Random 15 Championship 2022/23: Round 3

[tangy]

Welcome to the 2022/23 Random 15 Championship. I am your host (commonly known to regulars as the BERC when I am hosting Random 15 challenges). The Random 15 challenge is just that, visit 15 randomly selected stations that feature on the Tube Map (usually within zones 1-2 and using the Underground network only). There will be certain rounds within the championship that are a variation of this such as adding an extra zone or network e.g. DLR onto the challenge. So are you ready to take on the Random 15 championship?

The rules and scoring are unchanged from previous seasons but if anyone is not familiar with them, or needs a refresh, you can view them here: http://www.explorerticket.co.uk/tubecha ... 5rules.htm

Here are the details for round 3:

When: Saturday 14th January 2023 12:30 UK local time.
Starting at: Tottenham Court Road (meet on the concourse).
Variant: it's the National Rail round- now with added XR! So there will be 15 LU and/or NR stations to visit within zones 1 and 2. NR does include Overground and Crossrail (as they are NR TOCs).
Time limit: National Rail round, 6 hours.

Closures affecting the challenge (correct at time of posting):
--Circle: No service at all before 1100 (whole lines re-opens after this).
--District: No service on the whole line pre 1100, Whitechapel- Upminster (11:00 to 14:00 hours), after this time no service Stepney Green- Becontree.
--Hammersmith & City: No service on the whole line until 14:00, after this time no service east of Stepney Green.
--Metropolitan: No service Wembley Park- Aldgate pre 1100.

--Southern: No service Watford Junction- Clapham Junction (Overground not affected).
--Southern: No trains into/out of Victoria. Diversions to London Bridge.

Therefore stations east of Whitechapel on the District Line and Battersea Park will not be in the draw.

Our usual pub for the post challenge meet up and social is the Bricklayers Arms in Gresse Street (off Tottenham Court Road). Hopefully the hot meals will have resumed.

Be nice to see you!

Tangy.
The BERC.

[tangy]

Copied over from the round 2 thread for clarity regarding XR stations:

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 along with Woolwich XR). 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).

[Going Underground]

Attending ; GU
parkrun/limp/walk - Southall; GU
Spoons - The Sir Michael Balcon, Ealing Broadway; GU

[A2]

Attending ; GU, A2
parkrun/limp/walk - Southall; GU, A2
Spoons - The Sir Michael Balcon, Ealing Broadway; GU, A2

[Lunaticonthegrass]

Can't make this one, sorry. Someone else will have to win it.

Looking ahead, any ideas on dates for rounds 4 and 5?

[tractakid]

Attending ; GU, A2, tractakid
parkrun/limp/walk - Southall; GU, A2, tractakid
Spoons - The Sir Michael Balcon, Ealing Broadway; GU, A2, tractakid

[DrainBrain]

I also can't make this as it clashes with the annual MIT Mystery Hunt. Hopefully I can be there for round 4.

[EastActionWoman]

Can't make this one, sorry. Someone else will have to win it.

Looking ahead, any ideas on dates for rounds 4 and 5?

That's a shame - was hoping to hear more about your alphabet challenge and trip to Lundy. Hopefully see you for one of the next rounds.

[RJSRdg]

Attending ; GU, A2, tractakid, RJSRdg
parkrun/limp/walk - Southall; GU, A2, tractakid
Spoons - The Sir Michael Balcon, Ealing Broadway; GU, A2, tractakid

It would have made for an interesting extra twist if the stations east of Whitechapel had stayed in!

Incidentally, the Spoons has a railway connection - Michael Balcon was a cinematographer at Ealing Studios, his films including the classic railway comedy "The Titfield Thunderbolt".

[hopeful traveller]

Attending ; GU, A2, tractakid, RJSRdg, hopeless traveller (possibly)
parkrun/limp/walk - Southall; GU, A2, tractakid
Spoons - The Sir Michael Balcon, Ealing Broadway; GU, A2, tractakid, hopeless traveller (possibly)

[hopeful traveller]

I am coming, but am currently stuck on the Met Line.

[hopeful traveller]

Wow. What a day.

Having not been to one of these in three years expectations were very low: almost through the floor, in fact. It was a last-minute decision to go, and the panic set in when the Met Line cocked itself up and I only just got to Tottenham Court Road in time.

With six possible directions of travel I opted to start slowly with the station list, and after having to dig out a map to familiarise myself with where on earth Drayton Park was, I eventually decided Bethnal Green would be my first port of call. In hindsight, this was a mistake. With the subsurface completely buggered I should have gone west at the start and done my route essentially in reverse.

Anyhow…

I made a last-minute, split-second decision to get the District Line at Bank, knowing this gave me another “chance” to do Aldgate. Having not been to Bank since the rebuild I was sent down to the District Line via the Northern Line platforms, and just caught a train at Monument. Pause at Tower Hill to see if there’s a Circle Line any time soon - nope - so jog gently to Fenchurch Street knowing I had a load of time available. After a 4-minute wait I was soon on my way to Limehouse (NR). Turn around and although I missed a Tower Gateway train it wasn’t what I wanted anyway so no harm done. After 2 minutes, I picked up a train to Bank.

Once again I get sent the long way round at Bank and only just make a Central Line train to Epping - and with a 7-minute wait for another one this proved to be crucial. Bethnal Green, turn around, one minute wait, back to Liverpool Street.

Disappear upstairs and see if there’s a Met Line - nope, and it’s cordoned off! - so I go down the two escalators, run the full length of the Crossrail platform(!), up the other end at Moorgate, down some stairs, through one gateline, through ANOTHER gateline 10 yards apart, down an escalator and on to a Great Northern train with three minutes to spare where Andrew C is sat there ready and waiting.

After some usual mind games we both get off at Finsbury Park (duly ticking off Drayton Park) and go down to the Victoria Line, surprisingly without a gateline. I dive onto my phone to check the status of the Met - nope - so I have already determined my next move and duly board the very front of a Southbound Victoria Line with Andrew following suit.

At King’s Cross I get off first and run down to the Northern Line (well, actually, I ended up on the Westbound Piccadilly first before realising my mistake) and with little to no waiting I get on an Edgware-bound train and Andrew is nowhere to be seen.

The service pattern at King’s Cross was:
1 Edgware
2 High Barnet 2 mins
3 Edgware 4 mins

I imagine the majority of people who wanted the High Barnet branch would have waited. But I gambled and opted to change at Camden Town. As luck would have it, a train was pulling in as I got onto the High Barnet platform - and I’m convinced this came from Charing Cross as the next one was 1 minute behind it, thus saving me a crucial minute.

That was crucial as it meant the Kentish Town double back was in and out within a minute, before another sexy change at Camden Town to the Edgware branch. At Hampstead I initially panic trying to locate bus stop R but eventually I have to run for the 46, whilst looking up Overground times on my phone. After sprinting up the hill I am greeted with “Richmond 2 mins” at Hampstead Heath - ace… but this is running a couple of minutes late and so Kensal Rise is looking sus. No worries there either - change at Kensal Rise and 1 minute back the other way.

I alight at Brondesbury and somehow just make a Jubilee Line train at Kilburn. My body was completely knackered and it was 6 minutes for another Jubilee, so I collapsed onto the floor of the carriage. Never doing that again, my trousers are filthy.

At Finchley Road a Metropolitan Line train to Aldgate is alongside and I know there and then the change at Baker Street to pick that train up will be touch and go. Through St John’s Wood and then at Baker Street I sprint off the train… only to be greeted by a load of Bakerloo Line tourists clogging up the one escalator. Eventually I get myself up to Platform 3 at Baker Street as the doors close. “Bugger!” I exclaim loudly, knowing I have even more running to do now, with an (advertised) 1 minute until the next Circle Line on platform 5. Up the stairs, down the stairs, wait 2 minutes… and then it’s all the way through to Aldgate where I finish.

In a time I’ll let Tangy reveal. But that was huge fun, as was checking out 32 in the pub later.

Tottenham Court Road
Central to Bank
District to Tower Hill
Run to Fenchurch Street
C2C to Limehouse
DLR to Bank
Central to Bethnal Green
Central to Liverpool Street
Run to Moorgate
Great Northern to Finsbury Park
Victoria to King’s Cross St Pancras
Northern to Camden Town
Northern to Kentish Town
Northern to Camden Town
Northern to Hampstead
46 Bus to Hampstead Heath
Overground to Kensal Rise
Overground to Brondesbury
Run to Kilburn
Jubilee to Baker Street
Circle to Aldgate

[RJSRdg]

Another exercise in "how not to do it", or "how to ruin a good start"!

From the concourse of TCR, chased Tangy down the escalators and stairs to the northbound Northern Line. Tangy hopped on an Edgware train but I just missed it and caught the Barnet train behind it, which was fine as I was going to Kentish Town anyway. Back down to Camden Town and change to the Edgware Branch to Hampstead, finding Jenny on the train. As I'd forgotten to pack my A-Z, I was content to see what Jenny did when we got to Hampstead. The wait for a bus gave me time to photograph several K4 and K6 telephone boxes, including one converted to a coffee shopwhich formed a "Fine Pair" with a Queen Victoria post box (no longer in use, but retained as a curiosity). On the bus to Hampstead Heath, passing more K4s and K6s and alighting opposite a cabman's shelter.
No real wait at HH, along the NLL through Brondesburyto Kensal Rise. I'd originally intended to carry on to Willesden Junction and catch a Euston train to South Hampstead to join the Jubilee at Swiss Cottage, but Jenny let slip that there was an eastbound train back to West Hampstead in four minutes so I decided to take that option instead. As we ambled over the footbridge, thinking we had plenty of time, we found an eastbound train in the other platform but were unsuccessful in getting there on time and had to wait for the one in four minutes.
At WH, I had better door position than Jenny, but she had caught me up again by the time I reached the barriers and we both found ourselves with a short wait at the Jubilee line station where I remarked that we were changing from one Stratford-bound train to another one.
Down through St John's Wood to Baker Street, where I opted to risk the subsurface while Jenny remained on board.
The DMI board advised that the next eastbound Circle line train would be in three minutes - just time for a quick trip to the gents, which I'd been wanting to do almost since boarding the Elizabeth Line at Paddington at 12:00! Came back to find that the train was "held". Finally it arrived, over to King's Cross and down the escalator to the Victoria Line for the run up to Finsbury Park. Out of the Underground and up on to the NR platforms, where I found Jenny waiting. As we waited, I took advantage of being above ground to check Google Maps for the East London section of the challenge, and to check the status updates again for the Circle Line, which was now running as far as Moorgate, but suspended between Moorgate and Edgware Road via Liverpool Street owing to a signal failure at Euston Square! As we passed through Drayton Park, I mentioned that I thought that going down into the depths of the earth to catch an EL train from Moorgate to Liverpool Street would take more time than changing on to the Northern and catching the Central at Bank. So I hopped off at Old Street, where I had a six minute wait for the Northern Line, which was long enough for me to realise my error concerning the Elizabeth Line! Through Moorgate, changed to the Central at Bank via the new travelator and stairs - much better than before! Three minute wait for a Central Line train to Bethnal Green (LU), encountering Peter in the process. However, Bethnal Green was where things seriously started to go wrong. When I consulted Google Maps at Finsbury Park, I'd intended to run from Bethnal Green to Whitechapel, catch an Overground to Shadwell and DLR to Limehouse. Unfortunately that route was from Bethnal Green (NR) station, not from Bethnal Green (LU)!
It took me some time to get my bearings and eventually I crossed to the bus stop on the other side of the crossroads, with the aim of finding a bus that would go straight on down towards Limehouse. No route maps at the bus stop, but a glance at the destination screen suggested that the 309 to Canning Town would be the most likely, with a 388 towards London Bridge a possibility. The board suggested that a 309 would be along in a couple of minutes, however the 388 came along first so I hopped on that only to see the 309 pull in behind, but by then the doors were shut and the bus was on the move. The bus promptly turned right and I realised I was going the wrong way so I jumped off and ran back to the previous stop for another try (looking at Google Maps now, when I jumped off, had I nipped down a side road I would have found myself at BG NR and could have followe plan A. Next 309 7 or 8 minutes. I waited, but the 309 disappeared off the board and instead I caught a D6 which turned left at the crossroads (wrong way again, but I knew it should at least meet the DLR somewhere). The bus crawled and eventually got close enough to Westferry for me to jump off, jog through a somewhat dodgy looking estate and up on to the platform at Westferry, with a 1 minute wait.
(I now see that the 309 wouldn't have gone the right way either and I would have been better catching a 254 - at least two of which I let past - round to Whitechapel and catching the Overground and DLR from there).
Over to Limehouse and down and up to the NR station, train already in the platform so hopped on and swiftly over to Febchurch Street. En route, I checked the TfL status updates to find that the Circle Line was now open. Remembering to take the exit partway down the platforms, I headed out of the station, only for the barriers to swallow my Travelcard, necessitating the gateline assistant to partly dismantle the machine to retrieve it for me (it seems that somehow I managed to put the credit card receipt into the machine as well, jamming it!). Finally out of the station and down into Tower Hill. Circle Line train 1 minute away (so the misadventure with the gateline almost certainly hadn't cost me a train), round to Aldgate East for a final time of 3:16:01. For a potentially six-hour challenge, not a bad time, but galling to know I lost at least half an hour in Bethnal Green, and that had I stayed with Jenny, I would have done considerably better!

[A2]

I think you meant "Aldgate" as your finish station rather than "Aldgate East" especially as you mention finishing on the Circle line.

[EastActionWoman]

I was tempted to just copy/paste the first half of Richard's route description, but will give my version instead. As part of my pre-race planning, I'd already decided to leave the subsurface to the end if possible. With the automation engineering work happening, and the bad weather in the morning, there was always the possibility that things would overrun or not work properly. This was confirmed when I went to check out the lift from Farringdon EL which goes up to the westbound Barbican platforms at around 11.15. At this point the Circle line was supposed to be running, but a train with passengers on board just passed through without stopping. I had plenty of time to get back to TCR for the meet up, so was able to keep an eye on the status board and see that things weren't likely to get fixed in a hurry.

Was good to see lots of people there for the challenge including a few newbies, and Kev and I definitely weren't the oldest for once!

At TCR, after opening the envelope and double-checking that I'd marked all 15 stations on my map (after only doing 14 last time), everyone else had scattered. I headed down to the Northern line platforms with the idea to just get the first train that arrived and decide on my route from there. Luckily it was a High Barnet train, so up to Kentish Town first and then the rest of the route fell into place easily. A quickish double back to Camden Town, through the confused tourists to the Edgware branch platform and onto a train with Richard. On the way up to Kentish Town I'd been able to check that there was a regular bus from Hampstead to Hampstead Heath, and that we should make it comfortably without running.

When Rich said he was carrying on down the road to take photos of phone boxes I thought this was just an excuse to ditch me and do a sneaky short cut to HH, so was surprised when he returned and got the 46 bus with me. Getting off the bus we had a comfortable four minutes to get to Hampstead Heath station, so no dash up the hill required. A smooth run through Brondesbury to Kensal Rise during which I stupidly mentioned that there was a comfortable doubleback available when we got to Kensal Rise. Rich looked surprised, consulted his map and he agreed that it was quicker than his original plan. I decided to keep my mouth shut from then on I'm still annoyed that I wasn't paying attention and missed that we could have had an instant double back, but at least it was only a few minutes wait for the next train.

I thought about changing at Brondesbury for the short walk up to Kilburn, but I didn't fancy going up the stairs to the Jubilee line platforms there. As Rich said, he had a better door position at West Hampstead, but luckily I got out opposite the lift which was at platform level, so I took that instead of having to run up the stairs and was only just behind him at the gate line. Not much traffic to cross the road and then only a short wait for the Jubilee line train down through St Johns Wood to Baker Street. I knew the subsurface was probably still knackered so I made a dash for the Bakerloo line, but the train in platform closed its doors and was off whilst I was only half way along the corridor. It was a five minute wait until the next E&C so I had time to pop up to check if there were any Met trains going to Kings Cross. There was a nine-minute wait for the next Aldgate train, so I headed back to the Bakerloo line. Quick run down to Oxford Circus, and change onto the Victoria Line up to Finsbury Park.

Up the spiral staircase from the Victoria line and all the way along the corridor up to platform 1, where I was joined by Rich again. Only a couple of minutes to wait for the train and then it was down through Drayton Park to Moorgate. Rich kindly told me to be at the front of the train for the best interchange at Moorgate, but he jumped off at Old Street to get the Northern down to Bank and miss out Liverpool Street. Also on the train I'd checked if there was a nice route from Bethnal Green to Limehouse, but TfL and Google both said it was best to go back into Bank and out on the DLR.

At Moorgate, I had planned to walk along the Elizabeth Line passageway to Liverpool Street (I had deliberately not said this to Rich when he was talking about how to get between the two stations) but I was very lucky that a Met train pulled in just as I got to the stairs up to that route. I hopped on there to take it round to Liverpool Street which saved me a long walk. At this point I thought about carrying on to Aldgate to get that ticked off easily but then I wasn't sure if I could then get the District back to Tower Hill form Aldgate East or not. I was dithering for a bit and in the end decided to stick with my original plan, jumping off at Liverpool Street just as the doors started to close. I'd got my door position wrong so just missed a Central line train and had to wait five minutes for the next one. This did give me time to look up the right position for the double back at Bethnal Green. This worked perfectly as a westbound train was pulling in just as we arrived. It also meant I ended up in the right carriage for the change at Bank too. This was the only time I ran properly all day. I knew it would be a tight change at Limehouse, with a 12 minute wait if I didn't catch the next C2C. Bank was remarkably quiet and I had a clear run up and over the stairs and down the escalators and on to the Lewisham train which was about to depart.

I'd been wanting to use the bridge between the eastbound DLR and the westbound C2C platforms at Limehouse since it was built, so was very happy that I got to do it yesterday. A couple of minutes wait for the train and back into Fenchurch Street, and then down the stairs for the quick route down to Tower Hill. By this time the Circle was starting to run again, and after an eight minute wait, I took the short trip round to Aldgate to finish in 2:44:17. Was very surprised that I hadn't seen Rich again after Old Street and even more surprised when he arrived in the pub long after I'd got there. He hinted at disasters with buses but, of course, we didn't get to hear the full story until after the results were announced.

If the subsurface had been behaving itself, I probably would have still kept the first part of the route the same. From Moorgate I would have taken the Circle round to Tower Hill, C2C to Limehouse, DLR to Bank, then Central to finish at Bethnal Green. Of course, this would have meant that I wouldn't have used the bridge at Limehouse, so I'm happy that it worked out the way it did.

Looking forward to the next one already and hoping it'll be on the 11th March (hint, hint Tangy )