Post Covid FNC

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jrparkin
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by jrparkin »

Okay. I have decided to do this in October. The basic plan is this. Travel down to London on the 11th of October and stay near Baker Street Station, do as much acclimatization as I can get through in 3 days, then on the Saturday transfer to the Sofitel Heathrow Hotel for final preparations

On the following Monday, get a private car up to Chesham to start my challenge. The idea being if I finish at Heathrow Terminal 5, it's just a simple walk to return to my hotel room

Just waiting now for me to earn enough holiday time so I can book the time off
Former record holder; Repton 3 Oceans high score 36916
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jrparkin
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by jrparkin »

Completed my first day of practice. No major issues until evening rush hour when I was stuck at West Brompton because they cancelled two Overground trains meaning the National Rail Train was utterly bursting at the seams

I made it to Bond Street and called it after about ten hours travelling or so. Will resume tomorrow
Former record holder; Repton 3 Oceans high score 36916
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ANDY_JS
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by ANDY_JS »

jrparkin wrote: 12 Oct 2022, 19:24 Completed my first day of practice. No major issues until evening rush hour when I was stuck at West Brompton because they cancelled two Overground trains meaning the National Rail Train was utterly bursting at the seams

I made it to Bond Street and called it after about ten hours travelling or so. Will resume tomorrow
Good luck with the attempt.
jrparkin
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by jrparkin »

Second day of practice done. Finished at Acton Town since the rest is easy.

The Hainault loop was a bit stop start. Coming off the loop back to Woodford my next train terminated at Loughton!

Decided to use the Overground to get back to the Victoria line since I couldn't find a suitable bus.

At Cockfosters because I needed the toilet, I had to take the third train to leave so that was a bit painful as there were numerous stops for signals in between stations. However I was lucky to miss the holdups on the Circle line because of a train fault at King's Cross St. Pancras

I did have the opportunity to look around Earl's Court for the Kensington (Olympia) platform but to be honest, I'm not hopeful I'll reach Earl's Court in time anyway
Former record holder; Repton 3 Oceans high score 36916
Sheffield Supertram: 3:17:29
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Steeevooo
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by Steeevooo »

jrparkin wrote: 13 Oct 2022, 19:58 Coming off the loop back to Woodford my next train terminated at Loughton!

I did have the opportunity to look around Earl's Court for the Kensington (Olympia) platform
Not unusual to have trains terminating at Loughton - they are regularly scheduled to do so throughout the day. Also, there is no separate Kensington (Olympia) platform at Earl's Court - the Westbound platforms are shared amongst all possible destinations.
jrparkin
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by jrparkin »

Good to know thanks
Former record holder; Repton 3 Oceans high score 36916
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jrparkin
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by jrparkin »

As the final hours slowly countdown to tomorrow morning, I thought I would share my 'Tube Challenge story' as it were

It started when I was in High School. On a British TV Programme called Blue Peter, one of the presenters at the time called Caron Keating did the Challenge one day. I can't remember much about it aside from numerous renditions of 'It's a Long Way To Tipperary' and the fact that the guy back at base who they had to phone for updates was a complete snotbag

Fast forward to 2000 and this clip came back to me one day during an idle surfing session and it was searching for this clip that led to the episode of The Tube with Geoff and his friend

I couldn't stop watching it and then it spread to other videos of other Tube Challenges and it became something I wanted to try myself

Then the world went crazy

Following a brief moment of 'this is never going to happen' on the 21st December last year when I was so fed up I considered giving it up, I was determined that it was going to happen this year and tomorrow morning it will
Former record holder; Repton 3 Oceans high score 36916
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jrparkin
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by jrparkin »

Took advantage of the Sunday running to get a Kensington (Olympia) train from Earl's Court. For some reason I had forgotten about this weekend service, but at least I will be able to say I will have visited every station on a London Underground train, if I don't manage to do it all tomorrow
Former record holder; Repton 3 Oceans high score 36916
Sheffield Supertram: 3:17:29
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jrparkin
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by jrparkin »

30 minutes to go before my car takes me to Chesham. Let's do this!!!
Former record holder; Repton 3 Oceans high score 36916
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cycysputnik
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by cycysputnik »

Good luck
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EastActionWoman
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by EastActionWoman »

And a belated good luck from me. Looking forward to hearing how it went.
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jrparkin
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by jrparkin »

Okay, I'm now back in my hotel room at Heathrow trying to stop the train sensation in my head. Unfortunately I didn't succeed, only 243 out of 272 stations. Final time was 18:06:42

It didn't start off very well. Because of a shortage of signal staff I had to start at Northwood. Got to Rayner's Lane okay but then for some reason my brain stopped working and instead of a Piccadilly train, I took a Metropolitan train. I doubled back okay but then I blundered a second time by leaving a Piccadilly train because I saw 'Cockfosters' on the dot matrix and thought it was the wrong train!

After wasting 20 minutes waiting for another Piccadilly train. I decided to get the next Metropolitan train to Preston Road and jump ahead in the route doing the run up to West Ruislip on the Central Line and the Piccadilly down to Ealing Common later

Everything went well for quite a few hours although I missed a c2c train to Upminster and against better judgment took a District train back instead of waiting for the c2c to West Ham. For the connection to Battersea Power Station, I diverted slightly off the Labryinth route to reduce changes got a lovely timed bus.

Made my way to Notting Hill Gate and got all the Central and Piccadilly stations I missed earlier then went round the Hainault loop. Had a Loughton train again just like in Practice!

And then I had my next panic. At Leytonstone there was a flood at one of the entrances/exits so it was closed. Exactly the same one I needed to use! After a few choice swear words managed to get to Leytonstone High Road just getting the Overground train.

At Walthamstow Central there was a delay because of escalator not working further down the line, cue more swearing! Luckily after a short delay I managed to get on the Victoria line.

Managed to get to Edgware without a Camden Town change, got a timely bus out to Stanmore and we were back on

However I was worried my attempt was going to be time limited. It was just before eight o'clock when I left Stanmore and still had to get up to Cockfosters come back down
Former record holder; Repton 3 Oceans high score 36916
Sheffield Supertram: 3:17:29
London Underground (243 stations): 18:06:49
Vienna U Bahn (FNC): 5:04:47
jrparkin
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by jrparkin »

Do the Hammersmith loop and the Richmond branch and go to Heathrow. When I got to Cockfosters it was 22:23 and I decided to just go straight to Terminal 5. I arrived shortly after midnight

Looking at where it went wrong, I should have stayed on the wrong Metropolitan line train and it would have been quicker to wait for the c2c. Did try to run between stations, but I'm not as fit as I should be so running got canned for the walk between West Ruislip and Ickenham

I was surprised though that I didn't feel exhausted at all despite being up for 21 hours. That is until I was climbing the escalators to get to the lift to take me to the hotel, the exhaustion set in. Adrenaline is a pretty powerful drug after all
Former record holder; Repton 3 Oceans high score 36916
Sheffield Supertram: 3:17:29
London Underground (243 stations): 18:06:49
Vienna U Bahn (FNC): 5:04:47
stepneygreen05
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by stepneygreen05 »

shame you had such a bad yet brilliant attempt
you going to try again sometime?
jrparkin
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Re: Post Covid FNC

Post by jrparkin »

When I can shake off my exhaustion - it really hit me like a brick! - I might consider doing it again, and doing on an events day so I can get Kensington (Olympia). I was planning on doing this originally but I had to do Jury Service in June which wiped out my holiday entitlement so I had to build it up again and fit it in between other commitments

The one issue I will have in doing another attempt is the lack of signal staff that forced me to start at Norwood and not Chesham. I live in North Yorkshire not London so I have to book time off to do it

The reason why I chose the Chesham - Heathrow route was so I could stay in the Terminal 5 Hotel. But this meant I had to hire someone to drive me up to Chesham. Luckily from my point of view, he wasn't available for a few hours so he was able (with an additional charge) to drive me to Norwood. I might not be that lucky again and because I have to travel down my FNC has to be a fixed date, I can't put it off for a couple of days, I have to do it on a planned date
Former record holder; Repton 3 Oceans high score 36916
Sheffield Supertram: 3:17:29
London Underground (243 stations): 18:06:49
Vienna U Bahn (FNC): 5:04:47
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