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Oscillating Via Eight Rail Routes – Euston And Camden Town – Is Very Exciting!

And for an ‘Overreactive Challenge’ example, here’s my inaugural attempt last Thursday evening (after I'd explored the Elizabeth Line during the day):

• Euston (City Branch) Camden Town (Edgeware Branch)
• Camden Town (Edgeware Branch) Euston (City Branch)
• Euston (Charing Cross Branch) Camden Town (Edgeware Branch)
• Camden Town (Edgeware Branch) Euston (Charing Cross Branch)
• Euston (Charing Cross Branch) Camden Town (High Barnet Branch)
• Camden Town (High Barnet Branch) Euston (Charing Cross Branch)
• Euston (City Branch) Camden Town (High Barnet Branch)
• Camden Town (High Barnet Branch) Euston (City Branch)

Total time: 50 minutes 37seconds (from ‘doors closed’ on first train to ‘foot on platform’ from last train.)

Well, that’s it in a nutshell. The ‘Overreactive’ challenge is simply the fastest time to travel all eight different combinations of routes between Euston and Camden Town. That is, between Euston’s two branches (City/Charing Cross) and Camden’s two branches (Edgeware/High Barnet) in each direction. It’s a bit of fun any of us can attempt when we have a couple of hours to spare in central London. (And I’m sure it can be done faster than 50m37s.)

It gives you a chance to travel all the spaghetti strands of the marvellous railway junction under Camden High Street. And you can try to work out how they cleverly modified the junction a century ago, to incorporate the new City lines whilst not interrupting the running of the already-existing lines. (It’s quite fascinating if you’re an anorak like me….)

You can enjoy guessing which platform to choose for your next best train. (Then run for the other one when you realise it was a wrong guess…) You can also enjoy running from one end of a platform to the other, as door positions generally need you to be near opposite ends of the train at each of the two stations!

Normal Tube Challenge rules apply. You can’t use private transport to move between platforms…. Oh, and whilst a reversal at Mornington Crescent may help you travel all the spaghetti strands quicker, it doesn’t count for the challenge; you have to go all the way to Euston. However, you could use a stop at Mornington Crescent to ‘move along the train’ if it helps your door positioning.

In my experience, it’s very easy to almost catch a train for a route you’ve already done, so concentrate carefully during the challenge!

So, anyone up for it? You could do it ‘on the fly’ like I did, or pull out timetables to work out an optimum method. Over to you now!

An impressively crazy challenge there! How did you think of that one?

You have far too much time on your hands ...

tubeguru wrote: ↑20 Jun 2022, 10:34 You have far too much time on your hands ...

Indeed! That's why I'm challenging people to get it lower than 50m 37s!

al wrote: ↑19 Jun 2022, 22:59 An impressively crazy challenge there! How did you think of that one?

I'd always been intrigued by the Camden junction, but it was only a few months back I decided to analyse it properly. Having done that, I wanted to find an opportunity to travel each of the eight links to experience them 'on the ground' (or under), so to speak. As I thought about it, I realised the process of doing so would look like a mini-challenge, and then it was just a matter of trying it out. Which I finally did last week.

As to how I came up with the name, well, you must know the way my brain works by now...

Discussed this challenge with a few folks at Z1 day, and they were interested in giving it a go sometime. (Must see if I can beat my time above...)