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Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 09 Nov 2020, 02:26
by ANDY_JS
{Sorry to go off topic because I know we should be discussing tube routes and nothing else on here}

Has anyone else been a fan of the Tube for ages but only discovered the Tube Challenge recently? I feel like the world's most stupid person because I've been interested in the London underground since the 1980s when I was at primary school and somehow I didn't find out about the Tube Challenge until the start of last year, Jan 2019. I could have been attempting it for 20 years at least. It makes you wonder what else there is you don't know about which you'd be interested in if you did. :D

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 09 Nov 2020, 21:04
by RJSRdg
I was aware of the Tube Challenge for some time and always had an ambition to attempt it, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I realised I wasn't getting any younger and if I was going to try it I'd better get on with it. So I started doing some research, came across the Forum and got into doing the Alternative Challenges. I still haven't got round to having a serious attempt at a FNC...

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 10 Nov 2020, 20:11
by Lunaticonthegrass
I discovered a map of the Underground when I was about 7 or 8, so have been fascinated with the tube ever since then. I found out about the World Record challenge (i.e. the FNC) when I was about 16. Yet it wasn't until I was 27 that I mentioned the World Record idea to my girlfriend, and it turned out that she already knew about it and we decided that we should give the full challenge a go.

For various reasons, it was then another 2 years before we did our first FNC. I thought that would then be it, except maybe a solo run by myself to see if I could get a better time. But my girlfriend then discovered explorerticket.co.uk and this forum, and I became hooked. That was about a year ago.

Due to COVID-19, I've done very little in the way of challenging since joining, and I do slightly feel that I've missed a lot. (Especially since I lived in Chesham for a short period - maybe the perfect place for a challenger to live!) But if I had started years ago there's much else I would have missed out elsewhere in my life. Life's too short to do everything.

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 11 Nov 2020, 09:26
by Steeevooo
Lunaticonthegrass wrote: 10 Nov 2020, 20:11 Especially since I lived in Chesham for a short period - maybe the perfect place for a challenger to live!
You certainly wouldn't be the first tube challenger to have lived in Chesham - Ollie L beat you to that by quite a long time!!

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 12 Nov 2020, 01:25
by ANDY_JS
Question for the experts: if a train is scheduled to arrive and leave at Epping at the same time, does this mean it might be the same train that's involved — [ie. you could just stay on the train and wait for it to leave], or is it more likely to be two different trains? And if it is two different trains, would there be any possibility of transferring in time between them, or would you have to cross a bridge that would make it difficult? Thanks in advance. I don't live in the area so it's difficult to check out at the moment.

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 12 Nov 2020, 07:38
by al
If you're using the working timetable you should be able to work the first bit out yourself, whilst Google maps satellite view will help with the other question ...

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 12 Nov 2020, 12:47
by trains 500
it depends on the arrival platform hinthint

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 13 Nov 2020, 00:47
by RJSRdg
Another hint - when a train terminates, the passengers have to get off, other passengers get on, and the driver has to walk from one end of the train to the other.

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 13 Nov 2020, 09:58
by Steeevooo
RJSRdg wrote: 13 Nov 2020, 00:47 and the driver has to walk from one end of the train to the other.
Not necessarily true if the drivers are stepping back.

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 13 Nov 2020, 20:48
by EastActionWoman
I thought I'd found a great way to do the DLR challenge. From the TfL journey planner it looked like trains arrived and left from Tower Gateway at the same time, so thought I could just get off one train and hop onto the next one. Then I did a recce and realised there was only one platform, so departing train must go out first before arriving train can come in. Back to the drawing board :lol:

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 13 Nov 2020, 22:43
by al
Yup, Tower Gateway always sucks for this reason!

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 04 Jan 2021, 00:43
by ANDY_JS
In order to have any chance whatsoever of doing the Tube Challenge in a fairly good time, it's essential that you're able to run around the stations, platforms, up the stairs, spiral staircases, escalators, etc. I'm just a little concerned at the moment that the current crisis may be used as an excuse to bring in a strict no running policy, as part of the current obsession with making everything "100% safe", even after the Covid-19 crisis is over. I very much hope that doesn't happen because, as I said, it would make it pretty much impossible to do the challenge in a good time. But bureaucrats love using crises like the current one as a reason to bring in permanent changes to restrict things that people were previously able to do without being bothered by anyone. You already see a lot of "Don't Run" notices in a lot of stations, and I was shouted at once very loudly by someone at a station for running for about 5 seconds to catch a train.

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 04 Jan 2021, 09:48
by Steeevooo
I would love to see anybody trying to enforce a "No running" policy in any station. People run late (no pun intended). People run to catch trains and make connections. People generally are in a rush. Hence people will run. Having a "No running" rule is entirely unenforceable.

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 04 Jan 2021, 13:01
by jrparkin
Another issue is bus routes might change - when it is safe for us to do it - meaning my carefully laid out plans might hit the bin before my acclimatisation practice

Re: Thinking out loud

Posted: 04 Jan 2021, 13:39
by Golf
jrparkin wrote: 04 Jan 2021, 13:01 Another issue is bus routes might change - when it is safe for us to do it - meaning my carefully laid out plans might hit the bin before my acclimatisation practice
you make it sound like an ascent to mount everest :lol: No running :lol: when is this government going to stop their obsession with running peoples lives NEVER :lol: