Points of the Compass Challenge - Fri 16th Feb

[Going Underground]

I can only assume that young starkey is running the whole route.....

[nozzacook]

I agree save him worrying about quality of service

[zeibura]

i have a lesson that finishes at 12.30 on friday so i'll try and make it down, at least for a bit of it! it shouldn't take me any more than half an hour to get from south ealing to hounslow west, so hopefully see you there.

[Going Underground]

i have a lesson that finishes at 12.30 on friday so i'll try and make it down, at least for a bit of it! it shouldn't take me any more than half an hour to get from south ealing to hounslow west, so hopefully see you there.

Nice one

The plan is too start as near to 1300hrs as poss. and no later than 1330hrs... Just text me or soup dragon (I think you have our numbers) and we can hang on for you if need be......

[43019]

How did this go then?

Sorry I couldn't be there, turns out I went with the number crunch (which did involve a fairly busy Viccy line train off Victoria to KXSP) and Pub Meet. Good thing I got there reasonably early too, the farce on the ECML...Even the Northern Line would have been running better...Even the Central line...

[Going Underground]

How did this go then?

Sorry I couldn't be there, turns out I went with the number crunch (which did involve a fairly busy Viccy line train off Victoria to KXSP) and Pub Meet. Good thing I got there reasonably early too, the farce on the ECML...Even the Northern Line would have been running better...Even the Central line...

It was a very good day and this turned out to be an interesting logistical challenge with 4 x teams using different routes... I will find all the times and post some details soon.....
The 4 teams were; Nozzacook and junior nozzacook, GU and Dr Who, Starkey, Soup Dragon who both went solo....
Amazingly we split fairly early and some us met up later during the challenge on the network

[Going Underground]

Just to confirm the times and finishing stations;

4th GU & Dr Who
8hrs 47 mins 43 seconds
WEST Ruislip

2nd = Nozzacook & Jnr Nozzacook and Soup Dragon
8hrs 13 mins 43 seconds
WEST Ruislip

1st Starkey
6hrs 54mins 56 seconds (most impressive)
Dagenham EAST

Brief summary;

Starting time from Hounslow WEST 1317 and 14 seconds....

A couple of texts from challengers that unfortunately couldn't make it in time....

We lost Starkey at Acton Town and the remaining 3 teams were hoping to see/pass a District Line to change at Hammersmith and knock WEST Ken off the list.......

Nothing scheduled so Nozzacook and Soup Dragon decided to wait at Barons Court...... GU and DR Who stayed on until SOUTH Ken and had a great (zero wait) connection for district service back to WEST Ken... Luck changed very quickly.......This train was held for several minutes outside Earls Court and when we got to WEST Ken the plan was to double back to Earls Court for Wimbledon branch....

The eastbound platform at WEST Ken looked very busy, we rushed around waited 8 minutes, saw 4 westbound trains go through so decided to run (in the hope of seeing a bus) to WEST Brompton..
No bus and not a very pleasant run

Knowing we were already behind the others it was down to Wimbledon and another run outside to catch a bus to SOUTH Wimbledon...
There we met Nozzacook & Junior on the northbound platform cool as cucumbers while we were very hot 'n' bothered

We said goodbye to them (again) at Waterloo and we proceeded to Embankment for our next change.....

We knocked out all the staions at the east end of the network hitting Bank at peak rush hour... 4 to 5 deep on the platform the first train in was Mill Hill EAST...... We just had to get on and somehow squeezed into the already crammed carriages with scarcely room for the doors to close.....

As this emptied out and we came upto the surface I contacted Soup Dragon as roughly knowing his route I guessed he might be in the vicinity... In fact he was on the same train with the same number of stations left to complete

Coming back down the plan was to catch BR from Kentish Town to WEST Hampstead assuming the timings were right....
We hit Kentish Town with 20 seconds to make the next BR departure..
Soup Dragon gambles and goes for it and we decide to stay on the tube network and change at Kings X.....

His gamble pays off We lose a lot of time and never make it up again........

After knocking off the stations on the Bakerloo line we know we are around half an hour behind Soup Dragon and get the depressing news that Starkey has just finished at Dagenham EAST....

We run from Kenton to Northwick Park (watching a hopper go past us) and as we are going through the barriers an eastbound is pulling in, we just about get on as the doors are closing and bugger its for Uxbridge, not ideal with the remaining stations being the "Harrows", "Ruislips" and "Actons".....
Oh well one last gamble we run from WEST to NORTH Harrow and the first train departing is Northbound..... We get on this in the hope of getting a bus from Pinner to SOUTH Harrow.... as we leave Pinner station a bus is in sight a mad dash to catch it and unfortunately it's going to have to be Ruislip Manor......

Waiting for 10 mins at Ruislip Manor we get news from Nozzacook and Soup Dragon that they have met at WEST Acton and will be finishing in tied 2nd place with identical times.........

Heading down to NORTH Ealing we leave the station for the run to WEST Acton and there is Starkey running towards us...

He had completed all stations, finished at Dagenham EAST and got all the way back over to this side of the network while we still had 4 stations to go.............

We headed back to N.H.G. for something to eat, before saying goodbye to Nozzacook & Jnr as they were off to Paddington to get the sleeper back down to the West Country.......

Would like to try this again from a different starting station and with better route planning methinks........

[43019]

Sounds like it was all fun and games then!

Whilst on the same day I dealt with the farce us NR bashers prefer to call the ECML...Went MML up north instead, 95 minutes early! Even LUL manage to operate the Central and Northern lines better it seems...

*Wonders if that was too tough a sentence on the ECML...Being worse than the Northern line, that's hard to do...*

[Soup Dragon]

It took some time, but I've finally put all the pictures & report from this challenge. It was another victory for Starkey but only by 1h19m

http://pic5.piczo.com/tubedragon/?g=33477674

[Root]

Crikey, you were thrashed. Perhaps our only hope is that Starkey will get bored of waiting around after the finish and end up going slower, taking the odd scenic route...

[Soup Dragon]

I think we need to start handicapping young Starkey. Perhaps by putting lead weights in his shorts or something
I'm desperate to claim one record and the only way to get one is to create another random challenge that only about 3 people will ever attempt! Either that or perhaps we could have special veterans records just for me & Kev

[Starkey7]

Well perhaps a handicap of mine is that I do throw some random ideas into some of my routes, such as using the Waterloo and City line, or going halfway round the Circle line just to avoid changing trains.

[Soup Dragon]

Well perhaps a handicap of mine is that I do throw some random ideas into some of my routes, such as using the Waterloo and City line, or going halfway round the Circle line just to avoid changing trains.

You fully deserve all your records, i'm just very jealous that's all.
It would be nice if you had the 275 as well, but apparently you've got a couple of old geezers that slow you down on that one.

[tubeguru]

It has been well-proved over time that us "old geezers" doi indeed tend to hog the 275 records

Only a couple of interlopers in there.

[Starkey7]

Well, if you Browns or Ric and Dave hadn't been around, I'd never have even considered doing a 275!