Tube Olympics - Random 15 Challenge - 19th July

[Going Underground]

I think the beers had started to kick in when the boos, hisses and cries of cheat were heard..

Well Beer Baron takes credit for most of our route with one or two tweeks by GU....

The plan was to double back at Russell Sq. and of course forgot it was closed...

Anyway on to Kings X to then head Whitechapel on this part of the journey we saw Tangy, Greatkingrat & Soup Dragon's team....
We lost everyone at Embankment after knocking off Blackfriars & Temple... And we were now on a Wimbledon train with all the Celtic fans drinking scotch and heading to the match at Fulham We took out South Ken as well....
Our plan then was to change at Earls Court and attack Ravenscourt/Ken Oly or HSK depending on what came in next....
It was and Edgware Road service so upto HSK where indeed we saw Matt & Steven, Andrew & Lewis and Richard & Justin.....A lot of teams in one place at one time...

A run to the bus stop and a slow route 10 to Ken Oly a few minutes wait here to board the train that we had arrived at HSK on

We were reunited with Andrew & Lewis again and the lady driver spotted our Tube Olympic t-shirts and asked us why we doing the challenge on a Saturday and I explained that is wasn't the full network... She very kindly left a minute or 2 early to we headed back to Earls Court and on arrival 2 x Wimbledon's were in both westbound platforms with more Celtic fans...

A short wait for a Richmond service and onto to Ravenscourt Park with a rather annoying wait at Hammersmith for a few minutes on the way through...
A rather sexy double back at Ravsenscourt to Hammersmith and across the road to the H & C...about a 4 min wait before we left and then my A - Z came in handly for the Royal Oak - Warwick Avenue run with a couple of twists & turns over the canal...

We departed Warwick Ave on a Queens Park terminator and quickly picked up a an Overground to Kensal Green . A nice double back here but we were held in the sheds at Queens Park for a few minutes while they put another Bakerloo into service.....

Down to Baker St for the Jub line to Bond St & Green Park Piccadilly Line to Pic Circus where we had a very sexy change onto the Bakerloo down to E & C...

The finally the Northern Line down to Clapham South

Bring on the next Saturday R15.......

[joy54]

It would be interesting to see Hakan's computer route for these stations, but our winning route was:

Holborn- Kings Cross St Pancras- Barons Court- Ravenscourt Park- Bus 27 to Olympia- HSK- Paddington- Queens Park- Bus 6 to near Kensal Green- Run to Kensal Green- Baker Street- Bond Street- Oxford Circus- Embankment- Whitechapel- Monument- Run through to Bank- Clapham South.

[Going Underground]

I think the beers had started to kick in when the boos, hisses and cries of cheat were heard..

OK, fair enough, I probably over-reacted. Beer though has the tendancy to make people say what they really think does it not? I don't want anyone going around thinking we didn't do this, cos I wouldn't run around the tube for 2/4/18 hours if I was just going to lie about it at the end. That would be pointless..

No they were aimed at Steven and not you anyway........

Actually I don't even know who was doing the cat calling, but I am sure it was an attempt at light hearted banter...........

[Going Underground]

I was just thinking there will be a new "twist" to next Saturday R15..... The 1pm start seemed to suit most people so as well as logistical route planning just think about the possibility of avoiding crowds at Chelsea, West Ham, Arsenal and the like depending on who is home that day.... even more fun......

[jbom1]

By the way, having now read carefully the R15 rules on the Tube Olympics site,

"You must visit all stations by use of London Underground"

I'm wondering whether my visiting Kensal Green only by track-sharing LO services (which I think would be OK for a GWR) was legal for the R15?

[Soup Dragon]

Yes, for all challenges we take the same ruling as applied by Guinness, therefore a visit using London Overground sharing the same tracks is legal.

[Perry Vale]

Ric Mansworth and I loved the R15, and were pretty pleased with our Olympic debut. With a little more use of the brain at the beginning, we would have finished comfortably in Silver - not doubling back through Russell Square was fairly foolish. Other than that, our route was virtually the same as the Gold medalists, with the exception of going from Bond Street through Russell Square to Kings Cross (returning to change at Holborn was fairly depressing), then picking up a H&C to Whitechapel, back along the District to Blackfriars/Temple, and then heading South.

Congratulations to all the medalists, thanks Antony for organising, and good luck to everyone for the big one tomorrow.

[jbom1]

I now get the feeling (comparing with next weekend's timetable) the the Southern service from Olympia to Clapham J was actually running last Saturday(?), even though the LO one was replaced by gridlocked buses.

I can see that a lot of homework is going to be required to do well (or, in my case, less spectacularly badly) on the next R15 (which may well happen when the London overground is completely stuffed up this autumn).

[Starkey7]

Indeed it was happening. But there was only one train every hour (at 42 minutes past) from Kensington Olympia and one train every hour (at 3 minutes past) from Clapham Junction. So it would have been a very lucky change if you had got it!

[jbom1]

If anyone's still interested, the map of this is at

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jbo.mitche ... 190708.jpg