Random 15 Championship 2022/23: Round 2

[RJSRdg]

Regrettably, after much consideration, I won't be taking part tomorrow. The impact of the strike at Thames Valley Signalling Centre is such that there will be no trains arriving back in Reading after 6:30pm save a half hourly Elizabeth Line service which I expect will be rammed.

So I'll be heading up to Wallingford by bus to help set up for Polar Express instead

[tangy]

The results of round 2 of the 2022/23 Random 15 Championship held on Saturday 19th November 2022.

This was a normal round with 15 LU stations in Zone 1 and 2 only.

Therefore, the stations that needed to be visited were:
--Euston Square (meet up/start)
--Mornington Crescent
--Kilburn
--Battersea Power Station
--Canada Water
--Chalk Farm
--Euston (LU)
--Bayswater
--Holloway Road
--St. Paul's
--Elephant & Castle (LU)
--Lancaster Gate
--Knightsbridge
--Oval
--North Acton

Some teams did not immediately depart from Euston Square but instead ran to a neighbouring station and visited Euston Square at another point during the challenge.

We had a very good turnout with 19 challengers, including some returning challengers who have been absent from previous rounds and 3 new teams competing for the first time.

13th: Beau & Robin who only managed to visit 13 stations within the 4 hour time limit.
12th: Ian McIntyre - 03:54:48 at Chalk Farm
11th: Richard Graham - 03:38:46 at Battersea Power Station
=8th: Nick Gardner - 03:35:44 at North Acton
=8th: Andy JS - 03:35:44 at North Acton
=8th: Peter Smyth - 03:35:44 at North Acton
7th: Tangy - 03:27:14 at Canada Water
6th: Vincent & Roland Karthaus - 03:24:45 at Kilburn
5th: Kevin Brown, Nozza & Izzy Cook - 03:21:13 at West Hampstead
4th: Jenny Sherman - 03:20:40 at East Acton
3rd: Andrew Baker and Matthew Cook - 03:11:51 at North Acton
2nd: Andrew Chilcraft - 03:05:06 at North Acton
1st: James Ramsbottom - 02:57:08 at North Acton

Those finishing in joint 8th all declared times within 1 second of each other so must have finished on the same train but did not see or recognise each other upon alighting at North Acton.

Putting these results onto the leaderboard gives us:

1st: James Ramsbottom (24 points) [2 round attended]
2nd: Andrew Baker (18) [2]
3rd: Kevin Brown (16) [2]
=4th: Jenny Sherman (14) [2]
=4th: Andrew Chilcraft (14) [2]
6th: Das Stevens (10) [1]
7th: Tangy (9) [2]
=8th: Ian McIntyre (8) [2]
=8th: Ian Imrie (8) [1]
=8th: Matthew Cook (8) [1]
=11th: Richard Standing (6) [1]
=11th: Damian Cook (6) [1]
=11th: Izzy Cook (6) [1]
=14th: Vincent Karthaus (5) [1]
=14th: Roland Karthaus (5) [1]
=16th: Rhys Jackson (3) [1]
=16th: Peter Smyth (3) [1]
=16th: Nick Gardner (3) [1]
=16th: Andy JS (3) [1]
=20th. Richard Graham (0) [1]
=20th: Robin (0) [1]
=20th: Beau (0) [1]

Hope to see you at round 3 which is scheduled for Saturday 14th January 2023 and it will be the National Rail twist round.

[A2]

Departing from Euston Square myself and Matt Cook headed for Kings Cross St Pancras where we headed north on the Piccadilly through Holloway Road to Finsbury Park where we reversed onto the Vic to Euston.

At Euston we took the cautious (but long) approach to make sure we took a Charing Cross branch train through Mornington Crescent. The first train out was luckily an Edgware branch train so we went to Chalk Farm and doubled back on the first train out which of course was also a Charing Cross branch train so back through Mornington Crescent we went, destination Tottenham Court Road.

From TCR the Central line took us through St Paul's all the way to Bank where we briefly went outside on the DLR to Shadwell and thence the Overground to Canada Water.

After Canada Water we did the same thing as most other challengers, namely to London Bridge and thence down the Northern line to Oval, via Elephant & Castle. A double back at Oval and a change at Kennington saw us heading towards Battersea Power Station with Kevin and the rest of the family Cook.

From BPS we took a bus. Having safely navigated the terrain outside the station the first bus drove straight past us waving that he wasn't actually in service despite all appearances. A few minutes later a bus turned up and took us to Vauxhall. Matt and I ran down to the Victoria line where a long wait meant that Kevin, Nozza and Izzy caught us up.

From Green Park we did a quick double back along the Picc, and then headed up the Jubilee to Kilburn for a cross-platform reverse and met up with Nick. To avoid running up the stairs at Baker Street we did a cross platform change at Finchley Road and eventually arrived at Edgware Road where the service was disrupted and the platform conventions questionable. After about 10 minutes and with Matt and I having directed countless confused tourists to the right trains we were on our way to Bayswater.

A jog down the street to Queensway left us just with a quick double back along the Central Line to Lancaster Gate before our final train out to North Acton (and beyond).

[EastActionWoman]

Well that was a fun and slightly bizarre challenge. Great to see so many new faces at the start, and to have Peter back!

As usual I took a little time at the start to mark the stations on my map and start to plan a route. As we had the three close by Northern line stations to do, I decided I'd knock them off first and sort out the rest of the route later. Was on the train from Euston Square to Kings Cross with A2 and Matt, but they headed off to the Picc line whilst I went to the Northern. Once I realised I was on the wrong branch for Mornington Crescent, I wish I'd done Holloway Road first, but that didn't end up as the biggest regret of my day ...

So, up to Chalk Farm, back down to Camden Town with a change to get on the Charing Cross branch. Much faffing around at Euston until I got the Victoria back to Kings Cross and switched to the Picc up to Holloway Road. There I met Tangy, Nozza, Issy and Kev and we travelled back down to Holborn together. We all ended up on the same Central line train too when Kev managed to just get on as the doors were closing. Tangy dashed off at St Paul's while the rest of carried on to Bank. We took the old route (spiral staircase and corridor) down to the Northern line. Not sure if the travelator would be quicker - will have to check that out some time in the future.

I was able to get ahead of Kev and the gang there and did the doubleback to Canada Water, then Northern back down to Oval, reverse to Kennington and wait for the BPS train. We were held up by no-one wanting to get off a terminating service and new people jumping on it. Eventually they managed to get the doors closed to let the BPS train in but took a while. I was tempted to do the Loop but thought better of it. Over to BPS and then a bit of a walk past the Dogs and Cats Home, Battersea Park station and a complicated roundabout to catch a bus up to Knightsbridge (it also went past Sloane Square if anyone could make use of that).

From Knightsbridge had some fantastic connections - Picc down to South Kensington, Circle round to Bayswater, march up the hill to Queensway, just in time to jump in the lift as the doors were closing. Central line pulled in just as I got to the platform where it was a quick run to Bond Street and change onto the Jubilee up to Kilburn where I would have finished in 2h35m. It was at this point that I thought I'd check my map again to make sure I'd visited all the stations I'd marked. I had and then I counted them - 14. I counted them again, still 14. With a sinking feeling I dug around in my rucksack for the station list and saw North Acton at the bottom. How had I missed that the first time and why had it taken me so long to check the number of stations?!?!? Anyway, I didn't fancy doing the reverse back to Bond Street and then out to North Acton. There are always regular buses from Willesden Junction to North Acton, so I walked down from Kilburn to Brondesbury and to the Overground to WJ from there.

I've stood at the Willesden Junction many times waiting for a 228 down to East Acton, there are always loads of 266s sailing past. Not on Saturday. The one that was due in 4 minutes disappeared from the board. The next was due in 12 mins, then 13 minutes and then slowly counted down from there. I was already convinced I would be last, so didn't really think about alternative routes and had already decided I wanted to finish at East Acton (for obvious reasons). Eventually, three 266s arrived at once. The one which was full stopped, the two empty ones sailed past. There was then a change of drivers and we limped our way to North Acton. There were quite a few people on the platform there, so I guess I hadn't lost much time with the driver change. A train pulled in shortly afterwards and I finished at East Acton in 3:20:40.

I then went and had a nose at our old house to see if they'd made any changes yet, chatted to one of our neighbours who was walking her dog, and got an excellent veggie panini from the Italian cafe near the station. At this point I thought I'd better head back to the pub as I'd be holding everyone up.

When Tangy was reading out the results I kept expecting my name to be next. Very happy to finish in 4th but still thinking about what might have been if I'd noticed North Acton at the beginning, or even if the 266 had behaved itself. Also very grateful that it was roughly in the same area as my original finish. Would have been a lot worse to miss BPS, Oval or Canada Water.

Excellent fun as normal, and looking forward to January - though I don't know the NR routes very well.

[Capelblue]

Well this one was a bit of a disaster for me. I decided to try and plan a route out before committing to any trains, and spent 7 minutes before getting a reasonable iteration (it was a bit panicky with hindsight though). When I got to the platform hoping for a train towards Bayswater I found that there was nothing for 9 minutes so changed tack and got a Met line train, changed at Finchley Road to the Jubilee and ticked off Kilburn. I doubled back and thought I'd be clever and leg it across the platform to get the Met line train at Finchley Road, only to be told by another passenger that it had broken down. This only cost me 3 minutes until the next Jubilee line train arrived, so it would have knock on consequences. When I got to Baker Street the gates to the westbound Circle line platforms were closed so I had to shoot all the way down the eastbound platform and across the bridge, just missing a Hammersmith train. There was then a 9 minute wait for the next one so I decided to run to Edgware Road where I caught a District line train which sat for about 5 minutes before going. I picked up Bayswater for my third station, but my stopwatch showed 59 minutes so I knew I was basically just battling to record a time under 4 hours. I changed at Notting Hill Gate and went out to North Acton, doubling back to also pick up Lancaster Gate, where I decided to run across Hyde Park to Knightsbridge. This was going well until I got blocked by a protest near the Iranian embassy, and got a little disoriented and lost, finally getting onto a train at Knightsbridge 22 minutes after leaving Lancaster Gate - I should have just sucked up the changes ! I headed to Leicester Square where I changed for the Northern Line, where the first train was one terminating at Kennington, I got there and took the first train out which was a Morden one so ticked off Oval, and doubled back to Kennington and got a good connection for a Battersea train, doubled back there again for my third change at Kennington onto a Bank branch train to pick up Elephant & Castle. Changing at London Bridge I went to Canada Water where I missed an overground train to Highbury & Islington by seconds which meant I got on one terminating at Dalston Junction, luckily the wait for an H&I train wasn't long, and I changed there onto the Victoria line, changed at Finsbury Park onto the Piccadilly line to pick up Holloway Road. At Holborn I switched onto the Central line to pick up St Pauls, and doubled back to Tottenham Court Road for one final change onto an Edgware train to visit Euston, Mornington Crescent and Chalk Farm in a time of 3:54:48.

A combination of a poor route, and some bad luck consigned me to 12th, but it was a fun day, and it was good that there were so many participants.

It would be great though if the pub could sort out it's smelly toilets !

I don't think I'll be able to make the 14th January, but hopefully will be able to make the next one.

[Lunaticonthegrass]

Opening the envelope outside Euston Square station, I glanced down the list and spotted both Euston and Mornington Crescent listed. If only to be a bit different, and because I might never get the chance to do this again, I started by running to Euston and saved Euston Square for later. I got as far as the traffic lights at Gordon Street then had to wait ages for a gap in the traffic, during which time I was caught up by Tangy. I should have at least used Euston Square station as a subway under the road!

Reaching the northbound Charing Cross branch platforms after about 8 minutes, we were met with a 4 minute wait for the next train. Not a great start but at least it was heading to Edgware so we wouldn't need to change at Camden Town. The train was pretty busy but then over half the train seemed to get off at Camden Town. No idea why! One more stop to Chalk Farm where Tangy doubled back and I exited.

The plan was to run and/or take the 31 bus to Swiss Cottage then head up to Kilburn. I did see a bus behind me at a distance but it never caught me up so I ran the whole way. Another 4 minute wait for a train but then up to Kilburn without problems. Coming back I planned to change to the Met at Finchley road for a far easier connection than at Baker Street, and to miss out two stations. Leaving West Hampstead there was a Met train right along side my Jubilee train, so things were looking good. Got off at Finchley Road, expecting my easiest ever change on an R15, only for the Met train to move very slowly towards the station and then sit literally just outside it. It was still sitting there when the next Jubilee train came along, so I jumped back onto the Jubilee, one train down.

Then, at Baker Street, I expected the next eastbound sub-surface to be a Circle or H&C. It was a Met. The train which sat outside Finchley Road, or the one before that, or the one after? I'll never know.

Anyway, through Euston Square to KXSP then up to Holloway Road on a very busy Piccadilly, very quick double back and back down on an even busier train. I was hoping there would be a mass exodus at KXSP. There wasn't. If fact, we were held here for a while due to the shear number of people, and again at Russell Square. Changed to the Central at Holborn where I met up with Peter, who had seen me get on at Holloway Road. We both went through St. Paul's to Bank and then to London Bridge. I got a train ahead of him changing to the Jubilee, but I then had a few minutes waiting for the train back at Canada Water, during which time he caught me up, just making a tight double back.

Back at London bridge we were joined by Andy JS. We all headed through Elephant & Castle to Oval, doubled back to Kennington then had about 2 minutes wait for a BPS train. At the end of the line they both doubled back whilst I planned to run or take the bus to Vauxhall. Straight onto a 156 waiting outside the station, which probably saved me some time and definitely saved my legs. As expected, it took a while to change to the Piccadilly at Green Park. Yet another double back to Knightsbridge. At Green Park the second time I struggled to get off the platform as about 6 people with pushchairs were all queuing for the lift. One stop north to Bond Street and another slow change. I had cosidered running straight between Knighsbridge and Lancaster Gate through Hyde Park, but didn't know how possible that would be due to Winter Wonderland. I took a 'better the devil you know' attitude and stuck with the trains.

Eventually made it to Lancaster gate, then one more stop to Queensway and a nice little run to Bayswater, although my legs were starting to pack up. A westbound train was in the platform so was quickly back on the Central line at NHG. The final train was the weirdest. It was busy all the way to North Acton and still had most people on it when I got off. All heading for Ealing Broadway to avoid Paddington? I don't know. What I do know is that I finished at North Acton in 2:57:08. Final route was:

Euston Square (Meet-up) (run) Euston (Charing X Branch) Chalk Farm (run) Swiss Cottage Kilburn Finchley Road (Met line dies) Baker Street (Met line lives!) KXSP Holloway Road Holborn Bank London Bridge Canada Water London Bridge Oval Kennington BPS (bus) Vauxhall Green Park Knightsbridge Green Park Bond Street Queensway (run) Bayswater NHG North Acton

I ought to point out that I got incredibly lucky with trains today. There were at least 3 occasions of a train being in the platform when I arrived, plus the bus outside BPS. I don't think I ever had to wait more than 4 minutes for a train. Good running and route planning skills are important to do well in an R15, but I feel the biggest element is luck.

Challenge over, I walked to Acton Main Line with the plan of getting a Crossrail train though the newly opened west portal, straight to TCR. What I didn't realise was that half of the trains were still terminating in the old platforms at Paddington - and they were all the trains that stopped at Acton Main Line!

And so to the pub, where a great time was had. It was really good to have so many people taking part, including several doing their first R15.

[ANDY_JS]

My route:

Euston Sq -> KCSP
-> Holloway Rd
-> Caledonian Rd
Caledonian Rd & Barnsbury -> Camden Rd
Camden Town -> Chalk Farm
-> Camden Town [change trains]
-> Tottenham Ct Rd
-> Bank
-> London Br
-> Canada Water
-> London Br
-> Oval
-> Kennington
-> Battersea PS
-> Nine Elms
Vauxhall -> Green Pk
-> Knightsbridge
-> Green Pk
-> Bond St
-> Lancaster Gt
-> Bond St
-> Kilburn
-> Finchley Rd [change trains]
-> Baker St
-> Edgware Rd
-> Notting Hill Gate
-> North Acton

[tractakid]

Interesting route Andy

The 2nd place route as follows:

Euston Square
-> Baker Street
-> Kilburn
-> Baker Street
-> Euston Square
run to Euston
-> Chalk Farm
run to Kentish Town West
-> Highbury & Islington
run to Holloway Road
-> Holborn
-> Bank
-> London Bridge
-> Canada Water
-> London Bridge
-> Oval
-> Kennington
-> Battersea Power Station
bus to Vauxhall
-> Green Park
-> Knightsbridge
run to Marble Arch
-> Queensway
run to Bayswater
-> Notting Hill Gate
-> North Acton

Questioned the sanity of my route when I got back to Euston Square after Kilburn... equally when my train from Kentish Town West was slightly delayed.

I also forgot about Winter Wonderland, I should have run straight to Lancaster Gate as the straight route to Marble Arch was completely blocked.

All turned out okay though, just need Mr Ramsbottom's luck to run out...

[greatkingrat]

Hope to see you at round 3 which is scheduled for Saturday 14th January 2023 and it will be the National Rail twist round.

Just wondering if this round is still going to be National Rail? At the moment, even when there isn't a strike, the NR services are still very unreliable with lots of cancellations, so I think it might be better to just stick to the tube (plus maybe DLR or Overground), and leave the NR twist for another time.

[tangy]

Just wondering if this round is still going to be National Rail? At the moment, even when there isn't a strike, the NR services are still very unreliable with lots of cancellations, so I think it might be better to just stick to the tube (plus maybe DLR or Overground), and leave the NR twist for another time.

I am inclined to go ahead with round 3 as is. There is no scheduled rail strike for Saturday 14th and as we are keeping to zones 1 and 2 there are no really awkward stations that I can recall. We are doing the challenge during the main part of the day which tends to see a good service with most cancellations in my experience being later in the day.

In addition most of the NR stations that have appeared in previous round 3s have been on the Overground.

Any other input from others?

[EastActionWoman]

I think we should keep NR stations in. Isn't it part of the "fun", dealing with unreliable services? I may regret saying this if I'm stuck at King's Cross for an hour waiting for a Finsbury Park train.

My question is how Crossrail affects things.
- if we get Paddington NR or Liverpool Street NR, can we use Crossrail?
- are any of the other tube stations on Crossrail, eg Canary Wharf now counted as having a separate NR station? I remember an entertaining conversation about gatelines in the pub...

[tangy]

I think we should keep NR stations in. Isn't it part of the "fun", dealing with unreliable services? I may regret saying this if I'm stuck at King's Cross for an hour waiting for a Finsbury Park train.

My question is how Crossrail affects things.
- if we get Paddington NR or Liverpool Street NR, can we use Crossrail?
- are any of the other tube stations on Crossrail, eg Canary Wharf now counted as having a separate NR station? I remember an entertaining conversation about gatelines in the pub...

As Crossrail is part of the National Rail network like the Overground (XR is just another TOC), the low level platforms at Liverpool Street and Paddington can be used for the NR purposes of this challenge. If a station is noted with an NR tag then as long as you visit the station on any NR TOC operated train then it is considered valid.

Canary Wharf XR is really the only one of the "core" Crossrail stations that is physically separate from its namesake Underground station (this has been added to the generator as a new station). Therefore if say Bond Street appears in the list then as it is considered one station it can be visited by LU or XR as you see fit (as per already the case for stations like West Brompton or Stratford).

Hope this clears things up.

[EastActionWoman]

I think we should keep NR stations in. Isn't it part of the "fun", dealing with unreliable services? I may regret saying this if I'm stuck at King's Cross for an hour waiting for a Finsbury Park train.

My question is how Crossrail affects things.
- if we get Paddington NR or Liverpool Street NR, can we use Crossrail?
- are any of the other tube stations on Crossrail, eg Canary Wharf now counted as having a separate NR station? I remember an entertaining conversation about gatelines in the pub...

As Crossrail is part of the National Rail network like the Overground (XR is just another TOC), the low level platforms at Liverpool Street and Paddington can be used for the NR purposes of this challenge. If a station is noted with an NR tag then as long as you visit the station on any NR TOC operated train then it is considered valid.

Canary Wharf XR is really the only one of the "core" Crossrail stations that is physically separate from its namesake Underground station (this has been added to the generator as a new station). Therefore if say Bond Street appears in the list then as it is considered one station it can be visited by LU or XR as you see fit (as per already the case for stations like West Brompton or Stratford).

Hope this clears things up.

Perfect, thank you!

[A2]

I think we should keep NR stations in. Isn't it part of the "fun", dealing with unreliable services? I may regret saying this if I'm stuck at King's Cross for an hour waiting for a Finsbury Park train.

At that point I would suggest going to St Pancras, or Moorgate, or taking the tube to Finsbury Park and catching something to somewhere from there.
(Just avoid the "next stop Stevenage" services unless you are me and it is the last station on the route...)

[greatkingrat]

The problem isn't if Finsbury Park NR comes out, it is if Kings Cross NR comes out.