tubechallenge.com

To keep the forum up to date, here's a brief summary of my latest FNC attempt.

This was my fourth successful completion.
Started Upminster 05:08:52, finished Amersham at 23:56:44 for a time of 18:47:52.

After three successes starting at Heathrow I wanted to try something different and, following a passing reference on this forum and working out how to get to Upminster for an early start, I thought this route was worth a try. This gets the long, boring District line out of the way early, saves the c2c trip and the reverse at Richmond, but at the expense of having to get from Richmond and then round Heathrow.

All in all, the route worked well and could have been near my personal best were it not for the Piccadilly line failing to run two consecutive trains to T4 and the next being 5 minutes late resulting in no trains to T4 for 30 minutes. I improvised by going to T5 first, arriving back at Hatton Cross just in time for the rare T4 train. I was pleasantly surprised at how little extra time that detour cost me: because the T4 train was late arriving but left more or less on time then the usual ~8 minutes dwell didn't happen.

Similarly, there was a curious absence of trains at Uxbridge, the one I'd arrived on now out of service, so I tried the U1 bus from just outside the station direct to West Ruislip. This worked well and of course saves the usual walk from Ickenham.

Later, I missed a Watford train by seconds at North Harrow, losing the 15 minutes I'd gained during the day.

I'll try this route again, as soon as my foot recovers from an attack of gout I picked up since this challenge attempt.

Cheers & good luck to all.

Hi Alan,

Great write up. How was the transfer from Richmond to Heathrow? The out-and-back to Richmond never seemed too bad to me, especially if you get out at Gunnersbury and hot foot it to Chiswick, but if it's conveinent/fast to get to Heathrow from Richmond then it opens up more possibilies.

Hi mango,

The transfer from Richmond isn't great, to be honest. Because of the infrequent SWR trains the arrival at Richmond needs to be carefully timed to avoid a long wait; then you have to be lucky with the buses. On my recent trip SWR was 5 minutes late, then I waited 5 minutes for a bus (I walked up to the next stop because it gives more options).

Arriving at Hatton Cross, there's then the option of bussing to T4 if you've just missed a Pic as you can catch it at T4 during the long dwell time. And use the conveniently-located loo at T4 as you pass.

For me, the reversal at Richmond always costs me time. First there's the wait for the District/LO out. Then I can't run to Chiswick Park in time to catch the annoyingly timed Ealing Broadway District so I always end up waiting there or Turnham Green for ~8 minutes. It's for this reason that I wanted to try Richmond-Feltham-Hatton Cross.

All in all, swings and roundabouts, I think.