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BERC update ........
Unfotunately I'm going to be unable to attend which is rather annoying as I already purchased advanced tickets for today. Anyhow I will ring Kevin or anyone with loupspeaker on their phone so I can give the list of stations.
Sorry for the last minute withdrawal.

After discussion with The BERC he is going to TEXT the stations to me just before 3pm. So I will just open the text and read them out if OK with all?

Right, decided not to come along to this one. Might be for the best! Enjoy the event and hopefully see you at the next R15!

Adam.

Well wasn't that a fun day

What with The Lords Mayor's Show and groups of people/parties with Union Jacks, Christmas shoppers, and several lines closed passengers were were rammed onto the few that were in service... There was a signal failure at Finsbury Park causing delays eastound on the Picc of well over 20 mins at the time all the teams were trying to get to Arsenal (The chosen finishing station of all). We had a fire alert at Holborn and trains not stopping there, I also heard that some trains also went straight through stations because the platforms were too busy...
It was impossible to walk let alone run at Embankment or TCR where the narrow passageways were simply full of people wall-to-wall.
Then I had the "lift" incident with Peter at Edgware Rd (Bakerloo) where we had 4-5 mins to get the The Circle line station for a "Wimbleware"
We got straight in the lift which we had all to ourselves, it went up the doors didn't open it went down It then filled up with passengers to bursting and eventually went up again. We had about 90 seconds to do the run and avoid a 10 min delay and as we run down the stairs to the platform about 2 steps from the bottom the train with "Wimbledon" on the front pulled away
I also had trouble at Warwick Avenue where what I thought was the only station entrance had the shutters locked and I assumed the station was closed not knowing there was another entrance across the road

Anyway 4 people too part and the stations drawn were; Warren St., White City, Euston, Kilburn Park, Edgware Rd(Bak), Arsenal, Kensal Green,
Westbourne Park, Earls Court, E & C, Royal Oak, Blackfriars, Picc Circus & Holland Pk.

Not a bad set and the 4 teams all set of Westwards talking about a possible R15 record time not knowing the "fun" that was shortly coming our way

Here are the results

4th Peter - 14 stations visited and watch may still be running and has yet to visit Arsenal so could be an intersting time. The BERC ruled that if all 15 stations not completed then points still given based on number of stations visited
3rd Tangy at Arsenal 3 29 06
2nd Joe at Arsenal 3 09 16
1st Kevin at Arsenal 3 00 16 (I had already penned a time of 2 4 ready to complete the last bit when my train stopped between Holloway Rd and Arsenal....

Well at the least the pub was good, a very easy walk from St Pauls and Roger and Matt turned up and we got 20 rounds of darts in

This was my route:

First, I went west with everybody via Holland Park to White City, where I ran to Wood Lane (that was a hard run! I didn't have the energy left to run up the stairs at Wood Lane station). I then took out Westbourne Park and Royal Oak, considered running to Warwick Avenue but then would have had to knock off Edgware Road somewhere else, so decided instead to stay on the train until Edgware Road (Circle/District/H&C) then made the run to the other Edgware Road (where I ran to the lift and had to wait a few seconds, but decided to stick with it as it wasn't worth then running down the spiral staircase, which I didn't like to have to do - I'd run to the lift but saw that the stairs were in a different direction a second too late, so I just waited for the lift). I then ended up being with Tangy for a while, going northbound through Kilburn Park to Queen's park where the train terminated, changed onto another Bakerloo line train to Kensal Green, went to the opposite platform and got on an LO train to Euston (which fortunately was the first to arrive). Got to Euston, got on the same Northern Line train with tangy (where I then lost sight of him) through Warren Street to Waterloo, changed onto the Bakerloo line to Elephant and Castle where I just missed a Northern Line train northwards to Bank. Then I did the run to Monument where I got a sexy change onto a westbound District Line train via Blackfriars to Earl's Court. Changed to the Piccadilly line where I saw Peter and tangy running the other way (from memory, this was a sexy change) and got on my last train of the challenge through Piccadilly Circus towards the finish at Arsenal, but at Holloway Road (one station away!) it sat there for ages with PA announcements about a signal failure at Finsbury Park. It seemed to sit there for ages and at one point he said that he had a green signal but could not go as he had to get the go-ahead (what does that mean? I thought they could just go if they had a green signal after closing the doors). But it finally got to my finish at Arsenal.

On the way back to the pub, I decided to use St Pauls station, so planned to take the Piccadilly Line back from Arsenal to Holborn then the Central Line to St Pauls. But as the train was pulling into Holborn, I heard an announcement on the station tannoy telling all passengers to leave the station immediately. The train passed through without stopping making the announcement that Holborn Station was closed because of an emergency. So I stayed on until Leicester Square, took the Northern Line to Tottenham Court Road then changed to the Central Line through packed pedestrian interchange tunnels where I could only shuffle along, then went through Holborn again (also without stopping and we were then told it was a fire alert; I remember at one point on the journey to the pub that the Piccadilly Line was suspended I think between Leicester Square and Finsbury Park) to St Pauls. I wouldn't describe the walk to the Rising Sun from St Pauls as 'very easy' like Going Underground; it was a bit fiddly (I had to consult my A to Z a couple of times and actually by mistake started walking up the wrong street which meant a I went a slightly longer way round).

Anyway, I played some darts in the pub then decided to leave myself plenty of time to get back to Marylebone for my train (with the walk to St Pauls and a change at Oxford Circus, anticipating a shuffling along change like at Tottenham Court Road) but got there with plenty of time to spare and no difficulty with the change (Holborn station was open again when I went through).

I found that my route was fairly obvious and 'picked itself' - I started going westbound with everybody else and decoded to plan it as I was going along, and I found that the route became obvious - after Edgware Road, the obvious route was to go up to Kensal Green and then get the Overground train to Euston, and with Piccadilly Circus being on the Piccadilly Line, it seemed obvious to do it on the way to the finish at Arsenal (an obvious finishing station because you had no options from there).

The pub was good, yes - and the darts was fun.

And surprisingly cheap Old Brewery Bitter, too.

You will all no doubt be thrilled to learn that I did finally pass through Arsenal today, setting the longest R15 time ever of 76 hours, 18 minutes and 50 seconds.

greatkingrat wrote:You will all no doubt be thrilled to learn that I did finally pass through Arsenal today, setting the longest R15 time ever of 76 hours, 18 minutes and 50 seconds.

Caps off Peter, that one may stand for some time......

Going Underground wrote:

greatkingrat wrote:You will all no doubt be thrilled to learn that I did finally pass through Arsenal today, setting the longest R15 time ever of 76 hours, 18 minutes and 50 seconds.

Caps off Peter, that one may stand for some time......

I've got a fairly good long completion time for a FNC...

RichieG wrote:

Going Underground wrote:

greatkingrat wrote:You will all no doubt be thrilled to learn that I did finally pass through Arsenal today, setting the longest R15 time ever of 76 hours, 18 minutes and 50 seconds.

Caps off Peter, that one may stand for some time......

I've got a fairly good long completion time for a FNC...

You and me both \/ \/ \/