1st FNC attempt after Easter

[TeamHelsinki]

My son and I will do our first FNC attempt just after Easter this year, on Tuesday 4 April. I wonder if I might request comments on our planned route if I post it here? From reading past posts, I am aware that there are varying opinions on people posting route info, and specifically regarding "spoon-feeding" of solutions. For the record, I am just looking for validation that I haven't overlooked something blindingly obvious and that I'm not doing something horribly wrong. The route I've worked out should be doable in 18.5 hours as per the WTTs and JP, but you never know...

JMan

[ITFCShirts]

Looking forward to a report update on this attempt! Hope all went well with the attempt!

[michael_churchill]

Looking forward to a report update on this attempt! Hope all went well with the attempt!

Today's the 4th of April - they'll still be at it.

[ITFCShirts]

I’m on holiday mode with many hours time difference and thought they had said Tuesday. Then good luck to them!

[DrainBrain]

My son and I will do our first FNC attempt just after Easter this year, on Tuesday 4 April.
...
JMan

4 April is actually a Wednesday, so It's unclear which day was intended.

[TeamHelsinki]

Firstly, sorry about the confusion in my initial message -- Tuesday 3 April was the day of the attempt.

Success! ...sort of. We have a completion, only not during the same day. We missed out on T4 in the evening, as I feared we might.

Having started at Uxbridge at 05:18:37, we first fell behind around 0700 when a disruption on Cen left us waiting for a W Ruislip train for 15 minutes. We thus missed the Amersham train we aimed for at HOTH, and the next Chesham train from HOTH too. Combined with the post-peak longer turnaround at Watford, we were at +40 min before 1100. I should note that the theoretical maximum delay that would still have allowed us to catch the last T4 train was +35 min.

Then things really picked up, and thanks to some very nicely timed changes, particularly Walthamstow to Leytonstone (GOBLIN+bus), we found ourselves at only +12 min at Woodford. Subsequently we were slowed down by a crawling Pic train from Cockfosters and a just-missed Wimbledon train at Earl's Court, putting us at +28 min just before the evening peak. Amazingly, we incurred no further delay during the peak and were still at +28 min at Upminster. Then another crawling train (Dis) made us just miss a Cir train at Aldgate, another 10 min penalty, and when we arrived at Edgware we were at +37 min -- just close enough to the safety margin to make us think that a couple of lucky changes in Zone 1 might enable us to make the last T4 train after all.

But everything was scuppered by roadworks near Canons Park, which had put all buses on a diversion. To my shame, I had never even thought of looking at status updates for BUSES. As the bus driver attempted to explain to us and others exactly where he was going, a local elderly gentleman loudly began to demand that the driver get on with it, and the resulting altercation was such that we decided to jog to Canons Park instead of trying to figure out where the diversion would take us (it was dark by then, which did not help). That put another 15 min on our delay.

After that, everything went as expected, and we arrived at T5 at 00:35:18 with a strange mix of delight and disappointment. Because time was not of the essence, we decided to sleep late, have breakfast, check out of the hotel and then go visit T4 before checking in for our flight. And so we arrived at T4 at 11:51:34 on the morning of Wednesday 4 April.

269/270 in 19:16:41
FNC completion in 30:32:57
Cost: £34 per person on Oyster PAYG

And here is the route:
Uxbridge :: Acton Town :: West Kensington :: (walk to) Olympia :: Earl's Court :: Notting Hill Gate :: Ealing Broadway :: North Acton :: Northolt (unplanned stop due to Cen disruption) :: West Ruislip :: (walk to) Ruislip :: Harrow-on-the-Hill :: Amersham :: Chalfont & Latimer :: Chesham :: Moor Park :: Watford :: Preston Road :: Northwick Park :: (walk to) Kenton :: Harrow & Wealdstone :: Baker Street :: Moorgate :: (GNR to) Highbury & Islington :: Walthamstow Central :: Walthamstow Queen's Road :: (GOBLIN to) Leytonstone High Road :: (257 bus to) Leytonstone :: Woodford via Hainault :: Epping :: Tottenham Court Road :: Finchley Central :: Mill Hill East :: Finchley Central :: High Barnet :: (307 bus and walk to) Cockfosters :: Earl's Court :: Wimbledon :: (93 bus, then walk because stuck in traffic to) South Wimbledon (unplanned, due to road traffic) :: Morden :: Kennington :: Stockwell :: Brixton :: Victoria :: Sloane Square :: Westminster :: West Ham :: (C2C to) Upminster :: Aldgate East :: (walk to) Aldgate :: Embankment :: Charing Cross :: Elephant & Castle :: Edgware :: (340 bus, then walk to) Canons Park :: Stanmore :: Baker Street :: Oxford Circus :: Queensway :: (walk to) Bayswater :: Edgware Road :: Hammersmith :: Turnham Green (unplanned stop, took LHR train in case Richmond train had just gone, in which case could have overtaken it by TG) :: Richmond :: Turnham Green :: Acton Town (unplanned stop, train decided to go to Northfields) :: LHR5 :: and finally, next morning, LHR4.

JMan

[Going Underground]

Cost: £34 per person on Oyster PAYG

Ouch!!

[Nigel]

Well done! Top times updated.

[DavidC]

Well done - thanks for sharing

[RJSRdg]

Firstly, sorry about the confusion in my initial message -- Tuesday 3 April was the day of the attempt.

Success! ...sort of. We have a completion, only not during the same day. We missed out on T4 in the evening, as I feared we might.

Having started at Uxbridge at 05:18:37, we first fell behind around 0700 when a disruption on Cen left us waiting for a W Ruislip train for 15 minutes. We thus missed the Amersham train we aimed for at HOTH, and the next Chesham train from HOTH too. Combined with the post-peak longer turnaround at Watford, we were at +40 min before 1100. I should note that the theoretical maximum delay that would still have allowed us to catch the last T4 train was +35 min.

Then things really picked up, and thanks to some very nicely timed changes, particularly Walthamstow to Leytonstone (GOBLIN+bus), we found ourselves at only +12 min at Woodford. Subsequently we were slowed down by a crawling Pic train from Cockfosters and a just-missed Wimbledon train at Earl's Court, putting us at +28 min just before the evening peak. Amazingly, we incurred no further delay during the peak and were still at +28 min at Upminster. Then another crawling train (Dis) made us just miss a Cir train at Aldgate, another 10 min penalty, and when we arrived at Edgware we were at +37 min -- just close enough to the safety margin to make us think that a couple of lucky changes in Zone 1 might enable us to make the last T4 train after all.

But everything was scuppered by roadworks near Canons Park, which had put all buses on a diversion. To my shame, I had never even thought of looking at status updates for BUSES. As the bus driver attempted to explain to us and others exactly where he was going, a local elderly gentleman loudly began to demand that the driver get on with it, and the resulting altercation was such that we decided to jog to Canons Park instead of trying to figure out where the diversion would take us (it was dark by then, which did not help). That put another 15 min on our delay.

After that, everything went as expected, and we arrived at T5 at 00:35:18 with a strange mix of delight and disappointment. Because time was not of the essence, we decided to sleep late, have breakfast, check out of the hotel and then go visit T4 before checking in for our flight. And so we arrived at T4 at 11:51:34 on the morning of Wednesday 4 April.

269/270 in 19:16:41
FNC completion in 30:32:57
Cost: £34 per person on Oyster PAYG

And here is the route:
Uxbridge :: Acton Town :: West Kensington :: (walk to) Olympia :: Earl's Court :: Notting Hill Gate :: Ealing Broadway :: North Acton :: Northolt (unplanned stop due to Cen disruption) :: West Ruislip :: (walk to) Ruislip :: Harrow-on-the-Hill :: Amersham :: Chalfont & Latimer :: Chesham :: Moor Park :: Watford :: Preston Road :: Northwick Park :: (walk to) Kenton :: Harrow & Wealdstone :: Baker Street :: Moorgate :: (GNR to) Highbury & Islington :: Walthamstow Central :: Walthamstow Queen's Road :: (GOBLIN to) Leytonstone High Road :: (257 bus to) Leytonstone :: Woodford via Hainault :: Epping :: Tottenham Court Road :: Finchley Central :: Mill Hill East :: Finchley Central :: High Barnet :: (307 bus and walk to) Cockfosters :: Earl's Court :: Wimbledon :: (93 bus, then walk because stuck in traffic to) South Wimbledon (unplanned, due to road traffic) :: Morden :: Kennington :: Stockwell :: Brixton :: Victoria :: Sloane Square :: Westminster :: West Ham :: (C2C to) Upminster :: Aldgate East :: (walk to) Aldgate :: Embankment :: Charing Cross :: Elephant & Castle :: Edgware :: (340 bus, then walk to) Canons Park :: Stanmore :: Baker Street :: Oxford Circus :: Queensway :: (walk to) Bayswater :: Edgware Road :: Hammersmith :: Turnham Green (unplanned stop, took LHR train in case Richmond train had just gone, in which case could have overtaken it by TG) :: Richmond :: Turnham Green :: Acton Town (unplanned stop, train decided to go to Northfields) :: LHR5 :: and finally, next morning, LHR4.

JMan

Well done - I think you've broken Clive's recently-set record for the longest FNC!

[TeamHelsinki]

Well done - I think you've broken Clive's recently-set record for the longest FNC!

Not what we were going for, obviously, but yes -- we are now last in the Top Times table, at 112th!

JMan

[DrainBrain]

Cost: £34 per person on Oyster PAYG

Ouch!!

Using Oyster, shouldn't this be capped at less than that?

[tufnellpark]

Well done - I think you've broken Clive's recently-set record for the longest FNC!

Damn. I'm second in the fastest times and now down to second in the slowest times!

[Nigel]

Cost: £34 per person on Oyster PAYG

Ouch!!

Using Oyster, shouldn't this be capped at less than that?

When maximum fares are incurred for not touching out or exceeding the allowed time before exiting the system, these do not count against daily caps.

[TeamHelsinki]

Cost: £34 per person on Oyster PAYG

Ouch!!

Using Oyster, shouldn't this be capped at less than that?

When maximum fares are incurred for not touching out or exceeding the allowed time before exiting the system, these do not count against daily caps.

What he said. I believe we incurred one "penalty" fare of £17; it could have been even more, but we had time to touch out and back in again at the turnaround at Chesham, Epping and Upminster.

JMan