I Give You The Christmas Park Challenge

[hwolge]

This is getting interestingly confusing! As I see it, there is an ambition to keep the rule set GWRish, with the ADDED twist of taking photos of each station. In this case every station should be arrived at, departed from or stopped at on a LU train. Because of the photo twist, I'd say the natural modification of this rule would be:
* You have to either
a) Arrive at the station (on an LU-compatible train) exit it and then take an exterior picture of it.
or
b) Taking an exterior picture, then enter the station and depart from it (on an LU-compatible train)
or, of course a combination of those two.

When it comes to Regent´s Park, the following alternatives could be considered:
A) Skipping it altogether.
B) A pass-through is enough
C) An exterior photo is enough
D) Both a pass-through and an exterior photo is needed

Thinking about it, only A & D make sense to me - and personally I'd vote for A!

[Going Underground]

This is getting interestingly confusing! As I see it, there is an ambition to keep the rule set GWRish, with the ADDED twist of taking photos of each station. In this case every station should be arrived at, departed from or stopped at on a LU train. Because of the photo twist, I'd say the natural modification of this rule would be:
* You have to either
a) Arrive at the station (on an LU-compatible train) exit it and then take an exterior picture of it.
or
b) Taking an exterior picture, then enter the station and depart from it (on an LU-compatible train)
or, of course a combination of those two.

When it comes to Regent´s Park, the following alternatives could be considered:
A) Skipping it altogether.
B) A pass-through is enough
C) An exterior photo is enough
D) Both a pass-through and an exterior photo is needed

Thinking about it, only A & D make sense to me - and personally I'd vote for A!

Oh the beauty of the park challenge with a closed station to add to the twist of taking an external station photograph....

Can we get a vote on the rules from the particpants prior to the start on Wednesday please so I can strategically plan my route...

G.U. votes for the following....

1) The challenge and stopwatch starts and ends with the external station photograph (or sketch in Ric's case)

2) Regents park should be visited as a "pass through" but NOT externally photographed......

I need to be at Amersham sometime that evening for a meal with friends and the external photo of Regents Park will be a pain

I await the votes of fellow competitors and will happily go along with the majority verdict

[Dr Who]

From now on GU is in charge I have had enough off this crap challenge

[Going Underground]

From now on GU is in charge I have had enough off this crap challenge

I don't agree that the challenge itself is crap...... I think the concept is good and route planning is very interesting......
It's just a pisser that Regents Park is shut at the moment and has caused this confusion over how the rules should be applied....

[Soup Dragon]

From now on GU is in charge I have had enough off this crap challenge

I don't agree that the challenge itself is crap...... I think the concept is good and route planning is very interesting......
It's just a pisser that Regents Park is shut at the moment and has caused this confusion over how the rules should be applied....

I'm not doing the challange so it's easy for me to sit back and wind you lot up... however, being serious, if you don't visit Regents Park it will devalue your times as you have only photographed 23 of the stations. Maybe you could agree that if you don't get a photo of Regents Park there is a penalty of something like 15 minutes added to your time?

[Going Underground]

From now on GU is in charge I have had enough off this crap challenge

I don't agree that the challenge itself is crap...... I think the concept is good and route planning is very interesting......
It's just a pisser that Regents Park is shut at the moment and has caused this confusion over how the rules should be applied....

I'm not doing the challange so it's easy for me to sit back and wind you lot up... however, being serious, if you don't visit Regents Park it will devalue your times as you have only photographed 23 of the stations. Maybe you could agree that if you don't get a photo of Regents Park there is a penalty of something like 15 minutes added to your time?

Ummm not sure here.....

The idea is that you have to enter or exit every park station in order to be able to take your photo. For example you could arrive Green Park on the Piccadilly Line exit station and take the photo. Then run to Hyde Park Corner take your photo and enter the station and depart on Piccadilly.... Thus departing or arriving at both of these stations....

However that option is NOT currently available at Regents Park where you cannot enter or exit the station......

So how about a photo of the platform being acceptable as a pass-through?

Good this topic isn't it

[Dr Who]

[So how about a photo of the platform being acceptable as a pass-through?

Hear Hear

[standclearofthedoors]

I'd say you can get away with only a photo. So running from Portland St would be acceptable for example. Doing both seems senseless.

[tpfkar]

As the whole quirk of the challenge is the photo, that rule should stay for Regent's Park. Not all that bothered about whether a pass-through is also needed. (i.e. my route doesn't currently have one, but it wouldn't be a big addition )

If you really want to make the challenge interesting, make the ONLY condition for visiting each station taking a photo of the outside, you can arrive however you like and don't have to use the tube at all!

[Going Underground]

As the whole quirk of the challenge is the photo, that rule should stay for Regent's Park. Not all that bothered about whether a pass-through is also needed. (i.e. my route doesn't currently have one, but it wouldn't be a big addition )

If you really want to make the challenge interesting, make the ONLY condition for visiting each station taking a photo of the outside, you can arrive however you like and don't have to use the tube at all!

I would say that the normal challenge rules should apply, in that you really should arrive or depart at each station by tube as well....
Looks like we are heading for a final decision being made on the day itself. Unless we can all agree before next Weds

[tpfkar]

Looks like we are heading for a final decision being made on the day itself. Unless we can all agree before next Weds

Whoever said we have a democracy, let alone need a consensus? As the organiser, just call it. Would be useful to know for planning though.

[Going Underground]

Looks like we are heading for a final decision being made on the day itself. Unless we can all agree before next Weds

Whoever said we have a democracy, let alone need a consensus? As the organiser, just call it. Would be useful to know for planning though.

Right let's go for the "full monty" then an external photo of every "park" station and a tube visit of every "park" station. To include Regents Park as a pass through....
Start planning cos this is gonna be a long day I feel..... I spent 3 hours looking at this on Sunday my "planned" route has 4 bus connections, 2 national rail connections and 4 to 5 runs between stations depending on catching a bus or not

Please try and get to Wimbledon Park as near to 1030 am as possible....
I will be heading northbound but will Ric be causing controversy as usual by going south

[tpfkar]

I will be heading northbound but will Ric be causing controversy as usual by going south

You'll have to wait till Wednesday before finding that one out!

[Going Underground]

I will be heading northbound but will Ric be causing controversy as usual by going south

You'll have to wait till Wednesday before finding that one out!

Actually having looked at ths again a pretty decent case could be made for heading south from Wimbledon Park

[tpfkar]

I'll post in more detail later, but it was a great day yesterday.

In brief, I was a little late arriving, having parked in Rickmansworth so we agreed that I would start from Canon's Park instead of Wimbledon Park.

After a false start (yes, I made such a mess of it, I missed the train after fumbling with my camera/ticket/watch) my first few connections went very well. Was a tiring route with many unusual runs, but a beautiful cool day. Worst moment was having to wait well over half an hour for an Uxbridge train to get me to Park Royal. Best was probably a heroic leap through the closing doors at Tufnell Park; the other occupants of the carriage all stared at me after flying into the carriage at some speed

I also think I am the first person to run past the front of Buckingham Palace on an alternative challenge attempt? I also had to buy another camera en route as I hadn't realised how many parks there were before starting.....oops!

I left all the difficult ones till last, so was very relieved when the 364 which tubeguru had looked out for us turned up quickly. I then headed out to Elm Park, and back for an Upton Park finish, in a time of 8 hours, 8 minutes, and some seconds. (too lazy to find timing sheet)

We then had an enjoyable curry in Amersham, with Soup Dragon, and I got back to MK just before 1am.

A very tough challenge - but a novel idea, the photos element means you see some places you'd never see on a tube challenge, and it was great weather for it. Definitely worth having a go at sometime.