First Attempt 30/10/13
Posted: 31 Oct 2013, 09:42
Hello everyone.
After a couple of 'dry runs' on the network this was a first attempt at the full challenge for us (I travelled with my son). An early start from Chesham soon started to go wrong at West Harrow. When working out the route a check on the TFL timetable from West Harrow indicated a 7.02 departure which would allow us a change at Preston Road. Of course the timetable doesn't show which services are fast/semi-fast and a lack of concentration at the station meant we soon flying unexpectedly through Northwick Park on a train to Finchley Road! What a stupid mistake. Although a turn around at Finchley Road wouldn't have lost us a huge amount of time, just after Northwick Park we ground to a halt for a signalling problem on the fast. The driver kept us updated but advised we could be delayed for some time. We looked at a route change when we eventually arrived at Finchley Road but decided to go back and continue from Northwick Park.
We kept to schedule for the next few hours but on arriving at Aldgate found no Circle trains running to Tower Hill due a problem at Euston Sq. A reroute here would put us around 90 mins down and as we were already close to missing our last connection for completion we decided to abandon the attempt at that point.
Having said that, we enjoyed our journey, had some good runs between stations and are looking forward to having another go. Need to look at those fast Met trains though and maybe allow some more time for delays in the schedule.
Dave
After a couple of 'dry runs' on the network this was a first attempt at the full challenge for us (I travelled with my son). An early start from Chesham soon started to go wrong at West Harrow. When working out the route a check on the TFL timetable from West Harrow indicated a 7.02 departure which would allow us a change at Preston Road. Of course the timetable doesn't show which services are fast/semi-fast and a lack of concentration at the station meant we soon flying unexpectedly through Northwick Park on a train to Finchley Road! What a stupid mistake. Although a turn around at Finchley Road wouldn't have lost us a huge amount of time, just after Northwick Park we ground to a halt for a signalling problem on the fast. The driver kept us updated but advised we could be delayed for some time. We looked at a route change when we eventually arrived at Finchley Road but decided to go back and continue from Northwick Park.
We kept to schedule for the next few hours but on arriving at Aldgate found no Circle trains running to Tower Hill due a problem at Euston Sq. A reroute here would put us around 90 mins down and as we were already close to missing our last connection for completion we decided to abandon the attempt at that point.
Having said that, we enjoyed our journey, had some good runs between stations and are looking forward to having another go. Need to look at those fast Met trains though and maybe allow some more time for delays in the schedule.
Dave