TUBE 9 THE UNUSUAL ATTEMPT

[Going Underground]

They have now re-surfaced in North London and Andi thinks they are on for a cracking time, could be a close call and he told me that Steve K should be worried...

Also a couple of quotes, some hobknobs got on and he asked them if they had tea to go with them... And he also wanted you to know that 2 old slappers got on the train at Fairlop and they have no class..... I did remind him he was in Essex

[Going Underground]

Last update from me before I Go home and then off to support...

The bus to Edgware went well so they will now be the dreaded Northen Line....

[Steeevooo]

Just had a text from Andi, they have completed the challenge in a time or 17 hours, 25 minutes and 50 seconds.

[Going Underground]

Well done to Andi & Tangy on a cracking time, had their support team been where they were supposed to and not filling their faces with food this might have run the GWR very close......Sorry guys

[palkanetoijala31]

Well a full write up will occur here when i have had some sleep.No Kevin i dont blame you as i told u we had a gr8 day and we have both beaten the record before so breaking it doesnt matter to us.Karahan must be worried though i think he is going to have to come out and lower the benchmark again.

Nozza did it with me in 17h 31m and we finished in 17h 25m 50s yesterday

we were running down towards the ken o train and i got to just round the top where they let people in and it left it was the most agonising site u could believe 10s more we have had it but eh what the hell.I think if we have made that train we have been very close to GWR and when i mean close i mean close seconds would have decided it.

So i now have the fastest,2nd fastest,3rd fastest,4th fastest and 7th fastest times

[palkanetoijala31]

Well matt as i said to kevin there is no point bashing urself over the head with it. we had a gr8 day tangy has now a 2nd completion and pb and he didnt even complete before July 8th.

Me i must be a living Legend 4 times under Browns confirmed record.

Here is a write up of the day

Well this was particular well prepared attempt down to route planning which was new and unusual accommodation booked and got there quite early for a nice long rest.We stayed in the Saracens head a very quaint pub with 7 rooms for accommmodation (and some cracking barmaids) i recommend it for future attempts and had 5 pints Guinness 1 of cider then settled for some sleep.Please note i have a iron stomach dont even think about drinking the night before for ur own attempts.

On our own watch the departure time from Amersham was 05.29.02 apparently our clock was 12 secs faster than speaking clock we found out later but it was still a bonus.Matt Scrivens started us off then left for work (Many thanks Matt) and waited at Chalfront for the correct train ( Nozza).Up to Chesham and back and on to the Moor Park connection yes and near enough perfect.

Just time to get off and to take a photo and see the train lights arriving in distance did think again arriving in Watford the train would leave again but no it stayed and we had just enough time for another photo before departure.

Now before our challenge i had a bright idea of perfect carriage positions for perfect photo opportunities obviously Amersham,Chalfront and Chesham are not included but Chorleywood is a good place to photo if u have chosen to be in the front carriage at Chesham.

Down to North Harrow and im going to give a slight tip away here the perfect carriage is coach 2 door 1.Northwood is the place to photo but back to the route we arriving at about 20 secs after 06.50 i think the Guinness was still affecting me as my run wasnt the best i have ever done to Rayners Lane.

High Points

Perfect bus connection at Canons Park right at the time we wanted it arrival Canons Park departure Edgware 8m 52s

Managing to force open the doors at Waterloo when they closed right on us

Gr8 two runs from North ealing - West Acton and Chiswick Park - Gunnersbury even though Tangy needs to do Gunnersbury run more often

Nice bus 93 direct to Morden

Gr8 run allthough exhausting Ickenham - West Ruislip made in 5m 20s onto a perfect Epping direct then perfect Hainault loop train.

Believe it or not a bus 299 from the Cockfosters roundabout meant we didnt have to run to Cockfosters from there.

Low points

Seeing the Ken o train pull away 10secs from getting on it.

Rayners Lane,Uxbridge,Preston Road,Upminster and Aldgate all long waits

Bastard of a driver shutting the door on my ankle at Waterloo

slow Upminster train that cost us our plan of finishing at Epping.

[palkanetoijala31]

To inform everybody of our route yes our plan was to finish at Epping at 22.23 16h 55m we did have an option to finish at heathrow t5 obviously as he would have needed to pay for heathrow express if we didnt.I was saving it for late in the day but had a point of no return hence the reference earlier post.it would have been nice if the district actually ran a good service then we could have tried it out but never mind.

[jbom1]

Fascinating - so the intended route included Paddington-Heathrow on Heathrow Express? I'm sort of guessing, but if you miss your connection between Hainault and Woodford that will cost about 20 minutes and go over the 17:12 GWR. I wonder if it was a specific missed connection at Upminster, or just aggregated general lateness that led to the switch back to a T5 finish.

[palkanetoijala31]

of course we had a specific hainault loop to catch for the record and we knew the timing to get there roughly give or take a few minutes here and there so we knew we had to be on a specific Heathrow express train we were going from heathrow t5 to paddington though.

[Going Underground]

of course we had a specific hainault loop to catch for the record and we knew the timing to get there roughly give or take a few minutes here and there so we knew we had to be on a specific Heathrow express train we were going from heathrow t5 to paddington though.

Hey Andi BTW did you contact Issy the PR lady yet?

[Starkey7]

Is it even necessary to use the Heathrow Express, even without a Heathrow finish, in general? Is the old chestnut Hatton Cross to Richmond no longer worth it?

[palkanetoijala31]

Is it even necessary to use the Heathrow Express, even without a Heathrow finish, in general? Is the old chestnut Hatton Cross to Richmond no longer worth it?

Well for us it wasnt just because of the timings but it could have been useful if we arranged our route differently.

[jbom1]

Is it even necessary to use the Heathrow Express, even without a Heathrow finish, in general?

I was initially surprised to see Heathrow Express in a good route. I'm still not sure, but note the following. Apologies if it's obvious.

Without it Paddington station complex (in total) is connected to an odd number of other nodes: Royal Oak, Edgware Rd (Bak), Edgware Road (Circle), Bayswater & Warwick Ave. So if at least one edge between Paddington and each of these is to be traversed (and we don't start or finish our route at Paddington, obviously), some duplication would be required. Adding Heathrow Express obviously gives the Paddington station complex an even connectivity.

It's obvious that both T5 in particular (connected only to T123) and Heathrow overall (connected only to the Piccadilly line route via Hatton Cross) have odd connectivities on the Tube map, which is why the issue of making a second connection (usually to Richmond or perhaps Ealing Broadway) arises in the first place.

So, the Heathrow Express connection joins two potentially troublesome, otherwise oddly connected, nodes together and does so without wasting too much time (perhaps?).

So far as Richmond-Hatton Cross is concerned, the balance is between easily doing Chiswick Park (without a run) if doubling back such as Stamford Brook, Turnham Green, Richmond, Turnham Green, Chiswick Park, Acton Town or a quicker journey to Heathrow, albeit with some potential risks due to uneven spread of train times and a bus journey. It may well depend on the time of day.

I'm not sure if the plausible connections from Richmond to the southern end of the Victoria or Bakerloo lines are realistic options.

[Soup Dragon]

Belated congratulations on another good time Andy. Team Brown really needs to pull their socks up if they are to challenge Mr Finland.

[palkanetoijala31]

Well at least u have me slowed down a bit becasue of Sara but i remind u she is the fastest women on the underground.