Re: Sub-surface Challenge 2016
Posted: 15 May 2016, 16:10
And the winner is... ME! 
Time 7:15:37, finishing at Upminster.
Amersham
Chalfont & Latimer Chesham Moor Park Watford North Harrow bus to Rayners Lane Uxbridge Baker Street Hammersmith (Cir/H&C) run to Hammersmith (Dis/Pic) Pic to Acton Town Ealing Broadway Chiswick Park run to Gunnersbury Richmond West Kensington run to Kensington (Olympia) Earl's Court Wimbledon Earl's Court High Street Kensington Paddington (B/C/D) Great Portland Street (the long way round) Aldgate run to Aldgate East Barking Upminster
So, I made a bad planning error, putting down a wrong time for Moor Park that had me making the -1 minute connection, which of course didn't happen and put me 16 minutes down leaving Watford, with the probable outcome of being 20 minutes down later at KenO.
Proceeded to Uxbridge as described by TOO, and headed back down the Met with GU, intending to double back at KXSP. At Baker Street the train was held in the station and a light bulb went on - I'm sure GU had the same idea for me - and I bailed to catch the train that I planned to catch at KXSP. I do now have a longer double-back to do later, but at least I can follow my plan for now.
Only I don't.
The train is a minute early arriving at Hammersmith (H&C) and at the other Hammersmith there's a Pic in the platform when I planned to go to Richmond first. I go to Acton Town, get a District to Ealing Broadway, but it's a slow double-back, and then a slow connection after the Chiswick Park to Gunnersbury run. But I do get a 30 second reverse at Richmond. I end up back at West Kensington 2 minutes after my schedule but I've still got plenty of time for the KenO run and make the train with no problem.
And then a few extraordinary things happen...
The KenO train leaves 30 seconds early and seems to race into Earl's Court. I'm up over the bridge and straight onto the front of a Wimbledon train and ahead by a train. Good job I'm at the front because I have to run around the platforms to catch the train back, which is headed to Tower Hill, but I'm a train up still. I'm wondering about gambling at Gloucester Road, but then I realise I'm on perfect schedule to get another KenO shuttle. I get off at Earl's Court, the KenO shuttle rocks up a minute later, I get to HSK and there's a Circle line train in the cross platform. I race onto it and it leaves immediately. Up over the bridge with a perfect door position at Paddington just as an anti-clockwise Circle train arrives one minute late! I'm suddenly a whole Circle train up on my plan, albeit with an extra double-back to do.
A long haul now around to GPS. In the Barbican/Farringdon area, where there's some daylight, I check the live departures on my phone, but it's clear I'm not going to get my original train at GPS, and it looks like it will be Met-Circle-Met, when I really want an H&C. I get a Met to Aldgate and run to Aldgate East. The worst that can happen is I'll get the H&C that was a few trains behind, and when I get to Aldgate East there's an empty platform and the sign simply says 'Barking'. Phooey!
However, it turns out this a District line train to Barking (still phooey!), but when I get to Barking, the next train is an Upminster service and the one after that is a terminator, presumably the H&C, so I have gained a train. I arrive at Upminster one District line train down - about five minutes - on my original schedule.
As TOO says, there's a lot of boring sections on this challenge, but I had a lot of fun improvising the middle sections.
Time 7:15:37, finishing at Upminster.
Amersham
Chalfont & Latimer Chesham Moor Park Watford North Harrow bus to Rayners Lane Uxbridge Baker Street Hammersmith (Cir/H&C) run to Hammersmith (Dis/Pic) Pic to Acton Town Ealing Broadway Chiswick Park run to Gunnersbury Richmond West Kensington run to Kensington (Olympia) Earl's Court Wimbledon Earl's Court High Street Kensington Paddington (B/C/D) Great Portland Street (the long way round) Aldgate run to Aldgate East Barking UpminsterSo, I made a bad planning error, putting down a wrong time for Moor Park that had me making the -1 minute connection, which of course didn't happen and put me 16 minutes down leaving Watford, with the probable outcome of being 20 minutes down later at KenO.
Proceeded to Uxbridge as described by TOO, and headed back down the Met with GU, intending to double back at KXSP. At Baker Street the train was held in the station and a light bulb went on - I'm sure GU had the same idea for me - and I bailed to catch the train that I planned to catch at KXSP. I do now have a longer double-back to do later, but at least I can follow my plan for now.
Only I don't.
The train is a minute early arriving at Hammersmith (H&C) and at the other Hammersmith there's a Pic in the platform when I planned to go to Richmond first. I go to Acton Town, get a District to Ealing Broadway, but it's a slow double-back, and then a slow connection after the Chiswick Park to Gunnersbury run. But I do get a 30 second reverse at Richmond. I end up back at West Kensington 2 minutes after my schedule but I've still got plenty of time for the KenO run and make the train with no problem.
And then a few extraordinary things happen...
The KenO train leaves 30 seconds early and seems to race into Earl's Court. I'm up over the bridge and straight onto the front of a Wimbledon train and ahead by a train. Good job I'm at the front because I have to run around the platforms to catch the train back, which is headed to Tower Hill, but I'm a train up still. I'm wondering about gambling at Gloucester Road, but then I realise I'm on perfect schedule to get another KenO shuttle. I get off at Earl's Court, the KenO shuttle rocks up a minute later, I get to HSK and there's a Circle line train in the cross platform. I race onto it and it leaves immediately. Up over the bridge with a perfect door position at Paddington just as an anti-clockwise Circle train arrives one minute late! I'm suddenly a whole Circle train up on my plan, albeit with an extra double-back to do.
A long haul now around to GPS. In the Barbican/Farringdon area, where there's some daylight, I check the live departures on my phone, but it's clear I'm not going to get my original train at GPS, and it looks like it will be Met-Circle-Met, when I really want an H&C. I get a Met to Aldgate and run to Aldgate East. The worst that can happen is I'll get the H&C that was a few trains behind, and when I get to Aldgate East there's an empty platform and the sign simply says 'Barking'. Phooey!
However, it turns out this a District line train to Barking (still phooey!), but when I get to Barking, the next train is an Upminster service and the one after that is a terminator, presumably the H&C, so I have gained a train. I arrive at Upminster one District line train down - about five minutes - on my original schedule.
As TOO says, there's a lot of boring sections on this challenge, but I had a lot of fun improvising the middle sections.
. I needed to be in London in the evening, and did what I usually do of crossing off more uncompleted lines during the day. Remembered last minute that this was happening, so made half baked plans to see if I could bump into people at the start of the challenge and cross off the north west corner in the process. Apparently you were all there but the timings were off. I was eagerly waiting at Chalfont & Latimer for a dash of people off an eastbound train