives at Richard's house for his dinner appointment. They get into conversation and Alex reminisces about holidays in Cornwall with John Collier. They discuss Cornwall more generally.

Dudley returns from the football match, having failed to persuade Ken Ewing to let him and Tony off the hook. To keep their jobs, they have to go back to Leyburn Avenue and take the Dyson vacuum cleaner from the Enhams back to Mr West, but neither of them can face it. Tony accosts Bob, a hard-up colleague, and offers to pay him off if he'll do the job for them. Bob accepts.

Tony mentions another job that Bob might be able to do for him, but Bob is sceptical. He sees Don, who has just joined the company under the alias "Rick Mansworth", and suggests that he might take it on.

Bob phones the Enhams and is surprised to hear from Hillary, who Dudley and Tony have never met. She waffles on inanely but Bob eventually persuades her to put the vacuum cleaner in the box and leave it for him. Unknown to him, she seizes on the inferior Orwood model, left by Mr West, and puts that in the box instead.

Bob races off but is involved in a road accident. He doesn't have time to sort things out with the other driver and presses on to the Enhams' house, where he picks up the vacuum cleaner from Hillary, not realizing it's the wrong one. Mr West is away and Bob delivers the cleaner to a Mr Wood, who is minding the house for him.

Meanwhile, Richard and Worth are discussing politics when Alex comes in and serves the dinner. Richard and Alex have an animated discussion about tomorrow's meal, then Worth suggests they all go out for a drink. Richard recommends a country pub, 'Ye Olde Whyte Leafe'. On the way they stop to buy some potatoes and Worth starts flirting with Alex in exactly the same way that Walt did with Ava. Richard is terrified of losing another housekeeper and tries to persuade Alex to stay.

Bob comes back from Leyburn Avenue and tells Tony what has happened. Tony is rather worried and phones the Enhams, speaking to Hillary for the first time. He immediately realizes that Bob has picked up the wrong vacuum cleaner and tells Dudley they've got to get to Leyburn Avenue as soon as possible. Bob asks for his money, but Tony refuses.

The plot now needs to be wrapped up in 74 stations! Good luck everyone...
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Re: The next story?

Post by GuyBarry »

RobbieM wrote: “No – Hamworth was the bloke to whom we delivered a chiSEL. HURST was the candle man. ”
That's the sneakiest one I've ever seen. Everyone will think it's "Chislehurst", but it isn't. Well done!
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Re: The next story?

Post by RobbieM »

GuyBarry wrote:
RobbieM wrote: “No – Hamworth was the bloke to whom we delivered a chiSEL. HURST was the candle man. ”
That's the sneakiest one I've ever seen. Everyone will think it's "Chislehurst", but it isn't. Well done!
'Tis a pleasure!
GuyBarry
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Re: The next story?

Post by GuyBarry »

The seven remaining stations are:

Belvedere
Chislehurst
Cricklewood
Crystal Palace
Mill Hill Broadway
Sutton
Sutton Common

If possible I'd like to put "Crystal Palace" in the very last line of the story.
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Re: The next story?

Post by GuyBarry »

I've now collated the entire story. I'll check to see that all the stations have been included and remove any duplicates, then I've got a few edits I'd like to make so that the plot runs a bit more smoothly. I'll put the list of edits in a separate document so that the authors can check over them. When there are no objections to the edited version I'll create the final "puzzle" version where all the stations are hidden, as with the other two stories.

Another thing I'd like to do if I've got time is to create a list of characters from all the three (or should that be four?) stories, with brief biographies. There are now so many different characters who've popped up in several different places that it's hard to keep track sometimes. (I note that Constable Chalfont, who interrogated Wes in "Hidden Underground", was a woman in "Over the Top" who got married to Wes, but in the latest story is a man who joined a monastery... and don't get me going on whether Parson S. Green is a man or a woman!)

After a suitable break I think it might be fun to tackle the DLR and/or Tramlink, but there's no rush. I note that some of the material that we edited out of the original "Story from the Tube" included a number of DLR stations introduced by Soup Dragon, who has now rejoined us, so perhaps Soup Dragon might like to be involved in the next one.

Finally, and most importantly, we need a title for the latest story! Thinking caps on please...
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Re: The next story?

Post by RobbieM »

GuyBarry wrote:Finally, and most importantly, we need a title for the latest story! Thinking caps on please...
Coming up - I'll start it, and as I'll probably not be accessing the forum for a few days, I'll see if you can finish it without me... :D
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