Christmas Alphabet

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Lunaticonthegrass
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Christmas Alphabet

Post by Lunaticonthegrass »

A is for Angel, B is for Bank holiday, C is for... Chesham roasting on an open fire... OK I need to work on that one.

Casey and I were invited down to London for a wedding celebration on 27th Decemeber. (Not an actual wedding. The couple in question got married in the middle of the pandemic and were only just celebrating. Not that this has anything to do with trains.) As Casey was then flying out to see her family in the States and I didn't need to rush back home the day afterwards, it was the perfect oppotunity for a bit of challenging.

The original plan had been to do the Royal Challenge, as it would have nicely filled the time I had available and it hadn't been attempted since 2 new stations were added. However, on the morning of the 28th I checked the TFL website, just in case there were any closures, and saw that Crossrail out to Shenfield was closed, meaning that Seven Kings was unavailable. So I decided to have a go at the Alphabet Challenge instead, because it was the only other challenge which would nicely fill the time.

I'd looked into a route for this one some time back, but I couldn't remember all of it. I don't think it was a route I was completely happy with anyway. Since there is no set list of stations (except Ickenham) there are far more variables than other challenges. However, I remembered what I could of the route, filled in the bits inbetween, and then tweaked a few things. Although some of these tweaks were to make the route more interesting. You might as well have fun doing this madness!

So at 11:31 I started at ARCHWAY, with no schedule, no door positions, 5 hours of sleep and still nursing minor injuries from the Parks Challenge 2 weeks ago. Changed at Camden Town and passed through BELSIZE PARK to reach COLINDALE. Doubling back to Chalk Farm would probably have been quicker here, but I wanted to be different. Straight onto a 303 bus at Colindale for a trip across to Kingsbury. A 204 would have been slightly better but you should always take the first bus that comes. Got off at Princes Close and then ran 500m through drizzle to Kingsbury Station. Through DOLLIS HILL to Finchley Road, where I changed to the Met and passed through EUSTON SQUARE before reaching FARRINGDON. All going well so far.

Just missed a double back at Farringdon, but the next train (5 mins away) was for Uxbridge, so I doubt the one I missed was also for Uxbridge. Long journey back west through GREAT PORTLAND STREET and HARROW-ON-THE-HILL to reach the remote ICKENHAM. Approaching Ickenham at Met line train passed in the other direction, causing me to worry about having a long wait for a train back into town. I was therefore rather surprised to see a Piccadilly line train in the eastbound platform when I pulled in a minute or so later. Maybe all the trains had bunched up and another Met would be along soon. And my suspicions were confirmed when a Met turned up 2 mintues later.

Headed west to Northwick Park and did the usual run to KENTON. Although it's a fairly short, signposted run which I've done before I still nearly got lost. 2 minutes for a train here. Down all the way to Paddington (Praed Street), passing through 2 more K stations on the way and getting held for a bit outside Queen's Park. (This also happened to me on the Parks challenge earlier this month. Is it a regular thing?) Then a few difficulties trying to find my way out of the front of Paddington station and a not so wet but very windy run to LANCASTER GATE.

Headed west 1 stop and a smooth doubleback at MARBLE ARCH. A less smooth doubleback at NOTTING HILL GATE as I forgot the the Central line was split level, but still made the train which was waiting in the platform. Changed back to the Bakerloo at OXFORD CIRCUS and headed back through PADDINGTON (PRAED STREET) to QUEEN'S PARK, where my train terminated into the southbound platform to become the train I wanted back into town. Easiest connection ever! (Although a 30 second doubleback would still have been preferable.)

Traveling this section of line for the third time in just over an hour, I passed through REGENT'S PARK, changed to a very busy Central line train at Oxford Circus, passed through ST. PAUL'S and exited at bank, where I messed up what I remembered of door positions then messed up which of the 9 exits I needed. Eventually made it onto Walbrook for the run to Cannon Street, then District to TOWER HILL.

It was here that things finally started to get interesting. To speed up the next section I took a c2c train out of Fenchurch Street, rather than sit on the district line for ages. However I had 10 minutes between me arriving at Tower Hill and leaving Fenchurch Street. What's more, I knew this would be the case as I checked train times on the c2c earlier in the day. So I reckon this didn't help me. The other mistake I made was thinking it would be faster to go up to Barking then come back. Definitely not, especially when a District pulls into the adjacent platform whilst you're sitting at West Ham. I need to be more open to flexibility when doing all this!

Departure boards at Barking weren't working. After a few minutes I was about to head up to the main concourse to see if there was any information there, but then a westbound District appeared out of nowhere. Finally made it to UPTON PARK then on to West Ham, where I changed to a rammed Jubilee. Nearly done, I used as much energy as I could running up all the escalators at Westminster then headed west to VICTORIA. Although I've changed here a few times I've never done a doubleback, so had no idea which doors were best. Arriving at Victoria I was lined up with a small exit labelled 'Emergeny Stairs', which is normally code for 'Secret cut-through you're not supposed to know about'. I decided to gamble it, and 15 seconds later I found myself on the eastbound platform. Then back to finish at WESTMINSTER in a time of 5:30:40.

So the third slowest time to date, although only 41 minutes slower than the record. I never had to wait more than 5 minute for a Underground train, so I put this down to not having a properly researched route. This wasn't as much fun as other alternative challenges I've done, mostly due to doing certain sections of line multiple times and not visiting large areas of the network. With many more options than other challenges, I feel it's a challenge for optimal route planning - more theoretical than practical.
Full Network (270 stations) - 18:22:43
Parks - 7:57:23
Alphabet - 5:30:40
Roads, Streets and Lanes - 3:51:51
Zone 1 - 3:03:50 (Former record)
Bottle - 1:57:43
1 pint in 18 seconds
trains 500
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Re: Christmas Alphabet

Post by trains 500 »

Nice read, thanks for posting I love reading peoples challenge attempts :D
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Lunaticonthegrass
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Posts: 247
Joined: 18 Nov 2019, 22:47
Location: North of Watford

Re: Christmas Alphabet

Post by Lunaticonthegrass »

Out of interest...

According to WTT, it should take a train 17.5 minutes for a District train to travel from Tower Hill to Upton Park.

According to my recorded times, it took me 33 minutes to get between the two via Fenchurch Street and Barking.

The WTT time doesn't allow for the change of trains at Upton Park, but I doubt that I would have had to wait 15.5 minutes.
Full Network (270 stations) - 18:22:43
Parks - 7:57:23
Alphabet - 5:30:40
Roads, Streets and Lanes - 3:51:51
Zone 1 - 3:03:50 (Former record)
Bottle - 1:57:43
1 pint in 18 seconds
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