Z1 Attempt...

[snudge27]

Evening chaps

As promised by Going Underground - here be the write-up of my reasonably successful Z1 on Friday...

Good Bits...
Very sexy first change of the day from District to District at Earl's Court

Not having to wait more than 2 minutes for a train for most of the time (see below...)

Changing to the Northern at Euston and haring onto the platform to find the only train on the board just pulling in... I think this was just as they were suspending the line!!

Instinctively choosing to avoid the last escalator at Westminster and instead choosing to use the stairs... and finding a District Line train sitting at the platform and sprinting for it... and making it too!

Some stupidly sexy changes where the train was either in the platform or just pulling in (75% of the time!!)


Bad bits...
One extremely poor change at Aldgate East where I had to wait getting on for 5-10 minutes for my penultimate train of the day.

A stupidly long dwell time at Hyde Park Corner as the driver decided to stop for a chat

Poor positioning on the trains, 9/10 times I had to run most of the length of the platform because I had little/no knowledge of which carriages to be in.

The aftermath of my sprint for the District Line train at Westminster, which found me curled up against the door for the best part of a couple of minutes!

Sitting between Edgware Road and Paddington for what seemed like an eternity before the train finally pulled away... veeeery slowly

My Oyster charging me two penalty fares!!

The journey between Victoria and Vauxhall (the last one of the day) which seemed to last an eternity!

Sooo... my time...
...
...
2:44:21

I'm really pleased with the time what with it being my first attempt and all. I reckon on a better day (which I'll probably never get) and with better knowledge of positioning I could beat the record by a good couple of minutes. If it hadn't been for the District Line who knows what I could have got!!

Thanks to GU for the support and I look forward to meeting some of you guys in the near future

[jamesthegill]

The journey between Victoria and Vauxhall (the last one of the day) which seemed to last an eternity!

It always does when you're on a tube challenge, the final stretch where you're waiting to leap out of the doors takes ages!

You coming to the DLR thing on Tues?

[dudey]

i get the feeling your route is very, very similar to mine.

well done though! absolutely amazing time for a first attempt, 2nd best ever according to jonny's site! i would advise getting yourself a copy of the 'way out map', definently very useful for making up those last couple of minutes on zone ones. a lot of people don't trust it very much but i havn't found much wrong with it in zone 1 at least.

i'm going out for a 2nd attempt at my 2nd attempt at my (earls court) ultimate z1 route on tuesday afternoon, hopefully there won't be the wrong type of rain on the lines at all this time! made a couple of minor alterations to the route also but i may start my watch at gloucester road and see if i can get a good connection onto a edgware road train at earls court which will save me a bit of time later on.

i shall be either bragging about my time or keeping quiet when we meet for the DLR later in the day!

[Soup Dragon]

Well done on such a good time (the 2nd fastest in history)
I must admit that I would have never considered Gloucs Rd as a starting station, I can't seem to get a good route with anything less than around 15/16 changes. Your changes must have been "Super Sexy" given that you didnt have the correct door position in 9 out of 10 changes, it must be beginners luck.

[snudge27]

Well done on such a good time (the 2nd fastest in history)
I must admit that I would have never considered Gloucs Rd as a starting station, I can't seem to get a good route with anything less than around 15/16 changes. Your changes must have been "Super Sexy" given that you didnt have the correct door position in 9 out of 10 changes, it must be beginners luck.

Yeah - I really couldn't believe my luck! I was sitting on each train expecting something to go seriously tits up at the next change, but all was good until Aldgate East!!

Door positioning is the next big planning aspect though, considering I had to run the entire length of the platform at Victoria for my last change, when I was really on my last legs!

The Z1 is one hell of a workout though, I'll give it that!!

[Starkey7]

I'm getting slightly worried about my record staying intact now! One of these days someone's going to break the 2 hour 40 minute target.