Anyone know if there is more than one entrance to the station? The only one I can remember is the one under Portcullis House across from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Would be good to have the clock chiming for 12:30 starting us off but not sure how possible that is.
Also, does using a felt tip pen to draw on a beard count as a costume?
Go Pack Go!
One of the New York Six
Zone One Champion 2014 and 2025
Former holder of Zone One, Overground and DLR record
The Raven wrote:
Anyone know if there is more than one entrance to the station? The only one I can remember is the one under Portcullis House across from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.
There are 6 mate - one is from the pier services, one leads out next to a TESCO, 2 are subways just across from Parliament Square, and the one you mentioned.
1 FNC Completion (PB: 17:18:18 with G Bryant, A Chilcraft, I MacNaughton)
4 Zone Ones (PB: 03:00:35 with G Bryant)
15 R15s (PB: 01:55:48 with T Cooling and R Jackson)
11 All Lines (PB: 00:44:03) Winner of the 2014 Formula 1 Side Competition
A win is a win, but I feel it was a luck based win rather than a skill based win. Didn't get caught up with the Bakerloo line issue or the Holloway road closure. And had perfect 1 minute waits everywhere!
MylesHSG wrote:A win is a win, but I feel it was a luck based win rather than a skill based win. Didn't get caught up with the Bakerloo line issue or the Holloway road closure. And had perfect 1 minute waits everywhere!
Well played Myles we bullied you into a solo attempt and your "outside of the box" thinking paid dividends
Also well done to The Raven for being an excellent sub "BERC"
Twice former full network GWR holder and former Zone 1 Olympic and World Record holder with The Raven and Soupie Tube personality of the year 2009 Twice Winter Olympic Biathlon Gold Medalist with The Beer Baron 2008 All Lines Olympic Gold
Ditto. Found a little info about the Bakerloo Issues. A Virgin West Coast train bought down a power line bringing all 4 mainline tracks to a halt for 6 hours. The DC line had to be shut off to allow stranded passengers to get off the trains aound 14:00 causing massive delays to the Bakerloo and Overground.
Results changed in light of Myles missing Hammersmith (H+C/Cir)
It was an interesting round 3 of Random 15 with issues at Holloway Road and on the Bakerloo line
The stations that where selected were:
Westminster
Swiss Cottage
Caledonian Road
Embankment
Kilburn
Kilburn Park
Holloway Road
Kentish Town
Hammersmith (H+C/Cir)
South Kensington
Moorgate
King's Cross St. Pancras
Oxford Circus
Tottenham Court Road
Bethnal Green
The results
7th Myles
2:26:16 at 14 stations (Missing Hammersmith (H+C/Cir)) Bethnal Green
My day started with what a lot of people did saw embankment came out and got that out of the way first poor start as 5 of us were waiting for a long time.But peter kevin and glen and myself stayed together until after hamersmith when good running by myself and peter lost the other two on a run from royal oak to warwick avenue and exiting Kilburn park i decided to run the whole way to Kilburn (which isnt for the faint hearted i tell ya) and i lost Peter so was now alone in hindsight i shouldnt have switched at Baker street for bakerloo to Oxford circus but i did and probs cost me a win.But i was torn between my two finishing stations i chose Bethnal green so changed at Holborn (and boy was that a busy station i missed a train here which i could have got but no way through the crowds) and went up to Holloway Road which i had to go further to Arsenal and back to Caledonian road costing me time.
A run i havent done before also cost me time as i exited station wrong way but soon got back on track and ran into Kentish town for a long journey down to Bank and changed to bethnal green.All in all not too bad slightly hampered by choice of arsenal fans and maybe i should have chose Caldeonian road as finishing station but happy with 2nd place.
Well my route was very different to say the least. I didn't rush down to the district platforms upon seeing Embankment. I stayed upstairs for an extra 30 seconds or so to weigh up my options. I went to the nothbound (westbound signposted for some reason) on the Jubilee up to Kilburn doubled back to West Hampstead and caught a Overground to Willsden Junction. So far everything went swimingly with near perfect interchanges. Went southbound on the Bakerloo with the intention of catching a H+C from Padington to Hammersith (which incendently would have been the right Hammersmith!), for the driver to say that no other tube lines were running out of Paddington. So I carried on down to Embankment and again had a perfect interchange onto a Westbound District (after getting though a huge crowd of French school children). Carried on to Hammersmith (the wrong one ) and got on a eastbound Pic to Green Park. Did a quick triange using the Vic and Central to take out TCR and then a change at Holburn onto another Pic. Up to Holloway Road (before it shut ) and a bus waiting with its rear doors open outside. Up the bus lane all the way to Archway and then again a 1 minute wait for a southbound Bank branch. Down to Bank and then a quick hop to Bethnal Green.
To my surprise I had initially thought I was the winner by 10 minutes or so, but upon reading Raven's post with the stations listed I saw the "Hammersmith (Circle and H+C)"
My route:
Westminster Embankment Hammersmith (Pic/Dis) Hammersmith (H+C/Cir) Royal Oak Warwick Avenue Queen's Park Kilburn Park Kilburn Bond Street Bethnal Green Liverpool Street King's Cross Holloway Road Archway Kentish Town
As has been already said I was with Andi, Kevin, Peter until Warwick avenue when I lost Peter and Andi on the run and got a later train out of Warwick Avenue. I then when I got to Queen's Park, planning to change at Willesden Junction, I was greeted with nothing going north. So doubled back to Kilburn Park and got a bus to Kilburn. But the road was so congested it would have been quicker to WALK!
Got to Kilburn just miss a Jubilee, dam! At Oxford Circus changed my mind about my route and run from the door position for Holborn to Bethnal Green. The driver then come on the intercom "Could people please not run down the train when the train is in the platform" Spoilsport!
Go to Bethnal Green and doubled back to Liverpool Street. From Liverpool Street I had all 1-2 mins changes to Holloway Road where I got the bus to Archway (Third R15 I've got a bus between Archway to Holloway Road).
Number of lost people helped:3
Last edited by The Raven on 08 Nov 2011, 08:19, edited 1 time in total.
Go Pack Go!
One of the New York Six
Zone One Champion 2014 and 2025
Former holder of Zone One, Overground and DLR record
Tough luck Myles, I did a similar thing on one of the early R15's organised by Ric before the championship was in place.. we had to visit Paddington "mainline" which I discovered at the meet up afterwards meant the H & C branch.....
Well as in other posts 4 of us were together until out run by Andi & Peter to Warwick Ave (which was always gonna happen ) and didn't help that I went the slightly long way as well, somehow missing the optimum road...........
Like Glen I was planning on going to Willesden Junction but everything on the board was showing Queens Park and as I got out of the Northbound Bakerloo at Kilburn Park was arriving so I decided to double back to Baker Street and up to Kilburn from there... I saw that the A5 connected Kilburn Park Kilburn and experienced bad delays on this on buses on the last R15.......
After that all the changes went fairly well, a couple of 3 min waits being the worst other than that were all immediate connections...
So doubling back from Kilburn my finish was Baker Street Oxford Circus (onto the ususal R15 "Woodford via Hainault" ) also not sure why I didn't just change at Bond Street for the Central but don't think I lost any time Bethnal Green double back Liverpool Steet Kings Cross (on the lovely "A" Stock ) Kentish Town double back Kings Cross (via Camden but no time saved) Holloway Road..
Some quieter trains for once on a Saturday which was helped by fewer closures and was only really busy at the start and from Camden Town to the finish where I noticed several Arsenal fans still heading to the game some 15-20 mins after it had started
Overall a kind set of station with nothing South of the Circle line.........
There was some moderate darts at the pub mixed with some good stuff... Steeevooo partnered me for his fist match and opened with 121, I then hit 81 to leave 99 which he nearly finished leaving 28 which I got with my last arrow for a nifty 12 darter
It was also good to see Adham as well and he had some nice photos and stories / letter regarding his Chigaco challenge
The only downer on the day is the price of beer has rocketed in the Sam Smith pubs, a pint of lager was around £2.10 a year ago and is now £2.78.. I did ask what the reason was and the landlady said they were only passing on the tax increases
Tangy said that cider is £3.60, not sure on the bitter I know that a year ago it was just under £2.00 a pint.......
Twice former full network GWR holder and former Zone 1 Olympic and World Record holder with The Raven and Soupie Tube personality of the year 2009 Twice Winter Olympic Biathlon Gold Medalist with The Beer Baron 2008 All Lines Olympic Gold
Well my route wasn't brilliant, but I had some good changes. In hindsight, I should've picked off a couple of stations earlier rather than later (I'll come to that!) but there we go.
At Westminster, I joined the rest, Myles aside, on the eastbound District line to wait the 6 minutes or so for the train to Embankment. Once there, I went northbound on the Bakerloo, taking in Oxford Circus (0:14:55) and Kilburn Park (0:29:18) as I did so. A momentary wait at Queens Park where my Bakerloo train terminated for the next one to Stonebridge Park (due to the problems on the line) and alighted at Willesden Junction. Incidentally, on the first Bakerloo line train, a couple sitting across from me were wondering about how to get to Wembeley, and on hearing about signal problems at Harrow & Wealdstone (where we were told the problem was) decided to switch to the Overground when we terminated at Queen's Park, and were surprised to hear that between there and H&W, the Overground and Underground share tracks. I tell that for no reason.
So, Willesden Junction. As I alighted the train, I saw an Overground pull in at the high level platforms, so did an uncharacteristic run up to said platforms... only to find that the train was terminating there, and that it was a 5 minute wait for the next train (it took me 5m40s from the Bakerloo doors opening to the Overground doors closing...). From Willesden Junction to West Hampstead (LO), where I went down to West Hampstead (Jub) to get the first train to arrive, a northbound service, to take me up to Kilburn (1:00:49), a nice double-back (11 seconds door opening to door closing) there and a return to Swiss Cottage (1:05:14) where, alas, my change wasn't quite as good and the doors opened and closed at the same moment meaning I had a 2 minute wait for the next one to return back up the Jubilee to West Hampstead (Jub) again, then to West Hampstead (Thameslink) where I caught the late running (about 10 minutes late - good interchange on my part though!) FCC train from there to Kentish Town where a combination of the terminating FCC service and a wait for the Northern Line (arr FCC 1:19:01, dep Northern 1:24:42) meant I had a longer than wanted wait.
Heading south on the Northern Line, I changed at Kings Cross St Pancras (a. 1:31:33 d. 1:32:41) to the northbound Piccadilly line, a surprisingly (for me at that time) full train, with the intention of doubling-back at Holloway Road. However, Arsenal FC had the edge on me, meaning that, while taking in Caledonian Road (1:36:10), Holloway Road was closed (passing through at 1:37:25) and I had to double-back at Arsenal instead. Unfortunately, due to a bad door choice (I say choice, I barged my way onto an already packed train so didn't have much choice) my Arsenal double-back took 4-5 minutes train-to-train. But southbound again, and taking in Holloway Road for proper (1:44:37), I returned to KXSP to change over to the Hammersmith & City line - a 1 minute or so Picc train to platform change, scuppered by the infrequency of the upper Circle on that day. Taking in Moorgate (2:01:27), and onwards to Liverpool Street to change to the Central line, and heading eastbound to get in Bethnal Green (2:10:57).
Ironically, on the way up, I mentioned to Andi how I always try and avoid any type of change at KXSP, and then did two... but I believe my, admittedly accidentally attained, door positions helped a lot there! My other option was to go to Moorgate on the Northern Line, to Liverpool Street on the upper Circle, but realised on my way back down from Arsenal that any time gained by aiming for a 'quicker' interchange at KXSP would probably be lost by changing at Moorgate. Whether that is true or not, I do not know, and will now never know...
So, doubling back from Bethnal Green, and through Tottenham Court Road (2:23:30) this is where my earlier problem came into being. Although I had done the stations on the western side (Kilburn Park) and the southern side (Westminster/Embankment) I had isolated Hammersmith and South Kensington. I had a couple of plans here, the first to continue west on the Central to White City and south at Wood Lane and in that way. The second, which is what I actually did was to change at Oxford Circus to a southbound Victoria, then at Green Park for a southbound Piccadilly to take me round through South Kensington (2:37:39) and where I alighted at Hammersmith (D/P) to head over to Hammersmith H&C. Now, I got onto the train at Hammersmith with a sub-3 hour time, of (approx) 2:50:00. However, it took a further 9 minutes before the train left Hammersmith, so although all 15 stations were visited in under the 3 hours, my official time comes from the opening of the doors at Goldhawk Road, and a time of 3 hours and 41 seconds.
(From there, it was to the Central Line at Wood Lane/White City to St Paul's and to the pub.)
So, I had some good interchanges during the day (Kilburn), some not so good ones (Embankment, Arsenal, Hammersmith), some which could have been good had there been a train there (KSXP from Picc to H&C). I visited all three West Hampstead stations, and probably just missed the problems on the Bakerloo Line. In hindsight, I should have taken out South Kensington and Hammersmith earlier on, possibly doing an Oxford Circus finish, so my route would be much the same, thusly: Westminister > Embankment > Hammersmith > Royal Oak > Warwick Avenue > Willesden Jcn > West Hampstead > Swiss Cottage/Kilburn > W Hamp. > Kentish Town > KXSP > Arsenal > KXSP > Liverpool St > Bethnal Green > Oxford Circus.
As the envelopes were opened at Westminster, an obvious choice to knock off first was Embankment, which many others thought was a good idea too until we noted 5 minutes on the next train screen!
Knowing there would be time consuming shunt movement at Embankment, I decided not to head back west but to head north, on the Bakerloo to OXC then run to the Central line where one had pulled away, 2 minutes for the next, to head east for Bank via TCR. Moorgate was the “problem” station for me as it didn’t fit in easily with any route I had but finally settled on doing Moorgate as a double back from Bank. It wasn’t a spectacular double back, with 3 minutes for a southbound train...
Back onto the Central line and back eastwards to Bethnal Green, whereby I exited the station and ran to Cambridge Heath (in 3 minutes) where I thought I would make a train to Seven Sisters, but got the train times mixed up with Chingford line trains (which I know the times by heart), so had a 10 minute wait!
At Seven Sisters it was down to Finsbury Park and a swap onto a waiting (but crowded) Picc. line train via Holloway Road and Cally Road to KX. The Picc. line platform was heaving, so despite having a good door position it was a mare trying to get off the platform which resulted in a missed Northern line train- its destination- High Barnet. Drat! 3 minutes for an Edgware, so jumped on to do the Camden Town change but wasn’t expecting, upon running across, to see 7 minutes on the board! 7 minutes wait just to go ONE stop!!!!
Doing a U turn at Kentish Town headed back to Euston and ran to Euston Square for an H&C train to Baker Street. Upon arrival I transferred downstairs straight onto a waiting n/b Jubilee line 96 stock to Kilburn via Swiss Cottage. Having travelled past Kilburn station by bus two weeks ago, I knew there were major roadworks on the A5 between Brondesbury and Kilburn High Road causing very slow moving traffic. Therefore even though there was a route 32 bus on the other side of the road I declined to take it as I knew I would most likely beat it by running the WHOLE way between Kilburn and Kilburn Park (indeed I ran past 6 buses on the way).
Nice 1 minute wait for a s/b Bakerloo to Warwick Avenue and the now customary run to Royal Oak. For once I actually had a good connection here (only three minutes), which is rare! Onwards to Hamm (H&C) ran across to the D&P station (unhelpful road crossing lights) to finish at South Kensington.
My stopwatch unhelpfully stopped on at least three occasions on the way round, I think because of the buttons coming in contact with my pouch as I ran (even though I put it to show the normal clock), hence the time not being recorded correctly. Good job for the trusty Oyster card!
) and a bus waiting with its rear doors open outside. Up the bus lane all the way to Archway and then again a 1 minute wait for a southbound Bank branch. Down to Bank and then a quick hop to Bethnal Green.
Embankment 
) also not sure why I didn't just change at Bond Street for the Central but don't think I lost any time 
