CiN 2011

[palkanetoijala31]

yes what an interesting day!to say the least and the slowest ever time by myself so im very refreshed no aches or pains .As per stated that first train was late going out which made a miss of the mhe train i couldnt physically run any faster and because we were feeling restless we decided to walk only just making the next mhe out at 06.14am.

our route was simple but with myles on the team runs were out of the question in suggestions for him i tried to limit the runs he would do and if he does a route i suggested an upminster start amersham or chesham finish probs the biggest window for him to finish but i think he needs a support man or 2 with him in order to achieve his goal of 270 completion!.Surfice to say our loop was fine even time for a sausage roll at woodford no more cafe girl with large breasts though!.

Approaching Shepherds Bush the idea of ken o 10m walk or with risky overground was unanimously rejected so we decided on a west ruislip to ickenham walk actually 11m was made not 9m and u did it myles well done u didnt have faith but i told u you would do it!the only problem with that was if i was 1st out of the door i could have caught the u10 for you and you would have no walk but there you go!

Uxbridge pain in the arse one of the met trains that i could have caught at ickenham obviously was diverted into the sidelines we were surprised not to see another train in there so waited about 10m.In the day me and Tangy decided to alternate one of us would run off the other stayed and motivated the other two this especially worked on North Ealing to West Acton run with me even pulling myles along at one point.

Acton town was our major bug bear really bad station this i remember several faulty signals later no information correct and we managed to make hammersmith an inspired decision here said we get bus over to ken o it worked just probs got us a completion there and iain suggested we hit edgware road with a slow walk to marylebone this also inspired was easy connection to train to amersham with pizzas ordered and waiting to collect.

Domino pizza amersham should get a better multimap no where need where it says it is but we managed to get the pizza even though they got order wrong and eat on way to chesham via no 4 bus Myles decided he would quit at this point i cant blame him but he put in a very good effort for ken o and around the parts he did and should get a woo hoo!.

So now a team of 3 we did a west harrow walk with a can of carlsberg shared between the 3 of us and decided to go to the front of train for Preston road for a possible bus alternative now why is it when i do this i get good double backs at this station and end up running back to carriage 2 door 3 down the platform i dont know hocus pocus i suppose!.

so surprise surprise we end up waiting at H&W most trains managed to do this really good 1m doubleback but not our slowest train driver in the world so we ended getting back on his train 11m wait now we did an edgware road to edgware road walk with marylebone db taken out.This worked well as 12s wait for hammersmith train best ever! when we got across we had the dilemma richmond or t4 and seeing how long it took us with signal problems boards wrong and everything else we lost 40m on this bit alone but now out of the way back at earls court we got back to original route plan albeit 40m down.

Wimbledon lucky with tram and managed to pull back to 36m the exact time of last train 37m after our plan we decided to continue until it was physically impossible to make it so morden road to morden was jogged and with some nifty connections made we managed to pull back to 31m down at gloucester road knowing we had an upminster train 4 mins behind our circle train to aldgate i decided to sprint out of the station and made a pb on the aldgate run 1m 19s platform to platform.

Upminster train hadnt even come up on the board and my leg even had a spasm as like ayrton senna did with his pole of moanco once i had gone into a trance a point beyond the body physical limits.

All of us made really easy and arriving in west ham we still hadnt seen the c2c go past due at same time on platform we had a 10s advantage on the c2c snap decision said go for it we did and it paid off we got a 24s in and out of upminster too so gap was down to 28m at west ham.

Linking the south east corner up nicely but despite having wrong door position at Baker Street we stayed more or less 30m around what we expected up to stanmore and a stupid driver of a jubilee train who really shouldnt be driving made us wait at stanmore.(mental note there are using new platform now here)

Canons Park 7m wait for bus i had told Iain earlier in the day of bus blackjack hopping one stop at a time we worked a 3 way person version of this 1 ran to next bus stop waited for the other two then again same thing we actually caught this 7m bus at only 1 stop to edgware with a nice driver who waited for iain i think we even could have made still running as we waited 5m at edgware to depart.

So an inspired decision by myles of all people early in day to take out Mornington Crescent actually saved us a 4 min interchange at Euston in the equation and got us back to 27m down this must be the 1st time in any full network i have done a high barnet branch going down charing cross and a edgware going down bank branch and not had to switch even once.

Moorgate a heavy run by myself was made on to an h&c with me shouting at the other two it was coming in we all made and despite i suppose lack of pace a brisk walk was made to Warren Street station we had only change at Leicester Square to finish we worked out we had 14m spare so even made the penultimate train up to cockfosters for a finishing time 19h 24m 15s Iain can now actually join the completion club!

And getting back to Whetstone hotel the 24h bar was a welcome beer for me after hours of brain scratching and shouting at myles sorry!

[Iain]

Hi all!

Had a fabulous day out yesterday with Tangy, Andi and Myles, thanks to the first two for sticking around when things were going badly and allowing me to get my first completion!

I'm going to have to get into twitter, I did text Myles with updates but once it reached the critical last couple of hours I thought the poor guy needed some sleep as he had an early start at work. Plus I had various non TC friends to keep up to date.

Yeah, train left High Barnet two minutes late which made for a bad start, and we needed some serious good luck to get the train later than the one planned out of MHE. I think next time I'd just wait for the next train up to MHE, I'm not sure even with a super fast run if doing it on foot could have caught us back up with the target train (at least with my running speed). This was a theme of the day - my fitness is serious lacking, although I think even at my fittest I'd have struggled to keep up with Andi and Tangy, but would have been closer.

I think we'd caught up the time by the NE bit of the Central, had a great Hainalt loop but as Tangy's already mentioned, we wasted a lot of time going down and back to Heathrow. I think that probably accounted for the bulk of the time we fell behind (we had 36 minutes to spare for the last train to CF on our original schedule, but were about 38 minutes behind this - so would miss it. We then spent the last five hours oscillating between mid 20s to mid 30s minute over the original schedule). The train info was *seriously* bad, and the buses weren't great either. I'm wondering now (we couldn't have known at the time) if it might have been better just to do a mahoosive double back on the Pic - although it had been all over the shop all day so that might have fallen apart as well. Anyway, we didn't have hindsight.

We planned so much on the fly - our picks of route to do the stuff in and out of Earl's Court worked well with waits short, so KO worked well, and then we headed East to Upminster. We took a gamble half way up and switched to a c2c. We initially said no as we thoguht we could miss the c2c but Andi went for it and we followed. It worked like a dream and we got about five minutes back - I guess that's what world records are about (not that we were anywhere near a WR but I mean that you need to take risks and this one worked a treat). Then down to do some Northern line outliers. I was interested to see how Andi did this as when planning my own possible route this bit seemed messy. I liked Andi's way of doing it although there was no magic - we did have to drop down to (nearly) Stockwell twice. We got held at Kennington in both directions and I wonder if I'd try to avoid that if poss.

The switch from northern Jubilee to northern erm...Northern should hopefully be nice with three potential bus routes, but two of them seemed to have stopped by the time we got to them, so we had a seven minute wait *if* the indicator board was accurate. We decided to run it, which really wasn't ideal for mee with my lack of fitness and we nearly missed the bus when it came, but Tangy and Andi did some great work persuading the bus driver to wait 30 seconds while I caught up. Even so, coming back into town we had about an hour to do a quick trip down to Moorgate, back to GPS and then run to Warren Street to head down to Leicester Square for our last train. I sensed now that we should make it but we still only had about ten minutes slack, so any small thing could have spoilt the completion. We were coming in on a Bank train which would have meant doubling back for Mornington Crescent, or switching branches with a nasty interchange at Euston which is apparently a nasty change. Fortunately Myles had had a stroke of genius early in the day and spotted a chance to collect MC on our way down from High Barnet without losing any time later. This may well have saved us ten minutes. We just sat on the same line which went round to Moorgate, caught a circle train with two minutes wait which was when I really thought we had it, although it could have still gone wrong if some drunk pulled the comms cord. And who was on the train? A load of drunk people! No trouble in the end, and the remaining two changes went well.

Came onto the Leicester Square platform for our last change, time to spare and...a blank indicator board. The Pic had been dodgy all day and for a second I wondered if they might have got trains in the wrong place or something. No problems - a couple of minutes later the next train popped up, we got on it and were on our way to CF to finish. Just a shame unlike the last station on our route, I didn't manage to finish with a lager

This morning my quads ache like mad. I know I need to get a lot fitter to go for a serious time. That's going to take time - I have route ideas from before yesterday, loads of new information and practical tips to use to better that, and I think I could put together a decent route in a few weeks with some hard scouting, but the main factor is my fitness. With that in mind I think I'm going to hold off until at least next spring. I'd be happy to help out on support (can't guarantee I'll be free but it would be fun to give back so I'd very much try to fit it in with other commitments). I also think I'd like to see the stations and surrounding areas more - I've now been everywhere but seen very little! I might well spend a day on each line, scouting and seeing the stations and town more.

[The Raven]

Well what a fantastic day (weather wise) to do a challenge! Even late at night perfect and mild!

As already said, I decided to change teams at High Barnet station and went around with Kev and Nozza. After the disaster at Finchley Central we decided to do the smart thing and wait for the next MHE. Now 20 mins down with 5 stations done! While waiting for the train to double back at MHE we hear the doors beep and a second later, a white flash races onto the platform (Andi). We assume he's missed the train, but no! Andi enters the carriage, but so do the rest of the team how??? I'm amazed!

The two teams then split up going down the Northern line. We get out at Old Street and change onto the First Capital Connect to H&I. The platform for Capital Connect are completely silent, feels like we've teleported to Aldwych, or something. At Walthamstow Central had the first on many great bus connections. Apart from the U1 all buses turned up when we needed them. Up Epping and around the loop admiring the mist fields of Essex. We made sure not to miss the train from Marylebone to Amersham. However, on the train we discovered that we would have 2 mins spare to get the bus to Chesham. We ran out of Amersham to the bus stop, arrived at the bus stop and the bus came around the corner immediately. Yes, a completion may still be on! We then worked down the Met to North Harrow and then running to Rayners Lane. Halfway to Rayners Lane I take a glance back, "BUS!" I shout to the others! Another good bus which also save the legs for future runs!

At Rayners Lane we ran into the delays on the Picc, though eastbound was not an issue, when we arrived at North Ealing we were greeted with a 24 min wait until the next westbound to double-back to Park Royal. So, we completely on the fly we get the bus to Hanger Lane, which arrived after 1min, another good bus! The West Ruislip to Ickenham run also pays of with Met turning up almost as soon as we arrive. Another sexy 1min at Uxbridge and we where still about 20mins down.

We then headed down the Bakerloo and up the Jubilee with the best Canons Park possible. On the stairs out of the station Nozza says "I think I hear a bus". Then, at the moment a bus drives past us and stops at the bus stop to Edgware, another good change. At Hampstead we met up with RobbieM who very nicely stays with us until Tower Hill. It always nice to met forum members in the flesh. We continue on slow to Upminster completing the last section of underground I haven't travelled on. It's at this point that we start to play games like 'which station will everyone get off at?' and 'who I think is the most attractive women on the train'!

A quick c2c to West Ham and the evening rush hour begins! We fly through Waterloo shouting "tubechallenge attempt" at everyone, which is greeted with some strange looks. Another run through a busy Bank station onto the Central line to Ealing Broadway. Out into fresh air and a chilled bottle of water, just what everyone needs! At Hatton Cross we are met with a fellow passenger asking Nozza how to get to Terminal 7? Oh dear! At Heathrow we get bad connections at both T1,2,3 and T5 that put us at over an hour of schedule. I assume this anarchy is due to the early problems on the Pic.

At Earls Court, because we are so far behind, Nozza retired so he could get back at a sensible hour. So from then on we are down to two on the way Wimbledon. As the District pulls in the station we see the train AND the tram leave and then we are outside we see the direct bus to Morden leave as well! Dam! So we got the bus to South Wimbledon and double-backed from Morden. Travelling up the Northern line, like a rocket, we wonder whether we can get to Cockfosters in order to get the bus to High Barnet in time. It all comes down to what we can get out of Victoria. We get to the Eastbound Circle/District platform and just miss the train so change over to the Westbound to Gloucester Road therefore missing the planned double-back from Westminster. So the we get out of Gloucester Road at just after midnight getting to Cockfosters missing the two stations.

A big thanks to Kev and Nozza I think my knowledge of the tube doubled that day. Roll on attempt 2!

[The Raven]

Also, appears we where not the only ones doing the tubechallenge for children in need!

http://www.youtube.com/user/TubeChallenge2011CIN

[Nigel]

Also, appears we where not the only ones doing the tubechallenge for children in need!

http://www.youtube.com/user/TubeChallenge2011CIN

Looks like they were doing it over two days last weekend, with replacement buses for the engineering works bits. Interesting.

[Iain]

The Next Train DMI's on that stretch of the Piccadilly are notoriously bad. At South Ken they're often wrong by being continually one train out of sequence. At Ealing Common (my home station) it often says 'Rayner Lane' as a District pulls in, and once in that case some woman wouldn't believe me when I told here that she was about to end up in Ealing Broadway instead .. ah well, hope she enjoyed the shops there.

So after a couple of incidents of ending up in South Ealing myself, I instinctively just look at what the train says now, and never rely on the boards anymore - it is a rather poor situation, yes!

Well done to all those taking part yesterday. Did you have to buy/pay tickets for the bus from Amersham to Chesham? or did you Travelcards/Oysters cover it?

Yeah that's pretty much how it seemed to be. Very frustrating though, can't believe in these days of modern communications that they couldn't do better. One of the announcers at least seemed to realise how crap it was and said "look at the front of the train".

My brain is still a bit frazzled - I think I paid for the bus but then maybe I didn't even ask about the travelcard. The orginally planned Carousel bus definitely said they didn't take travelcards but we ended up getting a different one I think. Besides, we had pizza to eat!

Following the paving slab quiz we came up with the idea yesterday of a seat cover quiz - which carriage and what seating position. I can post the pic if anyone's interested? Wish I hadn't taken it now as my phone battery ran out just as I wanted to take the money shot of the Cockfosters sign!

[The Raven]

Well done to all those taking part yesterday. Did you have to buy/pay tickets for the bus from Amersham to Chesham? or did you Travelcards/Oysters cover it?

The bus Amersham to Chesham we took was outside the Travelcards/Oysters zones and was £2.20 for an off-peak single. Doing the hill up to Chesham station feels a lot steeper when you have to do it in anger!

[Going Underground]

Hello all just sat down at the computer recently after a hectic 2 days, having been down to Yeovil and back on Saturday...

It was an amazing day and my biggest fear was only having 2 mins at MHE, the 0520 and 0530 departed High Barnet on time and we were just over 2 mins late out.. Despite earlier posts the MHE train did NOT leave early it was bang on the dot we had no chance of making it being half was across the bridge when the door closed....

Glen joined us to even the teams out and we quickly calculated that we could stay 20 mins down picking up the next "loop" service but would lose another 10 mins at Marylebone putting us half an hour behind.....
We decided that as most of our runs were later in the day we would re-route and get some of these done earlier which may have cost us a completion due slight Picc lins issues, as apart from Nozza's ankle we were remarkably fresh and still moving quickly some 17 - 18 hours on...

I had all my calculations ticking over for the last 4-5 hours as to where we had to bail out to get the last possible train to Cockfosters to get the last bus to High Barnet.... If ONLY I had stuck with my original plan of parking near Cockfosters instead of High Barnet in the morning we would have completed, quite possibly on the same train as the other team, if not the one behind.... I did't fancy the walk all the way from Cockfosters High Barnet in view of having to drive down to the West Country on Saturday and as it was with the diversions and speed restrictions and having to go a junction in the wrong direction on the M25 it was 0230hrs before I got home anyway

Anyway Heathrow did for us, it cost us 20 mins and the trains were all over the place and very crowded

I pushed on with Glen desperate to get him his 1st completion and we were really flying at the end, but with 3 mins to wait at Victoria eastbound with Westminster to double back we cut our losses went West to Gloucester Road and just about had time to jog down to Bramley Road for the last bus 307 to High Barnet at 0103 hrs.... So after 268 stations in 19 hours 11 mins 03 seconds we still have the legs to run after the watch had stopped

However I am sure I read it ones of Geoff's post a few weeks ago that if you could have completed but didn't then it counts....

It was nice to meet Iain and I am pleased that his team made all 270 and a big thanks to Robbie for meeting up with us and the encouragement and sponsor money Apologies to Robbie that we were about 2 hours late due to the delay and-re routing

I really enjoyed the day, there was some random route planning and buses and my fitness held up better than any previous attempt...
This may not have been a GWR but we pushed it to the limit and beyond, especially at Hatton Cross where I really shouldn't have sprinted across the A30 as the lights were changing, a trip or stumble and that would have been that

Amazing weather, in fact it was too warm We spent all day in shorts and t-shirts, me and Nozza perspiring and in need of drinks that we had little chance to get on the way around..

I simply can't wait to get out for the next full network attempt

[Iain]

Really feel for you guys, especially Glenn - I know how frustrated I'd have been if I hadn't completed, which it looked like might happen for quite a long period after all the grief at Heathrow

Not sure what happened on the MHE change then, there definitely wasn't two minutes to make the change whatever happened!

[Starkey7]

I miss Tube Challenging.

[The Raven]

Really feel for you guys, especially Glen - I know how frustrated I'd have been if I hadn't completed, which it looked like might happen for quite a long period after all the grief at Heathrow

Don't worry mate! Can't win them all! I'll complete it one day, probably next year. Reminds me of a certain forum member who also missed a few stations one his first attempt that took over 19 hours and then got the record on his seventh attempt

[tubeguru]

I miss Tube Challenging.

So take it up again ...

[Starkey7]

Lack of time at the moment!

[RobbieM]

Hi folks!

Just to say that it was great to meet up with Kev, Glenn & Nozza during the afternoon. (That's almost doubled the number of Forum members I've now met in the flesh!)

We'd planned the meetup to be around 1:45pm at Camden Town, but of course their plans had to change. It gave me a chance to do some geocaching around Camden whilst waiting, then I thought I'd use the remaining time to work my way up the line towards Edgware, station by station (seeing how far I could get before they came through.) Was this a crazy idea? Probably - especially as, when I found myself stuck on a bus in traffic halfway between Belsize Park and Hampstead - the text came to say they'd left Edgware!

Panicked and thought I might not be able to get off the bus in time to make Hampstead. But fortunately I did, and with some 'decisive' running, I was on the platform in time to let two trains go past before the correct one arrived.

It's a shame we only managed 45 minutes together in the end - I had to get to White City by 5pm (I was in the BBC audience that evening - not for CiN, but 'Just a Minute' TV version). So we travelled together for that time - featuring two runs (one at Camden Tn, the other Embankment) So I had to get off at Monument - and simply wonder how they got on for the rest of the day. Now I know!

I know that just two stations were missed out - and they could have been picked up from Embankment! We did have that discussion at the time, but Upminster seemed to be the best bet at the time. Perhaps in retrospect a completion may have still been possible had they been done then, but c'est la vie.

Anyway - a good effort for both teams. Glenn - I hope you get that completion one day soon!

[Sam]

Sorry for straying off topic but since when did Glen gain an extra n?